joe lang's explorer 12 blog

The ultimate resource about Explorer 12 on the net and probably anywhere is Joe Lang's blog Explorer 12. Its great masthead is featured below.

I came across Joe's blog when it first started and our very own Bill B contributed many items to Joe's growing archive of toys and merchandise.

Sadly dormant for some years, Joe's site remains the number one source of information on the range including variations of the toys from around the world, always a fascinating subject for collectors.

Today's celebration on MC is inspired by Joe's blog and hopefully rekindles the explorer flame in some small way.

how I began exploring explorer 12

I first came came across Explorer 12 toys when I found one of the activity books, Ocean Survey, at a car boot sale in the early 1990's.

The toys and the backstory reminded me completely of Project SWORD and SpaceX toys!

Sadly the line had all left the shops by the early 90's, about five years after its release in British Home Stores, so I was simply an armchair admirer and have been ever since.

This Explorer 12 Day is my homage to this relatively little-known and short-lived line of cool toy vehicles.

Announcing that .....

ITS

EXPLORER 12 

TOY DAY!

newsflash .....

Tomorrow is 

EXPLORER 12 

Day

on

Moonbase Central!

geek salad miri

This week I thought of more random stuff.

*

came across a small thin stretchy green snake toy or at least I thought it was one. It might have been one of those delicious sweet snakes we got at a penny chop but on closer inspection it was something entirely different - a sticky stretchy ninja chain, which I know from my Kung Fu past as a Kusarigami. Well I never, sticky ninja! Anyone got any sticky toys?

*

The new UK school craze is a thing called fidget spinners. It used to be water bottle flipping but these finger spinners seem to have taken over. 

Essentially a trio of ball bearinged rings set in a plastic Y, kids sit in class spinning them on their fingers! Apparently it aids concentration! 

What do you think?

*

Caught the Star Trek TOS episode Miri this week. It was an emotional drama on a new Earth where ageless children are dying of a strange disease. 

I noticed some of the kids were wearing toy US army helmets and US football helmets as shown here. Anyone recognise these toys and the brands?

Amazingly Miri was previously banned: on TV:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Four_Banned_Star_Trek_Episodes_in_the_UK

did you have any iron-on patches?

Did you have iron-on patches when you were a kid?

I loved those things and had them splattered all over my denim jacket.

I think my favourite was the peace sign.

There were so many in the early Seventies: peace, CND, keep on truckin. They were a must have item.

You can still get some patches in haberdashers and markets but I think the iron-on ship has sailed.

Did you have any readers?

japanese blog about ufo project sword rubbers

This a typically eclectic Japanese toy blog that I adore.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/divajoanne/tag/%E9%A7%84%E7%8E%A9%E5%85%B7

Within it is the first article I've found in Japanese about the Japanese UFO Project SWORD rubbers that I collect. At some point I will try to get it translated.

Interestingly some of the rubbers are of the less common transparent type.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/divajoanne/archives/1062313850.html

The Japanese blogger has also blogged about rubber hands.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/divajoanne/archives/1062387128.html

This may or may not shed light on the mysterious hand model number system found on the undercarriages of the UFO Project SWORD rubbers, which I vlogged about some time ago on You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG0YD9_bsPg

A Lino childhood

When I was a kid in the sixties there was Lino everywhere.

It was a world of linoleum.

We had black and white chequered lino on the kitchen floor in our home growing up. It had little bumps in it where it had covered imperfections when it was laid. I dread to think what they could have been? Dried peas? Yorkshire puddings? Family members?

There was occasionally lino on top of things as well. Pieces were used like mats to work on although Formica had cornered the market for tables and work surfaces really. Lino was strictly flooring in the shops.

I got to lay my own lino floor when I took over the family cellar in the early Seventies. I converted it into a Kung fu dojo and lino was the perfect solution. I could cut it with a few flourishes of my samurai sword Stanley knife and cover all the dead woodlice and beetles in one neat run.

One of the best uses of lino was road testing die-cast cars. Whizzwheels and hot wheels would zoom forever down a cold shiny flat of linoleum. Whoosh! Super fast!

My life is now lino free sadly. I haven't seen any for years.

Was lino in your life readers?