A MESSAGE FROM OUR BLOG FRIEND KEN HOLT

I'm sure a few of you are aware that our pal Ken Holt has been a little under the weather lately and is spending a little time in hospital. Well, Ken took the trouble to contact me from his hospital bed would you believe, via video messenger, and the good news so far is he's stable, and in good spirits, and he just wanted to thank everyone and say how he really appreciates all the good wishes friends have sent him.

 All the best, and get well soon, mate. 

Here's the often seen photos of Ken during his Century 21 days, on the UFO set with special effects maestro, Derek Meddings.

  

Here's Ken and Derek in the rocket assembly building miniature used in 'Doppelganger'.

 And just for good measure here's a photo of Ken's former C21 secretary, Roni. 

Update: Sadly, Ken passed away on Sunday 2/12/2018. Our sincere condolences to his wife, Betty, and the family.

I was lucky enough to met up and chat with Ken at various conventions. He was a lovely man, and an unsung hero of the industry, and I was, albeit briefly glad to know you sir.

ITS HEADING OUR WAY!

THE CHRISTMAS SHIP

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATO

Remembering the late Bruce Lee, who would have turned 78 years today, and his starring role in the sixties TV series, The Green Hornet. 

ROBOTS ABROAD

I took these shots in a German museum I think. Back in 2010.

I liked the space toy and robot display. I appreciated the Smash Martian's appearance, which I had thought was uniquely British but I suppose Smash was everywhere!

The Mr. Machine always appeals to me too - the red flat plastic bot lower left. I saw one at York Car Boot this summer for £30. Its a Marvin Glass design.

Dux Astroman is always fascinating to see, lower centre. Perhaps Germany's finest space toy, its combo of translucent green plastic body and white helmet head is unique.

Directly above it is a Golem made of what looks like clay. A robot-like creature of myth, the Golem was sufficiently monstrous to get the horror film treatment in Der Golem in 1915, now partially lost. One hundred years later the thing of clay got another turn in the Limehouse Golem  in 2016.

What else is in there readers?

Also in the displays were these unusual running figures. I had thought that they were aliens but on looking again now they appear to be skirted [females?] and holding a bayoneted rifle. The hook on the heads may have been part of a game of some kind.

Anyone recognise them?

SL MULTI LOAD TRUCK: ITS A MOKE THING

Its not often I see any plastic toys by SL of Hong Kong.

They came dramatically to my attention about 10 years ago when I acquired what is probably one of my prize Project SWORD collectables, the SL Task Force No.3 Space Rocket.

Shortly after getting it I started a checklist of SL toys on Moonbase

http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2009/11/sl-toys-of-hong-kong.html

I wanted to find the toy model numbers before and after my space rocket, which is number 121 C. I also wanted to shed some light on the letter C at the end of it. What did it mean?

Well, sometimes, indeed often, a great notion falls by the wayside and my checklist was one such project. 

I never did find those model numbers or solve the C question [which we've also seen relating to LN and LP toys on Moonbase as discussed by Arto.]

I still can't.

So, in the spirit of keeping things going a little bit I will now add at least one new toy to the SL list.

Its a beautiful set I noticed recently on the Bay [seller 123pusso].

The Multi Load Truck.

SL loved Mini Mokes and issued many variations.

This is another Moke and this set gave kids the chance to put 6 different plastic loads on the back like coal, timber and big milk churns.

The model number is 112- M.

Nowhere near my space rocket's number of 121, the M is still intriguing. Could it really be as simple as M for Multi Load Truck? Or did it mean M for multiple toys to go in the box?

But why C then on my rocket box? Carded? Its boxed though. Surely it would be B?

Anyway, I've enjoyed seeing this new SL toy. I do its relative simplicity and the box art depicting different industrial settings.

The red hatching at the side of the text panel on the box reminds me of another toy box livery, the red lines on the JR21 Rocket XL9 Spaceship.

What is the origin or purpose of this red hatching on toy boxes in the Sixties? Anyone know?

Have you any SL toys?

CHOCOLATES AT CHRISTMAS IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Chocs.

Ah, the food of the Gods!

Chocs and Christmas. A marriage made in Heaven. What do I remember of this beautiful union?

Selection Boxes: the very essence of my childhood Christmasses, the spirit of Yuletide in a plastic tray of chocolate bars. Mars. Flake. Bounty. Picnic. Crunchy. Curly Wurly. They were all there. Like a big thick postcard from Santa himself. Flippin 'Eck, how I loved those Selection Boxes and there was always something cool to do on the back too. Many were TV related! OMG!

And then there were Chocolate Oranges. These were a ball of choc in thick slices shaped like an orange. It was wrapped in orange foil. To 'open' the choc ball you tapped it on a table, at which point the slices would fan out and fall. Deelicious.

Just Brazils were just that, Big brazil nuts blathered in thick milk chocolate. I think the makers were Beech's. Biting into the coating was wonderful and the mix of chocolate and brazil was simply divine.

Boxes of chocolates were everywhere too. The exotic and dark Black Magic. The quirky Weekend. The reliable Dairy Box and the James Bond of chocs, Milk Tray. There were also huge flat boxes of chocs with puppies or similar syrupy image on the lid. When these were done there must have been a hundred small empty choc papers in the box.

Empty papers were also aplenty when Roses and Quality Street came out. I can still see the large round tin of Quality Street at the centre of everything at Crimbo, a tin emblazoned with Victorian Hussars and petticoated ladies enjoying themselves.

The last chocs, literally the last, were those still dangling on the tree on Boxing Day. The best ones had been scoffed by then so only a few well-hidden Santas and Snowmen wrapped in foil were left for the intrepid chocoholic.

Leaving choccy to one side, there were other delectables to be had in the Christmas household of the Sixties and Seventies if you looked closely.

Glass jars of glaced cherries could be raided. Whether these were real cherries I've no idea but I always had a few to keep me going. 

Similarly dubious as to whether they were real, glazed fruit slices that came in a box. These looked like fruit slices, like lemons and oranges, festooned in sugar and having a somewhat sickly taste. I can see the greenish box now!

Unquestionably proper fruit, dates were as much Christmas as the prize turkey. I don't know why we didn't eat them at any other time of the year, cos they were scrumptious. they were always Moroccan. Packed in a barge-like tray, they came with a long plastic spear or fork to aid eating. Like little fat leather cushions, dates were stickier than snail slime and couldn't really be handled, just eaten. For some bizarre reason, the discarded stones always ended up back in the tray next to the uneaten dates! Yuk!

Last and not least and a welcome return to chocolate and nuts, Walnut Whips were and are my fave Christmas treat. While my Big Bros were chomping on Uncle Joe's Mint Balls I was cruching through the thick mantle of a whip, biting into that fluffy white creme and taking in the walnut crown on the way. Perfection. I think my Mum got them from  BHS or M&S, their own home brands.

This is a tradition that's lasted and I always get a box of Walnut Whips on my December Birthday or on the Big day itself from my family. The supermarket house-brand from Tesco. Yum!

Which choc and sweets did you or do you scoff at Christmas

SMALL AND PERFECTLY FORMED

I've been thinking about Christmas prezzies I got as a kid.

I remember most of the big stuff in the Sixties. Its the little things that fell between them I'm struggling to recall. They will have been tucked into nooks and crannies on the settee of larger gifts.

A few thoughts are coalescing round miniature jigsaw puzzles. They may have come in square boxes about the size of a cassette and maybe two inches deep. I'm thinking Kings and Queens or Wild Animals maybe?

Another half-notion is of nails, string and a hammer. A sort of cats cradle art board in a box, which you could then put on the wall. I'm seeing owls or even a knight?

Painting by Numbers is seeping into my mind too. Tiny little plastic pots protruding from a card frame with several numbered drawings inside. Oh, and a few brushes. I can't recall any I did though.

I know I got Wallwalkers. They were just brill. Like little plastic bed frames that could walk down windows. Mine had a purple face.

Parker pens. Got one every year. They always had an metal arrow as the clip. It came along with an Oxford geometry set in a tin.

I can see Pyro dinosaur models like T. Rex and Anklyosaurus. These kits were hugely important to me as I was obsessed with dinosaurs as a nipper. Right up to being around 45 if you'd ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have said a paleontologist.

I can also see Revell Beatles kits like John, the kookiest of them all and Paul, the fabulous one. But these weren't mine I don't think. They were my big bros on his chair.

Garnishing all this was a sprinkle of chocolate. A selection here, a chocolate orange there, a box of chocolate 'Just' brazils and maybe a box of coffee cremes. How I loved those all those wonderful chocs.

I'm sure there were many more nik naks and toys but for now I'll ask you readers what small Xmas gifts you recall in your stocking, under the tree or on the sofa?

WEATHERING RE-ENTRY

I was interested in this old auction item.

Its a weathered Project SWORD Task Force 3.

The description ran thus from 21st Century Frog:

JR21 Project Sword Re Entry Task Force No 3 toy repaired painted weathered and renovated to a static model, including original outer box packaging. From the Gerry Anderson toy range in the sixties, the single seater T3 toy has been repaired and the broken friction drive removed.

What do you think readers?

Is weathering and de-friction-driving toys like this a new phenomenon?