Brian F's new buddy at Monsterbase
New Jersey
USA
Sunday, 29 March 2020
SPIRE AWAY!
Tony K's wonderful postcards reminded me how much I adored Roger Dean's art as a teenager. His visions graced so many rock covers back then it was almost mantra.
In the loft I've got my original but dog-eared Views book alongside the similar much-thumbed Studio, both by Paper Tiger. One of Roger's images I recall is this amazing church spire blasting off like a rocket.
Its such a simple idea and one we will have all thought as kids, that spires look like rockets. Theirs plenty of meaning that can be squeezed out of it too - churches/ God/ Astronaut/ space etc.
Its the cover to Ramases' album Space Hymns.
What do you think?
Hi-YA! KUNG FU HEADER CARD AND CRISPS
Being isolated gives you time to rummage.
Whilst looking for old TB2 parts I've dug out my framed Kung Fu collectables.
Here's the header card for a Kung Fu action cheapo figure I got circa 1973. I had thought I got it at the local Zodiac Toys store but it says A&O. Not sure where that was. May have been the large petrol station at the bottom of the road where I got my Kung Fu LP as well. Look at the price- 55p! Cheap as chips! Or should that be chops? karate chops!
The brand Jaeger I don't know at all but it's German for Hunter. I remember the figure was a basic articulated Action Man knockoff wearing a cheapo white cotton Karate suit. I loved that fella though. He went off to Shangri-La but I managed to keep the header!
I also managed to eat, I mean keep this Golden Wonder Kung Fuey snack bag. I don't recall the snack although bacon and mushroom is unusual snack flavour I think. The packet is remarkably clean and flat. I commend my younger self for such a fine job of archiving when I was all of 13 years old and growing bumfluff.
Both of these bits of high kickin' ephemera are stored in a picture frame, which has itself been stored in the loft and out of the light for 15 years! Before that they were kept in a bag weighty folder I made as a teenager for all my Kung Fu papers. One day I will show the world!
Do you remember these or any other Kung Fu collectables?
HI-YA! JUDO MASTER!
I've always loved Kung Fu comics.
Back in 2016 I blogged about my faves especially the agile Judo Master.
So I was thrilled to be sent scans of a Charlton Comics issue I'd never read, dated 1965, by reader Terranova47.
Here it is in full for your reading pleasure whilst stuck at home.
*
Dracula coming soon!
HOT WHEELS COCKNEY CAB IN CONNECTICUT
Hello Woodsy,
We're up in a cold Connecticut and I photographed my newly acquired modified Cockney Cab.
I love it because someone has gone to the trouble of Hot Rodding a Hot Rod!
I think it's likely that I'll be buying Hot Wheels in the future as they're more fun than I thought.
Regards,
We're up in a cold Connecticut and I photographed my newly acquired modified Cockney Cab.
I love it because someone has gone to the trouble of Hot Rodding a Hot Rod!
I think it's likely that I'll be buying Hot Wheels in the future as they're more fun than I thought.
Regards,
Teranova47
USA
THE TIME TO PUT ON SAIL IS WHEN YOU FEEL THE BREEZE*
Its says 11.34 am on my laptop but I'm not really sure if its the right time.
I know its Sunday but I had to look at the calender to check. After a week's isolation time seems to be thinner as the days blend into each other. God knows what it'll be like after 3 months or longer!
My Missus has just told me that our local mega-car boot sale would normally start at Easter. No chance of that this year as its easily one of the biggest gatherings of people I've seen outside of the Glastonbury Festival!
Last April bought a huge boxed Italian torpedo boat that looked like it had strayed from the set of Thunderbirds. It was a corker and for £15 I was a happy chappy. I did plan to restore the box - make it stiffer - but as with many great plans its on ice. I would love to see the boat bubble across a lake though.
Like many kids of my generation making boats out of whatever was to hand seemed natural. Paper boats where as common as paper planes back then and I'd often see nippers pushing what looked like paper hats across the duck pond on the park. They were quite tricky to make, paper boats. Definitely harder than planes. Its origami for sure and I doubt i could rustle one up nowadays.
Date boxes were brilliant for barge making. Shove a lump of balsa at one end and hey presto, barge central. They floated really well too. Not sure what wood the date boxes were but it could have been a balsa top as well. Balsa was everywhere in the Sixties. Someone somewhere was carving it every second. Like wooden cheese. I bet we used the whole balsa tree population back then!
I think one of my favourite boats was one of the rarest. I say rare because I only got to do it once a year on the family's annual summer holiday to some coastal paradise like Minehead or Ilfracombe. I am of course talking about sand boats. Yes, the unfathomable rapture of creating a speed boat seat out of sand is beyond words. Sitting on that compacted sand seat was the crowning moment of the summer, as you shouted Ahoy Sailors!
I'm unsure if kids these days like sand boats although seaside traditions seem strong so they might well do. When we re-emerge from the current pandemonium I hope to build one with my Grandson Moonbase Junior whilst his brand new baby sister watches from her pram.
I shall buy a packet of paper flags and stick them all in the sandy prow bouquet-style like a diplomat and take Junior on a voyage round the seven seas, only stopping for candyfloss and lime milkshake on the way!
I'll see you on the beach readers with the sun smiling down on us.
* Title: the late great Rick Griffin
I know its Sunday but I had to look at the calender to check. After a week's isolation time seems to be thinner as the days blend into each other. God knows what it'll be like after 3 months or longer!
My Missus has just told me that our local mega-car boot sale would normally start at Easter. No chance of that this year as its easily one of the biggest gatherings of people I've seen outside of the Glastonbury Festival!
Last April bought a huge boxed Italian torpedo boat that looked like it had strayed from the set of Thunderbirds. It was a corker and for £15 I was a happy chappy. I did plan to restore the box - make it stiffer - but as with many great plans its on ice. I would love to see the boat bubble across a lake though.
Like many kids of my generation making boats out of whatever was to hand seemed natural. Paper boats where as common as paper planes back then and I'd often see nippers pushing what looked like paper hats across the duck pond on the park. They were quite tricky to make, paper boats. Definitely harder than planes. Its origami for sure and I doubt i could rustle one up nowadays.
Date boxes were brilliant for barge making. Shove a lump of balsa at one end and hey presto, barge central. They floated really well too. Not sure what wood the date boxes were but it could have been a balsa top as well. Balsa was everywhere in the Sixties. Someone somewhere was carving it every second. Like wooden cheese. I bet we used the whole balsa tree population back then!
I think one of my favourite boats was one of the rarest. I say rare because I only got to do it once a year on the family's annual summer holiday to some coastal paradise like Minehead or Ilfracombe. I am of course talking about sand boats. Yes, the unfathomable rapture of creating a speed boat seat out of sand is beyond words. Sitting on that compacted sand seat was the crowning moment of the summer, as you shouted Ahoy Sailors!
I'm unsure if kids these days like sand boats although seaside traditions seem strong so they might well do. When we re-emerge from the current pandemonium I hope to build one with my Grandson Moonbase Junior whilst his brand new baby sister watches from her pram.
I shall buy a packet of paper flags and stick them all in the sandy prow bouquet-style like a diplomat and take Junior on a voyage round the seven seas, only stopping for candyfloss and lime milkshake on the way!
I'll see you on the beach readers with the sun smiling down on us.
* Title: the late great Rick Griffin
Hot Wheels James Bond Die-Casts By Paul Adams
Hi Woodsy,
Still slowly working my way through Moonbase Central - now up to the letter C - plenty more to look forward to.
Here are the Hot Wheels James Bond photos I promised.
Hot Wheels released their first James Bond models in 2014. Most were in the premium Entertainment series, but there was one model in the standard toy range, commonly called the Mainline.
At this stage film and TV models were still scattered throughout the Mainline. The Screen Time sub-series was introduced in 2016, but Bond models were not included until 2018. Since then there has been one Bond model in the Mainline each year, in Screen Time.
2014 - The Aston Martin 1963 DB5 was introduced, initially in Dark Green. The second version that year was in silver, with BMT216A number plates, on a Goldfinger card.
2015 - The Lotus Esprit S1 was introduced. This was the standard road car, on a The Spy Who Loved Me card. In NZ long cards are the most common, with short cards being found mainly in Countdown supermarkets.
2016 - The Aston Martin DB10 was released on a Spectre card. Note the variations in the coloured stripes on the card - the models are identical. The blue Showroom stripe is from 2016, and the green Exotics stripe from 2017.
2017 - No new Bond models in the Mainline, but the DB10 remained available.
2018 - A Bond model made its first appearance in the Screen Time sub-series: the DB5 on a Skyfall card.
2019 - the '71 Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds Are Forever, previously available as a Bond car in the Entertainment and James Bond ranges, appeared as a Mainline model in Screen Time.
2020 - The '65 Ford Mustang Convertible appears on a Thunderball card as the car driven by villainess Fiona Volpe. This is the first villain car in the Mainline, and the only one not driven by Bond - he is only a passenger, but in that scene the top is up. It does appear earlier in the film with the top down.
Yours Sincerely,
Paul Adams from New Zealand
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