ROB GRANT R.I.P.

 Sorry to hear that Rob Grant, co-creator of the cult comedy sci-fi series Red Dwarf passed away yesterday, aged just 70.

 Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Tony's Astronauts

 Kindly sent in by reader Tony E. 

His cool hand-painted spacemen.

EAGLE RESTORATION

 I recently picked up a 22" Round 2 Space: 1999 Eagle kit  that had already been started and partly painted 

Photo: eBay

It wasn't looking it's best, and so , as it wasn't too expensive I bought it and set to work making it look more presentable, with the  intension of making into the rarely seen V.I.P. Eagle.

I started by taking  apart what I could, and tidying up what I couldn't. The engine bells needed major surgery to release the internal baffles, and were discarded. Luckily, as my other Eagle kits have after market aluminium  engine bells I had plenty of spares in my bits box  which came in.

Luckily, the original owner hadn't used the decals that came with kit, and spares box would provide the rest.

The main kit colour is Ford Diamond white car spray, with  orange car spray for the pod. Here it it with decals in place, and new engine bells in place.

The cockpit after it's restoration. It needed it's original hand painted look stripped and completely repainted. I do plan to light it at some point.

Here it is coming along nicely, .with the pod in place  The window solar panels have been removed . You can see the discarded engine bells in the top right hand corner of the photo.

Very close to completion. Landing legs attached prior to some dirtying down.

The final look., and the more-or-less end to a very enjoyable project, My only regret is I wish I'd taken more build photos!

Politoy's Scrooge McDuck Car

Hi Woodsy,

The Italian company Politoys once had an extensive range of die-cast Walt Disney cartoon vehicles. Many were driven by such well known characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, but others carried the more rarely seen Disney characters.

This range recently came up on Moonbase, so I thought I would dig out some photos of the only model from this series that I have. A boxed, but slightly battered example of Uncle Scrooge McDuck's chauffeur-driven limousine.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2026/02/polistil-personalities.html#comment-form

The box is marked l'auto di paperon de paperoni – The Car of Uncle Scrooge, Politoys, and Made in Italy. The underside of the model carries No.559.

The end of the box says 1600 Lire. Length of the model is 6 inches, or 15 centimetres.

I picked this example up at a fair in 2023 – it is the only model from this series I have ever seen in New Zealand. I could not resist, as Uncle Scrooge is my favourite Disney Duck, despite it being rather expensive.

The colour scheme for these Politoys models is mostly red and blue, with a little yellow trim. All come with well-painted plastic figures.

All are great, fun models. It would be nice to find some more examples.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

ACTION FORCE GUIDE BOOKS

Hello Woodsy,

Action Force is not something of interest to me but you have waxed lyrical about these small figures before so this may be of interest.

Terranova47

USA

Crowdfunding Spotlight: New Anniversary Action Force Guide Books

My Four Books on Jack Rosenthal JR Toys

My four books on Jack Rosenthal's toys are now all available as standard size hardbacks.

Protected by colour dust jackets, they are published by Blurb.

 https://share.google/laEn5VDZ3tMPI18Nz

The two top titles look at Jack's X space toys and S.W.O.R.D box art, non-TV.

The two bottom titles look at Jack's friction animal novelties and small plastic vehicles.

Google for Blurb discount codes before any purchases!

Thanks.

Men in Dinosaur Suits

Hi Woodsy,

Here is a You Tube video that I recently came across, called The History of Dinosaur Suitmation. It covers men in rubber suits playing dinosaurs or SF monsters in the movies and on television.

It is 57 minutes long, and includes clips from a number of old movies, although much of the coverage is fairly modern. Movies covered include the Godzilla series, and Gorgo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVBim51CD8E

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Blake's 7 Merchandise Update by Mark B. Oliver

An online 33 page update to Mark's earlier guide.

https://share.google/oozXWHg2S7YGJxDQU