Fiction: Retro gaming parody novel publication announcement!

 

It's Labor Day, which means this is still technically the last weekend of a month when I've so far done only two posts and absolutely no movie reviews. I'm breaking the silence to announce that my Nintendo fan/ parody novel (see demos 1, 2,  and 3, the mythology appendix and extra) is up for sale, as linked to here.  In the meantime, I threw in some art on top of the cover I already spent too much on, resulting in the interior title page above from an artist named Carlos Miguel Garcia. My specific instructions were to make a "1980s futuristic" ship, and I will be the first to admit that really is what Eighties "kit-bashed" sci fi ships were like. Here's another piece of artwork I shelled out for. For context, the description in the book has the mother dragon monster using a chokehold. And they're both being held hostage by the empress of an evil magic-mirror dimension...

So that's what I have to show for 4 and a half months of work and definitely more money than I'm remotely likely to get back. So was it worth it? Well, it probably helped keep me sane, which is something. And while I'm at it, here's my final version of the ship design everybody kept telling me not to use.

That's all for now, more to come... I'm still not saying when.

Mystery Monday: The Marx Moonship!

 

It's time for my 2nd planned week of posts this month, and it happens I have something backlogged. As an extra twist, I had already prepared both pics for a blog post and a video on the matter more than a week ago. Rather than do an immediate post, I included a photo with my Space Guys adventure demo. I used the intervening time debating what to do, and of course decided nothing until it was almost too late. What I settled on was to put up the video first, and use this post to follow up with a deeper dive. This was indeed a long, strange trip worthy of a feature that started with a figure I needed 30 years to identify. To kick things off, here are pics of my unassembled Marx Moonship.

Now for the details, for this adventure, I actually started off with the bare outline of the facts, which is more than I have often had to work with. This is a reissue of the Moonship, one of a ludicrous number of accessories originally included with Marx's Operation Moon Base playset in 1962. I had already featured the two other most noteworthy specimens in a previous post outside this feature, the space station and the Flash Gordon-y tower thingy. Unlike those venerable fixtures, however, the Moonship did not have an afterlife in the later Marx playsets. As further recounted by my lapsed correspondent Steve Nyland/ Space Trucks, the original Moonship has long since sunk out of sight except in astronomically expensive complete examples of the Moon Base playset. 

That brings us to the present specimen. It has been offered online for a while now. What is obvious is that the craft is black instead of blue, and the mold for the upper half was substantially modified, turning what looked like tail fins on the original (I have thought of them as retractable) into a more filled-out and decidedly redundant set of wings. It is also apparent that this was done to make the craft look more like a stealth bomber, which was in fact a part of the tailless/ delta wing lineage that presumably inspired the original toy.  That puts the origin of these things around the 1980s, if not later. The modified design is also missing two openings that appear to have been part of a firing mechanism for a pair of rockets/ missiles, which fits the controversies over such things in the early '80s timeframe. The most curious part is that these are coming out unassembled in sealed bags, with the included missiles still attached to the frame. This means either that someone is making these things from recovered molds, or (as I have opined to be far more likely) they have just been sitting around for an indefinite amount of time. The bottom line is that even the person or persons selling them probably don't really know. Here are a few pics of the unassembled components with the Truckstop Queen, who hasn't been coming out much lately; she's still definitely bigger than the thing she's being a reference model for, but it's much closer than usual.

And here's the absolutely awful missiles, which fall right out without the springs.

Another detail here is that the nose piece (actually half of one since it's only in the upper part) is definitely an addition. My initial assumption was that this was a replacement for a lost piece, but when I looked into it, I confirmed that original specimens are simply open at the front, reportedly so kids could aim through a corresponding hole at the back. I very seriously considered knocking the added piece right out, but I quickly concluded it's not going anywhere without using a knife. I will also mention, there is a horrendous amount of flash on the modified leading edge of the wings. After accidentally putting a notch in one trying to remove it (after all the photos were taken), I took a file to them. It helped, but they're still rough. Here's some shots of the assembled plane, usually with the nose visible. You may notice a couple ships to one side that will figure below.

Wow, you can really see that flash...

Now for the actually interesting question, just how did Marx get the idea for this conceptually very advanced design? It really does anticipate the space shuttle, and in fact is in some ways more  sophisticated. With my usual encyclopedic random knowledge and further research, it wasn't hard to find precursors. The bare idea of a triangular tailless aircraft was put to use in the Vulcan bomber among others. The further idea of turning such a design into a returnable air-to-space craft can be traced at least back to the semi-infamous Silbervogel Nazi drawing-board superweapon (see Jalopnik, if anything), which I turned into the Tottenkarte for the Exotroopers adventures. (I just might have to reuse my joke scenarios from that anti-series for the Space Guys adventure to make sense.) Of course, there were intermediate outgroups in this conceptual lineage, most intriguingly the Convair shuttlecraft concept from about the same time the toy came out. The picture that emerges is a toy that did incorporate some very good ideas, without coming out too far ahead of its own time.

Then there's one last thing. Ever since I discovered its existence, I have been absolutely certain that this was the basis for the arrowhead ship in my immortal arcade prize collection, which I had already traced to the Diener Space Raiders line. Here's a pic to illustrate my case. The funny thing is, in many ways, the prize ship fits what I've been picturing better than the original.

And this is where I wrap this up. This really has been fun, despite the frustrating Wall of Nothing on many of my questions. As I said in the video, If you like Marx space stuff, get this one while you can. That's all for now, more to come!

Mystery Monday/ Legion of Silly Dinosaurs crossover: Random dino box!!!

 

As I write this, I'm preparing for my one-item bucket list trip to the Field Museum. In the meantime, I already had a surplus of dino material, and it has been a while since I did a Mystery Monday post. To cover the backlog, I decided to cover some material that was already the subject of my first unboxing video. I present a completely randomized online lot of dinos, only some of which were clearly represented in the listing. To get things going, here's the one that got my grudging interest, yet another incarnation of the Hideous Abomination (also already the subject of a video), pictured with one that turned up in a dino bag featured here before I bought it.

"Daddy, when will I grow a foot that supports weight?"

As previously recounted, the Abomination is a knockoff/ bootleg of the "skinny" T. rex issued by Marx after retiring their original (see my actual science post from last month). The most significant feature carried over was a pose that had one foot lifted off the ground, which the unknown persons responsible botched badly enough that one foot looks like a sloth's and the other, raised foot looks like a frog's. It is often identified with the patchisaurs, though I believe it is of independent origin. On the whole, it is if anything even more mysterious than the patchis, to the point that even its age has been difficult to assess. In my further opinion, it probably isn't much younger than the patchisaurs, but I have been hard-pressed to prove it. The best I had done up to this point was find pics here and there of specimens that were evidently older and definitely of far better manufacturing standards than those I had previously acquired. Notably, some of these had halfway decent painted detail, such as white teeth. I decided to acquire one, and ordered this lot because it had the most extensive and interesting additional material. Here's more pics.

On examination, this proved to be indeed a better specimen than any I had encountered before. The "feel" alone is a vast improvement, solid and far more pleasant. It has a number of details that are hazy or lost on newer examples, particularly extensive scales and bumps on the feet. The differences are most pronounced in the head, where the very silhouette is different. What looks like a wonky Kanamit brain on the copyis here a robust and well-defined cranium. Alas, the old version already has all the worst features, from the misshapen feet to the wonky ears. You can kind of see that whoever did this was really trying, but the only place to go from there was back to the drawing board. Here's a last detail pic.

Of the rest, the one that really convinced me to buy was a Carnotaurus of uncertain vintage. The photos provided in the listing were no help; I could only just tell what it was. As matters stood, it seemed very possible that this was the first toy to represent this very remarkable dinosaur, so I paid the price and waited to inspect it. What I got turned out to be smaller than I expected, and strange even compared to the creature. Here's a pic.

My immediate assessment was that it looked like a cake topper, a description that was repeated when I went looking for other examples. The quality and feel were on par with a "big mouth", though it lacks the characteristic open mouth and exposed hollow body. Beyond that, my best guess was that this was from sometime in the 1990s, at which time its "tripod" stance was already outdated. The most curious part is the head, which only looks as goofy as it does because it captures and even exaggerates the very unusual shape and proportions of the actual dinosaur. Here's a couple more pics.

"Bunny ears and buckteeth? We prefer lagomorphic and premaxillary enhanced."

For the remainder, it was a matter of course that a random box would have a few Marx clones. And here they are, a nicely colored stego and an Allosaurus.

Then there's a sampling of sauropods. The littlest of these is by my assessment the most interesting in the whole lot. It seems to be loosely based on the Marx Brontosaurus, scaled down and heavily stylized. The final product is attractive enough that I would very much like to know who made this and what their other products may have looked like. The largest one also shows a certain Marx influence. The third, however, is just odd, as if someone was given the description "long neck" without understaning that the tail was at least as long.

One more thing that might be expected is erasers. I got these two, which might or might not be erasers, but are very flexible rubber. They bear more than a passing resemblance to the Diener dino erasers, with detailing that is in some ways better. The only major con is that the stego is badly discolored on one side.

I also got a pair that seem to be of common origin with another group I've had backlogged for a very long time. These look like a Brachiosaurus and a Corythosaurus, and I'm sure the later is the same as one in a set of arcade prize dinos I picked up in the early 2000s. This just might be what gets me to post about this bunch.

And here's the last two, which are very different but fit together to me. The first is a big mouth that's practically unobjectionable (apart from the teeth), with a sculpt that's a good compromise between realism and stylization. The other is a quite modern stego that's very nice apart from the missing tail spikes. Here's a few pics.

And one more pic of the stego. Beautiful!

And how about an extra shot with the Battle Mountain?

That's all for now, more to come!

The Legion of Silly Dinosaurs: Invicta vs. Imperial mixed lot!

 

It's getting close to Halloween, and I haven't yet done my dino blog for the month. I decided it was time to do something I've had for a little while. About a month ago, I ordered a lot of three dinos, mainly because I recognized one as of much more value than the others. What I got was a group more eclectic than a lot of the mixed army man lots I have. To kick things off, here's a pic of the one actually worth something.

This guy is a Baryonyx from Invicta, dated 1989 per Dinosaur Toy Blog. We last met this manufacturer with the plesiosaur last month. The company is a UK manufacturer, best known for selling to and through the British Museum. This was of further note as probably the first toy/ collectible to portray the species and by extension a "modern" spinosaur (see the Spinosaurus post), which many consider to be among the manufacturer's best. I had long since figured out that that these command some of the highest prices of any vintage dinos, usually with an extra hit for overseas shipping.  The upshot was that the Baryonyx alone was easily greater than the total price for the group put together. Here's some more shots of what I got.

Overall, this one is a nice enough find, but not really living up to its reputation. The best thing I can say is that it arrived in good condition, albeit with a gritty feel. It also gives good texturing for the skin, and a fair likeness of the head. As a nice extra touch, it's sculpted with a fish in one hand. But then there are things that are just unnecessary strangeness. The nostril is too far back on the head, for example, and the claws on the hand don't look quite right. The egregious problem is the feet, which are much too small and shaped so oddly they don't even match each other. What it feels like overall is something made too late and too early. It's bigger than a Marx dino, without being anymore playworthy, while still lacking the accuracy and overall quality that would come into play in another decade. Here's a closeup to show what I mean about the feet.

And here's a shot with the plesiosaur.

The other two were from a brand I have long been familiar with, Imperial. I mentioned them in my post on "bigmouth" dinos, the cheapest of the cheap vintage dinos, as well as the mystery Godzilla knockoff. I described Imperial as a maker of "bigmouth" dinosaurs, but I have gone back and forth whether their products deserve what that label means to me. They certainly made dinos and other creatures that look like bigmouths, but there are certain characteristics that are difficult to confirm or rule out without direct handling. As it happened, the lot was filled out with not one but two Imperial dinos. Here's the first, a stegosaur.

Grr. Rawr. I must be British because I'm not showing my teeth.

This one shows the Imperial style. It's clearly cheap, but not egregiously so. Conspicuously absent is the open, hollow mouth of a "bigmouth" dino. The material reflects the intermediate quality, flexible without being entirely rubbery. It's just good enough that I don't have a lot to say. Not compared to the motherlode...

This guy was one I ran across in research for the "bigmouth" post, and the pictures I found left me wondering if I might have owned it. I specifically remembered having a very large dino of the bigmouth type, with a yellow and green paint job. This one came closer than anything else I could confirm existed, especially in the color. Beyond that, it was clearly a successful design that still gets decent prices. Alas, even a cursory inspection confirmed this was not the dino I remembered having, and undoubtedly of far better quality. In particular, while it is sculpted with an open mouth, the internal space is cordoned off. Here's one more pic.

In the process of this post, I dug up a little more material I decided could wait for another day. What invited further attention was the perfectly unthreatening posing of those thin, little arms. It's so ineffectual, it calls to mind any number of stereotypes (not to mention the saga of When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth). As I pondered it, I realized I was feeling a certain deja vu, and that was when I thought of this.; image credit Joe A Day.

This is the GI Joe Dino Hunter playset, released in 1992 as a preemptive Jurassic Park cash in. I personally have no recollection of it, though I remember well the pitiful state of the final days of the Joe line. (I kept buying them anyway...) Among the few who know about it, this is remembered not just as a low point for GI Joe (really not even that low if you really remember), but one of the most notorious low-end dinos of all time (and one of the most expensive if you try to get it). Once I thought of this angle, the first thing I wondered was if Hasbro had simply bought up a stock of the Imperial dinos for the set. On examination, there were quite clear differences, especially the crossed arms, which if possible make the dino look even more ludicrous. On the other hand, the resemblance is far too strong to doubt that this is a direct ripoff. Just how Hasbro could have come to the point of stealing from Imperial is a whole other mindboggling can of worms. For extra hilarity, here's the box art.

And now, of course, I had to have a shot with the Truckstop Queen, with the Couch Mark 2. Holy kaka, this thing is big!

And the Duchess aka Connie...

"He's all apex predator to me!"

And with that, I'm wrapping this up. It's just enough dinos for a month that's been very busy, and I have plenty more lined up. That's all for now, more to come!

The Legion of Silly Dinosaurs: Plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and whatever this is!

 

It's time for the weekend post, and I decided what I wanted was an extra dino blog post. This time around, it's another post on dinos that aren't actually dinosaurs, specifically the marine reptiles. They are along with the pterosaurs and perhaps Dimetrodon (see the Diener post) among the most frequently mislabeled prehistoric creatures, though at least they are related to dinosaurs and from the same time instead of a creature that lived 70 million years earlier and is literally more closely related to humans. To kick off the lineup, here's the one that very possibly started this, a copy of a Marx Kronosaurus previously sighted in the Marx clone post.

This might be the earliest "dino" that has a personal history for me. When I was very young, I spent time at a grandparent's house where there were a few of what I now know to be Marx dinosaurs lying around. This one in articular ended up as a bath toy, which in hindsight was a hair-raising risk. I saw it a few more times in later family visits, but I don't recall if I ever got a chance to hold it again. At some point, I figured out that it was not just a Marx dino, but one of a group of three that Marx retired because of production difficulties. (Another is the glorious Brontosaurus, which I featured way back in the patchisaurs post.) I kept an eye on online sales, but every one I ever found like the one I remembered was far beyond my normal price range. Even the wonky MPC copy can command a high price. Eventually, I found this one, apparently from an early 1990s reissue set. I was very pleased with it. The only issue I could find was that it looked a little roughed up, something that might or might not show in the pics. (I know the lighting is worse than usual.) I concluded that this was at least in part because the new manufacturer tried to replicate Marx's "marbling" process, which clearly didn't age nearly as well as the originals. Here's a couple more pics.

The big mystery that has cropped up around this creature is how on Earth Marx arrived at the design. It is labeled as a Kronosaurus, a "real" marine reptile that lived in the early Cretaceous. What it really represents, however, is a strange hybrid of two separate lineages, the plesiosaurs and pliosaurs, of which the former had the iconic long necks and the latter sacrificed t for a larger head. The best theory (unfortunately laid out in sources that seem to have dropped off the net) is that this was influenced by the art of Rudolph Zallinger, particularly a 1955 publication The World We Live In, itself compiled from a series of articles previously published in Life magazine. There is indeed something like the Marx Kronosaurus in the artwork (see Kumtuks Tahlkie), except that it's really a background creature only visible in part. That leaves us particularly at a loss to explain the very odd flippers. The counter-hypothesis that rises in my mind is that the Marx designers figured out that a realistic plesiosaur would require an even larger mold and be quite likely to break. That also would explain the very stout "buds" supporting the flippers. And that brings us to the next item, a vintage plesiosaur.

As far as I recall, I saw and bought this item last year after it came up in an automated feed, after doing enough research to confirm what it was. It's a product of Invicta, a pioneer of semi-scientific dino collectibles, dated 1978. (See the Dinosaur Toy Blog for a more detailed review.) It appears to have been made in two or three different colors, all shades of blue. Typically for the manufacturer, it had limited detail and no paint. The specimen clearly had condition issues, but on the other hand, it was cheap, and big. Here's a couple more pics.

This is one that's good enough that there's not a lot more to say. This is what we imagined the plesiosaur looked like, portrayed with more elegance than usual. It also incidentally captures the further "myth" of the Loch Ness monster as a plesiosaur, which in hindsight was a rationalistic gloss over the actual sightings. And that's a good introduction to the last entry in the lineup, which I really couldn't capture except in closeup.

The provenance on this one is that I picked it up free at a street fair event in ca. 2007. To my best recollection, it was being handed out at a booth for a museum or some kind of geologists' club. There would probably have been other dinos from the same source, but this must have been the only one that stood out then or since. The most noteworthy thing about it is that it has articulated fins, unusual for a toy that is both this small and cheap. Otherwise, it preserves the same classic lines as the 1970s example, with a gnarlier (and actually relatively accurate) head. Once again, science can move on, but it is the cheap toys that continue to capture the imagination.

And to wrap this up, here's one more lineup to show just how these would have looked in the vintage toybox. Included are the Galaxy Laser Team commander, an MPC astronaut/ space guy, the Timmee nuclear guy, and for the heck of it, Audrey. They may not look big against the action figures of the 1980s onward, but in the days of toy soldiers, they truly towered. Go big, or go home.

That's all for now, more to come!