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 immortal astronaut set!

 

I'm just past the middle of what I planned on as a month of posts every week day, and I definitely needed something quick. I decided it was time for an ace in the hole I have thought about on and off for a while. It's something I acquired a little before I kicked off this blog, and never got back to. As it happened, I had the foresight to take some unboxing pics, and it's just as well, because there's no way I'm ever getting them back in the original packaging. To kick this off, here's the original item, photographed with my phone on the Couch Mark 1.

Now to back up to the "mystery" part, I have been sighting these guys for just about the last 10 years, mainly in a hobby/ craft store. What intrigued and vexed me far more than the usual question of who the Hell made this was where to buy them and how they were getting to merchants in the first place. In the course of my inquiries, I repeatedly found what had to be sets from the same figures and molds, at everything from online merchant sites to the gift shops of actual planetariums and science centers. The bucket was the first I encountered, with the most common alternative being bagged sets with a "landscape" mat. Every time I thought of purchasing a set, I looked to Amazon, but it kept dropping in and out of even their catalog until I finally gave up for a while. Then, toward the end of 2019, I saw the bucket was back, so I ordered it. Here's a shot of what I got for the money.

Of course, what I had figured out by then was that these were from Hing Fat, long since infamous among collectors (see the channel for my lapsed correspondent Steve Nyland). This operation previously came up with the '80s ninjas lineup, and before that got a very brief mention in my "space guys to astronauts" post. From the evidence at hand, this manufacturer and quite possibly multiple imitators have been churning these things out since the early to mid-1970s. What amused me most is how jarringly Earthly their tools look. I've made fun of the Marx astronauts for looking like they're carrying a briefcase and a pooper scooper, but I swear these guys look like they're doing yard work, complete with a garden hose. (See the photo with my good camera up top.) What made this a little more interesting for me were the extras, shown in the following pics.

Aa seen here, the set comes with a pair of moon buggies, a wonky lander apparently based on an unused prototype, a two-stage rocket, a sort of space station, and a couple somewhat anachronistic space shuttles, plus a satellite I'll get to in a moment. I distinctly recall one of these had a sticker that had come off in the the packaging, which I quickly disposed of.  There are nice touches here and there, such as a nose of the rocket that actually detaches and a detail sticker on the lander that I believe I left alone. Here's another pic with the satellite, which definitely looks off scale-wise.

"Something, something/ On a three-hour tour, on a three-hour tour..."

And here's a new pic with a little more detail. Now I'm sure it's the satellite the sticker came off of.

Inevitably, I needed a few new comparison shots. What interested me most was a couple of astronauts I acquired independently. I expected to see major differences, bust what really stood out was that the pair looked less like each other than the bucket astronauts, to the point that I was a little worried if I could keep them separate. Here's a lineup of the separate pair and their bucket counterparts; the latter should be on the left.

Of the pair, the one with the pliers was the most distinctive. It's noticeably "gracile", with a lighter, somehow cheaper-looking shade. This is the one I could believe came from a different manufacturer. The other guy differs mainly in shade and somewhat better casting. (For comparison, note the egregious "flash" on the vacuum/ Geiger counter guy at the top.) I had a few moments of uncertainty, especially when I realized my "reference" differed from a few in the bucket in having the grabber stuck to the base. Still, a good look at the bases calmed my nerves. Here they are, with the bucket astronaut definitely on the left.

And here's the "gracile" guy, just weird.

And the inevitable lineup, with an MPC transitional space guy, a Marx 60mm astronaut, and the Galaxy Laser Team commander.

Finally, one more unboxing pic, with the GLT turtle crab alien!

"Houston, we have a problem... Well, for starters, I seem to be talking to you with a staple gun."

That's all for now, more to come!

Mystery Monday: Spiff ship revisited!

 

In the course of my manic movie reviews (see Space 1979 and Revenant Review "finales"), I was debating whether to do an installment of Mystery Monday, particularly since I didn't have anything in particular lined up. I decided it was time to do a revisit of the mystery that helped start this blog, the long-lost and untraceable "Spaceman Spiff" ship. For the followup post, I'll be going further afield with some pics from off-site. To start with, here's a pic from Moonbase Central, the site that got me on the trail.

Per the dedicated author behind the site, this vehicle was obtained from continental Europe. It's further reported that it has no manufacturer markings and a visibly different friction motor, though there's no pics to show this. What's of most interest is that the plastic is a clearly different shade than more representative ships. It seems to fit what I remember of my little ship than those I have seen or bought, and that might further indicate a later date. Still, I've second-guessed my memory too many times already to invest much further energy in this. Next up, a pic from an online listing that I think has been going on and off for a year or more.

The interesting tidbit here is that the seller mentions an alternate company name Wenco, a company based in Germany that still has an active site. Whatever the company's relationship, the photos in the listing show the Blue Box name, with a somewhat different presentation than other toys. Here's a closeup of mine for reference.

And while I'm at it, here's a pic I found of another Blue Box product. It looks like a Fisher Price Little People knockoff, and the odds are it is, though if the 1960s date mentioned is accurate, it may be from the same time or slightly ahead of the Little People's most familiar variations.

And here's a pic from another online listing, offered for under $15. Including shipping. I suppose I might get it. Fungghh.

And for the centerpiece, here's a couple more pics of my opened ship with an old playmate, whom I have long considered for his own installment. I got this guy at a sort of flea market around the time I got my original spaceship, and put them through many epic battles. It was also the toy that introduced me to the flint sparker, which I evidently forgot was in the Spiff ship. I thought of him as a Go-Bot knockoff because Ii recognized a vague resemblance to the bot I now know was called Zod. (Seriously...?)  I remember two colors, black and silver. I further recall at least one box of these with a priceless placard that showed squadrons of them swarming down from space. The one further clue to provenance is that it bears the optimistic manufacturer's mark SUPREME, half-hidden behind a wheel. Based on this, I have found at least one listed online, but as with many things, I preferred not to buy it.

Now for the part that really brought me back. When I first posted about this ship, I learned that this and several similarly cheap and cheesy ships from Blue Box were sold as tie-ins for the Blake's Seven TV series (covered at Moonbase Central in 2013 and earlier in 2009). After completing my post, I went back for a closer look. I particularly examined the following pic, cropped from a regularly reposted page from a catalog. What this jogged in my mind was that my original ship had a circular sticker that hadn't matched any other ship I had seen, of course remove almost as soon as I took the ship home. What put the train of thought in gear was that there had been a number on it. My best reconstruction had been that it was "76", which for reasons I still don't know offhand is sometimes displayed at gas stations. I never questioned that, especially considering the sketchy style of the toy, and sometimes incorporated it into my futile web searches. But now I wonder if that was a Blake's 7 sticker. From the collectors' accounts, this version of the toy is so rare even pictures are extremely rare. Furthermore, the simple fact is that the last Blake's 7 episode aired in 1981, and I certainly didn't get the ship earlier than 1987, I think more likely the following year. Yet, now that I have this in mind, I can't discount it. If somehow a few were still free-floating, long removed from their original context, a school prize bin is exactly where it just might turn up.

That got me thinking a little further, and I found that Moonbase Central actually got a few pics of these damn things on card (independently attested by Plaid Stallions). It's clear from these images that at least some of the silver saucers were originally Blake's 7 tie-ins. Admittedly, this casts some doubt whether my ship was part of this line. On the other hand, it's of interest that they were already using packaging that displayed the show's logo less prominently than the generic name, just what would be expected if they were trying to unload thousands of toys slapped with branding nobody cared about. Here's a pic of one of the other Blue Box ships on card.

And to wind things down, here's the ships in their places of honor in my workspace, complete with the Truckstop Queen, the Duchess (aka Connie) and Cassie, and the Galaxy Laser Team commander.  I've been intrigued that the GLT astronaut is about the right size for the ship. It's the kind of pairing I might have tried as a kid, except I don't remember rediscovering him until I had already lost the saucer. 

And here's a few more pics I've accumulated (including a few with the Trailer Park Princess).

Ah, for the days when there was room on my desk....

With that, I'm wrapping this up. It's been worth coming back to this, and I will probably do so again sooner or later, For now, I've had enough, and another year seems like about the right time for a new visit. That's all for now, more to come!

Planet Puzzle: Retro Rocket Ships

 

As I write this, I'm just about done with a month back on my old masochistic pace of one blog post every weekday. I decided my best bet for a quick post was to bring back this neglected feature. This time around, I only have two items, both acquired in an online lot a while ago. They're two more examples of the vintage keychain puzzle, covered in the last post I did for this feature. Judging from prices, they're among the more sought-after examples out there. I acquired these for more than I care to mention, in very iffy condition, still for less than a typical price for one. Here's a pic of what I got for the money, with the Galaxy Laser Team Commander and Turtle-Crab Alien plus the original/ mini astronaut for reference.

From the information at hand (see Rob's Puzzle Page, again), this puzzle was first made in 1952 by Champion Plastics and several different companies thereafter. I'm satisfied that at least one of these is from the original manufacturer, unless someone thought the pink nosecone was a good idea more than once. The mechanics are similar to the ray gun: A notch in the midship piece lines up with a projection on the tip, and then the whole thing comes loose. The difference is that here there's a visible external indicator where the notch is, which I still didn't notice until after I took apart the puzzle by chance. Unfortunately, neither ship is very functional as a puzzle. The one with the pink nose has a bad crack that requires careful handing, while the one with the blue nose is so stiff and crusty that it's brutal to twist the middle piece. Here's the only pic I got of the blue-nosed ship partly disassembled.

Now, here's the full disassembly. It's simple enough that this is really more like a "take apart" toy than a real puzzle. It looks like the parts could be mixed and matched, but that's one more thing I'm not taking chances with, particularly since both ships have a broken nacelle anyway

With that, I'm already through the pics I had, and ready to wrap this up. It's a nice design, and an interesting transition between the simple Gernsback rocket and the more elaborate starships of Star Trek. Still, it gives me the same underwhelming feeling I've gotten from other puzzles. The 1970s and '80s puzzles weren't great, but they were still much better than this, at least when it came to durability and functionality.  The upside is that old puzzles like this remain appealing and interesting long after their usefulness as puzzles has passed. And that's all for now, more to come!

Unidentified Found Objects: Marx space station and... tower... thingy???

 

For today's post, I have an acquisition I got not too long ago but still ended up backlogged for a while simply because it doesn't quite fit with my other material. I finally brought back a feature that went by the wayside almost a year ago, originally created for the Spiff ship and the immortal arcade prize fleet, and then dropped after the Diener Space Raiders. The present items were never as untraceable or obscure as the prize ships or as elusive as the Spiff ship, if only because I'm a bit too young to have had them new, but as we will see momentarily, there's still plenty of mystery and pure weirdness to go around. To start things off, here's a couple pics of the items, first prepared for the last space guys post, both from the 1960s heyday of space toys, and they sure are... plastic?

For once, the backstory on these is straightforward. These pieces first appeared in Marx's Operation Moon Base set in 1962, coinciding with the introduction of semi-realistic "transitional" astronaut figures. Evidently, the tower was intended as a base for a wire or rod to support an orbiting space craft, including but not necessarily limited to the second piece, sometimes simply called the "space platform". The two items reappeared during the last ride of Marx space toys, the Martian Landing, Star Station Seven and Galaxy Command playsets, the last of which was sold by Mego in 1980 after Marx's bankruptcy. While the Moon Base set accessories were red, all known copies from the '70s playsets are yellow as seen here. The later sets did not feature the orbiting gimmick, and may have removed a piece from the space station. 

As with many Marx items, the real difficulty with getting these is getting hold of one without buying a boxed vintage set outright. I got hold of these for a price on par with some of the rarer 6 inch Marx figures. What I absolutely wasn't prepared for was how big they really are, especially the space station.  Here's a lineup of the tower with some representative "space guys", a 60mm astronaut, the army man-scale and mini/ original Galaxy Laser Team Commander, the 70mm Space Guy Who Doesn't Care, the Timmee nuclear guy and for good measure 6-inch Scooper.

While I'm at it, here's a shot with the Truckstop Queen and the Duchess/ Connie. I think the tower is a little taller!

What obviously stands out about these is that the implied scale s wonky even for army-man vehicles and accessories. The tower could just about harmonize with figures on the low end of the scale, including Marx's own 35-45mm figures, at least if you don't worry too much about what the art on top is supposed to do. (Given the conspicuous gap between the first and second bulbs, the designers clearly didn't.) The space station, on the other hand, must clearly be much larger. What's far stranger is the contrast in style. The space station looks like something out of 2001 (or at least The Green Slime), while the tower would fit in with the Flash Gordon comic. (The Delaurentiis movie comes close.) One is ahead of its time, the other feels "retro" even for its time. Here's a few more pics to show what I mean.

While the tower is a fine bit of retrofuturism, it's the station that has kept me fascinated and at times frustrated. As with many space toys (see the Altair-3 Space Raiders ship), it makes more sense the bigger the scale one considers. What comes up for my "head canon" is that the jets on the outside are actually some kind of spacecraft in themselves, perhaps capsules to ferry people from Earth or larger ships, perhaps something much bigger. But, that makes it much harder to account for the upper part, which I just think of as the "basket". It looks like a railing, which would bring a measure of sense to the tower. Here, however, it just messes up the scale more, and on top of that, the protruding peg in the middle doesn't leave room for a figure to stand. Meanwhile, those three things on top- lights? instruments???- actually make sense for something a person could ride in, but less and less scaled up, And that brings us to the strangest part, the box art from one of the playsets (image credit 2 Warps to Neptune). It would have been just fine to show it in space overhead, but instead, they did this...

Of course, this is clearly overanalyzing the Marx crew never did. By the late '70s, the manufacturer was clearly down to reusing old molds without regard for whether it fit the original concept or made any sense whatsoever. Still, it was enough to get me to try something. I worked out that the basket doesn't have to be pushed down all the way, which gave me  an unbroken surface, Here's the result.

With that, I'm wrapping this up. It's been more random than usual, but it's one more thing out of my backlog, plus it brings me back to a feature I meant to do a lot more with. That's all, more to come!

Rogues' Roundup: Aliens APC and miscellaneous army-man guys

 

I'm off to a later start than usual, and I'm still telling myself I can do a quick post. In the true spirit of this feature, I have an assortment of guys new and old. As the centerpiece, I have the Lanard Aliens APC, last seen in the Alien haul. This time around, I'm trying out my army men and space guys to figure out what the Hell kind of scale this is, because this thing is messed up even by the standards of the old days. To start things off, here's a shot of it with the figures it actually came with, the direct-to-Walmart space marines aka Total Soldier and Star Force reissues.

As seen above, the design is based on the APC from Aliens, but completely resized  for figures much larger in size in proportion to the vehicle. This could have worked if they had worked up  a new design to represent a smaller vehicle that might exist offscreen somewhere in the Alien universe. Instead, they copied the movie design accurately enough that the original viewport, door and other hatches and fixtures remain clearly visible and obviously incompatible with the figures. Something I further confirmed is that the figures are bigger than they might appear. When I lined them up with the reissued Corps figure, which I just think of as the Big Guy, they looked like they'd be a bit smaller than 3.75 inch scale, but I subsequently confirmed the reverse was true.(Apparently, it helps to have reference models that aren't bigger than everything else.) What's totally incongruous is that the designers still put in a relatively detailed interior. Here's some shots with and without the figures inside.

The Big Guy will fit in the front seat, too, but the hatch won't close.

Since the figure included obviously don't fit, I thought of comparing smaller figures with the vehicle. On a recent viewing of the movie (hey, I watch good ones!), I took an especially close look at the door. When the marines get in and out, they duck, but only a little, while they can still stand up inside. That fits with the semi-official 2.2 meter/ 7 ft figure given for the vehicle height. With that in mind, the first thing I thought of was the 70 mm/ 3 inch Marx space guys, led by The Space Guy Who Doesn't Care.  I also decided to try a few others, including the Galaxy Laser Team Commander, the Timmee Nuclear Guy and a Marx reissue astronaut I hadn't gotten to yet. Here's a couple shots to show how they match up.

"They're gonna come in here and they're gonna get us!"

"'I still don't care."

Judging from these results, the 70mm space guys look about the right scale, though to me they seem just a little on the big size. On the other hand, the GLT commander at nominal 2 in/ army man scale is definitely too small; he could go through that door fully upright. I took a further interest in the Marx astronaut and the Nuclear Guy, which I'm satisfied are 60 mm and 63 mm respectively. The astronaut still looked small, but the Nuclear Guy actually made sense. For further comparison, I broke out a few more from the group he actually came from, the Timmee firefighter set.

While I'm on an Alien streak, I decided to break out one more find I never got to, an Alien set under the MUSCLE name. I found this at a used bookstore a few months back, still in the garbage can-shaped container it came in, and managed to figure out what it was before I got it. Here's pics of the container and a good part of the group.

Impressively, the set actually included the entire human (and android) cast of Alien. Though they're surprisingly small, it was still a little difficult to get all of them in one shot. Here they are; note Ash with the magazine!

In one more surprise, the set has three sculpts of Kane, played by the late John Hurt (see The Plague Dogs review), explicitly acting out the Alien's life cycle. Here's the lineup.

Finally, here's a few more pics of the Lanard astronaut and a bike originally included with the Big Guy and facehugger. Of all the figures, he's the only one who can ride the thing, which makes sense considering it reportedly came with the Star Force line. One more thing, he really looks grim without the helmet.

"We're all gonna die."

"Yeah.... I wonder what's for dinner."

That's all for now, more to come!