L is for Lone Ranger

I Posted these elsewhere the other day, not something I collect, and we never went down the Wild West route with our Action Man (men?), so purely for those who will like a look, or enjoy the nostalgia hit, it's the The Lone Ranger line from Marx Swansea's 1978 catalogue.

 

Hi Ho! Silver, Away!

T is for Two - Childhood Survivors

In all the sorting of the last two-and-a-half-years, I found two fascinating pieces of childhood ephemera, from or related to Palitoy/Action Man, which I thought I'd chuck up here under the nostalgia heading . . . 

 

I can actually remember when the parcel eventually arrived, a while later (probably the 'winter of discontent'? So 1973/74'ish?), as it had about six or eight hands, two feet and ankle assemblies and the elasticated-loop with chromed-hook for mending the waist of my older painted-head figure which had come from a Church-fete.

Then we had two grippy-hands men with flocked-hair, one each, and they needed new hands as the fingers were starting to crack-off from the inside! Which left some spare! But we had got older in the meantime and took greater care of them, so I don't think we ever even used the other hands, or one of the feet and matey from Modeller's Loft (Alan Hall?) bought them from me in the 1990's!

 

Bugger-me if I haven't got enough for a guard dog, or a sentry box! I think it was supposed to have been sent off for the sentry box, we'd got the guard dog a few years earlier, he came with a ridiculously gold-anodised chain which would have looked better on a Mr. T doll!

I don't know why it never got sent, but I suspect it was 1980, and the whole divorce, house-move (to here) and teenager thing all came together after a few months in a caravan or two . . . I don't remember the Action Men ('Action Mans'?) ever coming-out at this house?

Funny how I can remember the name of my brother's figure, but I can't remember the names of either of mine or the guard dog, which definitely had one? Painted-head might have been Douglas, thinking about it!

F is for Follow-up - Marx Birds!

An unscheduled post, in that I wasn't planning one, but an old friend came round while I was gardening, and a coffee and beer later, and quick trip over to the new flat to show him, and I've lost the light, so the gardening has been halted early and will be finished tomorrow, just hope the beer doesn't affect my spelling! Or should that be 'effect'?!!

 

I mentioned these the other day, they have been in Picasa for a while now, and it was clear the contents were all muddled-up when I shot them, so I'll just chuck them up as a box-ticker, and to confirm that that one the other day was also a Marx bird I think, same design, not sure anyone else did anything quite like these?

Clues on the packaging suggest at least three tranches/print-runs for the boxes, probably only one main run for production of the models, with an earlier and later issue (red or black text for the bird names) and a UK specific issue (/UK codes)?

Simple pre-coloured kits of 5-7 pieces, depicting relatively common species, and a little card with a water-colour sketch of the bird (if you want to repaint in slightly more realistically?) with a thumbnail biography on the reverse. Box-scale but maybe between 1:6th/1:8th, for the smaller tit-birds at least? The owl probably around 1:12th.

 

Similar 'match-box' packaging to the Zoo/Wild Animals (which explains my Hippo being in two parts!), as copied by the lesser Hong Kong sourced stuff from Shackmann, they must have been fun!

Now fully covered on Moonbase, via Paul the Antipodean, although it's probably the sixth time since Christmas one of the Paul's have used my Posts for their follow-ups! It's getting boring now guys, 23,000 toy companies to Blog from and you need to keep following me? Sign you're running out of original copy, isn't it? And it's not his work, it's everybody else's efforts! Tedious; but there's that bell-curve, in the background!

News, Views Etc . . . Vectis Auctions - Thursday 26th September 2019

This is a verbatim press release from Vectis on their forthcoming TV and Movie memorabilia sale this thiusday, and specifically two 'star items', which I'm sure were on Moonbase a few months back/a year or so ago?

You sometimes find this, something sells, the buyer decides they have everything they're going to find, and sells-up, there were a series of hollow-cast sales back in the 1990's where the same big-ticket items went round about three or four times as each buyer either reached his perceived pinnacle and sold-up, or passed-away - with the surprise of having got the elusive ones?

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Rare Gerry Anderson Props to go on Sale!

Speedboat and Sportscar from the pilot episode of ‘The Investigator’ to be offered at Teesside Auction House, Vectis on Thursday 26th September.

Gerry Anderson is forever associated with "supermarionation" - a sophisticated form of puppetry. Having had numerous successes with Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet, among others he planned on releasing a new series based around two inexperienced but dedicated teenagers, trained by a mysterious alien intelligence with unknowable powers to tackle international espionage, environmental disasters and political corruption.

Sounds like it had a huge amount of potential for mystery, suspense and action, however, for a variety of reasons including the concept being "too far-fetched" and problems with some of the models, the show never went into full production. It was seen as a rare failure for Anderson, who had enjoyed phenomenal success with his previous 18 successful shows.

The two vehicles in the sale where created for the 1973 pilot episode, shot on location in Malta.

The first is a speed boat, in one sixth scale which had to be towed for the live action sequences in the twenty-three-minute pilot episode.

The second, a red, eight-wheeled sports car is radio controlled and fitted with a petrol fuelled motor-bike engine.

Both were designed by Reg Hill and manufactured by Space Models of Feltham, who had made many of the props for Gerry Anderson's other productions, including Thunderbirds. The Investigator was to be the final Supermarionation production for Anderson.

Three Thunderbirds voices were used- Peter Dyneley (Jeff Tracy) as The Investigator, Shane Rimmer (Scott Tracy) as John, and Sylvia Anderson (Lady Penelope) as Julie.

These two vehicles are extremely rare examples of TV and Film history and are featuring in the 26th September TV and Film related sale.

Vectis have previously sold toy prototypes of vehicles, produced by the iconic British toymaker Dinky, which were to be marketed alongside the show. Unfortunately, the toy line was also mothballed and therefore these are also incredibly scarce.

Both the car and the boat have pre-sale estimates of £3,600 to £4,600 each,

For more information please contact Kathy Taylor or Andrew Reed on +44 (0) 1642 750616 or email admin@vectis.co.uk

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Stockton-on-Tees - Vectis Auctions (1st day of a two day auction)

Fleck Way, Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 9JZ

Web. - www.vectis.co.uk

eMail - admin@vectis.co.uk

Tel. - 01642 750 616

TV and Movie memorabilia sale

Trains and model railways the next day - Friday 27th September 2019