G is for Go Space Trucking!

Really - 'futuristic' trucks!

 

Panhard 1951Titan IE 45 HL Pathe Marconi

 

This existed as one of several futuristic/novelty builds, used for advertising, or as crew-vehicles for teams or media outlets in the Tour de france or Grand Prix circuits of the 1940-50's, sometimes, like the Weiner mobile in the US.

General Motors 1964 Bison concept truck

Chevrolet 1965 Turbo Titan II concept truck

Ford 1966 Big Red Turbo concept truck

 

It's funny, but my childhood was quite liberally sprinkled with iconography related to 'space trucking'? From early articles in World of Wonder magazine on futuristic trucks, through the various multi-wheeled, articulated beasts in the backgrounds of strips or TV series like Dan Dare or Thunderbirds, through Deep Purple's hit, also Space Trucking, and my first Def Leppard album, bought from scrimped pocket-money; On Through the Night, which had a bog-standard 'big rig' rocking through space with a giant, tarpaulin'ed guitar on the flat bed, issued around the time of the most famous space trucker, no, not Han Solo (although - of course - he counts!), but Lone Starr, the mercenary in a Winnebago, from Space Balls!

 

There were a few images in the many sci-fi art books I had, the daft strip in 2000AD; Ace Trucking Co., and the equally interesting vehicles on the elevated freeways of Megacity One and the badlands of the Cursed Zone, and then, Mad Max (and a Plethora of straight to VHS knock-offs - the iconic Herkimer Battle Jitney being notable), while the above four were among many, swirling about in the background of the public conscience.

 

Latterly, we have had Fry and Leela, in Futurama, but they had a more 'conventional' spaceship! All the while, Matchbox, Corgi and Mattel (Hot Wheels) had been producing ever more whacky die-cast spacey trucks in an attempt to hold market share . . . but the dime-store guys had already been there, in the 1950's, before I was born!

 

I can't find this on Google, I'm sure it's been through the Internet at some point, probably various points, but apart from a slightly streamlined Ford saloon (sedan) car, also by Palitoy (for this is theirs), I couldn't find anything about it.

 

The front wheels are a little low, due to the ageing of the thin celluloid (?) belly-pan, which holds a crude steering system, and from, the warping of the plastic, not severe, but there, it must be contemporaneous with the aircraft, we've been working through since the early days of the blog, so the hope must be that more will be out there to find

Gilmark's fire engine (missing a ladder, I suspect, but so is every example I can find on Google!), is probably more accidentally futuristic, being 'just' a toy? The chassis designed - like Beeju's - to take different bodies/loads, and having a tip-back cab, so you can 'work' on the engine!

 

The beauty of all these dime-store types, whether military, civilian or space/futuristic, is that they go quite well with the smaller scales, and both these would suit 23-28mm figures, so your Giant, LB (Lik Be) or Airfix astronaut/space figures, through to role-playing stuff?

A couple of comparison shots, I have a few more dime-store type, rigid-bodied 'space trucks' in the collection, and we may have seen one or two over the years, and a bus (?), but this is my first 'Artic' (articulated/tractor-trailer) type wagon, and hopefully we'll return to them when they all come together, or I find more Palitoy efforts, or even a Gilmark ladder?

 

These both came in at the weekend, last, but I'm not doing a show-report, or, I might do one on the loose figures and bits, but most of what I bought on Saturday, was specifically for posts, given everything else is in storage now! "Go Space Trucking"!

'Civil' War

I was going to write about Army recruitment tonight as they are advertising on TV again, however we had today the news that B.Liar/Brown Trousers 'Consultative Group on the Past' [In Northern Ireland] is likely to recommend that all families affected by a death in/as a result of the troubles should receive a compensatory payment of around 12,000 pounds...

When I first heard the headline, I thought WTF! However as the news story unfolded in more depth, I could see the vague logic in it, I was then worried that it would only apply to the residents of Ulster, but it seems that the family's of British soldiers and foreign nationals (like three members of a Miami Show-band ?) will also get a payment.

I guess the thinking is that if a 'Known Player' was killed by the other side, without having ever been successfully prosecuted, his family aught to be entitled to the money, however all those who's 'Player' died after he was legally implicated in militancy (whether Catholic or Protestant) would then feel aggrieved.

Another argument is that it makes it look like crime pays, so do you pay more to the Army and Police families? That is no different - in terms of fairness - from not paying some at all, and presumably the bean-counters have worked out that in the long run it will save some money down the line; the idea being that once everyone has had the money they will all be more likely to come forward with information on unsolved crimes, missing persons etc...

However - I believe - a similar approach was not that successful in South Africa, where those who agreed to co-operate only served to implicate those who chose not to admit their roles, thereby requiring the lengthy, costly investigations and trials that they were trying to avoid in the first place! Note that the 'Bloody Sunday' inquiry has so far cost over £200million - presumably they're burning the money to keep the courtroom warm!

In balance I think this is a poor compromise, but what else could they have come up with, the aim in all these situations (Bosnia, The Basque-separatist region of Spain, SA, Cambodia, Rwanda et al...) is to normalise the citizenry without alienating one or other small group. Ultimately - once you have decided to make payments, you HAVE to pay everybody and you HAVE to pay them the same amount?

And lets face it at £12,000 (less than a years wages for all but the youngest/least skilled of the workforce), this money's no more than a token gesture and is hardly going to change lives.

I was lucky enough not to serve in NI, but friends did, I suspect they would have a hard time accepting this suggestion as readily as me?

H is for Hail to the Chief

Presentation flag - 502rd Infantry - Clay Alley, Berlin Brigade

So, Barack Obama is sworn in as the new President of the United States of America, He is - in my view - the last hope for the human race. A bit dramatic? It is my belief that if we don't sort out the despotic leadership of the Second and Third Worlds, clear-up the planet, cease our profligate ways in the First World and get a serious grip of the bankers and wankers who are really running the whole show within the next eight years, it will be to late to bother.

We have already pushed back all our recycling and emission targets, oil replacement technology seems to be a case of two steps forward and three back, and every time I buy something the layers of packaging have multiplied and increased in thickness, Free-market capitalism was bankrupted sometime in the autumn and we're letting them look for a 'New Capitalism' while taking their bonuses - if they've still got a job that is!!!!

So good luck Mr. president, you need it, you have a lot of your own hype to live up to, and we the people of this particular planet need you to live up to it.