So I bought myself a Christmas present last
year, which I've been meaning to Blog for a while, it's missing a piece and
needs a bit of work, but it was missing two pieces until Chris Smith kindly
sent me the more important one!
Probably one of the best-wrapped parcels
I've ever taken delivery of, and it's come from the other side of the pond,
while all those pictures of piles of rain-soaked Christmas mail were in the
tabloids last year, it actually arrived on 2nd February, so in the end it was a
late-Christmas present, but given everything else which was going on at the
time, a blessed relief from the grim realities of everyday life!
MPC
Steve Zodiac's Fireball XL5 Space City playset; the
box is a bit faded and the lid's crushed down the front panel, but that's how
I got it for somewhere between a quarter or a tenth of what they normally go
for, or less, I'm not telling you but I've seen them (good ones) over $2,000
and I only paid a fraction of that . . . phew!
The card control tower/space HQ building
seems to be all there, and was buildable, but the paper ring which separates
the two discs of the base tore while I was trying to put it together for this
post, so I will have to reinforce it on the blank-side and do that shot another
day, also the tower itself has been discoloured by miles of Sellotape (other sticky-backed plastic
tapes are available), which wasn't needed and has been removed (by me) to no
other detrement?
Fuel tanks, before and after cleaning; both
marked "XL FUEL", and looking like some fancy holder for picnic
hard-boiled eggs in a mail-order catalogue circa 1975! A use for which they are
ideally suited!
The artwork shows one, split in halves, sat
flat on the ground but there is a stud-and-hole joining system, so they are
meant to be fully-rounds?
The mini XL1 and transporter/low-loader truck, the cab-unit having some of
the lines of the old M25 'Dragon Wagon' tank-transporters or M65 'Atomic Cannon'
road-train. My first piece of luck (if I hadn't already got extra fuel tanks) was
getting two XL1's in the box, this may
be standard (I have seen another set with two silver ones), but only one is
listed in the contents?
I also got two launcher sleds, and it took
me a while to work out what they are (check the box-lid!), I still haven't
worked out exactly how they work, but suspect it includes at least one elastic
band of the heavier type? I only have one of the slip-in bars however, and they
are clearly important! In addition to the sliding-bar, there is a swinging arm
which folds/unfolds under the sled and if anyone can furnish me with a scan of
the instructions I'd be very grateful.
I suspect the folding arm [folded under] is
somehow attached to the sliding arm and fires at the end of the ramp (below),
but it may be the other way round and it starts folded-up, then the sudden
folding-under releases the slide to launch? Because I sent some of these shots
to other people in the hope of ID's, I included the blue bit, but it's job
became clear . . .
. . . once I had studied the mini
interceptor-satellite launcher. Which is a dressed-up version of a common toy
of the era, you could find micro-versions in gum-balls, simple versions were
given away on comic-books and there were fancy space-pistols which fired the
same discs.
The one item I am still missing for certain
(beyond elastic launch consumables!) is a three-stage rocket (Ed Berg at 'Toys & Stuff' Blogged them here) for the red tower, and I will have to look out
for a loose one going unloved in a mixed-lot of cheapie-shite sometime!
Space car, before and after cleaning; the
whole set was pretty grimy, which was a second factor (after the tatty box) in
its low BIN amount, but two minutes in the sink brought everything back to
'made yesterday', at which point all the red stuff became bloody-hard to
photograph! The two figures in the next image can be used with this car.
Venus on her Jetmobile,
Steve (coutesy of Chris Smith) is still waiting here at home to be reunited
with his, it having gone to the storage unit a while ago, they should have
matching ariels, I used dressmakers pins, but will try making some from colour
matched-runner one day. I saw a couple of complete ones on the same stall the Clifford space set came from, at
September's Sandown Park toy fair, but they were silly-money!
Also a comparison with
one of the smaller pair of Jetmobile's stowed in the front section of Fireball XL5 itself.
Which - the front section - is called Firball Junior! And this is he, well; I
don't think Fireball is a terribly feminine name? Compared to the two red plastic
XL1's (and the TV originals) scale is all over the place with the main component,
or 'star' of the set, due in no small part to the facts that A) an in-scale
ship would need a box at least a foot longer if not two-feet, and B) would be
more prone to breakage, right across the middle!
Fireball Junior has a sliding door in the
roof, and both the smaller-scale crew figures and the pair of Jetmobile's can be removed
for play - presumably at the destination of flights round the garden/yard, as
there are larger figures for play back at the Space
City site!
You can see the third reason for a cheap
purchase price is the state of the stickers and some pretty-crude painting, but
the painting can be removed and/or redone, and there are options for the stickers
too. Meanwhile 'Junior' has all eight fine jet-vents intact.
There is also a fold-down landing skid
under the cockpit, which is a tad loose on my example, but when I strip down
for paint-removal, I'll try to prize it all apart and in the rebuilding will
ensure everything is as tight as it was originally.
The rest of the beast, or the 'main hull',
again paint and stickers! They only painted one of the outer tail-fins? Anyway,
again it can all be sorted, and it'll be the subject of a proper
'project-video' once I am settled in wherever I end up!
All the stickers are in a bag (including
those seen on the machine in this post - I had a stripping session after the last
shots were in the bag! There are sellers offering sets of new stickers on
feebleBay, but I might try either resurrecting these with clear matt varnish
(as an under-glue and over sealant), or even making my own from scans of the
survivors, they are all present, but you could produce a set with mirroring if
you only had one of each?
You can also see some damage to the left
outer fin, but again both pieces are present and it's a simple mend I could
have done for the photographs, but as the plastic will need buffing after the
gloss red and yellow is removed, I might as well wait - and do it all as one
project.
Finally - problem wise - the missile launchers
have got so old, they fire themselves! Unlike the spring-catch versions of
these (which we saw here), the MPC ones are designed to be fired by hand,
so they have a longer tab at the back-end which you flick across to fire, but
the polyethylene of both the tab - and a plastic tag to hold them in-place
before firing - have warped with age and now slowly fail while you are trying
to get the shot in focus, they just sigh-away from each other and the rocket
goes off like an over-excited virgin if you know what I mean! I doubt hot-water
will solve the problem in the long-term, but I will try it as part of the restoration-project.
I got about 25/30-odd, of which around half
were gold (brighter than the three characters above), the rest were the red,
white and blue ones, except there were no white ones, but there were orange
ones instead!
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Now, it happens I showed the Jetmobile with
Venus on a Faceplant group back a few months, and followed up with the above
picture a few weeks later, since when TJF has managed to mention them on his
blog three times! Not only mention them but get some pictures from the other
side of the pond, taken by someone else, on the second occasion! Three times,
in less than three months . . . to my knowledge, he's never previously mentioned them . . . at
all, ever!
The last time I had to respond to Stadinger's
nonsense, I suggested his behaviour (on
that occasion) pointed to serious insecurities, and this, latest, is only
confirmation of that, such inadequacies need professional therapy, not
sycophants!
I mean I get that some Americans 'rate'
these, the online prices are enough to convince, but actually they just aren't
that rare, there were three or four different sets, from this big one with
everything, to a smaller window box, with only a few figures and the car - I think,
I could look it up, but that's not the point, the point is, he could have mentioned
them at any point in the last 18-odd years, mentioning them three times after
I've just shown them - it's as obvious as snow in August? "I can be him too!"
He's declared himself a legend twice, in recent years, yet publicly follows me, copies what I'm doing, trying to 'best' me, or be me?
What does that make him . . . my fucking shadow, that's what! Again; the other
night, trying to score points with that Avengers
video-link? No one cares how many Herald
there are, they are as common as cow-muck on a cow-farm! That's a dairy Hugh.
The Marx
tank had nostalgia-value and the Airfix
both a rarity-premium and the interest of the converted figure, so I
highlighted them, in a 'bit of fun' link, it was meant to be a bit of FUN! But
blinded by his insecurities he thought he'd score some Brownie-points by solemnly
stating the bleeding-obvious!
He then went away and spent 24hrs
researching a TV series so he could go back the next night and post more 'snippets'
on a link everyone had lost interest in, because he'd already ruined it with
his pompous arsery and which wasn't mean to be taken so seriously to begin with!
I don't comment on his group-posted-stuff (oh,
once maybe), he should try to learn to attempt to ignore mine; he's leaving it very late in life to
grow-up and get-a-grip. Sigh!
