Model Power Structures Box Art

Although many of Model Power's other offerings are no longer availabel from Model Power they be availalbe online on sites like ebay.

High Hopes

One of the most powerful bands of all time. To simpler times...

From Airfix To Scratch-Building

Some nice historic facts about UK passenger ships along the way as the authors introduces us to his 40 years of scratch builting and plastic kit model making.

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< -Previously

Model Ships from Paper

Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas

“We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers… Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.” Raoul Duke

Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas was required reading way back at the University. Although I haven't ever gotten that ripped, It is one view of the drug cultur films that spurred a lot of us on.

“History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.”

“Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run, but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.”

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The Cranberries - Zombie

Well, let's hope you don't have to visit YouTube to view this one.

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again --- 1979

A great performance by the Who. Back in the day, this was one of my favorites from the Who. We are all getting old.

Thick As A Brick (Sight And Sound In Concert: Jethro Tull Live, 1977)

Welcome to August, how the year has flown. In my opion this is one of the best performances of Thick as a Brick. Great band and music.

Planet Claire - The B-52's

An odd little ditty about a place far away. by the B-52's.

Lyrics

She came from Planet Claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
A-faster than the speed of light
Planet Claire has pink air
All the trees are red
No one ever dies there
No one has a head
Some say she's from Mars
Or one of the seven stars that shine after three-thirty in the morning
Well, she isn't!
She came from Planet Claire
She came from Planet Claire
She came from Planet Claire

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Edited on 6/4 at 11:41.

Another Retrograde Robot

“The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans.”

Reason, I Robot, Isaac Asimov

He is a rather gangly fellow isn't he?

Plans for those do-it-yourselfers.

The two illustrations are from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" concept art.

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Updated on 1/11/23 @ 2:30pm, 6:36pm

Retrograde Robot

"The robots were on the lowest sublevel. All six of them surrounded by musty packing cases of uncertain content.They were large, extremely so, their chests were at least ten feet around, and even though they were in a sitting position on the floor, legs straddled out before them, their heads were a good seven feet in the air."

Runabout, I Robot, Isaas Asimov

Screenshot from Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Although this robot is not quite as large as those mentioned above, is stands seven to eight feet tall. This very cumbersome looking robot runs on wheels moving very jerky.

An International Diesel

This is another image from that trip to Potter County. I found this International Diesel stuck away in another shed away from the main structure.

Why William Gibson Is a Literary Genius

A worth while aricle by Jason Guriel on the genius of William Gibson's literature. Many years ago Johnny Mnemonic was required reading for a college class and I this is how I became smitten with the Gibson's work. I went on to read his Sprawl trilogy":Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) and I have never looked at technolgy the same since. Gibson's litature literature is fast, raw, and capivating.

Matchbox Number 13

This tow truck is one of Matchbox’s classic miniature vehicles. Like the rest of their line this model is cast from metal, but unlike their more modern line, this tow truck is in a very basic design.

Salvation Army Band

This is another one of those 1/87 miniatures collections that I recently unearthed, finding it at the bottom of a box of miscellaneous HO gauge model railroad things that I had packed away. As you can see, from the packaging, it was offered my Thomas miniatures, a now defunct suppliers of HO gauge figures. The set includes four figures: three male figures with instruments and one-woman figure.

Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear Figure

Buzz Lightyear is character found in Disney’s “Toy Story”. This figure like the last two, that I have made a post, stands approximately three inches tall and is cast from PVC plastic.

If you remember I made a post on Buzzes counterpart-Sheriff Woody sometime ago.

McDonalds Happy Meals Toy Sites

Happy Meals Home

Scan your Happy Meal Toy to unlock the associated games for that toy. The McDonalds official Happy Meal site offers toys, games, videos, ebooks, and activities for your children.

Happy Meal Toys Collection Fan Site

Keep up with the latest Happy Meal toy offerings.

The 25 Greatest Happy Meal Toys of The ’80s

The 26 Most Awesome Happy Meal Toys Of The ’90s

The 50 Coolest Happy Meal Toys of All Time

20 of the Best McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys of Yesteryear

Sheriff Woody

Sheriff Woody Propped Up Against a (Plastic) Wooden Block

The R is for revealing. (Sorry Hugh) Woody was so intoxicated I couldn’t get him to stand-up straight and had to prop him up against a letter block. The block just happened to be the letter R.

Woody is from a small cache of toys I recently found that had been packed away. The few toys, that are left, somehow missed being donated or tossed out. My grandchildren don’t play with these toys any more and I have decided to hold on to them for the sake of nostalgia.

Histroifig Classic Fantasy Figures a Trip Down Memory Lane

Histroifig Classic Fantasy Figures are the same miniatures that were once cast by Jack Scruby back in the seventies. At the time Scruby miniatures were the only alternative to the Minifigs ME range. The Classic Fantasy Figures collection includes seventeen miniatures. The miniatures vary in size from 20mm to 54mm tall.

One Scruby miniature fan made the comment that "Scruby miniatures are so ugly they are cute." I will add that the few that I own look very anemic, but for nostalgic sake I do intend to add a few more of these miniatures to my collection. Scruby miniatures grow on you.

Classic Fantasy Figures

F-1          Troll, Advancing with tree trunk - 54mm tall        

F-2          Living Tree, without stretched branches - 54mm tall       

F-3          Hero, chainmail with long sword - 40mm tall       

F-4          Wizard on rearing horse - 30mm              

F-5          Elve, Firing longbow - 28mm tall               

F-6          Giant Orc, Shield, curved sword - 30mm tall        

F-7          Orc, Charging with Spear - 25mm tall      

F-8          Orc, Charging with Sword - 25mm tall     

F-10       Goblin, in Morion, with pole-axe - 20mm tall      

F-10a     Goblin, in Morion, with spear/short pike - 20mm tall      

F-12       Hobbit, with sword - 20mm tall 

F-13       Wizard, with staff - 40mm tall    

F-14       Dwarf, with axe - 25mm tall        

F-14a     Dwarf, with sword - 25mm tall  

F-14b     Dwarf, with axe - 25mm tall        

F-15       Evil Wizard - 40mm tall  

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Additional Links

• Painted Jack Scruby fantasy figures
  Includes images of most the collection of unpainted miniatures.
• Jack Scruby Painted Figures Photo Bucket

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Little Green Army Men

When I was a boy I remember watching many World War Two movies with my folks. I was too young to understand the reality of what I was watching, but I do remember enjoying the action; the firefights, the bursting bombs, the enemy being ousted from their positions, and the gun hoe GI’s gaining ground and pushing the enemies of civilization back to hell (I didn’t think about this aspect back then, I just added it now to be dramatic).

My very first experience with army men, that I remember, was when I was about five year old. I had seen an ad in some magazine and remember cutting the ad out and keeping it under my pillow. (This is what I did with things that meant something to me back then.) The ad advertised what I thought was a large chest of army men. I don’t remember, exactly, but I believe it contained something like a 100 toy soldiers, and it was advertised for something like $2.50; a princely sum, for a boy, back in the early sixties.

I saved my birthday money and whatever change I could scrounge off of my parents and when I had enough for the package, It was sent for. When the package arrived, I remember being sorely disappointed. The chest was a cardboard chest and didn’t look anything like the supposed large chest I was expecting.

The box contained 100 smaller than normal arm men, who usually were between two and three inches high. There are cast in a hard plastic and were about an inch high (As far as I can remember). I wish I still had these, they might be worth something now, however at the time I was let down, and although they got some play time, the soldiers did not get all that much attention being inferior in every way to the normal green army men.

I always had green plastic army men in my toy chest and they were often were employed in skirmishes and battles with the enemy. Most of the fun was had outside, outside of my bedroom window, where there was a mound of ground that refused to sprout grass. This is where my army dug their fox holes and where the battles were fought.

After viewing a war movie that included a scene with paratroopers exiting an airplane I set up my own regiment of paratroopers, with small parachutes made of tissue paper that was tied to each toy solider with four pieces of string (or was it thread). I remember issuing my paratroopers, after issuing the order to “gear-up”, from my second story the window, and to my fright watched them fall straight to the ground; the parachutes failed to deploy. When I got down stairs I found all was well. No one suffered any broken bones and more importantly none of my green army men were mangled in any way.

Oh, the hours that were spent using my imagination, being in my own little world, and inventing new scenarios for battles that would ultimately win the war. Oh, if it was that simple, the mind of a child in all its simplicity could change the world. We should all play more and hate less.

All of that said just because I visited the Army Men Homepage. The Army Men page which describes the low cost green army men that many of us played with when we were boys. (Could I venture to say, girls too?) It would be interesting to see how many women could comment on this, did you play with green army men as a girl?

The page goes on to define and describe these little green army men and clarifies the differences between miniatures and the mass produced green army men. The page goes further and describes the accessories that might have come with these army men. Like the soft plastic military vehicles, (The green army men might have been pretty rugged, but the vehicles were not. They were often cast very thinly and were very flimsy) and the alternative types of army men like the cow boys and Indians and the roman warriors. Each toy soldier type was produced in a different color, but pretty much in the same height of the green army men.

You will find a great deal of links at the end of the page that you might find interesting. Check them out. If you haven’t visited this site yet, it offers a basic treatise on the subject and is worth the visit. If nothing else the page will bring back memories.