Toy-Ventures: Halloween Costume Countdown

Toy-Ventures this week is a look at five classic Halloween costumes from my collection, some are weird, none are scary but they're all infused in some magical 1970s pop culture goodness. 

Happy Halloween from PlaidStallions, check out every episode of Toy_Ventures here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0Y8qhZtGdGEoqxu544ENnkiWa0w_NBNQ

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Dinky Space!

I love the fact that the popularity of Star Wars actually helped Dinky sell more Eagles and UFO interceptors despite the fact that both those shows were long out of production.

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

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Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

The Dinky Space Fleet

One would be foolish to go up against the Dinky armada in the late 1970s.....

Colouring Book Theatre: Gerrry Anderson UFO

UFO by Purnell (1971)
One of the nicest things I received at Mego Meet was this colouring book, which frankly, I didn't know existed until it was placed in my hands.

The one caveat my pal Corey had was that he hoped it would be featured on CBT. Wish granted!  (One little bit of trivia, the striking woman on the cover is Dr. Strange's real life mother)

While filled with colourful costumes, purple wigs and cool tech, Gerry Anderson's UFO is also a show that featured dark story lines and adult themes. It doesn't exactly scream "Children's colouring book" which of course, makes it all the more delicious to me. (See Dune)

Grab your crayons and join me after the jump.

UFO Eagle

Presenting the coolest cross ever toy I've seen in a long time, normally I am immune to spaceship models (cause I suck at painting them) but this just broke my brain.

More after the Jump:

Super Space Theatre Sales Kit

In the early 1980s, ITC Entertainment took their back catalog of (mainly) Gerry Anderson TV programs and edited them into a series of Television movies for the growing Cable TV market. 

Dubbed "Super Space Theatre" these 14 movies were culled together from episodes of "Space:1999", "UFO", "Thunderbirds", "Stingray", "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons" and the non Anderson property "The Champions" into new properties.

Apparently it's the year 2100 in this movie.

This package of (sometimes curiously edited) films was highly influential on yours truly, I ruined my sleep pattern trying to watch all of these as a ten year old and in turn, started to seek out merchandise based on these forgotten shows.

 This site owes a great debt to the wonderful recycling of Super Space Theater, so this sales kit containing sell sheets for all the films is truly a grail for me . I've also included some photos of my collection of SST VHS tapes.

Hope you enjoy!

Check out Super Space Theater here.

And hey, if you want some more Gerry Anderson, listen to our special podcast about him!

More Sky Diving Parachutists

 

Ever since I mocked up a set of parachuting AHI Super Monsters last year, I've been kind of smitten and inspired to make more. I had a major spurt of creativity this summer and here is the result.

Above is a Brick Mantooth Parachutist, this was inevitable and I'll likely do a bunch of different variations for him. I wish they made plaid spray paint.

 

We got AHI Parachutist figures for Space:1999, so why not Gerry Anderson's other 70s opus, UFO? I've got Ed Straker half done right now.

 

Finally I made this for my pal and podcast partner Jason Lenzi for his birthday (delivering a full two months late) it's the first of many TV detectives I plan to make. Seriously, I'm going to make a Quincy.

More soon!

Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is a limited edition 144 page book from the creator of Plaid Stallions. Order from us and get three free promotional post cards.

Colouring Book Theatre: UFO Seeing is Believing

UFO: Seeing is Believing Coloring Book
By Whitman 1978

Another colouring book I found rummaging through  Planet of the Stuff a couple of weeks ago. Not to be confused with the Gerry Anderson UFO coloring book we covered a few months back.

Whitman had quite the little cottage industry capitalizing on the UFO craze in the late 60s/early 70s. A quick scan of Ebay reveals comics and puzzles bearing that beautiful art like this cover.

I'm assuming this book is made up of abridged comic stories, the majority of them don't make a lot of sense, due to the format.

Let's take a look at this after the jump...

Pod Stallions Episode 8: Anderson is FAB

Seeing as it's September 13th, there is no better time to talk about the creative force that was Gerry Anderson.

Eventhough much of the man's output was done before Jason and Brain were even an idea, their timeless quality has fans talking about them to this day. 

The guys show the evolution in puppets from Supercar to Captain Scarlet and the jump to live action with UFO and Space:1999. Mixed in with some discussions about Bond, Gold Key Star Trek comics, nerdy moments and of course, all the merchandise we could cram into a single show.

Anderson is FAB is 

Download the Show Here

Listen here

Show Links:

• The unsold TV pilot for the Solarnauts produced by former Anderson partner Roberta Leigh is retro sci fi gold.
• The Mattel Space:1999 Eagle is easily one of the coolest toys in the 1970s
• Some very cool Thunderbirds toys from 1960s.
• The Trailer for Alien Attack, two episodes of  repackaged Space:1999 episodes.
• The Joe 90 Dossier you had to eat a lotta meat spread to get.
• One of those amazing Captain Scarlet paintings survived and in the hands of a collector.
• Some VHS covers from ITC's Super Space Theater.
• Just some of the Space:1999 rack toys made by AHI.
• Klingons hawking Happy Meals, this happened.
• The Gerry Anderson Memorabilia Guide is out of print but a must have.
• The After School Special Into Infinity borrowed sets and cast members from Space:1999 
• The German/UK co-produced series Star Maidens also feels like a low budget episode of Space:1999.
• This figure of Gay Ellis by Product Enterprise was in Brain's top five favorites.
• The guys are lukewarm to the Terrahawks but both agree the ships look really cool.

Plenty more content on the PodStallions Facebook page!

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Colouring Book Theatre: Gerry Anderson's UFO

UFO colouring book (Unknown Publishing)

Anyone who has read this blog might know that I am more than a little obsessed with this short lived SF series from the UK.

While this Gerry Anderson show enjoyed popularity world wide, it seemed to really catch on in Japan where its vehicles and colourful cast still enjoy merchandise. 

Merchandise that I must buy.

I am not fortunate enough to own one of these cool Japanese colouring books (I would like to!) but fortunately for me Jim of the S.H.A.D.O U.S.E.C.C facebook group shares with us a look between the covers.

Whats inside is a wonderful mash up of UK design and Japanese style, I love it! Unlike a lot of colouring books we look at, this one was made with care.

Red alert after the jump...

Gerry Anderson Toy Tribute

The passing of legendary TV producer Gerry Anderson yesterday, put me into a real funk. Anderson created two of my favourite science fiction series of all time in UFO and Space:1999, not to mention a pile of super cool kid's programming in the 1960s. 

The man was a visionary, Whenever Anderson's name appeared, awesome merchandise followed. What better way to honour the man's legacy than to take a look at some of the playthings inspired by his output.

Spectrum is green after the jump!

Identified!

I am really excited to say that I've made a major find and it's timing couldn't be better seeing as it's a Collegeville costume that I didn't think was real. More after the jump..

Dinky Space

This ad is from 1978, I find it funny that kids were playing with ships from Gerry Anderson's (IMO amazing) UFO series a good seven years after it was cancelled. Those Eagles were also more fun than should be humanly allowed.