National Park Souvenirs

I love old National Park souvenirs like this plastic plaque in a Selby charity shop here in the UK.

 They could be from anywhere with big wildernesses and landscapes. This is from Banff in Canada. No doubt a British family visited it in the Fifties or Sixties, when natural tourism was just beginning.

It hints at long drives in a car or on a bus. I always think of a family Woody station wagon heading into the hills, parents eager to find the next monument and the kids eager for a burger!  

There's something endearing about souvenir designs especially for National Monuments and Parks. Are there any rocket or space-related Monuments and souvenirs?  

Souvenirs are fascinating windows into the past. Not toys but somewhere nearby.

I wonder if anyone collects souvenirs like this?

Ed's Buck Rogers HG Toys Galactic Play Set

Woodsy,

Here's one of about two dozen playsets sitting out in The Cave that I finally took off the shelf and started photographing. 

I don't have all the photos taken yet but this will give you an indication of the treasures within this set.

The playset is based on the television series which ran from 1979-81 and HG Toys did a really nice job in packing a lot of action into a relatively small playset.

There are:

Three distinct sets of figures:

-Character figures from the TV series

-Space Commandos

-Robo Aliens (provided by LP)

Spaceships:

-Two brown Draconian Marauders of the Draconian Empire (the bad guys)

-Two white starfighters

(I still need to apply the stickers onto the spaceships and then photograph them)

-One large flying saucer. 

The words 'Star Station X-5' are molded into the upper hull, and this saucer is a hold-over from previous HG space playsets like their 'Alien Attack' and 'Space Wars' playsets. 

(The box art shows a blue saucer, but I've only ever seen yellow)

Cardboard Graphics:

-Seven separate graphics depicting alien landscapes and a landing strip

From Vegas Base

Ed of The 25th & 3/4's Century

SPACEWAYS ANNUAL

 Some photos of the New Spaceways  Comic Annual, the companion book to the Adventure Annual.

Both covers were illustrated by Denis McLoughlin, and were published in 1954.

As a bonus, I've included the  space themed cover of the 1957 Knockout Annual, which shows the characters from the Space Family Rollinson strip.

THE BOOK AND THE FILM

 Continuing my Terrornauts theme, here's some photos of some  British cult low budget Sci-fi films along with a few showing the book they were based on.

Arto's Cherilea Monsters

Arto recently picked up the 1950's Spaceways and Adventure Annuals. 

Arto says:

 I'm thrilled to see those toys, X-300 and the X-400 and Cherilea monsters like the Lizard and the Ant-Man (which I have as metal figures) featured in the Annuals' stories. 

(Pictures below.)

 I was unaware of this kind of connection until recently, and it adds a whole new dimension to the Pyro / Cherilea lore. 

It would be nice to know which came first, the annuals or the toys.

 The Pyro toys may have been already around in the U.S. at that time (ca. 1954), but how does the publication of the annuals relate to the launch of their Kleeware / Tudor Rose counterparts? 

Was there some kind of planned synchronicity?  

Arto

Helsinki Base

SWIFT MORGAN

 Further to my earlier Terrornauts post, here's some examples of the vintage Swift Morgan comic strip, drawn by Denis McLoughlin.

Created in 1948, between Denis and his brother, Colin, Swift Morgan was Britain's first Sci-fi picture strip hero, and  Denis was known to call at his local Woolworths and buy  cheap toy Tudor Rose robots and rockets  and use their designs in some of the Swift Morgan comic strips.

Here's a few examples of the comic strip.

The 'Clipper' seen in the Terrornauts

I believe the robot design was used in the Merit  Magic Robot game 

BEYOND THE BLACK HOLE: MPC USS CYGNUS REVISITED

 Another look at my MPC Cygnus kit, which I covered a while back on here.

Links to my previous MPC Cygnus posts:

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/08/mpc-black-hole-cygnus-build-part-1.html

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2023/08/mpc-cygnus-kit-part-2.html

TERRORNAUTS

 As Woodsy mentioned the cult Amicus low budget flick, Terrornauts. Long before Network DVD released it on Blu ray,  and Talking Pictures TV screened it, I managed to get hold of it on an American import video version.

Not as memorable as it's Amicus stablemate, They Came From Beyond Space', it's a lot of Saturday morning matinee fun.

As Arto points out some of the toy spacecraft were bought in Woolworths. In the film, another kitbashed spaceship abducts our heroes, and takes them to 'The Wailing Asteroid' , the name of the Murray Leinster novel the film is based on.

On a separate note, comic artist Dennis McLoughlin occasionally used similar toys as inspiration for his Swift Morgan comic strip stories during the late forties, and continuing into the early fifties, which I've already featured on the blog previously.