Toys and Stuff: space diorama

Showing posts with label space diorama. Show all posts

Saturday, November 16, 2024

GIANT Starship Troopers Play Time - Pt 1 The Set-up

Over the next week or so I'm gonna post a series of photos of the GIANT toys I've been blogging. The set-up for the shoot was simple, the challenge though lay in trying to convey some kind of story in such little space. I used the vacu-form Moonscape from one of my Multiple Toymakers Golden Astronaut Super Sets sets as well as some inexpensive rock formations included in buckets of Little Green Army Men. Here's the set-up as it looked sitting on top of our wash machine out in The Cave. The backdrop was painted by me many years ago. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

That Moonscape isn't large at all being only 10" (25.40cm) sq

These rock formations are only about 3" wide

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Playing With My Lido Spaceships, A Temporary 'Diorama' - Pt 1

Soooo, the past week or so, I've been out in The Cave trying to track down and photograph all of my spacemen. It started when I was trying to find all the Lido stuff to continue with the Lido space theme. However, I was very surprised to see how many spacemen and alien figures had accumulated over the years that weren't photographed or catalogued. I s'pose these will be the nexus for the next series here on the blog!

But first, here's a temporary 'diorama' or set-up I did using some of the Lido spaceships and figures I re-discovered. I'll post photos from this set-up over the next few days and that will allow me to edit some of the gazillion photos I've taken . Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's the very simple set-up I used. The backdrop is a painting I did years ago and have used in countless photo set-ups. The vacu-formed crater is from a Tri-ang Spacex set. Those small hills came from a trade I made with a fellow facebooker, and then there are the Lido spaceships and figures.

Getting the camera down low, then cropping, and adjusting for contrast and color and voila' - instant space diorama!

Who could that be in the mysterious red spaceship in the distance?

(The red spaceship is a Helen of Toy piece - which we'll eventually cover)

A stranger appears

Lido spaceship and Lido 35mm figures

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Space Explorer

First Contact

Today we're featuring a really neat toy from the '60s, the Space Explorer. There are several variations of the basic design whose original was made by LP of Hong Kong. The guys over at Moonbase Central have already done a pretty good job at covering the origins: Space Explorer. Even though our toy is made in Hong Kong like the original LP version, and shares the same artwork on the card as is seen on LP boxes, it is most probably a knock-off.

The design itself is a classic take on the space car cum spaceship theme so popular in the '50s and '60s and may even have been influenced by real world designs. To me, there is a similarity in lines to Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America:

The toy, while having classic lines, has a couple of issues. The antenna simply slips into a hole in the top of the fuselage and is designed to mesh with gears on the friction motor but the fit is sloppy and there's so much play the action doesn't work well. Additionally, the fit of the separate molded vertical stabilizer is horrible! There are guide rails on the stabilizer which are used to slide it into a channel on the fuselage. The alignment of channel to rails is so poor the stabilizer sits wonky on the fuselage. I filed the channel down somewhat but it will need a lot more work.

The spaceship measures 6" (15.2cm) L x 2" (5.1cm) W x 1 3/4" (4.4cm) H and comes packed partially disassembled on a blister card which has some really great graphics. The clear plastic blister is stapled onto the card making it easy to remove and get to the toys while still preserving the artwork. The set includes 4 figures. The figures measure 1 7/8" (1.8cm) H - about 45mm scale, but definitely shorter than 54mm figures. They have flat bases w/no markings. The card measures 7 3/8" (18.7cm) W x 8 1/2" (21.6cm) L. Enjoy!