Monthly Archives: December 2017

TVTA means…

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2017 in review. Bolt by bolt.

Wooof and I like to celebrate our small achievements here at TVTA. In 2017 we gained more than 2.5 million followers, 2 billion likes, received numerous nominations such as the Lobster Award, the Good Morning I’m Hungry Award, the Time Travelling Companions of Gannow Award, the Friendly Blogger Looking to Borrow A Few Bucks Award, the Sunshine And Scattered Showers Award, and we were also Freshly Parsed 42 times!

Why, that’s enough achievements to be able to view the Great Wall of China from space with a pair of 1980s dinosaur explorer toy binoculars, cold enough to freeze penguins to a lampost, and loud enough to distract excitable puppies when used in conjunction with a sonic dog whistle and My Little Kitty glove puppet!

So what does it all mean, this TVTA thing? And do we have adverts for it?

Well, a quick browse on the interweb reveals that TVTA actually means… Threat and Vulnerablity Testing and Assessment

TVTA also means… Thermal Vacuum Test Article

and TVTA also means … Technical and Vocational Training Act

and Triple Vaginal Triple Anal … WOAH! Stop right there Wooof!

Where the heck did that one come from?

This is a family-friendly blog showcasing vintage toys!

Suffice to say, there is no mention of our humble blog anywhere in acronym land, so Wooof has been frantically retro-adding TVTA to the tags of all our old posts like a cat out of hell!

Go Wooof, you fantastic cat you!

And now, the TVTA 2017 awards sponsored by Stephen Spookberg’s Speak and Spell Time Machine Soda-Stream Maker (includes FREE collectable ‘owls of the world’ and ‘dragon botherer’ cigarette cards while stocks last) …

Our best missing item from 2017: Has anyone seen our Elizabethan tape machine?

Has anyone seen our Elizabethan tape machine? We seem to have misplaced it the last time we time travelled to 1955. If you find it, please return it to our usual address at TVTA Towers, France, Earth. Thanks in advance!

The 2017 Conquering Our Ridiculous Fear Of Clowns Award

We thought we were doing great. The hypnotherapy sessions had been positive. The yoga was beneficial. We were no longer afraid to leave the office. And Wooof was off the meds. Then these two paperworks landed on our desk yesterday, and now we’re right back where we started. Gah!

The 2017 TVTA Best Fashion Statement Award: Cheese tee-shirts

The 2017 TVTA Best Unfortunately-Named Throat Pastel Award

The 2017 TVTA Best Hulk Recreation And Leisure Award

The TVTA Best Adverts Of 2017 Award

Thanks for coming to the awards! Sincere thanks to everyone who has read TVTA this past year. May 2018 be a happy and fruitful year for you and yours 🙂

Top Seven Scariest Whistles!

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Greeting vintage mates. Let’s take a brief look at some scary whistles! But, hey, we’re not talking about scary whistles like this …

Pinterest.

… Or even these …

Ghoul-head whistles by Bung Art Studios.

… We’re talking about scary whistles expelled from the pursed lips of the most callous, evil, monstrous, devious, or just downright ingenious characters from film and TV.

So, whet your whistles, take a deep breath, and join us as we count down from seven to one…

N°7: THE SHADMOCK’S WHISTLE. The Monster Club. 1981.

Vincent Price Priceless Advice: “Vampires sup, werewolves hunt, ghouls tear, Shaddies lick, maddies yawn, mocks blow, but shadmocks only whistle.”

N°6: BILLY THE KID’S WHISTLE. Young Guns. 1988.

Don’t let that smile fool you. And if the smile turns to a whistle then you’re in serious trouble!

N°5: YONDU’S WHISTLE. Guardians Of The Galaxy. 2014.

Whistle while you work? Don’t be messing about when Yondu purses his lips. You might get arrowed. Devastating!

N°4: NEGAN’S WHISTLE. The Walking Dead.

Not a very tuneful whistle from everyone’s favourite baseball bat-wielding pyscho, but there’s no way I’m telling Negan that! And just try imitating this whistle yourself. Not as easy as you might think.

N°3: HANS BECKERT’S WHISTLE. M. 1931.

The jolly classic In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg expelled from the lips of serial child killer Hans Beckert in Fritz Lang’s 1931 classic crime drama.

N°2: OMAR’S WHISTLE. The Wire.

Chain-smoking, shotgun-toting Omar swaggers into your neigbourhood whistling nursery rhymes. Time to be very worried.

TVTA’s top scariest whistle is…

N°1: ELLE DRIVER’S WHISTLE. Kill Bill: Volume 1. 2003.

Classic Tarantino scene of the whistling Californian Mountain Snake arriving to kill The Bride. The tune is Twisted Nerve by Bernard Herrman from the 1968 film of the same name. I’ve included the original whistle by ‘Georgie’ as well as Elle Driver’s whistle.

Pheeeeeep! There goes the full-time whistle!

Thank you for sucking in your cheeks and blowing with us 🙂

Can you think of any other scary whistlers in cinema or TV?

Ghoul-head whistle pic courtesy of Bung Art Studios

Whistling Dracula Teeth pic found on Pinterest

TVTA Christmas selection box 2017

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A little retro toy something for everyone here as we rewind to 1988 with the Cora Christmas toy catalogue from France. 

Cover of the 1988 Cora Christmas catalogue.

Smurfs

G. I. Joe

Lego Space

Barbie

My Little Pony

Dino Riders

Radio Control Cars

Olivia Dolls

Robotix

Saber Riders

Popples

Battleships and Torpedo Run

Trivial Pursuit

Cluedo Video

Board Games various

Walkie-Talkies, Table-top Football, Pinball

Bikes

Thanks for looking, merry Christmas 🙂

VISIONARIES – the shortest-lived franchise?

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Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light was an action figure toy line released by Hasbro in 1987 which consisted of twelve figures and four vehicles. The franchise also comprised an animated TV series and a comic book run. Following poor sales of the toys the line was abandoned by Hasbro, leaving series two characters, vehicles, and an action playset unproduced. The comic fared equally as bad, being cancelled after just six issues and halfway through a four-part storyline. The animated TV series lasted thirteen episodes and was not given a second series.

Below is a 1988 page from the French Cora Christmas catalogue showing the Dagger Assault vehicle and Darkling Lord character Reekon.

‘Visionaries: entre dans le monde incroyable des chevaliers à la lueur magique.’ Roughly translated as ‘Visionaries: enter the incredible world of the magical, glowing knights’. France. Cora catalogue. 1988.

Sources –

Check out the excellent The Visionaries .net site

Visonaries Wikipedia

Princess Leia Black Series figure as you’ve never seen her before?

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Today I took photos of the Princess Leia Black Series 40th Anniversary figure. I was really pleased with how she came out, and managed to get some good shots inspired by Carrie Fisher’s portrayal of her in the Star Wars: A New Hope movie.

The Black Series is notorious for not always getting the likeness quite right of its human characters. I think the job Hasbro made on this 40th Anniversary Leia is really good. Added to this, the figure comes with two blasters and an impressive soft goods gown that can be manipulated (I used an artist fine paint brush) to fit around the contours of her body. The hood is a little wild and a bit too much on the pointy side, but again with some manipulation can be made presentable.

After downloading the photos I put them into an editor for cropping and framing – and that’s when things got a bit weird 🙂 as I went completely off topic and began messing about with art filters…

Below are the unexpected results. I’ve added some of the original and unaltered photos at the end of the post, as this was my first intention to show only these

Enjoy 🙂

A selection of some of the originally intended photos for this post…

Thank you for getting arty with us!

Vintage Star Wars on the magazine cover

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Archvillain Darth Vader, cover of TIME Magazine, May 19, 1980. Artwork by M. Arisman.

As fans around the world prepare themselves for yet another Star Wars feature film that will hopefully delight, thrill and amaze, TVTA digs into the archives to find a selection of old-school Star Wars as seen on the covers of various magazines throughout the late 70s and early 80s.

US. National Doll World. Aug 1984. Contains a feature on the large size action figure range from Kenner.

US. Fine Scale Modeler. Jan / Feb 1986. Model diorama special for Speederbike and Scout.

US. Starlog Covers various.

US. More Starlog various covers.

France. Lecran Fantastique. Return of the Jedi 100 page special. Oct 1983.

Titans. France. 1984. Jean Frisano cover.

France. Pif Gadget. Empire Strikes Back cover and features. 1980.

France. Pif Gadget. Return of the Jedi cover and features. 1983.

UK. Starburst. 1980.

UK. Photo Play. 1983.

US. Starlog 74. 1983.

Thank you for browsing with us!

Cat gifts from Japan #2 – Starlog Jan 1981

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Wooof just told me to post up the rest of the goodies from the 1981 Starlog magazine he brought back from Japan – the one with the exceedingly cool free cassette labels that we featured here. So let’s begin with a scan of the front cover followed by some selected pages…

Starlog Japan, January 1981. Also known as Starlog & Future Life. Front cover.

Starlog Japan, January 1981. Contents page.

The theme of this issue was welcoming in the New Year 1981 while saying goodbye to the previous year 1980. This is reflected throughout many of the pages, along with one of Japan’s biggest loves… robots!

Hello Artoo 🙂 Why on the black list? Been upsetting those mean Sith again? Great work droid, keep it up!

 

It’s the same robot that appears on the contents page. I wonder if this is Starlog Japan’s mascot?

I don’t know who or what this cool-looking robot is. There is a Disney copyright printed at the top of the page, so time to head off to the research room! *** EDIT 12/12/17 *** Big thanks to For Tyeth for identifying the robot as Maximilian from The Black Hole.

Advert for Heavy Metal magazine.

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu

Flash Gordon.

Michael Sullivan. One Point.

Sci-fi and fantasy Books.

Star Wars. Not sure what this is exactly. Some kind of advert for stickers or transfers? The drawings are similar to some Star Wars bootleg collectables I’ve seen like horse racing games. They may be playing cards as they have the suit symbols on them. Help me Japanese readers… you’re my only hope

Thanks for looking   🙂