Welcome to the Second Theme Round: 'Toy Story' / From Curt - An 'Eagle' from 'Space: 1999'

Hi All!

Today I'm happy to present to you the entries for our second Challenge theme: 'Toy Story'.

This theme asked participants to submit a freshly painted figure (or figures) and/or piece of terrain that evokes a beloved toy (or set of similar toys) from your childhood. Tell us the story behind your submission.

I've been especially looking forward to this one as I knew it would call upon people's childhood memories and their imaginings of toys that meant a lot to them. True to form, you will find that the gallery is full of wonderful reminiscences and brilliant entries from 20 of our challengers. 

I invite everyone to sit back and enjoy the gallery and make notes to help you choose your top three entries.  Our beloved and much admired Theme Wallah, Millsy, has been ill (poor lad), so the voting page will be up in a few days. Be sure to check back to cast your votes! 

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My own 'toy story' originates back in the late 60s to mid 70s. Like several Challengers of a certain vintage, I was a child of the 'Space Race' between the USA and the USSR, with the Apollo and Skylab missions occurring throughout my early childhood. Everything in vogue at that time was 'space age' and 'futuristic'.  It seemed that the world had this optimism that after the lunar landings we could do absolutely anything. Riding upon this 'space enthusiasm', in 1966 NBC launched 'Star Trek' (which surprisingly debuted 2 days earlier on CBC here in Canada), with 'UFO' coming along in 1970. 

My first experience of 'Star Trek' was when in went into re-run syndication, and like many around my age, I was completely entranced with it. Nonetheless, as good as 'Star Trek' was there was another show launched in 1975 that, for me, eclipsed Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise, and that was 'Space: 1999'.

I've shamelessly copied Wikipedia's description of the show as it's better than anything I could do:

The premise of Space: 1999 centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research centre located within the crater Plato in the Moon's northern hemisphere. Humanity had been storing its nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but when an unknown form of "magnetic radiation" is detected, the accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's Solar System, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity.

'Space: 1999' had this vibe that was completely different from 'Star Trek'. One could definitely see 'Star Trek' originating from the United States, whereas 'Space: 1999' was from the UK and Europe. 'Space: 1999' seemed darker, more realistic and quite introspective. The stakes seemed higher and there was more of an edge running through it. Though it only lasted for two seasons, I thought it made its stamp on the genre and I still enjoy watching re-runs when I come across them.

I really liked the technology of the show as it seemed quite practical, but still stylized and kinda groovy. The Moonbase itself was wonderful, with all these pods radiating from a central core, and the costumes and gear were excellent as well (so very 70s). 

You can see how these uniforms influenced the designs for 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'

Maya was such a hottie and rather kick-ass.

My absolute favourite bit of 'Space: 1999' kit were the 'Eagle Transporters'. These were girder-framed spaceships and kind of insectoid-looking in design. They had this neat modularity about them, and could be configured by swapping out their central module to fit a wide assortment of missions. As the show did not have 'beam-me-down transporters' like Star Trek, the 'Eagles' were often pivotal to many of the episodes. 

I was absolutely transfixed by them. So cool.

There was this wonderful model railway shop in Saskatoon that had all the diecast Dinky Toy versions of the Eagles.

I can tell you, I spent many an hour with my nose pressed against the display cabinet glass, pining for them. I remember them being quite expensive at the time, and I knew very well what the answer would be from my parents if I asked for one, so I just made due with looking and daydreaming of what it would be like to have one. 

've looked at these on Ebay several times but have not pulled the trigger on one... yet. I'm sure it will happen as nostalgia and disposable income often make a convergence, so it's only a matter of time. Nonetheless, for this theme I thought I'd print an Eagle and paint it up. 

This is a 'Lab Eagle' with the central module having booster rockets and little more room for, you know, lab stuff (beside what bad thing can happen in a space lab...). The model is only about 3 inches long, so about 1:600 scale, I think.

I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job as this week was busy, but I think it captures the fundamentals of the original design, though there is some damage to the exhaust (damn aliens). Perhaps I'll print a slightly larger version, but that will be another day.

This model is similar in mass to a 15mm vehicle, so I'll score him at a base of 8 points, with the 50 point theme bonus. 

I hope you enjoyed my toy story reminiscence and, again, I hope you visit the theme round page to follow up with other participants and their nostalgic look back at their own toy stories. 

- Curt