THE PUPPETS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM...

I like to collect all things Gerry Anderson-related. Here are some simple, customised 12" action figures I have. All aquired very cheaply at car boot sales. We have: 

Joe 90 dressed in a Captain Scarlet uniform.

Brains in the International Rescue uniform.

Barbie dressed in a Captain Blue uniform.

I have a ton of Anderson memorabilia but these cheap, simply customised dolls from the 90's are very pleasing to my eye!

I think it's the 'What if?' factor of mixing up elements of the different shows.....I think they look better than any of the standard issue figures released at that time.

Roots of UK skateboarding

I stumbled upon a little bit of UK skateboard history by pure accident. The pics in this post came from two entirely separate sources.

Firstly, after watching a 1965 British teen movie BE MY GUEST (starring a very young pre-Small Faces Steve Marriot) I googled the leading actress JOYCE BLAIR. It turns out that she was the sister of famously camp TV dancer LIONAL BLAIR. I also found the shots of Joyce posing in London's Hyde Park on a wonderful Gerry Anderson licenced STINGRAY skateboard!

Fast forward only a few weeks to Christmas time. I received some vintage TV21 comics as a present and there, amongst the pages, was this ad for the very same skateboard. The magazine advert dates the photo to 1964.

It's strange to me that two completely unrelated interests of mine, namely Gerry Anderson memorabilia and sixties beat music led me to learning stuff about a third unrelated intrest!!

A family business

The Tracy brothers..........A definition of a strong family unit even though the boys mother died young and Jeff the father brought them up on his own.

From the top: Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon,and Alan.