I don't really know what this is or what it's used for, but this nifty cardboard standee did cost 350 Yen back in the late seventies, Was it used to keep envelopes ? Or important papers ?
Sometimes bizarre - robots are... Or at least this guy... Nobody really knows the maker, but it has Hong Kong pedigree for sure. Batteries ? They go in the head. And weird of weird : it has a knob to make him grow (yes ! legs extend !)
OK, technically, it is a dromedary (one hump people = North of Africa / 2 humps = Central Asia).
This one is great to play Lawrence of Arabia on the carpet.
Of course ! A blue car in a blue ocean not to get spotted... Why did Q not think about this earlier ? His Spanish colleagues of the MI cinco (yes, the MI 5 in Spain) did. And they went the extra mile to use a British Lotus Esprit. (nobody wants to be seen driving in a Seat over there, not even their secret services...lol)
James Bond Lotus Esprit S1, Coibel, Spain, 1977
For the fun facts: Coibel did a number of James Bond guns and rifles at the time, and this car. Why did they paint it blue to start ? Nobody knows. But since it does not show any indication of copyrights, maybe it was just so they could not get sued by the studios....~
A Dog of Flanders is an 1872 novel by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée published with her pseudonym "Ouida". It is about a Flemish boy named Nello and his dog, Patrasche.
Strangely enough, it was never a cartoon that aired in Belgium, Flanders, or even the rest of the low countries. I first started hearing about it when researching Japanese TV series. Please read more about it here. The story, of English origin, has not been read widely in Belgium, but is becoming better known because of the tourists it attracts to Antwerp. There is a small statue of Nello and Patrasche at the Kapelstraat in the Antwerp suburb of Hoboken, and a commemorative plaque in front of the Antwerp Cathedral donated by Toyota. (yes, the car-maker !) The story is widely read in Japan, and has been adapted into several films and anime, so it is no wonder this figure is so popular over there !
The toy is a plastic version of a sight that was quite often seen in Flanders and the rest of Belgium up to the end of the 19th century : dog-pulled carriages (this toy version has milk bottles, marked "leche de vaca", so definitely Spanish)
Statue of Nello and Patrasche in front of the cathedral in Antwerp
Another big red gun, this time all metal and looking like a retro hairdryer... and to a point. The Budson Air Ray gun, when working (most of these are not - the rubber membrane inside did not survive well the ages and crumbled in pieces...) was known to blast a jet of air to whatever you were pointing at.
Very cool to scare the cat or to blast some plastic soldiers out of the way... and as it said on the box: "AS HARMLESS AS THE AIR YOU BREATHE !"
