Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards.Red series. Number 1.

Carbo, number one in the Red series of Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards.

Back of card one, Red series, of Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards.

Popular Mechanoids Send-away Blueprints : Carbo

Another in the series of mail order Cutaways and Blueprints from Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards. This  'Carbo' Cut Away Blueprint, tinted in orange, is one of only three surviving. After 1948 future issues were printed blue. 

Send-away blue print collectable.

The offer of a special 'Blue-print' fold out card in return for 20 swap cards was pursued with great enthusiasm by collectors at the time. Strangely few now exist, and even fewer in pristine condition. This example belongs to the author and, though having seen better days, is still a much cherished item.

Box design for Popular Mechanoids Premium Collectable Trading Cards

One of seven different box designs for Popular Mechanoids Trading Cards. Each one featured a different 'cut-away' cross section of one of the Mechanoids in the set. The back of the box offers Free Collectors albums, and refers to the second 'Blue' series as 'Steel and chrome', rather than the official titled 'Valve and Steel' set. Closer inspection also shows the spelling of Collectable as Collect- 'ible', indicating this was earmarked for the American market and the date, 1946, giving this away was one of the first box sets produced. One other large anomaly is the suggestion that there were only 88 cards in each set. An omission of over 1500 cards! Either this was a marketing  strategy to bring out further sets in the future or in early 1946 there were only this many cards in print, since there is no record of the number released in the Lamprey .33 packets during the late 1930s.

Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards

Originally offered free in packets of Lampreys .33s - Combustible Chemical Intakes, Popular Mechanoids Premium Swap Cards were re-issued in both wax covered packets of ten with special bonus 'Blueprint cards' inserted amongst every 500 packs, and in boxes of 36. As described in this rare poster for shop display, there were actually over 1800 cards in total, including bonus and fold-out blueprint cards. These came in three sets of 600 each, Series Red (Valve and steel classics) , Series Blue (Robots of space) and Series Gold (Clockwork Robots of the Future). 

Top Hat Turtle

Where do all the bright young things go to shine? The Top Hat Turtle, naturally! An azure cascade of spirits flow to each table, illuminated marble embraces each surface, the air is a cocktail of expensive perfumes, circulated by translucent flesh.
 Ether spills forth seductive jazz, enchanting bodies draped in Channel, Patou, and Gucci entwine and curl, delirious on champagne and opium. Pâté and caviar replenish ardor, transporting patrons to arcadian lands, enchanting the mind and grazing the flesh.
Bookings essential.  

Tin Pin Industries

The Tin Pin Toy Companies' various off-shoots into Domestic  Industries

Tin Pin Militia puts on a friendly face.

Tin Pin Indusrial, the original portfolio diversification.

Travel the world , Tin Pin is only three feet away in some shape or form, no matter where you are.

The big book of Bio-morphic Machinery

 Tri-Technologies promotional pamphlet from 1947.
The contents displayed below.

Introduction of Tri Techs' history, including discovery of the original technology and its eventual

implementation by Tri Tech founder Horrace Stannum. 

   

In 1947 Tri-Tech made available to the wider public its entire line of  M.P.H.H  R.A.N.G.E
(Multi Purpose Hand Help, Roll and Negate Geared Engineering)
technology.

The period of time Tri-Tech  took  to establish, from a hand held small horsepower appliance (Whizzo) to Industrial instruments (Gyro) capable of 15 to 20 times the work load of  equal available apparatus, was a mere 10 years. In terms of advancement in technology. That is the equivalent of producing a Model T Ford in one year, then bringing out, as the next model, a Citroen DS19 (with features like a self-levelling suspension, directional headlights, power brakes and power steering, all controlled by hydraulics).  

In the first three years of production a total of only 35 Re-Evolvers were returned to  their manufacturer for repair.
An amazing 0.008 failure rate.  

In 1946 the CEO of  Saabs newly formed car manufacturing offshoot, Saab Automobile AB, bought a Whizzo Semispere for every employee in that division, citing that it contained"All that was desirable in a machine, socially and ecologically"  and " this is what Saab should be seeking: responsible design, efficient execution and the courage to follow these ideals to their completion".   It was even rumoured a Semisphere motor was used to drive one of the Ursaab (meaning original Saab) prototypes. 

The Orbi-Sphere caused quite a media sensation when first released, after  a student in Japan (using the early 'Spheres' much talked about resonance) had set off the early warning system in the Tokai Nuclear power plant, situated only 110 kilometres from Tokyo.The resulting chaos was described by Tri-Tech spokespersons as 'spectacularly regrettable'

Anyone in doubt as to Tri-Tech's skills as a manufacturer of uniquely high toleranced technology' can learn from experiments at the short lived, almost insolently-named corporation, 'Bi-tech' which was formed with the intention of being in direct competition with Tri-Tech. Attempts were made to reverse-engineer the complex and volatile Revissionex (a decision of poor judgement considering the complexities of both the Gliding Ion power plant and its production as waste of free radical ionic exhaust). This work was done at a factory located in Matovalu, a country consisting of 12 tiny coral atolls, the resulting explosion destroyed 7 of these, and rendered 2 more uninhabitable.

Advertising for one of the most popular Tri-Tech Whizzos.
Over 170,000 were produced in one year.

This ad appeared in 'Popular Mechanoids Magazine', 1951, showing part of a travelling exhibition entitled 'Machinery as art', a promotional tour that traversed over 17 countries spread out over several years. Interestingly this page includes the first mention of Tri-Technologies true imperator, Tin Pin Toys Incorporated, a company with stakes in  entertainment, defence, manufacture, energy, pharmaceutical and agriculture, to name a few.

Re-evolver Blueprints

Tri Tech Industries began a revolutionary culture in consumer goods, which came to be known as  'Technological Transparency'. 

Providing full blueprints with all basic model Re -Evolvers, selling spare parts, schematics and full assembly instructions, allowing an entire Re- Evolver to be constructed with little or no prior knowledge of that machine. 

When questioned on the potential for copyright infringement of his creation*, owner Howard Stannum simply replied, "Ideas should be freely exchanged, the fact I put mine in a box for sale does not mean others cannot do with it what they will.. " 

*See aforementioned BiTech

Such fanciful generosity in the cutthroat world of Industry did little to curtail sales of the Re -Evolver, or any subsequent models either.

Cyclopoid was a bi-pedal M.P.H.H, available ready made or in kit form. Both were exorbitantly expensive and only three were ever constructed. One made by the founding member of Tri-Tech, another by the Indian Government hoping to begin their own automotive industry and a third by a private citizen in Croatia.   

Tri Techs Service Help for 1949.

Put your feet up, relax, enjoy a Lampreys 33.33! Let Tri-Techs' service bots look after your every whim. 

Ahhh!
Lampreys 33.33s - the thick effluvium nebula that envelops even the most pristine of surroundings.
Settling in for the long term, this acrid, tar filled pallor lay like a fluffy corpse across scenic fields, suburban parks and metropolitan streets alike.
Surely it's time for a refreshing* Lampreys 33.33 patented flavour cylinder!
Lay waste to blood, brain and body cells alike. More addictive than the most delightful opiate and more expensive per gram than cartridge ink.
Lampreys Enclosed-Intake-Mask will take you places you may well have wished stayed far away. But take you it will, half blind and sedated as a hibernating mole-rat, deep into the worm infested pit of your stomach, doubled over in despair, as you realise this is your lot, until the end of time...... ENJOY!

*not at all refreshing.

Lightsabers- fun on a stick!

After the Blu ray release of all the Star wars films I was inspired to build a Lightsaber.

 I found The Custom Saber shop which was producing beautifully machined aluminium pieces.

 Met some really nice people and built something that would not look out of place mounted as a piece of art. (Thanks to Tim the shop owner's skills... I just assembled it)

Add to that Plecter Lab's amazing sound card, and the only difference between these sabers and the film's is that they are much less hard on the bric-a-brac when swinging the thing around. Long story short, I produced this poster in appreciation of Tim's workmanship.

Fashion in space

Don't leave Earth looking like a meteorite just hit you! Fire retardant, magnetically locking, zero G proof fashion is just 18 million dollars away!

Amazing X-Ray specs

How I longed to possess the many goodies offered up, for mere cents, in the pages of the comics that were my staple diet of reading literature in my youth. Gorilla masks, sea monkeys, life size skeletons: most fascinating of all was the promise of seeing through walls, bodies and even - gasp - clothing! But America might as well have been Mars for an Australian boy in the 1960s -70s. Many years later the purchase of a pair of coloured cardboard glasses, two tiny eye holes overlaid with fine wire being the 'mechanism' for the promised 'X Ray vision' made me realise I was much better off wishing and desiring, than to have those dreams fulfilled. How many times has THAT philosophy borne true.

Warner Bros The Iron Giant

This was for a Canadian Art gallery some years ago. I cannot remember their name, nor find them on the Net any more. The Iron Giant was a great film with a wonderful message. Rowena (Bolton) helped with the images and came up with the great name 'Pax Ray'.

Mr Atomic

Stuff these in your fully automatic and watch the world disintegrate.

About the size of a SCUBA tank. Forged steel body. 
Bakelite fuse well antenna. Modelled on the rare 1960s Mr Atomic battery operated tin robot from Cragstan The blue models contain potassium nitrate for flash suppressant. The rarer silver ones, 28 pounds of slotted stick propellant. Do not expect to get up when on the wrong end of these buggers.

Batman 1943

The first Batman on film had him driving a Cadillac, and when I saw the episode of him using a RAYGUN! I just had to do a similar picture. Boots that were made from cloth, floppy ears and a cliff-hanger every week. I loved these serials. This is the last Photoshop image where I had to use a mouse as my 'pen' having finally bought a tablet.
Make some pop corn and check out the serials sometime. So much fun.

My tribute to Rudolph Zallinger’s Great Dinosaur Mural at the Yale Peabody Museum

When I was young I had a beautiful book, that included fold-out pictures, called 'The world we live in', published by Life magazine. 
One of these fold-outs was of a panoramic scene showing dinosaurs.

I later learned this image was actually a giant mural, painted by Rudolph Franz Zallinger, and displayed at the Yale Peabody Museum in Connecticut. These images are my tribute to those paintings, that had such a large effect on my early life.

I could not decide which colour I liked best.

.

This dinosaur is actually part of a larger design, with it facing a giant butterfly, the two surrounded by roses. I imagine it will be finished before 2014.

Box for designer toy Buffalo Dreamtop.

Cutey Squid.

Deep, deep in the Earth's' Biosphere, far far below the intertidal meeting places. Beneath the Epipelagic zone, down, down past the twilight mesopelagic, bathypelagic and abyssopelagic, to finally the deepest,... coldest,... blackest. Where no man, and fewer bunnies, have touched. To the hadal zone.
There, under the pressure of a thousand atmospheres, floating just above tectonic plates whose surface lay covered in an ooze of mud and deceased pelagic organisms hovers...Cutey Squid!This adorable little fellow likes spending his endless nights collecting luminescent photophores, and rare 1950s bubble gum cards. For a good time call 055-0986337. Calls are $4.30 per minute.

Designer Toys- Designs for limited edition, urban vinyl, toys, art and collectibles

From the Trechbet series of Vinyl toys, a series of seven. 

Valveron, from the Dome robot series. Vinyl and Perspex. 

The Pasture range of Vinyl Toys includes one of my first designs.
Tribble-bit was originally a stamp.

Onti Octopule range, series of eight ocean going  molluscan phylum Cephalopoda.Fun for all the family!

Another of the Onti Octopule range. Soulegg.

I would like to see this realised in a stretchable vinyl, also imagine him smelling of vanilla.

One of the first designer toys I illustrated. The first in the Dome Robots series.
Dombermite.
Still working out the design possibilities of filling his head up with liquid or something akin to a snow dome.

Series of six Masque Toys. Designed to fit on a generic body.
Proffesser was so named because once I finished him he reminded me of the 'professor' from the old TV series of
Felix the Cat.

Growing up on a steady diet of Kellogs Frosties allowed me access to some of the most evocative memories from my childhood, Cereal Toys!
In between what seemed like so many breakfasts...a new box finally! Pulling out the pillow of cellophane, trying to spot the prize through  that mist.
Flicker rings!, lassoing cowboys ,their horses kicking up dust at the twist of a wrist. Camel trains, stretch pets... they actually WORK!! Crater Critters, actual aliens... before school even! Noodle Nodders,that snake in a log, and the hippo, the mechanism was so smooth, his mouth just kept going and going,  this stuff was better than television! and one of the best series, the Totem Tribe. So smooth, almost chewable, and they fitted onto each other so perfectly, soft plastic, sensual form and wondrous colours.
Zoom ahead 40 or so years, and  and it is season for a tribute.
 Buffalo Dreamtop is my memory of those wonderful totem figures, blended together and twisted by time. With the smell of Play Doh in my nostrils, and the feel of silly putty under my hands  So thank you, to whoever thought some kid would scream the supermarket isle down to get his hands on anything that looked like a toy, even a tiny piece of plastic stuffed in a cereal box. But what giants they seemed to me then.