Smoke 'Em If Ya Got 'Em; Just Don't Shoot 'Em

Today, on a public library terminal, I tried to access an article lamenting the demise of the Winchester Model 94 (January will mark the second anniversary of this American icon). The computer I was using informed me that the site was blocked because it was about "weapons." The same message was received when I tried to go to the Winchester Repeating Arms official site at www.winchesterguns.com. Once again, the page was about weapons, so I couldn't access it. On a lark, I tried the Smirnoff official site, to which the workstation replied, "Nyet!" But I had no problem going to MTV, VH1, or Philip Morris -- three companies whose products I find much more objectionable than I do those of the fine folks of Winchester Repeating Arms.

AT

Adventure Team Daily - an Adventure Team-related blog.

Paratrooper Rocky at Flickr has a composite image of all the Adventure Team sets from 1970 to 1977.

The Star Wars Holiday Special

I've heard it said that the mother-of-the-bride's job is to make sure that the bride gets the wedding that her mother always wanted. This Christmas I found out that dads make certain that their son's always get the Christmas that they always wanted. Namely, Santa's helpers were up Christmas Eve until 11:30 assembling the Millenium Falcon.

He's Dead, Jim

My powers cord got pulled from my computer. Now when I try to start it up, it just restarts all on its own. Its like Groundhog Day. So, I shall be scarce.

Brits Attempt To Ruin Eyepatch Industry

h/t ESB: An English Shooter's Blog

Many a Shropshire lad will have a blue Christmas this year thanks to the West Mercia Police. Our friends at the Beeb report that police have asked that Father Christmas not bring air rifles to kids since firing them in public may be deemed "anti-social behaviour."

Parents in Shropshire are being asked not to buy air guns as Christmas presents after youths fired pellets at shop windows.

When air guns are fired in public causing alarm it can be considered as anti-social behaviour, West Mercia Police said.

They could also could be mistaken for a real gun result in a police response.

The youths were spoken to by officers and two toy guns bought from a stall in Market Drayton were confiscated.

"Although these guns were obviously toys, so not illegal to have out in public, the pellets were hitting nearby premises and causing a nuisance," a police spokesman said.

"Air guns are not illegal to have or use in your own home but if the guns look realistic, even if on close inspection they are made of plastic, then they may be illegal to sell or have out in public without reasonable excuse.

"Realistic-looking air guns that do not comply with the specifications of the Violent Crime Reduction Act are illegal to sell or have out in public without reasonable excuse."

[ source : BBC ]

Poofters.

Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus

h/t Rob Macdougall

It's Harry Turtledove meets Michael Crichton in this Jurassic National Military Park in Natural Bridge, Virginia. "Professor" Mark Cline, the gentleman who gave the world Professor Cline's Haunted Monster Museum & Dark Maze, takes visitors into the world of "What If?" His premise:

A family of Virginia paleontologists has accidentally dug a mine shaft into a hidden valley of living dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the Union Army has tagged along, hoping to kidnap the big lizards and use them as "weapons of mass destruction" against the South.

( Read more... )

...and Speaking of the War Between The State
Move over Captains Kangaroo and Feathersword. A new Captain has entered the world of playtime fun. His name: Henry Wirz.

That's right! For ages, kids have been able to reenact the War Between The States thanks to plastic blue and gray soldiers. I've heard my father-in-law talk about having them when he was a kid. I remember way back when I was a kid lining up my gray plastic rebels to give the bluebellies hell on the kitchen floor of the double-wide trailer that my dad used as a fishing camp on Lake Seminole. I also remember gleefully finding my son a similiar pack of soldiers in a local pharmacy.

Well, now kids don't have to limit their Civil War in Plastic to battles like Fort Cardboard, Hand Towel Gap, and Couch Pillow Ridge. Thanks to places like Toy Soldier Depot, kids can relive the experience of Camp Sumter, the Andersonville P.O.W. camp.

This is a American Civil War plastic Confederate Andersonville Prison Camp Playset. In brown wood grain type plastic, this stockade is huge! Measures 24" long, 13" wide, 6" tall. Snap together construction, assembly required. Also comes with two sets of double door gates, one on each side of stockade. Also includes a set of 8 guard towers that are 7" tall that can be positioned in any location around the camp. This set works quite well with our BMC Civil War soldiers sets. We do offer a companion set of "Union Prisoners/Confederate Guards" that is sold seperately. Playset in polybag with header card. This stockade has alot of potential, could be used for Western or Frontier forts, or even a Barbarian or Fantasy Fort!

This is a American Civil War Union Prisoners/Confederate Guards plastic soldiers set. Companion set of the Andersonville Prison Camp playset. inlcudes 6 Lean-to's and 6 tents in brown plastic (some restocks of this item now have white plastic tents), and approx. 20 or so blue plastic Union prisoners and several grey Confederate guards. Soldiers are approx. 2 1/4" tall. In poly bag with header card. Though meant to be a companion set for the Andersonville playset, most of these troops could also be used in camp or non-combat duties too!

"Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toy Design Sheets?"

HissTank.com has a collection of Triclops Studio design sheets and model photos from the Sigma 6 Adventure Team Wave 2 and 2.6 Mission Sets, a line that was discontinued before these figures made their way to your local retailer. Of sad note for me personally, there was to have been a Joe Colton, the modern incarnation of the old 70s Adventure Team, complete with what looks like a Pygmy Gorilla all grown up.



Also in this line was to have been a pretty snazzy sniper figure complete with grassy knoll.



h/t HissTank.com

An open letter to ToyArk.com

Dear ToyArk.com,

In a recent post by DESTRO, he alleged that "ToyArk.com has just received new Images of upcoming G.I. Joe Movie: Rise of Cobra Figures." However, the images that were posted were not G.I. Joes. While the figures look very sharp, they appear to be mersh for the old Rainbow Six video game, not any movie about G.I. Joe. There is no flocked hair. There is no kung-fu grip. The Adventure Team logo is nowhere to be found. And those rifles look way too destructive to bag a White Tiger or a Pygmy Gorilla. They don't even look like they're made by Hasbro.

I realize that one should not expect perfection when posts are made by unpaid volunteers, but, in the future, I would appreciate that if readers are promised pics of new G.I. Joe action figures, they receive pics of new G.I. Joe action figures.

Sincerely,

Fields of The Nephilim/We Are The Champions

This morning, on the drive-in, I caught bits and pieces of a Coast-to-Coast A.M. interview with Steven Quayle who alleges that the Nephilim walk the earth and seek to bring about an age of cruely and perversity the likes of which haven't been seen since Rick James passed away. His story was supported by a guy alleging to be a C-130 pilot who happened to haul one of the things back to an Ohio air base. To say that his web site is "interesting" is an understatement.


Our Man in Harrisburg reports the release of A&E's Cult TV Spy Collection:

Get ready for international intrigue, secret agents, amazing gadgets, superhuman powers, evil villains, and thrilling face-offs as the heroes of this four-series collection travel the world to battle for justice and avert disaster.

The collection of debut episodes includes Roger Moore and Tony Curtis as wealthy playboys who unravel criminal cases in THE PERSUADERS; Patrick McGoohan’s classic and mysterious British series THE PRISONER; THE CHAMPIONS, a trio of crime fighters with special powers bestowed by a lost Tibetan civilization; and Robert Vaughan as a London private eye in the stylish series THE PROTECTORS. Intelligent, intriguing characters, exotic settings, and fabulous cars – this is some of the most inventive and best-loved television ever produced. If you appreciate a good spy story, this 14-disc set of four fan-favorite spy series will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Order here http://shop.aetv.com/detail.php?p=71593&pa=sli&v=All

I was underwhelmed by The Persuaders, but I've been quite the Prisoner fan for quite some time. Although I never joined, I ordered the membership info for The Prisoner Appreciation Society out of Starlog magazine when I was a kid. I even spent most of ninth grade drawing umbrella-topped pennyfarthing bicycles on any surface I could find at school. And, although, I only ever saw a few episodes of The Protectors, I loved what I saw, and that "Avenues & Alleyways" song remained stuck in my head for twenty-plus years until I finally tracked down the mp3. But, somehow, I missed out on The Champions. Just reading the episode guide, it sounds like I'd have loved the show. Very Challengers of The Unknown.

In the first episode, three agents (a pilot, a decoder, and a scientist) ditch their airplane in the mountains of Tibet, are given super-human abilities, and evade capture by the Chicoms. In later episodes, viewers will find underground Antarctic nuclear explosions, ousted South American dictators, secret Nazi arms caches, Haitian sorcerors, and lethal hallucinogens. In short, "GRENADES=AWESOME."

They Pulled Out My Economy and Stomped That Sucker Flat

h/t Glenn Beck

They are throwing the kitchen sink at this. The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock.

Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop. We don't think this is the more likely outcome, but as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of vicious circle as confidence erodes.

This will lead to political instability. We are already seeing countries on the periphery of Europe under severe stress. Some leaders are now at record levels of unpopularity. There is a risk of domestic unrest, starting with strikes because people are feeling disenfranchised."

What happens if there is a meltdown in a country like Pakistan, which is a nuclear power. People react when they have their backs to the wall. We're already seeing doubts emerge about the sovereign debts of developed AAA-rated countries, which is not something you can ignore.
--Excerpt from internal memo from Citigroup's chief technical strategist Tom Fitzpatrick

[ source : Telegraph.co.uk ]

And if that's not bad enough, the Emergency and Disaster Information Service has a continually updated map of world disaster.

According to J. Steven York, my fellow AT fanatic and the mastermind behind Minions at Work:

The cool part: you know the Adventure Team had just this sort of map running all the time at headquarters. (In fact, with a spare computer and flat-screen, you could build a whole headquarters diorama around this map.)

The depressing part: the AT was set up to do something about these things. The rest of us, not so much. And it never stops. Night and day, 24/7/365, the world is full of trouble.

Fortunately, Tom Lommel, another of Benton Quest's love children, has an answer for all of those problems and more (hint: "GRENADES=AWESOME!").

Scientific Progress Goes RATTA-TATTA-TATTA-TATTA-TAH!!!

Photodump

The first four are from the new Istanbul Constabulary set from Pulp Figures.





I ran across this one of De Niro looking like a member of the Adventure Team:


And finally, two hardware photos, one from Vietnam, the other from WWI: