YET MORE CASTEL CRIVENS ACQUISITIONS... (Including Corgi Thunderbirds And The Beatles)

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Energy levels are low at the moment, so you'll have to make do with some images of a few recent purchases as I'm too tired to think of anything original (or interesting) to write.  First up, above, is the latest Marvel Facsimile Edition - Fantastic Four #48, the mag that introduced Galactus and The Silver Surfer.  In the past, I've referred to the internal pages used in these titles as 'glossy', but that's not quite accurate.  The paper itself is matte, though for some reason the ink used for the printed images tends to have a 'sheen' to it.  Anyway, I've lost count of how many reprints of this tale I own in collected editions, but I just couldn't say no to an individual issue complete with original ads.

Next (below), is a quartet of Action Comics, namely #s 386, 388, 389, and 390.  I'm still waiting for 387 to arrive and when it does, I'll add it to the post (now done).  I may well buy further issues as, even though I never owned most (if any) of these comics at the time, it still feels like I'm returning to a previous point in my youth whenever I browse through or even glance at them - they're just so evocative of an earlier age.  I've included some splash pages to give you a taste of the contents.

Recently, Corgi reissued their Thunderbirds diecast models in the run-up to the iconic TV show's 60th Anniversary, but this time with superior detailing.  Thing is, when they first released their FAB 1 model several years ago, it had The Spirit Of Ecstasy on top of the radiator, unlike subsequent releases, including the current one, despite it now having other Rolls Royce emblems on the chassis.  I have the original release (as well as the '60s Dinky version) so I decided to pass this time as, without the sculpture, I don't consider it complete.  I did get the new versions of TB1, TB2, TB3, and TB4 though, so cop a gander at the photos below.

Update: Oops, I forgot I'd also acquired the Beatles' Yellow Submarine recently as part of my Corgi Model Club membership.  When this model was reissued in the '90s (I think), I bought two of them, but when you pressed the hatch levers, they sprang open and hit the metal behind them, eventually chipping the red paint on the 'stems' (for want of a better word).  I'm glad to report that the latest version (below) avoids this flaw as each hatch stem stops about a millimetre or so before contact.

In what was presumably a cost-cutting exercise, Corgi didn't restore the original Corgi Toys logo to the base, which is affixed with screws instead of rivets and bears the modern logo.  So it's the same as the '90s reissue, though the box is a reproduction of the '60s version.  I understand that it's the same with the base of their Chitty Chitty Bang Bang model, but I'll let you all know for certain when it arrives.