Blowing and glowing
It’s raining and blowing a gale outside as I write this on Monday morning. We’re expecting winds up to force 9 Beaufort later this morning, so today is not the day for going to Yialos to collect some post and withdraw some money. We’ll have to make do with what we have in the house as I’m not going out shopping either. I did see the Blue Star leaving at five this morning just as I was getting up, but I’d be surprised if it left Rhodes once it got there, and was fairly surprised to see it at all. We’ve taken our chilli plant inside to escape a battering, but the other plants are having to fend for themselves out there. Meanwhile, I finished the model kit I started in last week’s thunderstorm…
I last made one of these in the 70s when I was 11 or 12. Then, there was a series of Universal horror film models with parts that glowed in the dark. They were Aurora models and came in square boxes, and I made them at my school’s Wednesday afternoon modelling club (anything to get out of sports). I was also a member of the history club at one point, but nothing could beat spending all afternoon in a classroom putting together bits of plastic. I had all 13 of the series – I think it was 13 – and am always on the lookout for them now, so I can make them again. I don’t think my technique has improved much over the years, but this was the first time I’d done anything like this in over 44 years. It’s still possible to buy the originals, I have two, but depending on which figure they are, they can sell for hundreds of pounds, if in their original box, under cellophane and unopened.
Luckily, these models have been recast by Monogram and other manufacturers, and you can more cheaply buy remoulds of the originals, but again, they’re not that easy to come by as they were produced in the 90s. However, I’ve just found an Invisible Man-made by another company and on sale in the USA for around $30.00, so I have ordered myself one as a Christmas present. He wasn’t one of the original 13, but the kit is in the same style, a scenario with more than just the figure. Anyway, that’s something to look forward to when the wind isn’t blowing, but I’ll have to twiddle my thumbs until the kit arrives. Below, for anyone desperately interested, are a couple of (bad) shots of my cabinet. The Phantom of the Opera and the Mummy (hidden) are originals, I also have the remake of the Witch, Wolfman and Dracula which I am keeping in the boxes, though tempted to open the Witch as that has glow in the dark pieces. The plastic models I found at Hamleys years ago and are not related to the kits. But that’s enough of ‘things to do in winter on Symi.’ We’ll be back to normal rambling tomorrow when I must tell you about some bombonieres…
