I have been lucky over the years, in that I have somehow managed to retain, both the items from my childhood and a clear memory of some of the instances of when I found or received them. Similarly, I have been able to keep hold of many of my childhood toys and models. With the advent of ebay and other online collecting facilities, in the early 2000's I was able to both replace lost items and also expand my collections exponentially, both by buying items at auction or by virtue of gifts and donations from like minded enthusiasts.
Growing up, there were two major upheavals in my life, which affected my collection and my attitude towards collecting. The first one was leaving my family home when I was 8 and moving house to a new area. in the process of the move, a portion of my childhood toys and games and a few books were lost due to downsizing or just being thrown out by my parents. Equally, the second major event was when I moved out entirely, as an adult and bought my own house. For a little while I had the benefit of storing my stuff at my parents, bringing boxes back and sorting through them. Storage in the attic and the garage and moving stuff in boxes took its toll on some of the books and toys and in some instances, age and the fact that they were so well used, meant that dustcovers were lost or stained, pages became dog-eared and creased from heavy use.
Once more, as an adult, I was able to replace choice items and to find missing items to fill gaps in runs of books or discover information about things which had remained unanswered for years. With the transparency of Glasnost and the push to have more and more information available online, I found myself in a position whereby I could discover more information about the secret russian projects or the more obscure western missions in space.
The advent of Star Wars in 1977 had changed the public perception of 'space' quite drastically and interest into military and civil missions waned in the wake of space fantasy, which had the effect of changing the way 'space' as a subject was viewed - no longer was it a wonderous expanse of star and planets waiting to be explored, but was perceived as a thronging science fiction universe with aliens battling humans in outrageously flamboyant battles on colourful worlds.
Going online opened up huge vistas of new information and opportunity and also allowed me to get in contact with other people with similar interests. When my good friend (who I had met in just this fashion) Paul Woods, began the blog Moonbase Central, 15 years ago, he invited me along as co-contributor. In that time, we established an online community of like minded individuals, who generously shared information, photographs and toys and models, expanding our collections, experience and knowledge massively.
Today, I am in the enviable position of having almost all my major toy collections almost complete but still enjoy browsing for old books. The Star Wars effect meant that very few 'real' space books were published, as the public taste was more for fantasy. The kind of material I will feature on this blog will be books and articles that cover the golden period from the late fifties 'Sputnik' era up until the advent of the Space Shuttle, when commercial space flight began to become a reality.
The fiftieth anniversary of the Moon Landing recently meant a brief resurgence of interest in classic Space Exploration, as the later generations had little experience of the space race. Once more, information transparency meant that much better reproductions of historical NASA imagery became available. Publishing companies took advantage of the event and some extremely good quality material has been produced, some of which has been added to my bookshelf!
