Mike's Art Sells At Bonham's - Did You Win Anything?

I think the buyers at Bonham's Entertainment Memorabilia auction today got some real bargains! Several of Mike's pieces didn't sell, but the ones that did went for very reasonable prices:

Sale 17973 Lot 143
Thunderbirds: Carrier Aircraft (Wombat) from the episode 'Duchess Assignment',
Estimate: £1,000 - 1,500

Sale 17973 Lot 144
Thunderbirds Are Go!: Zero-X Control Tower,
Estimate: £600 - 800

Sale 17973 Lot 145
Thunderbirds Are Go!: The Hood's Helicopter,
Estimate: £800 - 1,200

Sale 17973 Lot 146
Captain Scarlet: The London Car-Vu from the pilot episode,
Estimate: £800 - 1,000

Sale 17973 Lot 147
Captain Scarlet: Maximum Security Building from the pilot episode,
Estimate: £700 - 900

Sale 17973 Lot 148
Captain Scarlet: Spectrum Patrol Car,
Estimate: £800 - 1,200

Sale 17973 Lot 149
Captain Scarlet: Spectrum Passenger Jet,
Estimate: £800 - 1,200

Sale 17973 Lot 150
Captain Scarlet: Spectrum Helicopter,

Sold for £720 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 151
Captain Scarlet: Spectrum Hovercraft,
Estimate: £800 - 1,200

Sale 17973 Lot 152
Joe 90: Professor Ian 'Mac' McClaine and Joe's Cottage,

Sold for £450 inclusive of Buyer's Premium


Sale 17973 Lot 153
Joe 90: MIG 242,
Estimate: £800 - 1,200

Sale 17973 Lot 154
Joe 90: A14 Rocket Launcher,

Sold for £480 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 155
Joe 90: Explosives Truck from the 'Colonel McClaine' episode,

Sold for £540 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 156
Joe 90: Canadian Monorail Train, from the episode 'Breakout',

Sold for £540 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 157
Joe 90: One-man Minisub,
Estimate: £500 - 700

Sale 17973 Lot 158
Joe 90: Western Locomotive from the 'Lone-Handed 90' episode,

Sold for £270 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 159
UFO: S.H.A.D.O. Mobile,

Sold for £720 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 160
UFO: S.H.A.D.O. Moon-Hopper/Moonmobile,

Sold for £660 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 161
UFO: Space Intruder Detector,

Sold for £450 inclusive of Buyer's Premium


Sale 17973 Lot 162
UFO: S.H.A.D.O. Passenger Jet/Seagull X-ray,

Sold for £504 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 163
UFO: Moon Base,

Sold for £450 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 164
UFO: S.H.A.D.O. Tilt-Fan Aircraft,

Sold for £450 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Sale 17973 Lot 165
Doppelgänger (Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun): Vehicle Assembly Building,
Estimate: £600 - 800

I may be mistaken, but it looks like everything that did sell sold for less than the estimates. I chalk this up to Bonham's generally poor marketing of the sale. The only thing that got mentioned in any press was Christopher Eccleston's TARDIS from Doctor Who, which sold for a bit over $16,000.00 (which also seems low to me).

Wish I'd been at the auction and had a bit more disposable cash; several items would have come home with me!

Auction Lot Listings are Live!

The auction listings for Mike Trim's Century 21 art are up at Bonham's website now:
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THEM!

"At all costs, save the World President!"

Yikes, sorry it's taken me so long to update the blog. Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and has fully recovered by now!


Click to Enlarge

This is an image that Mike's named "At all costs, save the World President!" Combining some of the vehicles Mike's most well known for designing, it's a commission piece for James Fielding, based on an earlier painting for another client. James saw the original on display at the Fanderson Sector 25 convention in October 2006 and fell in love with it. Who wouldn't?

Filmfax Fans Flourish Fab Future

The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is being serialized in the next 3 or 4 issues of fan favorite FILMFAX magazine! That's right, the entire text of the book (and many of the illustrations) will be in upcoming issues of Filmfax, the magazine of unusual film, television, & retro pop culture, beginning in mid-August with the Summer '07 issue, above. The magazine has elected to include several images not included in the Hermes Press edition of the book, making the issues must-have items for completists and collectors. Filmfax publisher Michael Stein is offering a special subscription deal for Mike Trim loving fans. Mike says:

The Trim article will probably run in three parts (at least) over the next several issues. If fans wish to start with the first issue now and insure
the following installments, we are offering this special subscription deal:

For $30, they would get the first Mike Trim issue FREE, plus four more
issues (and a $10 Coupon for any products purchase of $50 or more). That's
the same price for five issues of Filmfax as for just the three issues with the three installments of the Trim article at retail price.

They can subscribe by sending name, address, and credit card information
(number & expir. date) via email to filmfax@speedsite.com , or by calling us at 847-866-7155. We will send the first issue (with part one of the Mike Trim article) out to them immediately, plus the $10 Off Coupon.

That's a pretty excellent deal, folks. Filmfax sells for $9.95 per issue at bookstores, so you can see the substantial savings.
Now the disclaimer by me - Filmfax is a great magazine, one of my favorites, but they don't publish any interior color pages. All the art in the magazine except for the covers are black and white, while the Hermes Press edition is full color throughout.
My suggestion? Buy the book and subscribe to the magazine as well. You get your full dose of futuristic design/illustration everyday that way.
But then, I might be biased.

I will continue to add unused images from the book as time allows - sorry I wasn't able to maintain a more rigid schedule on this. I'll put new stuff up soon, I promise.

The Whole Captain Scarlet Gang

This week's image that didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim is the full crew photo from Captain Scarlet. The entire crew of Thunderbirds had gathered for a black and white group photograph during production of the series, and it proved a very popular image with all involved. A year or two later, everyone (sans Gerry and Sylvia this time, for some reason) posed for a color shot to commemorate the production of Captain Scarlet.
Mike Trim can be seen in the rear, beneath the puppet bridge. I've added a red arrow pointing him out. Click on the image to see it larger, of course.
Posed in front wearing Spectrum finery is The Spectrum themselves, the pop group that recorded the music for the closing credits of the show.
Many thanks to Chris Bentley of Fanderson for an enormous gaggle of images he sent me for use in the book. This came from the Fanderson archives.

Mike Trim Space Art - Vintage 1973

Another week, another piece of art that didn't make it into The Future was FAB: The Art of Mike Trim.
This is one of the sample pieces Mike did when he decided to go freelance in 1973. Given his earlier science fiction experience, he imagined he'd end up doing a lot of that sort of work. As it was, Mike did very little Sci-Fi work during his years as an illustrator. This led to an increasing sense of frustration and the eventual emergence of The Unknown project in the late '80's. This was an original stab at a sci-fi themed puppet production Mike developed with his friend and former student, Mark Munroe. The project remains unfinished.
Click on any of these images to make them bigger. You knew that, didn't you?

Ranch Of The Future: Cattle Not Included

Here's this week's "Unseen" image from Mike's time on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.

Designed in 1966 for an episode of the series, this was yet another opportunity for Mike to play at being an architect. Felt tipped pens were a new innovation at the time. Unlike conventional ink pens, they offered a clean and easy media, with the added advantage that the ink was not completely waterproof and could therefore be blended with a wet brush, as shown here. Although the original paper has faded over the years, even when new it had a slight tint and that's why the white gouache highlights and tones were added.

Another new image goes up next week - be there! Aloha.

Welcome, Starfighter!

Welcome to the Unseen Mike Trim, week 2!
This is another image that we didn't have room for in the book, a gouache illustration of a Starfighter jet that Mike created in the early 1980's. This image is a combination of airbrush and good old-fashioned detailed brushwork, and was created at a rather small A4 size. Working in such a diminutive aspect means that the illustration demanded great accuracy in every respect. Mike's love of aircraft really shows through in this piece.
Another image will be posted next week, so stop back then!

Those Wonderful Toys...

The article I wrote about Mike and the toys and model kits that have been created from his Anderson designs has finally made it into Toy Shop Magazine.

The article, curiously named "The Future was FAB", appears in the February 2007 issue of Toy Shop. It includes text and photos that are not in the book, so you'll want to pick it up to get the scoop on the Dinky, Imai, Product Enterprise, Rosenthal and other toys and model kits based on Mike's designs.
The magazine should be available now in comic shops, bookstores, and newsstands everywhere.

Meanwhile, Back At The Lab...

Here's another photo of Mike from Sector 25, standing in front of the display of Brains' Lab in the model room. I'll post more pictures as I find them.
Thanks to Tony Barnes for the photo.