Posted by David Guy on July 28, 2010 at 9:05 pm under Top Trumps.
Tags: aliens, Fighting Fantasy, I probably shouldn't be complaining about copyright infringement, Jib-Jib, monsters, Out of the Pit, Science Fiction, Star Wars, There are no women in the future, to be fair, Top Trumps, Waddingtons
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The Prototypes Top Trumps were one of the original packs that were produced by Dubreq, the company that invented Top Trumps in the 70s. They were eventually bought out by Waddingtons in the early 80s. The pack contained 32 playing cards, as well as the title card, which had the rules on the back.

The cards all featured prototyped cars that weren’t yet in mass-production, and most of which presumably never made it into mass-production, either. There’s some beautiful example of lovely 1970s futurism in the designs. The Pininfarina Modulo appears to have been stolen directly from the ste of Battlestar Galactica.

The worst thing about this pack was the mildly and endlessly infuriating way some of the stats weren’t numerical, causing untold arguments and stalemates. It wasn’t the worst for this but I still cannot forgive it for its crimes.
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Posted by David Guy on July 26, 2010 at 10:21 pm under Top Trumps.
Tags: card games, cars, Dubreq, prototypes, The future will be beautiful once we get there, Top Trumps, Waddingtons
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The Volg is an exciting science fiction story, written by my older brother in the late 70s or early 80s.

The Volg tells the story of The Volgs, a race of 8ft tall robots made from an indestructable allow, immune to radiation and with caterpillar tracks for feet, were created by the Golvs, blob creatures from a far distant planet that were intent on taking over the world. Solar System after solar system has fallen to their might, and now only Keg Corburn and Chuck Johnson of the Earth Defense Forces can stand in their way and prevent the subjugation of the human race.

Unfortunately, my brother must have gotten bored and after 20 or so pages of action the whole thing fades out in the middle of a sentence, leaving us with 50 empty pages and then at the end a spaceship design and a couple of stars on fire.


I think he must have written The Volg when he was about 8. I am basing this on the Empire Strikes Back poster he has used as a cover for his notebook. I could be wrong. Unfortunately my brother denied all knowledge of writing any of this, so we will never know for certain. It appears to have been written after watching nothing but Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica for several lifetimes, which probably had some effect on his long term memory.
The most galling thing about all of this obviously is that even at 8 my brother was better at drawing and writing than I’ll ever be.
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Posted by David Guy on July 24, 2010 at 4:16 pm under Books.
Tags: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Star Wars, Steven's beautiful childhood works will forever eclipse my lifetime of trying, The Volg
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