WORLDS AWAY

Sure wish I could hit the Phoenix Symphony this weekend: They’re playing The Planets suite by Gustav Holst, accompanied by projected HD images from the Mars Rover and other NASA sources. Geek Nirvana!

In honor of this…

Monster-of-the-Week: …let’s recognize a denizen of Jupiter, largest of the planets—represented by possibly the most magnificent movement in Holst’s masterpiece—Colossus Rex…

…quite the most badass-looking of the Colorforms Outer Space Men toy series from the late ‘60s—one guy for each planet in the Solar System except Earth, even Pluto, still considered a planet in those days (Holst, by the way, didn’t write a movement for Pluto, as its discovery was still a few years off when the suite was completed)…

Like Ralphie’s Red Ryder air rifle, C-Rex was something of a Holy Grail among toys for me as a kid—the only one of the Outer Space Men I could ever find was Alpha 7, the classic Little Green Man from Mars...

Alpha 7 was a cool little dude, no question, but not in the same league as the fanged, brawny, mace-wielding ass-kicker from the other side of the asteroid belt, who somehow never seemed to be on the shelves when I was looking. Sigh…