Steve's Rants 'n' Raves, Reviews and Ramblings

Just a couple of pointers to slightly nerdy(!) mini-sites I'd been working on. In each case modelling the Space 1999 Eagle Transporter... In LEGO, from a MOC (My Own Creation) kit   Restoring and modding an old Dinky die-cast toy Lots of fun, and something different from smartphones! PS. See also Season 1 of Space 1999 on DVD and Bluray , since this has been digitally restored and looks and sounds amazing. (You can forget Season 2, which was low budget farce by comparison.)

The brief was simple - after losing our 40 year old wooden chess set - somewhere. (Quite how one loses a chess set remains a mystery!)  Find a new FULL SIZE (15" board) chess set online. Ideally with wooden pieces and if possible with a wooden board too.  Actually finding such a beast proved to be tricker than you might think. There are plenty of cheap multi-game sets with plastic everything and there are super-expensive 'pro' chess sets, but not that much in between.  However, we found this one on Amazon UK, for just over £40 . A little more than we wanted to pay, but hey, why not treat ourselves? The really curious aspect (other than an utterly botched delivery by our Amazon delivery man, who left it unnoticed in a garden compost bin!!) is that, although this is a good quality item, the packaging is hopeless cheap and nasty, and with typos: All I can think is that the chess set itself is made by a third party (in China) and then resold under various brands and their pac

As usual for my case roundups, I'll cover a variety of styles, with many samples supplied by MobileFun, kind people that they are. See their  complete range of Galaxy S21 Ultra cases and covers . See also those from MyTrendyPhone, S21 Ultra cases  (and first time buyers get 10% off ) But on with the individual cases, each link goes to the relevant product page, of course. Olixar Ultra-Thin, £7 Let's start with something simple and insubstantial, yet still worthy of consideration. Olixar's Ultra-Thin range has a unique place in the case world, in that it really does live up to its name. With this in place, you hardly feel any extra bulk. Or weight, this is only a couple of grammes. But you get a load of extra grip. There's even a pretence at raised ends, but don't be too fooled - if you drop your S21 Ultra in this then it's still going be at risk - you're using the Ultra-Thin case so as to get enough grip as to not drop the phone in the first place. Yet witho