The story is about Steven ‘Flash’ Gordon and his two companions Dr Zarkov and the pretty Dale Arden, they are taken to Mongo where it is ruled with an iron hand by Ming the Merciless who wants to destroy the Earth. Only Flash can save the Human Race.

As he travels through the dodgy sets of the planet Mongo he teams up with some of the ‘locals’, namely Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan head of the Hawk men, these flying men take him to their city in the sky where they make plans to over through Ming. Although Ming already knows about the plot he sends out his army to destroy them first, capturing Dale and Dr Zarkov, he orders Flash to remain in the city, then he orders its destruction.

Flash escapes as all good heroes do, just in time to stop the wedding of Ming to Dale, in a final fight Flash holds a sword to Ming saying “call of the attack on Earth or die”. As I already stated this is the ultimate superhero camp film with its dodgy costumes and even dodgier sets, on a positive this film has a great soundtrack supplied by Queen.

You can now impress you loved one with an original Flash t shirt, made from 100% cotton and available in various sizes. Go get your Flash T-Shirt Now…

I remember, as a kid, I couldn’t wait to go outside and play with my toys. As a lad I used to have toy soldiers, hundreds of them, and I would spend hours upon hours setting them up, row after row, infantry first then the men on horses (not even from the same battle) mortar men, men with flame throwers – I had it all.

The men would be spread all over the garden. Then the battle would begin, I would throw a small stone and knock down some men – they were now dead. My mate would then do the same, but mine were only injured as they ‘wobbled’ not a clean kill.

‘Cheat’, he would shout, as he drops a large stone, that was from my plane he told me. Boys being boys I would run through his army kicking some over (well most of them) Spitfire!! It was always a good laugh, not at the time I suppose, as it always ended as an argument about who won. One person who didn’t win was my mum who used to stand on them whilst hanging out the washing.

As it is a new TV and I have 2 young kids I was thinking of putting it on the wall but how high does it have to be? Some say the centre of the screen should be about eye level, and what about all the cables? Since I have a sky box and a gaming console there will be a few wires and cables trailing down so I will have to channel them again more work and expense.

Looking at corner units they look much better than they were a few years ago, shinny clear plastic, chrome and glass, the downside is that you can see all the dust on it, so that will keep the wife happy, on a plus there is plenty of room for all the appliances and cables.

Again the kids can touch the screen, I will have to warn them not to touch. Again the wife’s decision is final, us blokes spend days contemplating which is best and why, the wife then walks in and picks one because IT LOOKS NICE…

That’s everyone except your pet, well that was up till now, why not treat your pet to the ultimate in sleeping luxury, with a pet airbed. Just imagine your pet after its little bit of exercise or that long walk in the park, as it gets home and sinks into a purpose built airbed, ideal for indoor and outdoor use and constructed of a hardwearing vinyl which is claw proof, easy wipe clean and waterproof.

They come in various designs from a high band around the outside to give your pet a feeling of extra security to ones which are designed to look like a big chair. Again the pet airbed is totally portable and can be inflated and deflated in a matter of seconds.

Get your pet air bed here.

With hundreds of different types of garden furniture to chose from, which is the best? Wrought iron along with teak and rose hardwood are traditionally the most expensive of the garden furniture but there are good quality cheaper pieces on the market, many people choose to go for the white or green plastic ones, these are fine for your first Summer season but as the elements attack the plastic it might only see one Summer, the saying “you get what you pay for” applies to garden furniture.

Sitting in the garden is a very relaxing time so it is worth spending that little bit more for wooden and buy a cover that will protect it over the winter months. There is so much that can be done to turn your garden into a relaxing paradise, this can include decking, flowers and not to forget that water feature. Many people opt for the luxury of a garden pond these are great and do encourage some wildlife into your garden, when planning your garden try and position your pond in easy eye sight just in case any young children happen to trip and fall in.

Planning your garden now will ensure that when the sun appears your garden will be the envy of all your
neighbours.

That was then, now we have XBOX 360, PlayStation, PSP, Wii and DS these purpose built gaming machines load in seconds and with near real fighting and battle scenes, you can almost imagine being on the battle front. These game stations are not just for shoot-em-up games they can be used to improve your health as Wii manufacturer Nintendo has proven with the Wii-fit, this will track your fitness and even do a proper workout with you.

With the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP you are not confined to the house these gaming stations are totally portable so there is no need to sit in the house on a warm day claiming you are playing your favourite computer game. With today’s technology these games can only get better.

Some people tell me to get a Plasma TV while others lament on about the benefits of a LCD TV! Is there any difference? Apparently so! BIG differences. As with everything in life, size matters, so why should your TV be any different. In fact, with a TV, this has to be the first thing you think about. A good guide to perfect viewing is your TV should be about 5 times your height away from your viweing comfort.

If you have HD ( High Definition ) this drops to around 3-4 times your height, (for example a 50 inch is no good in a box room). So, on this advice alone, should we decide on the type of TV to purchase on the size of our room as the best measurement as to which format we should choose : Plasma or LCD. No way. Here comes the science part…

For close viewing Plasma Screens are seen to work better as, the screenis made from individual pixels which sit in front of chambers filled with a gas, which is a mixture of neon and xenon, each pixel is then broken down to 3 sub-pixel cell : each with coloured phosphors red, green and blue, which means it has the ability to create billions of different colours.

LCD works in a very different way, thin-film-transistors ( TFT’s ) supply power to liquid crystal cells sandwiched between two sheets of glass, this enables colours to be produced from pure white, by the manipulation of light waves from a constant backlight. This gives a duller effect on colour.

So far, Plasma has the better colour quality.

That’s the science bit over. I want to know about the picture quality… I was told that plasma was the better as this can follow fast objects on the screen without any distortion, this is called the response time. LCD has to turn pixels from active to inactive then back to active this will cause distortion although LCD’s are improving all the time. One of the down sides of plasma is screen burn this occurs when a channel’s logo is on the screen for a long time it will tend to mark the screen, once it’s marked there is no way of getting rid of it.

The manufactures of these TV’s have somewhat made this better by applying screen savers. Another advantage of Plasma I was told was if you invite a few people round to watch the big football match and some of your guests are seated at the side of the Plasma TV they will still manage to watch it. Plasma, seemingly, gives a far superior contrast ratio viewing angle.

Overall, both Plasma and LCD TV’s have their good and bad points. Manufacturers low light and natural sunlight differerations just add to the impossible task between choosing a plasma or LCD make. Eventually, I went for the LCD TV, which was more about the brand and the way it functioned in the showroom plus the most important factor of all was the Wife liked it.

The original game called The Landlords Game was played around 1900s to try and explain the single tax theory of Hendry George. In 1941 the British Secret Service had the game distributed by the Red Cross to the prisoners of war held by the Nazis, the only difference was the game contained compasses, maps, real money and other objects useful for escape.

The game has changed a lot since the early days, the board now has a ‘go to jail, chance, visit jail, collect £200 as you pass go and community chest cards’. The object of this game is to buy property and bankrupt your opponents, each game should last about 45 mins (according to the manufacture) but as we all know it often lasts for hours. In recent times local editions with local landmarks and streets have been made.

So whether you choose to be the top hat, iron, car, wheelbarrow, scotty dog, battleship or train one thing remains the same it’s a great laugh and will last all night, as long as you don’t start fighting before that.

Designed in the 60s, Space Hoppers were mostly bright orange, blue or pink in colour and could be inflated by a bike pump. As young lads we used to have hours of fun on then, that’s when we played outside, no XBoxes or
Wii back then, just great outdoor fun. Bring them back.

The game involves throwing a dice and move your mouse, as you continue round the board you land on build squares that gradually puts the trap together, once the trap is ready and you land on the “turn crank” square then the fun begins( if it all comes together).

As you turn the crank this rotates the gears this in turn pushes the elastic lever this then hit’s the boot which kicks over the bucket which has a marble in it, this runs down the chute, hit’s the large pole in which a large hand holds another marble in its palm. As the marble falls into the bath then onto the seesaw which catapults the man onto the pole which drops the “mouse trap”. This classic game will take approximately 30mins from start to finish.