Uncapped Capital City promotion from 1989 (potentially)

 

I posted some Capital City Weetabix style character cards to my non-sci-fi blog last year, but the full set (see link below) does ultimately have a tenuous connection to Doctor Who so I thought I'd mention it here too.

Capital City is a largely forgotten ITV drama about the lives and loves of a group of dealers working at a merchant bank in London. Running for two series between September 1989 and December 1990 it was much enjoyed at the time, by me at least... a fondness boosted by seeing a couple of scenes being filmed in the square behind the Bishopsgate offices where I was working.

In reality Capital City was promoted through a range of newspaper and billboard advertisements, but these mischievous cereal card mock ups satisfy a sense of 'what if' curiosity whilst serving as a slice of fun nostalgia too.

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The full set of 18 characters is here: Capital City cards: full set

Spherical... but not a sphere

I was recently asked to devise some custom Lego kits for an adventure and activities centre in Medway. For the 3-D models I started by creating a rough prototype using physical bricks and parts, then fine-tuned the design using Bricklink Studio which can also be used to generate photo-realistic renders, building instructions and parts inventories. Finally I drew on my old graphics skills to create mock-ups for how the packaging could look.

My favourite model so far is the zorb, which has somehow ended up looking more like a cryogenic sleep chamber from the Alien franchise than the inflatable human-sized hamster ball it's inspired by. Initial feedback has been positive regardless.

Zorb model overhead render

Shelved Cold Lazarus cereal promotion (possibly)

Another light-hearted set of character cards using the format of the classic Weetabix 1977 Doctor Who promotion... this time for Dennis Potter's 1996 science fiction drama Cold Lazarus which I have had a recurring obsession with since its initial broadcast.

As with the Ghost Light set last year (see October '24 blog post) the style is slightly updated and stills used. Again, many of the character figures have a heavy white outline similar to the style used on the Star Trek The Motion Picture promotional cards. Considering the story centres on a frozen head, maybe Ready Brek (bought by Weetabix in 1990) should be the cereal and instead of the white outline a warming orange glow perhaps be more fitting?

Whilst the character blurbs on the profile side of the cards are straight up, the instructions regarding game play at the foot of the figures either relate to their character's key actions in the drama or are dialogue spoken by them. I've tried to capture the wit contained in Potter's screenplay, of which there is a surprising abundance despite the serious subject matter and the circumstances under which he was writing.

With regards a game it could reflect the revived head's quest to prove it has volition. This might be a bit much for breakfast time though.

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Click here to view the full set of 30 characters