A zillion years after its 1950 introduction, the iconic VW hippie van is still rolling off the production line in Brazil.
The US Library of Congress has partnered with the immensely popular flickr photo sharing site.
From The Earth To The Moon' was an HBO series that dramatized NASA's efforts to put a man on the moon.
David Berry shot some historic Super 8 footage while working on Star Wars at Industrial Light and Magic. The film offers a casual glimpse into the hands-on world of the cinematographers, model makers and artists who brought Star Wars to life in a Van Nuys industrial park during the late 1970s.
A friend and I were having an interesting chat about educational movies. VHS and DVD players in every classroom obsoleted the ritualistic wheeling in of the 16mm projector, the baffling threading of the film, and the hopelessly outdated movie unspooling before students who only cared about getting out of classwork. The largest boom in producing these films was in the 50's and 60's; the start of the push-button age. Taking inspiration from WWII training films, educators felt that multimedia could offer an essentially push-button solution to any problem, be it technical or emotional.
This is only a short clip from such a film (I don't know if I could stand the whole movie). While the underlying message is surprisingly progressive for the time, the actual application is clinical and just damned odd. If you think that your mother manages to make the occasional inopportune slip-up, just imagine if your mom chose her words and her chattier moments like Madam Emotionally-Barren here...
related:
Wrongheaded educational video warns: Don't Copy That Floppy
Educational puppets for the classroom
2-XL educational robot runs on 8 track tapes
In the early 80's, freewheeling Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels just weren't enough. Imagine one of your toy cars rolling down a tabletop – what happens when it hits a loose pile of pencils? So toymaker Schaper introduced a line of battery powered cars with real 4 wheel drive to trundle over such obstacles. They were terribly popular among the fifth grade set as I recall, so it was inevitable that competition would crowd the showroom at your local toy store.
LJN entered the AA powered 4x4 fray with their “Rough Riders” line based on popular TV vehicles. Besides a whole fleet of A-Team rigs, there was this model of K.I.T.T. The ol' Knight Industries 2000 might have been a historical curiosity, but this nation's appetite for 80's kitsch, and the drive to create needless sequels have kept the talking Trans Am alive in our hearts even today.
You may recall that NBC recently brought Knight Rider back in an expensive TV movie that introduced a new (destined to be short-lived) series about a boy and his frequently computer generated car. The pilot film was okay-ish, but the series was mysteriously abominable. How do you mess up the Talking Jumping Car Show? Perhaps NBC could have taken a few cues from this toy version of K.I.T.T.
Both have the crucial red “computer” light on the front. The large gear shift sticking out the top of the toy switches the toy between speedy 2 wheel drive, and rough & ready 4 wheelin'. In the TV world, that could have translated neatly into episodes alternating between breakneck chases and cheap off-road stunts. Now there's the premise for a show!
In my little impromptu head to head, the toy wins as much less a waste of time. It does not venture into emotional territory it clearly can't convey, does not try to resolve ridiculous issues in 43 minutes, and it's perfectly okay if while driving around it looks like it's made out of cheap plastic.
Let's not waste any more time on that awful franchise reboot. Clearly the toy is the more successful. I'll wrap up by pointing out that you can put the model car into freewheeling mode so that your other toy cars don't feel so bad. Another cool feature of the LJN toy version is the conical hub caps. These let K.I.T.T. do some side wheelie action just like in the old show. Just don't let any enthusiastic car customizers see this feature, otherwise they'll bolt 'em on to every real-life 80's classic car to come through the shop.
Related:
Anniversary of the 4x4 that helped start it all
Our report on the return of Knight Rider
Hot Wheels manufacturing errors
Here's your chance to own a piece of cinematic history - the location where Ferris Bueller's pal Cameron accidentally sent his father's prized Ferrari plunging through a picturesque plate glass window into the ravine below.
"The Ben Rose Home - site of the famous movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Cantilevered over the ravine, these two steel and glass buildings - which can never be duplicated - have incredible vistas of the surrounding woods. This is a unique property designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid, both notable architects of the 20th Century."
These magnificent examples of mid-century minimalism (that's an exterior shot of the garage on the left) can be yours for only $2,300,000, or $433.96 per square foot.
370 Beech Street, Highland Park, IL [via Cory O'Brien]
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Ferrari Scenes [YouTube]
Whenever someone who has never seen the Thunderbirds asks me to explain who and what they are, I say that they are bad-ass puppets who shoot guns, bleed, and smoke a lot. I also explain that while intended for children, the stringed adventures of the Thunderbirds always held a fascination for adults too. Perhaps that explains these collectible cigar bands from 1968 featuring photos of the show's characters and their magnificent flying machines.
According to accounts on cigar band collector websites, the hobby peaked in the early decades of the 20th century, before cigarettes became the smoke of choice for most people. Manufacturers continued to produce collectible cigar bands, sort of like having a bubble gum card wrapped around your favorite blunt. Still, it's just odd to have the very adult pastime of smoking promoting a children's program. Though I must admit, I love the image of a young British lad puffing a cigar while reading the latest issue of Gerry Anderson's TV21.
The Cigar Label Gazette
A complete set of Thunderbirds Cigar bands on Ebay
tangentially related:
Forgotten puppet TV show From Astro Boy's creator
Kyle's flea market mystery cigarette box
Our favorite retro TV shows and movies
Based on the classic 23rd century design, this $49.99 reproduction Star Trek Tricorder measures a compact 8" x 4" x 2". It requires four AA batteries (Dilithium cells are best, but no-name Alkaline batteries will work in a pinch).
The manufacturer cleverly markets the device as a role-play replica, which is a polite way of saying, "toy for grownups who like to run around in outfits that cause four-year-olds to mistake them for The Wiggles." Kids will be equally confused by the array of sound effects taken from the original series along with some cheesy blinky lights and a removable scanner accessory.
And am I the only one who wishes that real geek gear looked a bit more like this?
Available June 4, 2009 at a Starfleet supply depot near you. Oh, a matching phaser and communicator set is also available, should you lean that way.
Here's a great little minute of video. We live in miraculous times. When Star Trek was on the air, creating the transporter effect was time consuming and expensive. These days on YouTube a guy not only beams himself into some classic Trek footage, he brings along his Theremin and does a really nice rendition of the classic theme. Sometimes folks think that the original spooky vocal effects of the signature tune were done on a theremin. Now you can hear how cool that would have been.
Today the new take on Star Trek's origins hits theaters worldwide. I'm not a huge Trekkie, but I have a lot of respect for what the series accomplished in the 60's, what it meant to the future of SF fandom, and the (mostly) terrific feature films & spin-off series. I'm going to give the new flick a chance, though I have a feeling I'll watch much of it with mild suspicion and a Spock-like cocked eyebrow. [thanks for the tip, Sara!]
related:
Steam Trek: The Moving Picture
Star Trek: Remastered
Star Trek: Phase II - 1977's forgotten Trek
The Hunt for Gollum is a 40 minute fan film inspired by Tolkien's appendices to the classic Lord of the Rings books. The Peter Jackson films brought Tolkien's Middle Earth to life, culminating many years of searching for someone to capture the sweep of these stories on celluloid (not forgetting the 70's animated versions, of course). It's a few years since the last installment of the official film series, and we have to wait until 2011 for Peter Jackson's new project based on The Hobbit, so in the meantime here is an excellent fan-made film.
This film fits between the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and is an ambitious take on one of the world's most beloved fictional worlds. The film shares visual sensibilities with Peter Jackson's style. It's a credit to these fan filmmakers that they have created a project that so closely fits in with the existing film series. It's also a credit to Jackson that his take on Middle Earth wasn't entirely reliant on expensive special effects. Most of Middle Earth's visual signature comes from good filmmaking techniques and art direction, aspects that a fan film can emulate.
The Hunt for Gollum continues to raise the bar on the kind of film that determined fans are capable of producing (the project had 160 volunteers!). Recent years have seen fans create their own polished takes on Batman and the Star Wars universe thank to advances in HD video and computer FX. While a fan film of this caliber can be inspiring, I'm always concerned that nervous movie studios will quickly pull the plug. Director Chris Bouchard contacted the Tolkien estate about the project. As long as the film remains strictly non-profit, the copyright holders are enthusiastic to see fans express their love for these timeless characters.
Good thing too. When something as magical as the Lord of the Rings touches so many lives for so many decades, we should all have the power to give a little magic back.
Full version of "The Hunt For Gollum"
Pick up the special edition extended versions of the trilogy on Ebay
related:
"Homemade Hollywood" book on fan films
"Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation" classic film by 12 year olds
The first episode of Superman, released on September 26, 1941.
"The rocket ship sped through star studded space, landing safely on Earth with it's precious burden -- Krypton's sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured child and took him to an orphanage.
As the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. The infant of Krypton is now the man of steel -- Superman."
Superman was produced for the princely sum of $50,000, three times the typical budget of a Fleischer Studios short. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and Max and Dave Fleischer went on to produce eight more Superman shorts for Paramount before acrimoniously parting ways. Paramount shot another 8 episodes after their departure, although the series shifted away from sci-fi to focus on wartime heroics.
Several years before Gumby ambled onto the small screen, Art Clokey created Gumbasia while studying at USC. Gumby didn't appear in this three minute experimental claymation film, but there's a glimmer of the kinetic brilliance that played a key role in the next half century of Gumby and Pokey films.
Clokey showed Gumbasia to movie producer Sam Engel in 1955, who bankrolled the 15-minute episode Gumby Goes to the Moon. The pilot was rejected by NBC but led to the appearance of a second Gumby short - Robot Rumpus - on The Howdy Doody Show in mid 1956. He got his own show a year later. Gumby, along with his faithful sidekick Pokey, Nopey the dog and the Blockheads went on to star in over 200 stop motion adventures.
This $187 Star Trek bridge mural is the perfect backdrop for your comfy Star Trek captain's chair. It measures 6 x 10 feet, making it somewhat hard to hide from your significant other when it mysteriously materializes all over your living room wall.
Star Trek Bridge Mural [via DVICE]
Few of us have the immense presence that catapulted William Shatner to fame as Star Trek's intrepid lead. However, you could easily build a replica of his command chair to help while away your evenings making phaser sounds and bellowing orders at the cat.
From the New York Times: "Mr. Veazie, 27, was not yet born when the show first went on the air in the 1960s; even his parents were only teenagers. During his childhood, there were Star Trek spinoffs on TV with more sophisticated special effects than the original, and a more contemporary sensibility, and there were also movies featuring the old show’s actors aboard updated versions of the Enterprise. But Mr. Veazie, who watched endless reruns of the original series with his mother in the 1980s, was never drawn to those later incarnations.
'The original show was the first one I saw,' he said. 'It was so idealistic. A lot of us kids wanted to be Captain Kirk - and part of that was the chair.'
Mr. Veazie, a manager at Underwriters Laboratories, built the chair himself last year, and has been gratified to find, since installing it in the living room in May, that 'when someone comes in, it’s the first thing they comment on.'"
Getting Their Kirk On [New York Times]
Lots of people have attempted to fuse comedy and science fiction, and it seldom works. For every brilliant "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" and "3rd Rock From The Sun", we got dozens of "Quark" and "Homeboys From Outer Space". In the early 90s, I was treated to a copy of a copy of a bootleg of the BBC's "Red Dwarf". Even though all the multi-generational fuzz and homebrewed PAL conversion, I could see that Red Dwarf's sci-fi absurdity was something very special.
The series lived on through studio and cast changes, lasting long enough to have early episodes remastered with fakey film look and a superfluous CG shellacking. After the series long run, the official web site kept a steady of stream or merch going as well as reporting on the frequent rumors that the show was coming back. Finally one of those rumors is true.
In April, the UK's Dave channel is premiering three fresh episodes of Red Dwarf. The three shows tell a single story and will be released as a movie on DVD in the future. Red Dwarf usually employed a studio audience, but to guard against plot leaks Dwarf will be shot on a closed set. The final program will also be the only installment with no laugh track.
The program is being shot with a Red camera at better than HD resolution, so the Dave channel is really pulling out the stops to produce this long-awaited episode from a brilliant show that's been off our screens for ten years. I really hope that they remember the show's balance of SF and comedy is what made it such an enduring cult classic... and if they don't, they can just smeg off!
Read more on the official website
The entire series is on DVD on Amazon
related:
Blakes 7 remake slated for production
You too can live in a garbage spaceship
Homemade Hollywood: book about fan film remakes
I posted these two items to my Twitter thingy today, but I just had to share these two bits of Doctor Who related news here.
For years, the authors who created the love 'em or hate 'em robot dog K-9 have been trying to get a series made starring the tin pooch. There was a confused one-off attempt at a standalone series starring the remote controlled prop in 1980, and in the years since there have been a number of behind-the-scenes attempts to revive interest in a revved up version of K-9. The new K-9 has finally been revealed. He's morphed from the disco-looking unit of the 70's, to an Aibo/iPod influenced mongrel today. The kid's program will run 26 episodes, and is supposed to hit the air "soon".
In the real world, a most unlikely find perplexed workers clearing up a pond in Hampshire in the UK. Imagine the surprise when among the discarded toys and weeds up bobbed a Dalek. Well, just the head section, but it looks to be a genuine prop. The Who crew from the original series had been in that area in the 80's shooting with then-Doctor Colin Baker, so perhaps one of the Daleks went rogue? Or perhaps they simply like the water, like the famous scene from an early B&W episode where for no reason a Dalek rises out of the Thames. It's a thrill when someone turns up with one of the infamous missing episodes of Doctor Who, but a missing half Dalek?
If you haven't signed up for Retro Thing's Twitter feed, think of all the fun you're missing. James is doing a great job linking to lots of cool stuff that'll be of interest to fans of what we write about here at Retro Thing. Oh, and I'm on Twitter as well @Bolexian. See you there!
Some more info about the K-9 series on Wikipedia
Article in the Sun about the found Dalek + more pictures
related:
Chrome Dalek invites Cylons to bring it
Full-sized Daleks
K-9 & Dalek action figures by Dapol
I guess this would be the re-re-imagining of BSG. Now I can honestly say, "All this has happened before and will happen again."
Classic Retro Thing |
