It’s not a Transformer, people. It’s a Change-Able Robot. Totally not the same thing.
Archive Page 116
Marty Toy: Mighty Taka-Kanaka (1984)
Published February 21, 2013 Knockoff Toys , Marty Toy , Robots , Transformers 5 CommentsToy Aisle Zen (1983): Atari
Published February 20, 2013 Atari , Home Consoles , Personal Computers , Toy Stores/Toy Aisles/Toy Departments , Video Games 3 Comments
Toys “R” Us, Sunnyvale, CA, 1983. The 5200 is listed at $160.00. The Atari 800 (back shelf, far right) is $500 (it was $1000 in 1980). A snapshot of the crash.
(Images via Computer History Museum)
Future Magazine #3 (July, 1978): New York Toy Fair, Filmation’s Flash Gordon
Published February 19, 2013 Future/Future Life , Magazines/Zines , Sci-Fi/Space Art , Space Travel/Exploration , Toy Fairs 5 Comments
Future magazine, later called Future Life, was published from 1978 to 1981 for a total of 31 issues. It featured a combination of science fiction commentary and criticism, futurism/futurology, interviews with luminaries in relevant fields, and space exploration/travel activism. I’ve got about half of the run at this point, as well as a number of other cool sci-fi mags of the era. I’ll be scanning and posting them as time allows.
Above you’ll find the front cover of Future #3, as well as the inside front cover, table of contents, inside back cover, and back cover. (Click pages to enlarge.)
After that there’s a short piece on the Annual Toy Fair in New York (1978) discussing the post-Star Wars sci-fi trend, led by the “real stars of the show,” Mego and Kenner. I find it revealing that “three buildings with grown adults playing with toys for two weeks” is referred to as a “seeming impossibility.”
On the same page there’s a blurb on Gerard K. O’Neill and the formation of his Space Studies Institute (SSI), a non-profit organization “designed to help research the subject of space habitation.” I talked about O’Neill and his initiative here.
Following that is a feature on Filmation’s Flash Gordon, originally planned as a made-for-television animated movie. NBC later decided to turn the production into an animated TV series that ran for two seasons starting in 1979. Upon cancellation of the series in 1982, NBC went back to the original material and assembled it for a prime time movie, Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All. Neither the series nor the movie is currently available on DVD. You can see the series intro here. Watch the movie (pretty sophisticated for the time, and fun) on YouTube.
Interestingly, the producers at Filmation could not secure the necessary funding from NBC for the project, so they offered producer Dino De Laurentiis “exclusive distribution in Europe as a theatrical film” in exchange for additional backing. Laurentiis promptly agreed and “injected himself into the legal maneuver of obtaining the rights to the Alex Raymond [creator of Flash Gordon] comic strips.” Filmation ended up with animated and TV rights, while Laurentiis secured feature film rights. He immediately began working on the live-action Flash Gordon (1980).
You’ll find a nice homage and issue-by-issue synopsis of Future/Future Life at Weimar World Service, John Zipperer’s website.
What the Future Looked Like: Antonio Margheriti’s Gamma One Quadrilogy (1965 – 1967)
Published February 18, 2013 Sci-Fi Movies/TV , Sci-Fi Production Design , What the Future Looked Like Leave a Comment
The Gamma One Quadrilogy is Wild, Wild Planet (1965), The War of the Planets (1966), War Between the Planets (1966), and The Snow Devils (1967). The films were shot consecutively in about four months using many of the same sets and actors. The miniatures seen above were used in all the films.
I’ll review Gamma One separately, as I’m a great fan of colorfully inane Italian sci-fi, this series in particular.
(All images via modern_fred/Flickr except the last one, which is from Cinema Knife Fight)
Last Friday, I posted some Don Davis art depicting huge asteroids smashing into the Earth. This Friday, I’m posting real photos of an actual meteor that exploded over Russia. See scary video here.
1970 J.C. Penney Christmas Catalog: The Robots Are Coming!
Published February 15, 2013 Catalogs , Robots Leave a Comment
Mr. Brain “puffs real smoke”!
Rudy the Robot “walks like a man—he even swings his arms.” (Yes, but can he leave the toilet seat up on purpose to annoy his wife?)
TV Robot has a screen in his chest that “shows a revolving universe.” I might have to puff real smoke before fully appreciating TV Robot.
Space Robot can be programmed for 5 different actions. If one of those actions is launching himself into space, I want Space Robot.
Mr. Amaze-A-Matic lifts stuff and pushes it around. Boo.
Explo Robotron “walks a few steps and then explodes into pieces. Put him back together and turn him loose again.” Sounds like yours truly at work.
Gofer Robotron moves forward with his serving tray when you drop a coin in his head. Boo.
January 14, 1981. (Photo: Denver Post)
I started going to the comic book store every week and seriously collecting at some point in 1983. I love margarita night these days. I love it a lot, and I look forward to it all week. But it can never compare to the excitement of waking up at age 11 and knowing that new comics were just a few hours away.
I got to know the good-natured misfits who worked and/or hung out there. They saved my books for me and put aside books and posters and other stuff they thought I might like. I worked there for a couple of summers and was paid in comic books. It got damn hot in that little store, and we would all drink ice cold bottles of Coke and Mexican soda and talk about our favorite artists and writers. It was the best job I ever had.
I stopped collecting when I turned 16 and got my license. It happens. I started reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Carl Jung, Thomas Jefferson. I was really into punk and post-punk and all my money went to records and concerts. Nothing makes you grow up quite like having to choose between the things you love in the face of limited resources.
In 1999 or 2000, I took a look at the collectibles warehouse by my mom and discovered a number of comic dealers selling the stuff I used to read, and it was cheap. I bought a few Iron Mans, a few Captain Americas, and it was over. I’ve been collecting, extremely selectively, ever since.
(Photo via Lexibell)
Quick Movie Reviews: The Keep (1983)
Published February 12, 2013 '80s Movies/TV , Movie Reviews 1 Comment
Beware: Spoilers ahead.
It’s 1941, and a Nazi regiment has been sent to defend a mountain pass—anchored by a creepy and ancient keep—in the Carpathian mountains. The creepy keeper of the keep warns the Nazis not to mess with the thousands of gleaming crosses embedded in the walls, and even tries to convince them that said crosses aren’t silver (nickel, I tell you, nickel!). But, as we know, Nazis absolutely must possess all that gleams, and they can sniff out the rich stuff as easily as if it were bratwurst. Schnell, Olaf! To the crowbars!
Problem: Prying out just one of the silver crosses unleashes a demon of some sort, which promptly begins tearing apart Nazis on a nightly basis. You see, the keep was built, way back when, not to keep something out, but to keep something in. To keep something in the keep, I mean. The evil thing, that is. What?
Enter the Jewish historian (Ian McKellan) and his pretty daughter (Alberta Watson), who are spared the concentration camp on the condition that they figure out what the hell is tearing apart Nazis on a nightly basis.
Enter Einsatzkommando Major Kaempffer (Gabriel Byrne), who, scoffing at the somewhat sympathetic Nazi Captain (Jürgen Prochnow) for buying the supernatural demon theory, begins executing the “partisan” villagers posthaste.
Enter some guy (Scott Glenn) who woke up in Greece with bright lights in his eyes and hauled ass to the keep to stop the demon and have sex with the Jewish historian’s daughter about 20 minutes after meeting her.
Enter the ultimate battle between good and evil, etc.
The Keep is a pretentious mess, directed and adapted by Michael Mann before he decided to insert some substance into his style. Still, it does look dreamy, and the demon in humanoid form is an overlooked makeup effects masterpiece courtesy of Nick Maley, who worked on Star Wars (the Cantina sequence), The Empire Strikes Back, and Krull, among others. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack (listen here) has achieved cult status in its own right, and rightly so.
According to urban legend, a stupidly long director’s cut exists that, if released, would remedy the theatrical release’s incoherence (referred to as “dream logic” by the film’s admirers). Somewhere in the vaults of Paramount, there’s a door marked by a silver (er, nickel) cross. Dare they unleash the beast?
(Poster image via movieposter.com)
(Video via laserdiscphan)
Scott Baio is Stoned and The Boy Who Drank Too Much (1980)
Published February 11, 2013 Moral Panic , TV Guide 5 Comments
1980 was a rough year for Scott Baio characters. If you recall, Chachi burned down Arnold’s as well!
I desperately want to watch these Afterschool Specials again, but only under the condition that I have too much to drink beforehand. Such is the legacy of moralizing fluff.
(Images via Randy Rodman/eBay)
A Portrait of Young Geeks Playing D&D (1982)
Published February 11, 2013 D&D , D&D Portraits , D&D Tournaments 4 Comments
March 31, 1982. (Keith Graham/Miami Herald)
The caption:
At the Dungeons and Dragons tourney each table had a dragon master and six players. This is one of the intermediate groups. There were three divisions: beginners, intermediate and advanced players.
The “dragon” master’s shirt is awesome. I bet he still has it.
(Photo via Vintage Photos 2012)
2 Warps to Neptune 