Surveying the Gen X landscape and the origins of geek
In honor of the Curiosity Rover’s successful Mars landing, I give you these awesome shots from a series on space exploration that ran in Collier’s Magazine from 1952 to 1954. Get more pics and details of the series at Paleofuture, my new favorite blog.
Courtesy of csdigiorgio1, here’s a lovely, silent 8mm home movie of a world that no longer exists.
As I’ve said before, Lego Space may be the best toy line ever. Beta-1 Command Base, I would like to stroke your box. Come hither.
As for Empire, I had the Imperial Attack Base, the Tauntaun (subtitled “the Weird Hoth Snow Creature” in the catalog), and the Snowspeeder. I guess I opted for the all-Hoth experience.
I remember hearing that the radio-controlled Sand Crawler was a flop, but I don’t think I ever saw it in action. It was way too expensive, and clearly a gimmick.
(All images via WishbookWeb. Click to enlarge.)
Dig these trippy sci-fi tunes, man. I’ve been listening to Leonard Nimoy jams on Spotify (Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner) and loving every minute of it. Nimoy put out several albums in the ’60s, the first one (and half of the second one) in his Mr. Spock persona. You can listen to many of the tracks via Synthasia.
If you dig this, then you absolutely must check out Song of the Second Moon, by Thomas Dissevelt and Kid Baltan. The album was originally released in 1957 and is considered the first popular synth/electronica album: “The soundtrack to a charming and utopian future (that has yet to arrive).” I just bought the 2012 reissue, but have a listen courtesy of manfromuranus.
Microvision, first released in 1979, was “the very first handheld game console that used interchangeable cartridges.” I don’t even remember this thing being on my radar as a kid, but it looks fun, and you can play some games at The Microvision Simulation Project.
Benj Edwards has more photos and details at his great site, Vintage Computing and Gaming. Also check out Benj’s cool slideshow on the history of handhelds at PCWorld.
Thanks to Steve Austin’s bionic eye for identifying this artifact in my last post.
(Image via the Handheld Museum)
Via Joey Hack/Flickr. Location not given. I spy with my little eye not one but two briefcases (one of them doubling as a DM screen), a Champion vest jacket, a reel-to-reel tape machine, a turntable, a black cowboy hat (DM’s prerogative), carpet wall art, and I do believe that’s an open carton of cigarettes on the ashtray on top of the TV. Kid in blue is holding Milton Bradley’s MicroVision, the first handheld video game console.
All images via www.movieposter.com.
Question: What is with all the awful paintings on these posters (especially The Color of Money)? It’s embarrassing. They couldn’t just slap on a scene from the movie?
Surely you remember the Stompers commercial (via oscartripe):
I also remember the Master Caster (#7 in the catalog) commercial, although I can’t find it anywhere. See the set at Toys You Had.
These hand cranked dirt bikes were bloody fantastic. They tumbled head over heels, righted themselves, jumped, tumbled, bowled over action figures, and kept right on going. Check it (via MrVintageToy).
(Catalog images via WishbookWeb. Click to enlarge.)
In my ongoing quest to watch every single sword and sorcery movie from the ’80s, no matter how irredeemably sleazy, I present this quadruple-feature from the Roger Corman’s Cult Classics series.
In the opening scene of Deathstalker, our hero rescues a maiden from a gang of lusty cutthroats and then proceeds to get it on with said maiden. Before they can finish (don’t you hate when this happens?), an old man drags “Stalker” to a witch who needs his urgent assistance to unite a magic sword with some other magic doodads to stop the evil wizard and save the princess. The awesome looking ogre-thing in the poster isn’t in the movie, so don’t get excited. I’ve already said too much. Just watch this clip so we can move on.
Deathstalker II is fun. I don’t really remember what happens (more of the same), but everything is so poorly done, everyone knows it, and everyone seems to be having fun with it—and that’s really what makes a bad B movie good: it has what I call a “recess” flavor. In other words, it gleefully creates the kinds of spontaneous, silly action-dramas we made up during our recess/lunch periods at school. Here’s a taste of the awesome soundtrack and the terrible acting.
The best thing I can say about The Warrior and the Sorceress is that David Carradine is pretty slick as the hooded bad-ass, but it’s nothing he hadn’t already done, and done much better, by that point. The story revolves around two warring factions fighting over the only water source on a planet with two suns. In better hands, it might have been fun. No clip for you. Next.
Barbarian Queen (a.k.a. Queen of the Naked Steel) is a cult classic and my favorite in this lot. Lana Clarkson, who Phil Spector was convicted of murdering in 2009, is so tall and hot and charismatic that she pulls off a quasi-feminist barbarian hero despite the shoddy production and all the cheap, predictable rape scenes. The Queen’s man is taken prisoner by the evil Romans, and she and her band of women warriors are damn well going to get him back! The trailer is fantastic.
2 Warps to Neptune 