“Get yours together and get into the van scene NOW!”
Archive Page 37
Model Kits: ‘Xtasy’ Chevy Custom Van (AMT, 1977)
Published May 15, 2015 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Custom Autos , Model Kits Leave a Comment
More great box scans from Mikey Walters, who talks about getting the Tricorder for Christmas here.
See good pics of the toy itself at A Piece of the Action.
Take your time. There’s lots to see, including the “Bank of Zork” (a D&D-universe bank is here), “Atlantis” and “Grail” rooms, a “Smelly” room, lots of pre-Goonies slides, a Coal Mine, a Pengo-esque slide-the-blocks maze, a “Cryptt,” a “Tombb,” a “Foreest”—click to enlarge and get started.
The master cartographer is Stephen Roy, who worked on it over the course of three years, and the map is via Cluster 8’s Flickr.
UPDATE: This is actually a map (see below) of Zork I, a text adventure originally released in 1977. The original DOS version did not come with a map, hence the incredible work you see above. Thanks for the heads up, David Augustyn.
Dungeon of the Algebra Dragons (Timeworks, 1983)
Published May 13, 2015 Commodore Computers , D&D , Personal Computers , Video Games 1 Comment
There’s a demo on YouTube of Algebra Dragons from 1985 that appears to be a sequel to this game. “Press -C- to continue” brought back some memories.
Clever concept for a game. Still, I wouldn’t have made it past the first dragon.
Images are via Flickr. Click through for a bigger view.
The Fonz Paint By Number Set (Craft Master, 1976)
Published May 12, 2015 Arts and Crafts , Happy Days Leave a Comment
Evel Knievel Paint By Number Coloring Set (Hasbro, 1974)
Published May 12, 2015 Arts and Crafts , Evel Knievel 3 Comments
Paint by number didn’t have quite the allure of the poster pen sets. I never liked being told what to color, and I’m betting I wasn’t alone.
One of the things that interests me is how kids’ heroes—and the toys that represented them—have changed so much. They were once based on real people—cops, cowboys, the original G.I. Joe, Matt Mason, the Fisher-Price Adventure People, and so on. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s they became more bionic and less terrestrial, more perfect and less human. Superhuman is now the baseline for action entertainment.
In retrospect, I’m not sure why I loved the idiotic Evel so much. But at least he wasn’t a talking turtle, or a robot that transformed into a robot riding a motorcycle.
The Pleasures of Cocaine by Adam Gottlieb (Twentieth Century Alchemist, 1976)
Published May 11, 2015 Drug Culture , Larry Todd Leave a Comment
“Snorting the Cocaine”
“The Assisted Blow”
“Setting Up Lines”
“Liquid Lady”
The illustrations are by Larry Todd, the underground cartoonist who created the drug-addled Dr. Atomic, along with some pretty incredible fantasy and sci-fi art. Todd also illustrated Gottlieb’s The Book of Acid and Ancient and Modern Methods of Growing Extraordinary Marijuana, both from 1975.
Todd by himself wrote, illustrated, and self-published Dr. Atomic’s Marijuana Multiplier (1974)—complete with some very complicated chemical engineering instructions—which you can read in its entirety at Count Your Culture.
Lefty Limbo’s Papercraft `Huey’ Drone from Silent Running
Published May 8, 2015 '70s Movies/TV , Arts and Crafts , DIY , Robots , Sci-Fi Movies/TV 2 Comments
The best part of the eco-sci-fi drama Silent Running (1972) is watching Bruce Dern’s character, adrift and alone in space, interact with the three service drones he programs to do various tasks, one of which is playing poker. Years ago Greg at Lefty Limbo found some “dinky” papercraft models of the robots (Huey, Dewey, and Louie) and decided to make one of them—enlarged to life-sized proportions. The impressive end result, minus some hydraulic hoses, is above, but you should read the whole story and check out all the work he put into the project here.
Ertl’s Die-Cast Blade Runner Cars (1982): Rachael’s Spinner
Published May 8, 2015 Blade Runner 4 Comments
I talked about the obscure Ertl line way back here. I’m still trying to find each of them in package.
2 Warps to Neptune 