bondoman

stikpusher:

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

 

Stop right there! That was a beautiful model movie. The ships (ILM was invented for that movie) constantly moved from dark to light. Wondrous stuff.

So was Silent Running.... Anybody remember that one with Bruce Dern? Another early 70s dark Sci Fi film with beautiful models... I am pretty sure that the model(s) from that movie were used in the original BSG series.

Great stuff on here! I do tend to notice things like the characters playing with models, but many have already been mentioned.

So, I doubt anyone here has ever watched this one. I'm not at all into anime and such, but my son found a cartoon that is called Sgt Frog, and it is hillarious! The premise is five frog-like aliens sent to take over earth, but their leader is so incompetant that everything they try fails miserably, and they just end up living in people's basements.

Anyway, the main character (sgt frog) is an avid builder of Gundam models, which is used against him many times with lines like "if you blow up the earth, you can't buy anymore Gundam models...." Which always makes him freak out and change his mind.

Seriously, look it up on Netflix. Funny stuff.

I just watched the movie “Super 8” with my kids the other night.  The protagonist is a boy who builds scale models and painted figures of movie monsters.    In one scene a girls asks him how he made a train car look so worn and aged and he briefly explains dry brushing to her.  The girl is duly impressed and I used the opportunity to tell my 13 year old son “See!  Modeling is cool! “

stikpusher

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001

Would love to find a Moon Base Interceptor from the early 70s series UFO.

You & me both!  Loved that show..

and in the original theme of the thread, in Star Trek First Contact, there is a scene where there are metallic models of various Enterprises in the background as Picard is speaking with another person about the future and the Borg and such...

Yeah, that was Dr. Cochrans's flight engineer, Lilly.. And then he smashed the display in a fit of rage, whereupon she said, "You broke your little ships".. I woulda beamed her into a wall for sayin' that...

I keep trying to explain to my kids how much of a change Star Wars was in 1977. Before that, Sci Fi had been pretty bleak... 2001, Logan's Run, Silent, Running,  Soylent Green, The Omega Man.... Space and the future were dark and dismal prospects after Apollo was done. Then came Star Wars (it will never be A New Hope to me- simply Star Wars, before all the ate up revamps) Of course I had to get the X Wing and Vader Tie Fighter. I even scratch built a Y-wing at around age 12-13 using  a broken down Star Trek USS Enterprise for the engine pods, a lot of stuff from my spares bin, and sheet plastic from a "For Sale" sign that you could buy at the store. Still have Vader's Tie Fighter but the X Wing and Y wing died log ago... I cant quite get up the gumption to pay for the beautiful Fine Molds Star Wars kits, but I have eyed some of the newer Revell stuff.... Those Republic Gunships are pretty alluring.

I read Splinter of the Minds Eye as well. I always thought that the Ewoks were based on the Yuzzum... just much cuter, but the same basic premise of a primitive arboreal society creatures that get pissed at the Empire. I never read any of the Han Solo books, but I did read Timothy Zahn's post Return of the Jedi trilogy. And a few other odds and ends here and there.

I also enjoyed the BSG and Buck Rogers series as well. Still have my Earth Starfighter sitting next to Vader's Tie fighter (and a Klingon K' T' Inga class cruiser) awaiting restoration repairs some glorious day... Would love to find a Moon Base Interceptor from the early 70s series UFO. had the Corgi or Dinky toy metal one once upon a time...

and in the original theme of the thread, in Star Trek First Contact, there is a scene where there are metallic models of various Enterprises in the background as Picard is speaking with another person about the future and the Borg and such...

On '30 Rock', Jack Donneghy has a model ship on the shelf in his office.  It has a white hull, but appears to be some kind of early destroyer or torpedo boat.  Maybe it represents nothing in real life, just an interior decorator's whim.

I was 17 when I saw Star Wars... I was just blown away by it...

The younger folks never really got that experience, since SFX had come so far in a short time after that, that my kids came up with those kind of SFX as a "routine" bit of movie-making...  Even CGI wasn't all that exiting to me, nothing like SW, anyway..

Before ILM, it was, with a few notable exceptions like Star Trek, 2001, et al, always the rocket ships with sparklers and "flaming hubcap" UFO stuff..  After SW, "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and "Battlestar Galactica" HAD to at least match the FX levels, which, because of the cost, I knew they'd be doomed series' anyway... 

How much better would a TV series like "12 O'Clock High", "Baa Baa Blacksheep", or "Combat!" be with today's CGI SFX I wonder?  Still, costs would probably doom them all, even if the audience was big enough for a WW2 series... During "Blacksheep", the seven Corsair and three Zero/SNJ pilots got $700.00 a day whether they flew or not... (That's why we saw so many of the same shots over and over... ) 

There was also a big stink raised about the show in general once the 70's anti-war crowd got wind of the fact that the WW2 gun-camera footage used in BBBS was showing REAL people getting killed, which led to some sponsors pulling out due to boycotting (which, in turn led to stupid premises like "Pappy's Lambs" and entire episodes without any combat scenes).... 'Course, the show didn't have much going for it after the first season anyway, story-wise... 

 "Tour of Duty" went the same way after the second season... It became a freakin' soap opera instead of doing what worked, which was telling stories about an Infantry Platoon in Vietnam...

Anyway...  I wonder too if the shows I mentioned would ever translate to more modern times?  "12 O'Clock High" wouldn't be much to watch if it was the 509th in B-2s hitting caves in Afghanistan, or if "Baa Baa Black Sheep was about VMA 214 and their Harriers hitting targets in ODS... "Combat!" probably would be a good candidate though... 

I think models could make a comeback in TV series as a cost-cutting measure too, perhaps real models with CGI enhancements?

I am another person who read Splinter of the Mind's Eye. I read it after the movie, which I watched after I had already read the book. I was 13 in 1977 when Star Wars came out, prime target audience for the mass merchandising. I had Star Wars sheets, posters and had to have the model kits when they came out. I had R2, X-Wing, Vader's Tie and bought boring C3P0 when it was the last kit sitting on the shelf at the store. I remember wanting the Vader kit with glow in the dark light saber, but ended up buying this new fangled kit called the Cylon Raider (BSG hadn't hit the TV yet) with my money. Vader was gone after that.

I remember reading several Star Wars themed paperbacks before The Empire Strikes Back came out. When those kits came out (AT-AT, Star Destroyer and Snow Speeder), I thought they were so much better than the first series of kits.

Phil_H

If I recall correctly, Zollux was a wisecracking smartmouth kinda like Bender from Futurama...

Max was more the smart-mouth (and disgustingly cheerful, according to Solo), and lived inside Bollux's chest... Bollux himself was rather ... Slow, shall we say, as droids go... In speech and movement..

Hans von Hammer

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

That movie forced me to start building dios with lights in them... Especially when the kits from the movie came out from MPC...

I was living & working in upstate NY at the time and had been married for about a year when we saw it for the first time.  That was when I had my 1976 Triumph TR7.  Does that make me old? 

I hadn't done much modeling for several years, but a few months later when we were at the local mall, I picked up an Airfix 1/72 Phantom on a whim.  Got me going again in the hobby.

Mark  

Tom: Thanks for the photos, too lazy to look up all that data here.

Phil: Yeap, both ships were named USS Saratoga though from following Tom's links the 'Voyage Home' ship was NCC-1887 and Sisko's NCC-31911. So I guess the original ship was destroyed and the second carried her name. 

Hans: You can call me a geek as long as you don't mean the original use of a guy at a carnival who bites the heads off live chickens.

Never read the novel here and didn't even know it existed until late last year I blundered across an article on it from the web.

Hans von Hammer

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

It was all the way around a fun time.

As far a sci-fi however, more popcorn than usa. And Burroughs invented the word Sith.

BTW I've gotten to meet George a number of times as his LHS is mine too. He commissions beautiful ship models that they display until he picks them up.

Way before all of that though, and before I cared about stuff like the hokey a/c in Casablanca,  I got my eyes opened by 2001. I saw it with Dad when it came out, went back the next weekend and saw it twice in a row.

Freakin great model movie, although a little slow....

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/2001/2001int.htm

If I recall correctly, Zollux was a wisecracking smartmouth kinda like Bender from Futurama...

Phil_H

Hans von Hammer:

a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

 

Ahh, so you're the other person who read this.....

(Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster,some time around 1979-ish)

Did you guys see the Han Solo-centric mini-series about that time? I think there were three or so, "Han Solo at Star's End", "Han Solo's Revenge" and another whose title escapes me.....

Yeah, got all three by Bryan Daley.. "Han Solo and the Lost Legacy" is other one you mentioned... They take place in the "Corporate Sector" and the "Tion Hegenomy" prior to "Star Wars"... Has two droids with him & Chewie, Bollux and Blue Max..

Hans von Hammer

a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

Ahh, so you're the other person who read this.....

(Splinter Of The Mind's Eye, by Alan Dean Foster,some time around 1979-ish)

Did you guys read the Han Solo-centric mini-series about that time? I think there were three or so, "Han Solo at Star's End", "Han Solo's Revenge" and another whose title escapes me.....

On another note, didn't the Miranda class USS Saratoga also appear in ST.IV The Voyage Home?

More model sightings: Saturn V, USS Enterprise (NCC1701-D) and Space shuttle stack in the corner of Howard's bedroom on The Big Bang Theory.

Not sure if it's worth it or not but heck I am a geek, won't deny that...

'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' was the first original SW novel (not a novelization of the first movie). It was written by Alan Dean Foster and came out before 'Empire Strikes Back' and I think Lucas hadn't decided yet that Vader was Luke's dad at the time if I remember correctly.

Geeks... Sheesh...

Yupper, Alan Dean Foster and 'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' ...(He adapted the animated Star Trek stories to print as well, IIRC, in the Star Trek "Log Series") Seriously, though... I snatched up Splinter of the Mind's Eye as soon as I saw it, which was about '78 IIRC... The two Yuzzem, Hin and Kee?  When I saw that Yuzzem ( the "male" singer) in Jaba's palace (in the re-done ROTJ version) Max Rebo Review, it didn't look anything like what I'd pictured Hin and Kee as looking like.. Or was he a Yuzzum?

Dunno if Lucas had developed Vader that far when Foster started writing, either...  At any rate, I thought SOTME would've made a good movie too, had the franchise ever gone into a TV series... 

TomZ2

Gamera:

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

 

http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-trek/furuta-star-trek-vol-1-uss-stargazer-spaceship-model/

Thanks Tom!

Though I guess I should have specified the 'Stargazer' as the first ship Picard commanded as opposed to his first ship which I suppose would have been the first vessel he served on in the fiction of the Trek universe.

And I remember some other ships in different conference rooms etc but it's been long enough since I watched any Trek to remember what any of them were.

Plus- the crippled USS Constellation in the original episode 'The Doomsday Machine' was the AMT Enterprise kit that you can buy in the store!   

Gamera

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-trek/furuta-star-trek-vol-1-uss-stargazer-spaceship-model/

The USS Saratoga (NCC-31911) was a Federation Miranda-class starship that was in service to Starfleet in the mid-24th century. Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko served as the vessel's first officer during the mid-2360s. [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_Saratoga_%28NCC-31911%29]

Hans von Hammer

Ahh.. Been about 15 years since I watched SW IV (When I bought the first boxed-set of the original movies).... Guess I shoulda Google-Imaged the T-16 and the garge scene insteada using just a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

Not sure if it's worth it or not but heck I am a geek, won't deny that...

'Splinter of the Mind's Eye' was the first original SW novel (not a novelization of the first movie). It was written by Alan Dean Foster and came out before 'Empire Strikes Back' and I think Lucas hadn't decided yet that Vader was Luke's dad at the time if I remember correctly.

Funny that I'm more of a Trek fan myself. Btw did anyone point out the model of Picard's first starship the 'USS Stargazer' in his ready room on the 1701-D? And Sisko had a model of the ship that he was first officer of and Deep Space Nine in his office on the latter station.   

O/T:

Anyone else old enough to have been an adult when they saw Star Wars  (No bloody "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the title, credits, or posters)  in the theater?

That movie forced me to start building dios with lights in them... Especially when the kits from the movie came out from MPC...

Ahh.. Been about 15 years since I watched SW IV (When I bought the first boxed-set of the original movies).... Guess I shoulda Google-Imaged the T-16 and the garge scene insteada using just a splinter of my "Mind's Eye" (obscure SW reference there, if you can name it, I'll be impressed, then call you a sci-fi geek)

It was indeed... he's playing with the model while the "real" thing sits in the background

Thought the T-16 was what was parked in garage with them in that scene...

Nope it's his T-16 "Skyhopper". What he used to bull's eye Womp rats in back home, they're not much bigger than two meters. 

In Star Wars Luke is playing with a model of a ship. That actually a ship model prop that they had decided not to use in the movie.

Isn't it an Imperial shuttle?

Reading this thread sparked a couple more: 6 million dollar man episode where a baddie is intimidating a kid to get information starts breaking all his plastic model kits. The Rightthe Stuff there's a big model of John Glenns Mercury capsule during the re-entry discussion. The Right Stuff also Col Yeager had a wood X-15 on his desk while listening to the Mercury radio broadcast. Apollo 13 had various wood models in view throughout the flick I don't know if a digital model of a model counts but what about the sailing ship models in the recent Tin Tin movie? They look alot like a certain Heller kit.

dkmacin

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Patsy points out to Arthur that the castle is "just a model."

Beeteljuice: "Nice *expletive deleted* model".

Slap Shot: The Hansons and the 1/32 scale slot cars: "They brought their *expletive deleted* toys with them."

And old mans disease hits me, The Clint Eastwood movie where they use an RC car with explosives to chase Clint through the streets. . .

 

Don

LOL about Holy Grail, it wasnt even a model! Terry Gilliam said they couldn't afford a model so they used a photo of a castle blown up and printed onto cardstock which was then propped up on the ridge. From a distance you couldn't tell on film. But Camelot, the castle Antrax, and castle of the anarchy-sydiclinist commune were all the same cardboard cutout. Speaking of models in TV & movies movies, The Addams Family and Gomez's train sets.

New models in movies sighting.

Journey 2

Kid character is scratch building the Nautilus.

As the ultimate self-referential movie/model, how about the weapon from "In The Line Of Fire"? This also feeds back into the post about modelers being portrayed as psychopaths. John Malkovich, one scary dude. And the truly sick thing is, that cast plastic gun (plus the ammo-in-the-rabbit's-foot trick) just might WORK!