On the Simpsons Lisa builds a Dio of the Edgar Allen Poe story "Tell Tale Heart" when competeing with the new girl in a contest at school, on the series King of Queens Doug and Deken's (sp?) one son are building a model battleship but the kid is more interested in Carry's make-up, and its been a long time, but i'm pretty sure in the Mel Gibson movie "Signs" the son has a bunch of WWI biplanes hanging from the ceiling in his bed room when he and his sister are looking through his teloscope

Yep

saw it yesterday, I noted an F14 and what looked like a T38 (could be wrong), hanging like they were on sticks (stick models). 

 David

On a recent episode of  "American Pickers" Frank bought a batch of old car models for $20 each. There were about 15-20 of them.

There also appeared to be a batch of military models next to the car models but nothing was mentioned of them.

Several built up models were setting on a table.

Oh, they also bought a leather WW2 Luftwaffe skull cap with microphone.

I believe the guy selling them was some kind of an engineer, In his younger years he said he worked on B-52 jet engines. He had a ton of old military stuff.

In the animated show Metalocalypse, the rythym guitarist Toki Wartooth is a model builder.  In various episodes, he'll be holding a plane while its drying.  In one he glued a plane to his face, and in another got stuck to the wall.  When my girlfriend saw his desk, she laughed out loud and said it looked just like mine.  Now she calls me Toki all the time. 

Simpsons:  Bart has a jet airplane hanging in his bedroom

Biggest all time model reference on TV was Malcom in the Middle.  The father gets in a christmas decoration competition against his neighbor and for unclear reasons it morphs into he and the youngest son building  a huge Pearl Harbor diorama complete with monogram Zeros that mechanically dive bomb and pyrotechniques.   Needless to say it ends badly.

I remember an episode of the Batman TV series where Burt Ward comes down the staies with a model of a p38 lightning.  Also there is all the Gerry Anderson TV shows like Fireball XL5 to Space 1999 and his movies like; Journey to the far side of the sun. Another movie I just thought of is; In Harms Way, with John Wayne. Several of the ship models were for sale back a few years ago. Hope this thread will continue as I always like to see new ways our hobby makes it to the visual media.

P.S. I just remembered that Tora,Tora,Tora also had a bunch of ship models that were used and then put for sale.

Spiderman.

While practicing his webslinging in his room Peter knocks over rockets from the "Man in Space" set that was released around the time the movie was in production.

The only reason I recognized the particular set was that I had been working on it a few months earlier.

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!

New models in movies sighting.

Journey 2

Kid character is scratch building the Nautilus.

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.

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.

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?

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. 

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

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

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)

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...

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.   

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]

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!   

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... 

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.

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..

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

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

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?

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  

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..

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.