Collection...

[Robot Fool]

Hint : You will kick Yourself when you hear the answer

DIY is the term Do - It - Yourself

You knew that....just like everyone knows

"specimen " is often used to refer to a great robot :rolleyes:

[Andyman]

Hint : You will kick Yourself when you hear the answer

DIY is the term Do - It - Yourself

You knew that....just like everyone knows

"specimen " is often used to refer to a great robot :rolleyes:

LMAO!

I don't think I will explain that one. ;)

[Velocity]

Had to do a little digging around, but came up with a photo of an original Star Trek "laser pistol" prop. These rayguns looked lovely on your TV screen, but they were pretty rough-cut in reality (like everything on the Star Trek set). That center ring on the barrel was loose and slid back & forth to change "energy settings", and the three buttons on the magazine are actually just painted typewriter keys. The one pictured here was a modified version of the pilot pistol (they added those weird, round silver attachments on the back end) for use in one or two early episodes of the TV series.

[Andyman]

Wow Velocity, I guess my Playmates laser pistol was more accurate than I had originally thought!

Maybe it's the drawing of the pistol in my Star Trek Encyclopedia that seemed more streamlined. I'll have to dig that puppy out sometime and compare it to your picture.

Thanks for the research!

[dratomic]

It's definitely a more traditional looking ray gun, as opposed to the later incarnations, which hinted at the cleaner, more Sixties vision of the future. Very interesting. I'm not a big star trek fan, but I appreciate the insight.

As spock might say: "Fascinating."

[Velocity]

I was waiting for somebody to say, "Hey! Those weird, round attachments on the laser pistol look like old electric can opener blades!" They probably were. The Star Trek property crew was famous for taking familiar everyday objects and making futuristic gizmos out of them. Picked up pieces of junk at thrift stores and discount outlets, glued them together, slapped on a coat of metal flake paint and voila, instant Klingon disrupter. Really tight budget, you know. One of my favorites was Dr. McCoy's little hand-held medical scanner. It was a salt shaker.

At least NBC and Paramount couldn't complain about cost overruns.

[dratomic]

Ah, but that's the magic of movies and TV. Illusion. Light it correctly, put it in an unfamiliar context and lo and behold, no one can identify the medical device as a salt shaker. Or whatever. Bob Burns' book, It Came From Bob's Basement has lots of neat examples of such cinema magic. Always interesting -- especially when the truth is revealed. :)

(And nope, I didn't identify those discs as can opener blades... heh -- the prop department did their job, I guess...)

[Andyman]

I was going to guess "roller skate wheels"...but they do look a little thin for that.

And yes, I'm quite familiar with the original Star Trek's prop departments scavenger hunts. I'm sure that presenting a sci-fi show to a scientistically ignorant audience made that trick much easier to pull off.

[(id)]

Speaking of stupid movie props, don't forget the 'comlink' from Star Wars Episode 1. George was shaving his legs one day in the shower - just after he came up with the idea of Jar Jar - and he looked down and lo he thought, "Wow an intergalactic walkie-talkie that can also measure midichloriens. Now I can use science rather than a dearly loved mystical/spiritual idea to explain 'the Force'. What an awesome idea. Man, I've still got it!".

I apologise If I've come across slightly bitter. Let's not start on prequels... :D

[Andyman]

Speaking of Star Wars.....I use to work in cable. In the scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" where Luke is stranded on Yoda's planet I swear he was pulling cable line extenders and line amps out of his emergency storage thingy.

[Zesko]

From the absurd to the sublime... It's amazing to think that the various sci-fi empires (such as Star Trek and Star Wars) had such humble, makeshift beginnings... Rough balsa wood props knocked out in one afternoon, hastily spraypainted, and used on-set the same day, sometimes discarded afterwards... But decades later there's this whole pseudo-scientific mythology, even intricate mechanical specs, based on those quick-and-dirty props...

Consider the Furuta Star Trek miniatures (below)... These are some of the most highly-detailed miniature models I've ever seen... In fact, they're so detailed, they make the original studio models look like half-baked junk by comparison... This is the way a sci-fi empire grows, I guess, with every generation tweaking our collective memory toward perfection.

[Rocket]

DrAtomic, as far as I know, Renwal was based in NY, but produced and distributed many, if not all, of their items from Canada. Maybe production/distrib. costs in Canada were cheaper, and/or their HQ in NY was close to the border.

And Jeff W. I have both a mint Renwal Helmet and Yellow Planet jet ray gun available if you were serious about owning them. I am building a site to adjoin to my www.toyraygun.com site that will have vintage robots, ray guns, and space toys for sale! It should be up and ready for business by the fall, but my stock is available before then, so if you have specific wants, please let me know.

Rocket -[o_o]-