52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 39

3D papier mache squirrel, decoupaged with orange paper printed with the words "squirrel", "paw", "ear", "tail" and "acorn", plus eyes made with "i"s - and an "n" for a nose.

Week 39: Words

Update:

Black Stained by Sharpie ink (a brushlike tip, supposedly for drawing on fabric, but nice to use on paper, too) on La Carta Weave textured paper.

Week 39: Words II

Week 39: Words III

Words and Pictures: Watercolour over cardboard templates, painted onto the page of movie reviews from Mx newspaper. (Ha! I was cleaning up the work area the next morning. The "audience" template, which I cut like a set of paper dollies from some card and used to mask off sections, looks too pretty to throw away. Into the Odds 'n' Ends box it goes. We may see it again some day.)

52-Week Illustration Challenge, Week 3

Week 3: Caravan

This is a ten-layer paper tole, using seven 8x10" sheets of photographic paper, created from the last photo I ever took of my Dad before he passed away. I call it "Grey Nomad", of course. My parents had just travelled across from Perth where they'd lived in retirement for 19 years.

Side view!

A White Christmas, made to order

A White Christmas with my penpal, Olivia Lynn Bottum! This week's humidity and 40+ degrees C (aka 105 degrees F) temperatures have been enough to remind me I'm very definitely in the Southern Hemisphere this December! Thank you to all my wonderful Blogger readers and, increasingly, my Facebook Friends. Thanks for sharing your (and my) moments of triumph, joy, hilarity, irony, frustration and sadness throughout 2013. This is a great (still-newish), supportive and growing community. You make me laugh, commiserate and think deeply every day!

After the continuation of the dusting of snow from the afternoon of December 24, Christmas Day in Ann Arbor, Michigan, delighted me in that every time I looked out a window or door, lovely, feathery snow was falling. I think it fell for about three days non-stop. Delightful, and as if it were made to order.

Day 3 photos:

An Andorian sock monkey enjoys the snow while it lasts.

Olivia's Peruvian-themed Christmas tree, complete with... Peruvian Barbie.

A meeting of two traditional desserts: American pumpkin pie shares a plate with an Aussie Christmas pudding.

The vacuum packed plum pudding, from Itha's Puddings & Gourmet Foods, Sydney, traveled with me in my hand luggage and is from a 100-year old English recipe from the maker's own family.

The sock monkey cavorting with the angels. The Christmas angels were made by Reed's Mom,
Dorothy Lenz, using pine cones, acorns, milkweed pods, long wooden golf tees and pipe-cleaners!

After lunch, we investigated screening times for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", which had been running in the US since my birthday, but was about to premiere back home in Sydney. Luckily, the venue we chose had the 3D (and HFR) version of the film plus the 3D trailer for "Star Trek Into Darkness". Later, we discovered that our alternate choice of cinema venue was not running the "Star Trek" trailer. Lucky! Serendipitous!

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Andorian Sock Monkey"

And lo, it was good. But long!

Trekking in 3D?

Paramount's goal with the forthcoming "Star Trek" movie sequel from JJ Abrams is said to be, "... to finally attract more filmgoers overseas since the franchise had never done $100M international before." The US release date is set as May 17, 2013. In 3D!

I have no problem with 3D, and fully expected it for this one. We want ST to be successful and popular, and most recent successful, popular movies are in 3D. I've seen some great 3D movies in recent years - both filmed-in-3D and converted-to-3D - and if that's the way to draw in even more general cinema-goers, then why not? The ST fanbase alone does not buy enough tickets. "Star Trek: Nemesis" proved that.

3D also means there will be a 3D TV Blu-Ray release alongside the regular DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

TOS in syndication prime time reruns had a big, reliable following because it was accessible to the general public over many years. TNG in first-run syndication built a huge audience that ensured that the franchise sold lots of merchandise.

People also forget that "ST III: The Search for Spock" was, at one point, announced as being in 3D. There were plans for funky, collectible, ST 3D Starfleet glasses, too.

Invasion of the dodos

It might be extinct as a species, but there's certainly no shortage of dodos here this week! Above is a 2D scan of my Nimslo 3D shot, taken in January 1984, of a real dodo skeleton in the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. I finally got around to scanning it. My newer scanner has difficulty interpreting the lenticular laminate on my 3D photos, but the old scanner handles it well.

But these are some recent arrivals, after a bout of dodo madness on eBay:


Dodos from "Primeval" (by Character Options) and Safari


A Harmony Kingdom dodo keepsake box

The Ettamogah bunyip!

In December 1985, there was only a wildlife sanctuary and a souvenir shop at Table Top, aka Ettamogah, namesake of the famous Australasian Post "Ettamogah Pub" cartoons by Ken Maynard. These days, there is an actual replica of the comic strips' gravity-defying pub (and replicas in other tourist locales) - but prior to that you could sometimes catch a glimpse of a real live bunyip, that was kept in a special pen at the wildlife sanctuary.

The display was "out of order" the day I visited. Supposedly, if you lifted a flap, the bunyip would rise up out of his muddy swamp and squirt water at you. I hoisted my camera over the fence to snap this rare shot.

Nostalgia in 3D, in 2D

The shooting model of the starship USS Enterprise from "Star Trek" the original series. These pictures were taken in January 1984, at the Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA. I used my Nimslo 3D camera, but these are 2D scans, of course. (This is also pre the controversial restoration the model underwent in 1992.)

2D scans of old Nimslo 3D photos!

With Rhonda Williams, California. Christmas in USA, 1983.


"The Wizard of Oz" wax figures at Movieland Wax Museum, January 1984.
The museum used to be opposite Knott's Berry Farm in Los Angeles, USA.


Our award-winning costumes from the gala premiere night of "Ghostbusters", 1984.

The signs on our backs read "Rent-a-Ghost". I'm holding a red fly-swat, but included in our winners' goodie bag was... an official logo "Ghostbusters" ghost-swatter.


"Cometcon Blankety Blanks" (1986) with guest panelists, T'Pring, Spock and a Peoplebuster.

Alice? It figures!

Clockwise, from top left: Dodo, Alice, Humpty Dumpty, Gryphon, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Mock Turtle, White Rabbit.

I ran across eighteen Kaiyodo "Alice's Adventures in Figureland" for display in the school library last night. I collect dodos - and have always coveted my late uncle's larger Royal Doulton ceramic dodo, based on John Tenniel's design, from the Lewis Carroll novels ("Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the looking glass"). This little dodo was hanging on the front of a peg in a favourite toy shop - and I loved the quality of these irresistible little figures. I accidentally picked the right Alice (out of four possibles), too; when I got her home, I realised she came with half of Humpty's wall. Today, I glued them all to a wooden base and grassed it with model railway "grass".

More "Alice" stuff on my other blog can be found HERE! (Scroll down)

I drew this dodo in 1981:



I bought this beautiful ceramic one, by a local artist, in the early 80s:



Papo brand plastic dodo figurine:



And here's my holy grail, from Royal Doulton:



But look, there's more!

Third time's the charm?

I'm ready for checking out "Toy Story 3" in 3D tomorrow! Welcome to Lotso, Peas in a Pod, Mr Pricklepants and Buttercup!


"Lotso, Buzz and Woody in "Toy Story 3".

Ian in Wonderland - in 3D!

Oh frabjous day! I thoroughly enjoyed this evening's little excursion to the cinema to see the new "Alice in Wonderland" 3D movie! I'd heard rather mixed reviews, but this was a most satisfying 3D experience.

And how curiouser and curiouser to notice Joel Swetow in the credits as Man With Big Belly - I own the Andorian ambassador's robes he wore in "Star Trek: Enterprise". Always love a neat Star Trek connection! And yay Michael ("Alfred Pennyworth") Gough as the voice of the dodo!

I wished I gone with someone now, even it it was to get a photo standing in the middle of this huge cardboard display (above). Woulda looked a bit like this:


Me, attending the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Central Park, New York (January 1992).



Today's pic of the day: a signwriting plane going home at sunset, after a hard day's signwriting?

Feeling UP

Making sure I didn't feel too down on a lonely Friday night, I went to see "Up", the new Pixar animated film which finally started its Australian release recently. The trailers had not really revealed much about the storyline, so I was curious. (This was the movie that knocked Star Trek off its perch in the US, IRC, but it's arrived here much later.)

I added a note to Facebook re my intentions with my iPhone - and before I arrived at the cinema I had several brief incoming reviews and recommendations from friends! The immediacy of the Internet!

Yeah, it was okay, but not a world-beater. The 3D is quite stunning - make sure you see it in 3D; not every screening is being done that way! Some wonderfully animated sequences, and I really loved the Pixar pre-feature short about clouds and storks.

Journey to the centre of the blog

I've just been watching tonight's episode of "Rove". Rove McManus finished the show with his "Things I love" segment, claiming to love blogging. For two reasons: he gets to be opinionated, and he can do it while wearing no pants.

Sounds good to me.

Over on the "Star Trek" bulletin boards, the avid Trek fans are still sweating over whether they are going to like, love or detest JJ Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie. One of the more reasonable fans said today, "If I can sit down for two hours and be entertained, then that movie is a success in my book."

Sounds good to me.

In fact, I just got back from seeing the remake/rejig of "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D", starring the prolific and versatile Brendan Fraser. Hard on the heels of "The Mummy 3", it was just as silly, it had some great SPFX, some likable characters, typically breath-taking action sequences and some funny one-liners. And it was eye-popping 3D! The movie also paid respectful homage to the Jules Verne novel and the old 1959 movie version with James Mason and Pat Boone.

I'm sure "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" will sell plenty of licensed tie-in books, T-shirts and stickers, theme ride tickets, and it will probably even inspire some people to track down some Verne books from their local library.

I can imagine it has also polarized fans of Verne, Henry Levin (director of the first filmed version) and James Mason. But I had fun, so who cares?

If JJ does the same for "Star Trek XI", or better, with its source material, as Eric Brevig did for "Journey...", well, it sounds good to me.

Sunday's magic number: 94.0 - Sigh...

Super LA memories

My series of 2D representations of my 3D photograph collection, taken with a Nimslo 3D camera, continues:

When I arrived in Los Angeles, in January 1984, I contacted Bjo Trimble, often better known as "the woman who saved Star Trek", and organised to catch up with her for several days of shared Star Trek geekiness with her family.

I had several people trying to organise, on my behalf, an "executive tour" through the (empty) sets of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" at Paramount. The movie had not long finished filming, and was then in post-production. But it wasn't looking good; Susan Sackett, Gene Roddenberry's assistant, was on a rare one-week vacation out of town.

Bjo suggested I make a point of going to the more commercially-oriented Universal Studios tour, just in case the Paramount tour failed to materialise (which is what happened, sigh), but also: the La Brea Tar Pits (I was shocked that I didn't need to take a left turn at Albuquerque!); and the (now defunct) Movieland Wax Museum, only a block from Knott's Berry Farm at Buena Park.

I was pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful layout of this wax museum. While some of the likenesses failed to emulate the superior figures of London's Madam Tussauds', Movieland Wax Museum excelled in its presentation of each exhibit. I loved the way visitors were tantalised into guessing each upcoming exhibit as they wandered around its maze of corridors. A path gradually changed to yellow pavers... and, around a corner, there were the characters of "The Wizard off Oz"! The trail gradually turned to gravel, and there were the brothers and Dad from "Bonanza"! Distant cheers from a huge crowd led to the just-ended chariot race from "Ben-Hur". Electronic beeps and a droning female computer voice led one right onto the bridge of the USS Enterprise with the "Star Trek" crew.

And an unexpected chilled breeze led to...

Superman's Fortress of Solitude! Wow! That was a moment where the hairs rose on my neck. There, in one corner, the imposing figure of the Man of Steel himself, looking oh so very Christopher Reeve, and even wearing an authentic costume from "Superman: The Movie". It was quite breath-taking.

I even braved "The Black Box", which was a relatively new section dedicated to horror movies, such as "Friday the 13th", "Alien" and "Halloween". I didn't realise, until buying the View-Master reel sets for the museum in their gift shop, that there had once been an accompanying "Palace of Living Art" exhibit (which lives on at San Francisco's wax museum). "The Black Box" at Movieland was part of a major renovation.

It was an amazing day - thanks for the tip, Bjo! I ran out of time to revisit the museum in 1992 - and I was saddened to hear that the museum finally had to close its doors in 2005. They auctioned off most of its figures, sets, and props. According to a fan web page, the "Star Trek" main cast went to a fan for $34,000 in the auction. The Elizabeth Taylor-as-"Cleopatra" figure brought in $25,000. The Christopher Reeve-as-"Superman" figure sold for $16,000 (coincidentally, just days after the death of the late Reeve's widow), and "Elvis" went for $14,000.

The road to Adelaide, 1985

Continuing my series of 2D representations of my 3D photograph collection, taken with a Nimslo 3D camera, here's the first photo taken on my December 1985 holiday to Adelaide. First stop, for breakfast, was Goulburn, home of the Big Merino, and also this wonderful King Kong display on a (now long gone) video rental store in the main shopping strip. It was a case of, "Wow! That'll be a great 3D shot! Stop the car!" That's (now-housemate) Steve in the pic; the less hairy one on the far left. ;)



What intrigued me was the possibilty of how 3D would be the reflection of traffic behind me, as viewed in the shop window section of the "TV screen". Although Kong himself was very two-dimensional - even in the 3D image, as I expected - the road and cars turned out to be extremely three-dimensional in the actual Nimslo print when it was processed.

Any time we've passed through Goulburn since, we've tried to identify which shop used to be the Kong shop.



Moving on to Gundagai, here's the famous "dog on the tuckerbox" statue. In the 3D image, the writing on the roof of the souvenir shop is actual quite legible, but the dog looks great in either version. Today, he has a bigger monument built around him.

I'm really liking these pics, and the way they scan.

Th'frosty the Aenar thnowman

Yesterday's exciting find of photographs, lost since 1992, sent me into a nostalgia spin, determined to track down some other interesting pics I've always wanted to share.

Here is my Andorian snowman - in 3D! (Note that he won't actually appear in 3D on this monitor screen; it's just a normal 2D scan, although the background ends up with an interesting blurred effect.) Created in Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 1983, with my penpal Olivia, this cute alien snowperson has a phaser and Starfleet insignia (from her Star Trek collection). He's wearing a "Go Blue!" pin, the coincidentally perfect catch cry of the local Michigan University.

Knowing what we know now about Andorians (via the TV series, "Enterprise"), this is no doubt a rare Aenar snowperson.

Nimslo 3D cameras were hot stuff in the early 1980s, and took four half-size negatives of each subject, and these images were sent off by mail order and combined under rippled plastic to create a 3D picture. I was curious as to how the combined image would scan because the negatives are filed away - oh so carefully - somewhere!

The half-sized negatives can be printed like normal negatives, and I'm thinking that (when I find them), the extreme left and right images could probably be set up side by side onscreen to permit a true 3D viewing, right here in this blog, via the "drift" (ie. crossed eyes) method. But it actually scanned in 2D fairly well as it is!

Redefining a collection

Over at The Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Blog, Alec Peters discusses his ever-expanding Star Trek collection of costumes and props from Paramount Studios, as sold by It's A Wrap!, and attempts to redefine his hobby.

While my collection of screen-used props is minute by comparison, Alec's analysis was well-timed. I've just spent about three weeks trying to re-hide the most bizarrely random piles of collectibles that literally exploded out of my so-called "Star Trek Shrine", a room dedicated to housing my Star Trek collection but usually also the room into which my aforementioned bizarrely random piles of collectibles get shoved, unceremoniously, as the dinner guests start arriving.

Collecting is an addiction, for sure. It comes with all the same intense highs, intense lows, withdrawal symptoms, and a chronic habit for diverting funds needed to buy food or household bills into buying more stuff, as an addiction to other substances! There is also the overwhelming challenge to "own everything", seek out "first editions" or "lowest numbers" of "limited editions", display it well, and the conundrum of whether to keep things in "mint in mint packaging" condition or just open and play with the items.

Alec says that there are "a few good questions you should ask yourself as you continue to build your collection".

What is your theme or themes?
Do you have one? Do you just buy random stuff you like, or do you have specific collecting interests?

Mmmm. Well, there are the collectible, nostalgic items from my childhood - things that were not considered to be collectibles when they were bought as gifts - such as my game of "Green Ghost", an original "Mousetrap" game, a model of the Dastardly & Muttley's Mean Machine from "Wacky Races", a hand-knitted gonk (the coveted Christmas gift of 1965!) and a glow-in-the-dark "Kooky Spooky", the current eBay prices of which always shock me.

There are also the items I remember allowing to slip from my grasp, in particular my full set of "Batman" gum cards, based on the 60s feature film of the TV series. Sigh.

And the ones that nearly got away: how well I remember the lone radio advertisement... "'Number 96' paperbacks just ten cents each" at a huge Grace Bros. book sale in 1978!

Thus, my "Number 96" memorabilia consists of eight very trashy novelisations, the original novel I had no idea even existed until the night of the "Tonight Live" reunion show in 1993 (when they had it on display, sending me off on the ultimate challenge to find it), several copies of the "'Number 96' Cookbook", with the bound-in iron-on logo still intact, a script in the book "Zoom In", several actual scripts from the set, and my recent purchase of Abigail's 1973 autobiography. I also own Giovanni Lenzi's green deli jacket, bought from the 1977 auction at Channel Ten.

Not long after that, I found myself collecting "View-Master" stereo picture reels, and this interest in 3D led to buying a Nimslo 3D camera, which accompanied me on my 1983/84 US trip.

And, of course, there are my Star Trek collections: (first edition) novels, novelisations, cards, model kits (some never assembled), LP soundtracks (most now duplicated as CDs), action figures (almost all are set free from their packaging) and customised action figures.

And my Star Trek comics led me to an appreciation of other comic titles: "Teen Titans"/"New Titans", "Fantastic Four", "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Dreadstar" to name a few.

What is your collecting philosophy?

Probably it has to do with collecting what you like. So many people collect as an investment, but that is so hit and miss. The most unlikely things end up being worth the most.

I'd also maintain that if you stop collecting, you'll definitely lose interest. I'm heard of so many people draw a line in the sand to stop themselves splurging, and they always end up selling, or simply giving away, all that wonderful stuff.

Deja View-Master

I've long wanted to do a piece on View-Master stereo and 3D picture reels and viewers, and with this week's mention of "The Omega Glory" (TOS) and "Yesteryear (TAS) Star Trek View-Master products on TrekBBS, I'm feeling a burning need to bring something together.

Today I actually saw the newest packaging, still carded on blister packs, as they have been for about 20 years, but now much closer in size to the traditional, square, paper envelopes of the 60s and 70s. I'd been hunting for "Superman Returns" ever since that movie came out last year, and eventually ordered one (on the US rectangular blister pack) via the Internet, but today I actually saw European "Superman Returns" sets on the new square blister pack. (A little underwhelming, though. Most people wouldn't even know to open the minimal packaging carefully so the reels could be stored safely.)

I've been collecting View-Master reels since Christmas 1974, when - at a loss as to what else I wanted on my Christmas want list - my mother bought me a viewer and several reel sets (of her own choosing): "Adam-12", then a current US TV police drama; animated old-time family favourite, "Top Cat"; "Insect World: Entomology"; "Pan Am's 747" and "France". I was quite impressed with her selection. "Insect World: Entomology" looks amazing in stereo pictures! "Pan Am's 747" gave me itchy feet for my first aeroplane ride. And "France" was highly suitable to a then-high school student studying French.

Sadly, what has reduced over each change to the View-Master format is text. Originally, most View-Master envelopes came with 16-page illustrated booklets, which described each of the 21 sets of stereo pictures. In the 80s, the tall, rectangular blister packs came with several paragraphs on the reverse of the packet, synopsising the production contained on the 3D reels (although European-released versions often had to reduce font sizes to squeeze in multiple translations).

In recent years, the three reels in each rectangular pack have had foil character stickers added to their reverse, and these now face outwards - but there are no instructions on how to preserve the blister pack as a "convenient storage container". The new square blister packs really have no text synopses at all, and appear to be quite disposable. Sigh. (I guess you're supposed to buy up several vinyl View-Master collectible, zippered storage containers!)

Star Trek has been quite well-represented in View-Master reels over the years, much to my delight:

* "The Omega Glory", a live-action episode of TOS (The Original Series). Famously, this one features a specially posed an AMT model kit starship alongside the larger model used in the upening credits, to enhance the 3D effects.

* "Yesteryear", as "Mr. Spock's Time Trek", from TAS (The animated series from Filmation). This set also came out as a Talking View-Master version in a large, flat box.

* One image of 21: TOS USS Enterprise filming model at the Smithsonian Institution's "National Air and Space Museum", Washington DC.

* "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", one of the first sets with recreated "3D" images, rather than stereo pictures shot on-set. The b/w booklet has trivia and "foto-fun" rather than a text description of each image.

* "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", one of the first rectangular blister packs - no more booklets! Sigh.

* Recently found! One image of 21: life-size TOS wax figures on the bridge of USS Enterprise at "Movieland, Buena Park, California". This set of reels was on the new, rectangular blister pack, too. Two earlier releases, which I already owned, were in the traditional square packets and don't feature Trek.

* "A Matter of Honor", an episode of TNG (ie. "Star Trek: The Next Generation").

* Two images of 21: "A Star Trek Adventure" (including the bridge and "beaming up") on the revamped rectangular blister pack version of "Universal Studios, Hollywood, Set 2: Entertainment Center".

I hadn't really thought about the View-Master "Yesteryear" images not being actual stills and cels from the show itself, until the matter was raised on TrekBBS. Of course, all those old View-Master "Peanuts" (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) animated specials, and "Bugs Bunny" cartoons were reels of images recreated with little three-dimensional statues and amazing table-top dioramas, and filmed with a stereo camera! Checking out "Mr. Spock's Time Trek" anew, some frames have over seven layers of 3D action! Like the now-rare Tuttle & Bailey TAS collector cels (including the six-fingered Spock from "Yesteryear", and Arex and M'Ress with "The Jihad" aliens), and the ones provided to Japanese "Starlog" (eg. Arex and M'Ress interacting with the kzin Chuft-Captain), it seems that Filmation was happy to create special, all-new images (below right) for these TAS tie-ins. The booklet in the View-Master pack seems to have newly-created artwork, too, and different to what's on the reels.

Additional work used to be done for live-action View-Masters of the 60s, too. When the View-Master cameras visited the live-action sets of "Batman", "Mission: Impossible" and "Star Trek", for example, they took stereo photos alongside the guys filming the episodes! And the USS Enterprise and USS Exeter in orbit was a shot re-created with the three-foot shooting model of the Enterprise and a licensed AMT plastic model kit (for Exeter). The set-up (below left) was photographed in stereo in View-Master's own studio. It's not a still from the episode made 3D, it's a recreated shot made with physical models. (By the 80s, View-Master wasn't using on-set stereo cameras at all, but simulating the 3D effects by manipulating 2D images of studio publicity photos. Sigh.)

I did once read an interview (in "Starlog"?) with someone who described the day View-Master came visiting Desilu to shoot "The Omega Glory". They had to snatch their moments - at rehearsals and after the film cameras moved off to other locations, but they weren't any more obtrusive that the Desilu stills photographer who turned up all the time. There's one amusing bridge shot of Sulu and Uhura, supposedly talking with Kirk on the planet, but Nichelle Nichols' script is sitting on her lap!

I was always flummoxed as to why they didn't choose a more colourful episode, like the alien-filled "Journey to Babel", but essentially View-Master had to take pot luck with all the TV production sets they went to in the 60s and 70s. They were actually due to visit "Star Trek" the previous week, but Gene Roddenberry kept putting them off, which seemed weird in retrospect since Gene Roddenberry was rarely down on the studio floor and was busy prepping Art Wallace's "Assignment: Earth", the Gary Seven/Roberta Lincoln "back door" pilot, which was due to film the next week. But, of course, moving View-Master's appointment by a whole week meant that it was a pure (even if not good) Gene Roddenberry script that was adapted, and not DC Fontana and Laurence N Wolfe's "The Ultimate Computer". So Gene picked up yet another royalty: adaptation rights for the little View-Master booklet based on his script! (Mind you, DC Fontana had her revenge, as it was her TAS episode that was adapted by View-Master a few years later.)

Fascinating stuff, and how great that View-Master continues into the 21st century?

Images from "The Omega Glory" (TOS) and "Mr. Spock's Time Trek" (TAS)

SF author, Robert J Sawyer, briefly discusses "The Omega Glory" View-Master SPFX shot on his blog.
TAS View-Master frame originally scanned by Kail Tescar. )

The TOS: "The Omega Glory" and TAS: "Yesteryear" sets were also available in the "Spacemen Theatre In The Round" cylindrical cardboard tub, which included "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers" reels, a 2-D projector and a 3-D viewer. The "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" set was alternatively available in a "Gift Pak & Poster" tub, complete with a 3-D viewer, a double-sided movie poster and customised cardboard 3-D glasses (to view the 3-D side of the poster). 30 drawn and colored 2-D animation-style images, based on publicity stills from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", were available on a small cartridge (Set 3158) made for the View-Master "Show Beam" push-button projector (below), which resembled a long plastic torch.

There was also an Indonesian adaptation of Filmation's "Yesteryear" episode, "Mesin Waktu Mr Spock", based on the View-Master reels for "Mr Spock's Time Trek". The 1979 Cypress book is in the same format as the popular "Little Golden Books" series. IIRC, the images are all printed in reverse.

New arrivals for 2026: Now the View-Masters are officially defunct, other companies are filling the gap in the 3D viewer market. Two recent productions have Star Trek themes.

* 7 image pairs for the fan film, "Stalled Trek" from ViewMeister Image3D:

* 21 image pairs of "Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour", a fan-created replica of the 1960s Paramount sets, in a new museum at Ticonderoga, New York. From Scene-Master Stereovision:

Note that the packet artwork is a homage to the "The Omega Glory" set.

School is: OUT

Here I sit, with the school vacation finally here - two weeks, yay! - and I can't think of anything to post.

I even went through a whole stack of old photograph albums, hoping for inspiration, but every photo I thought of wasn't in the stack that happens to be on hand, or it features someone not easy to track down to ask about putting their photo on the Internet. It's been a long time since I saw some of these wonderful people, and I'd prefer that our first emails in yonks isn't an angry "Take down that pic!" demand. Just because one owns a photograph doesn't mean one took it oneself, owns the copyright or has permission from everyone in it to share it with the world in an electronic medium that wasn't even imagined when the photograph was taken.

Plus, I'm reminded about the terrible condition of my 70s and 80s era photograph albums are. No photo corners of the 60s, all of my albums were sticky-page and transparent plastic albums, and the years have either fused the photos permanently to the album pages, or the stickiness has all dried up the photos slide out onto the floor as the pages are turned. Some of the old Polaroids have turned dark, some of the regular pics have drastically altered colour - and the 3D photos from my old Nimslo 3D camera can't be scanned. (To show those, I'd have to find the negatives and order regular prints from them first, or scan the negatives on my scanner.) And I also get into a panic wondering where a few missing photo albums ended up during the big move of January 2000.

The thought of transferring all my photos to new albums is daunting beyond believe. There are also recent piles and piles of photos, all over the house, that have never been lovingly stuck in albums, or even dated and captioned.

In addition, another visit to my Sitemeter today shows me that each mention of my Andorian costume eBay purchase in the month of June brought in a record number of page views to the blog (for about a week or so), but these new visitors don't necessarily convert into regular viewers. Do I just talk about Star Trek stuff in an attempt to keep them? Furthermore, the 70s photo of Aussie actress Abigail (from her 70s autobiography) continues to be the main way people find this blog.


Sydney's Luna Park - a random, favourite photo

On the eleventh day of Christmas

There has been considerable discussion on "the boards" (TrekBBS) lately, to debate Vulcan's controversial twin/sister/planetoid. We first saw the orange Vulcan sky during "Amok Time" in the 60s, but it was in the first episode aired, "The Man Trap", that Mr Spock revealed that "Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura." Uhura is "not surprised".

However, the Filmation background artists on "Star Trek: The Animated Series" (TAS in the 70s) did not notice a handwritten comment, "Remove moon", by DC Fontana on her sign-off of preliminary artwork for "Yesteryear" (above left, image from the View-master reels packet of the episode). Thus, Vulcan did get an orbitting planetoid - or perhaps, a sister/twin planet. When "Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP, (above right) was hurried into release in 1979, with the film barely dry enough to show on premiere night, the planetoid survived. (Only to be removed for a different interpretation of Vulcan's sky for TMP's "Director's Edition" DVD.)

Filmation's TAS wasn't removed from the official "Star Trek canon" until 1989, when the tie-in licences were renewed under tighter restrictions, and the licensees of the "Star Trek" novels, comics and roleplaying games (RPGs) were asked to refrain from referencing TAS. (That memo, of course, has slowly ceased to have influence since Roddenberry's death in 1991. See the many TAS references in other "Star Trek" tie-ins my webpage Toon Trek.)

"Spock's World", a hardcover ST novel by Diane Duane, came out with much publicity and critical acclaim in 1988. The planetoid was spelt T'Khut in "Spock's World", and also in "Voyager: Pathways" by Jeri Taylor, "The Worlds of the Federation" by Shane Johnson and "New Worlds, New Civilizations" by Michael Jan Friedman. The planetoid's name was given as T'Rukh in the hardcover novel, "Sarek", with an explanation from the author, AC Crispin, that the name changes are seasonal. (Like the names for the phases of Earth's moon, I guess.)

But - before all that - the planetoid had already appeared in another Pocket novel set on Vulcan, entitled "The Vulcan Academy Murders" (1984). Here it was called T'Kuht, and the author Jean Lorrah acknowledges fanfic identity Gordon Carleton for coining the planetoid's name, and his effort to explain its appearance in "Yesteryear" and TMP, and thus reconciling the old (canonical) TOS quote from "The Man Trap". Because, according to that old memo, if it's live action and its onscreen then its canonical.

Hope that clears it all up. Yes, it's four days into the New Year and I'm still mooning you.

Today's Christmas ornaments are:



Above left: For 1986, the wooden Santa Claus is riding in a hot-air balloon. A cool way to deliver presents to hard-to-visit places? This ornament was a gift from my mother, who, over the years, has been determined to undermine my "only two items per year" policy, and often tucks crafty ornaments into my Christmas gifts. The carolling penguins caught my eye while wandering through the now-defunct Waltons department store adjacent to Bankstown Square.

Above right: For 1985, the three white ceramic geese were quite expensive and came from Grace Bros., Roselands. Obviously these geese are half of the famous "Six geese a-laying..." from the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? The wooden Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a gift from my friends Karen and Tim; a souvenir from their trip to Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, the week of the premiere of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock". Karen and another friend, Eric, took Tim (a Star Trek club member visiting from Perth) to do some touristy things when I was stuck at work.