'THIS ISLAND EARTH' SCI-FI METALUNA MUTANT FROM ATLANTIS MODELS

 

WITH MOST SCALE MODEL NEWS REVIEWS, we deal first with the model, then maybe go into a few intriguing details that we hope are of interest. But with this new Atlantis kit, we have approached it the other way around, as things are not anything like straightforward.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017: KEEP ON MODELLING!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! HERE'S A ROUNDUP of scale goodness to enjoy before 2017 really gets rolling.

SAUCER SIGHTING: C-57D SPACE CRUISER FROM ‘FORBIDDEN PLANET’ ZOOMS IN FROM POLAR LIGHTS

Forbidden Planet, ‘the’ classic 1950s science-fiction movie, memorably gave us not only Robby the Robot, but also the C-57D Space Cruiser. Polar Lights has already issued a larger kit of this flying saucer, but has now come up with a brand new, half-size version to 1:144 scale.

ROBBY THE ROBOT FROM POLAR LIGHTS: HUMANOID MACHINE CARRIES ALTAIRA, THE LUSCIOUS SPACE-GIRL

Mat Irvine: Robby the Robot, mechanoid star of the classic movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ is now available as a 1:12 scale ‘Movie Poster Edition’ kit that depicts the space-girl Altaira in its arms.

ROBBY THE ROBOT KIT FROM THE MOVIE ‘FORBIDDEN PLANET’

Mat Irvine reflects
“Welcome to Altair IV gentlemen…” were the words of one of science fiction’s best-known robots, Robby, from the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, which had its first US screening on this day 54 years ago.

Forbidden Planet was a very loose reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and if you feel inclined, you can find a movie parallel to all the play’s characters, not least the spirit Ariel, which takes on a more solid movie form as Robby the Robot.

In the scale model world, Robby is one of the classic kits that the original Aurora model company never made. Aurora had already produced the robot from the TV series 'Lost in Space', so Robby would have made a natural follow-on, especially as ‘he’ came first and the LiS design was influenced by Robby - not surprising, as it was created by Bob Kinoshita, one of Robby’s original designers.

Robby may not have appeared as an original Aurora kit, but this situation was rectified when the Polar Lights kit company came on the scene. One of its kits was a Robby the Robot to the same scale as the Aurora LiS robot, which Polar Lights had already recreated.

But a somewhat misleading aspect of the movie’s publicity was the poster, echoed on the box-art. Although voted ‘Fifth Best-Ever Movie Poster’ in a ‘Premier’ magazine poll, it shows Robby carrying Altaira, the daughter of scientist Dr Edward Morbius, in his arms. She wears a skimpy gold costume, and despite spending much of the movie changing from one costume to another, none of them were this shade of gold, and - also to the point - Robby never carried her like this at all!

However, this didn’t stop the doyen of figure modellers, Jimmy Flintstone, producing a simple resin kit representation of spacegirl Altaira, to the correct size and shape to be carried by the Polar Lights Robby. She is clad in a costume seen briefly, (which is both the scene length and nature of the costume), near the end of the movie. This costume is in pale blue metallic fabrics, not gold, and in a shade more used to being painted onto model cars. So it almost represents the movie poster - but not quite.

Robby has since been reissued by Round 2 Models, a US company that owns a family of brands, including the Polar Lights name. The kit comes without Altaira though - the Jimmy Flintstone figure I used here came from CultTVMan’s on-line shop.

My model shows Robby carrying Altaira on a simple scratchbuilt base I made, to represent the alien planet Altair IV, where the movie's events take place.

And Finally...
Forbidden Planet is one of those movies often quoted as being ‘down for a re-make’. Latest rumours are for a James Cameron project slated for 2011, though one has to wonder, ‘why?’

The pictures show, top to bottom:
1, 2 My builtup model of Robby carrying Altaira, and a closeup.
3 The Forbidden Planet poster.
4 Old Polar Lights box.
5 New version from Round 2 Models.

Visit Robby the robot at Round 2 Models here.

Visit Jimmy Flintstone Studios here.

Altaira is available from CultTVMan here.

UNIQUE HALLMARK CHRISTMAS KEEPSAKE ORNAMENTS OFFER SOUND AND LIGHT

Christmas is coming, and for those living in the US at least, it’s also time for the Hallmark Corporation’s annual Keepsake Ornaments to decorate the tree. Hallmark’s early Keepsake offerings (the line started in 1973) included Santas, fairies, elves, polar bears and the like. But today Keepsake subjects range across the spectrum.

Still, that’s good for us model fans, as Hallmark includes items that are much more interesting than a bunch of mere elves. 2009 includes sci-fi offerings such as the speaking Robby the Robot from the movie Forbidden Planet as featured by Mat Irvine in our video above. The picture shows another movie tie-in, the Ecto-1 Cadillac from Ghostbusters, to roughly 1:50 scale. It too has a good quality sound chip, this time with an excellent rendering of the Ghostbusters musical theme.

Earlier Hallmarks have included spacecraft and characters from Star Trek and Star Wars. You knew Christmas was changing forever when you were presented, not with a festive Santa, but a laser-firing Klingon Cruiser! Hallmark's earthbound styles of transportation currently include both American pickup trucks and classic American cars. Although the scales are not stated, they are pretty detailed representations.

Robby the Robot is in the ‘Nostalgia and Fun’ section of Hallmark’s Keepsake Ornaments site here.

To give you a feel for prices on older items, there’s a collectible Star Trek shuttlecraft on eBay here.

There are other collectible Forbidden Planet items to look at here, and Ghostbusters stuff here.