The AMT Interplanetary UFO Mystery Ship!

We all have those models that have a special place in our hearts. This is one of mine.  Originally released by AMT in the 1960's as the Leif Ericson Galactic Cruiser, the UFO Mystery Ship was released in the 1970's. It was pretty much the Leif Ericson, but it lacked some chrome and clear parts, and a paper record of "The Sounds of Outer Space." However, it made up for these points with one fact...it glowed in the dark!

The history of the model is a little strange. It was marketed with AMT's Star Trek line, but it never appeared in the series. However, when digging for fun facts when I built it, I discovered that there actually was a tie-in. It seems that Matt Jefferies (designer of the original Star Trek ships) also designed the Leif Erikson! It is unclear if it was ever considered for use in the series.

I had the Mystery Ship version in the 1970's. I had hours of fun playing with it! I especially liked it's opening docking bay and tiny scout ship. When it was released again by Round 2 models in 2008, I had to have it....and I knew it had to fly!

Here is what I came up with...

The box has dramatic artwork!

As you see, I went with a slightly different name...

The profile is quite striking! I love the angles on the fins.

The top-down shot. I couldn't work out how to make the docking bay open, due to "plumbing."

A bottom-up shot. Note the epoxied on launch lug. I was going to hide it in the engine pod, but the angles wouldn't work.

This is why there was so much plumbing! I really like the look of parallel clustering. I arranged the engine hooks that way because I felt like it!

Bill Gee captured this lift-off shot! You can really see those clustered C engines roar! I had to use three C's because with nose weight this bird is heavy!

She flew great and was returned with no damage! Now she's a hanger queen, but every now and then I get the urge to let 'er rip again! Who knows?.....maybe....

By the way, if you want to hear the record that came with the original model...Here ya go!

https://youtu.be/XlHzAC_ye28


Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Cold War In a Box!

This week I have an item for you that, try as much as I can, I cannot recall actually buying. You see, it has been in my closet for so stinking long, that it just seems like it has always been there. How long? Well, judging from the copyright dates, about 31 years!

The item I'm talking about is this:

Yep, its the U.S. and U.S.S.R.'s nuclear arsenals in cold, deadly plastic. The model is dated 1984, and I'm pretty sure that is around the time I got it. It also is seven years before the fall of the Soviet Union, so at the time, this was high tech stuff!

So, why didn't I ever build it? The answer is simple. At 1/ 144 scale, the missiles were simply too small to convert to fly. As a model rocket guy, that makes it a non-starter...literally. Also, to be perfectly honest, I have always been more interested in manned spaceflight (be it historic or fictional).

So, it sits in my closet. It may be a relic of a cold war past...but it looks like it will always be an unstarted one.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

From Russia With Love

Ok, I don't really know how much love is involved here, but my items I have to share this week do indeed come from Russia. A while back, I picked up a couple of small pinbacks celebrating the Soviet space program. Here they are, as displayed on my rocket hat:

Now, I can't speak or read Russian, but the dates on these pretty much give away what they mean. The bottom pin was made to celebrate Sputnik I, the world's first man made satellite. It shows Sputnik orbiting the earth and has a red star on the Soviet Union.

The top pin celebrates Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight in which he became the first man to orbit the earth. It seems that this is a 10 year anniversary pin. I like the science fiction based rocket, and the CCCP Soviet marking. It's sad to think that Gagarin passed away two years before this pin was made.

So there you have it; two huge milestones preserved on my floppy hat. You know, I kind of do love them...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Keeping the Dream Alive

I went back to my day job this week, as school is beginning to ramp up again. For those of you who may not know, I'm an elementary school counselor. On Wednesday I was in a training with a nationally recognized teacher who was sharing techniques on engaging students, etc. He was really good, but then he began using a lesson on the first moon landing in his examples. Now, as I said, he was really good (with the possible exception of how he insisted that microwave ovens "hadn't even been invented in 1969"...Oops!) but as he struggled to explain what a huge accomplishment the moon landing was, I was struck by two facts; almost at the exact same moment: 1. Kids have no idea what it felt like to live in that version of America, where ANYTHING seemed possible. 2. HE didn't know either. It hit me that this guy was probably born 15 years after the events he was describing.

Still, he did an ok job, but he didn't really capture the time.

I can say that because he was describing MY time. I was born less than 24 hours after John Kennedy said "We choose to go to the moon and do the other thing not because they are easy, but because they are hard." I was 6 when I watched in awe as first Neil Armstrong and then Buzz Aldrin climbed down that LEM ladder and walked on another world. After that, whenever anyone said "anything is possible," we believed it! It was a time of wonder and magic!

Fortunately, we do have some fairly recent documentaries that do capture the time well. First we have the Tom Hanks produced, "From the Earth to the Moon."

My VHS version....I need to upgrade to BluRay!

This 12 part series does a great job of capturing the feeling of that time. Of course, Mr. Hanks is also a child of that time, so he knows what he's talking about. I highly recommend binge watching this. Now. Do it.

Next we have The Discovery Channel's series, "When We Left Earth."

This 6 part series goes from Mercury through the shuttle. Its a great overview and has tons of rare footage.

I wish we could make it mandatory that every high school kid (and social studies teacher) be required to watch at least one of these series. Perhaps it would explain why STEM is so darned important! Maybe it would just inspire some kid to want more out of his world. I know I want more out of mine.