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Post by dafrca on Sept 20, 2019 14:23:54 GMT -9
I am curious, what makes a SciFi movie or TV "Retro"? Is it just the year it was made or is it a particular look or something else?
I think of a few movies that might make fun sets or even play sets. Forbidden Planet, the 1968 Planet of the Apes, or Invasion of the Triffids come to mind. But then there re several from the late 60s and into the 70s that would be fun but do they count as "retro"?
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 20, 2019 23:36:45 GMT -9
I am curious, what makes a SciFi movie or TV "Retro"? Is it just the year it was made or is it a particular look or something else? I think of a few movies that might make fun sets or even play sets. Forbidden Planet, the 1968 Planet of the Apes, or Invasion of the Triffids come to mind. But then there re several from the late 60s and into the 70s that would be fun but do they count as "retro"? That actually is a good question, and the answer might be very dependent on the asker's age and cultural background. I come from (Western) Germany and am 44 years old, so I grew up in the 70's and 80's with a focus on American and British Science Fiction and space exploration with a little bit of Anime scifi mixed into it. My TV shows were Star Trek, Space: 1999, UFO, Buck Rogers, and the old Battlestar Glactica, as well as the Anime version of Captain Future (I loved it to death and beyond when I was 4 or 5 years old). It took a little while for me to discover Star Wars (in 1982) and much later all the other "classic" scifi movies like the Alien series, 2001, etc. However, not all scifi was scifi to me. While Star Wars has space ships, blasters, and such, I always saw it as something seperate from Star Trek, Space: 1999, or Buck Rogers. And He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, though having blasters and modern machinery, never occured to me to be Science Fiction. MASK was too near in the future to be real scifi, and (sometime later) BraveStarr was too much of a Wild West show to be "real" scifi. Up until the beginning of the 90's, I had no idea about genres and sub-genres, so I was able to instinctively devide Science Fiction into its various forms, but could not really put my finger on it. So, I made up my own distinctions. What's usually called "Hard Science Fiction" was 70's scifi to me, because the movies and shows of that time usually were closer to the possible future than to an impossible... or at least I thought so – given enough time, things might end up like in BSG or Buck Rogers. "Dark SciFi" and "Cyberpunk" were gritty or grimey scifi to me. However, this area of scifi also included movies like Mad Max or SpaceHunter. Finally, the rest had each their own category: Star Trek was Star Trek, Star Wars was Star Wars, Captain Future was Captain Future, and the other cartoons were simply cartoons. So, where is the RETRO in all this? I believe that retro is the label we put on things that become interesting to us once again, often connected with a certain feeling of nostalgia. Things that remind us of our childhood (only the good memories, of course) or of something we discovered at an early age. When I first discovered Flash Gordon in the mid-80's (it was aired in the afternoons on a local TV station), it was just old to me. We only had a b/w TV set then, but still I could tell that the show was not supposed to be in color. When I "rediscovered" the old Flash Gordon show much later, I got a warm cozy feeling of ease and being safe from watching it, as it remembered me of when I watched the same episodes at the age of 10. So, FG turned from being old to being retro. For me, it's the same with everything from the 70's and 80's that I liked back then. In general, people call something retro when it is basically old, yet something they remember fondly and miss in our modern times. I guess, with that definition, you could go back in history and find retro everywhere, as people always tend to be more fond of what they remember being good as of what might lurk behind the next corner. However, what one finds retro and chic, another might despise. That's why we sometimes laugh at things that are called retro, since we lack the emotional bonding that others might experience. An example: Many people already regard the Space Shuttle already as retro. Not me, for even though it is a thing from my childhood, and obviously gone, it is still present enough (basically always seeing it when something about space exploration is shown on TV or depicted elsewhere) that it is not combined with the needed feeling of nostalgia (at least in my case). The moon lander and the moon buggy, however, start to feel retro to me...
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 21, 2019 4:01:51 GMT -9
That hits the nail on the head. I was hoping to get a wide range of submissions on this. To me, retro Sci Fi is what they came up with before man actually made it to space. But for others it is something totally different.
I think of things that people thought of that were dead ends in the development of space travel. Cavorite Spheres, Ballistic Capsules, Rockets like the ones in 1950's and earlier movies. When we were getting ready for the first manned moon landing, I remember a documentary showing what NASA envisioned for the space program, and each segment had several movie excerpts of movies and talked about how NASA was going to do things. I have been trying many different searches. Not sure if it was Laurel and Hardy, or what, but they had what I think was a Model T that they were driving on the moon. Rocket cars, rocket sleds, rocket toasters...
That's retro to me
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 21, 2019 4:25:20 GMT -9
One thing that is especially retro scifi to me is "our future that never happened", meaning scifi shows, books, comics, etc. that depicted (in their time) a future that by now has become our past. Like UFO which is set in 1980 or Space: 1999 which is obviously set in 1999 (just like the beginning of Robotech, for that matter). And I think we also have outlived Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet...
I remember a box full of issues of a 1950's and 1960's magazine called Hobby that my father at the time had collected. There were several issues dedicated to how the future would possibly be, and of course everything was run with nuclear power, cars could fly, and life in the 1990's was supposed to be like seen in The Jetsons cartoon. Sadly, the box got lost when my parents moved in the late 90's...
Also, I know that in Germany's east (in the former GDR) scifi looked very different from what I grew up with. Being part of the Eastern block of soviet-oriented states, their scifi was very much soviet-oriented, as well. So, I guess people in my age from our five eastern German states will have quite a different view what is retro scifi and what is not...
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Post by wyvern on Sept 21, 2019 4:29:40 GMT -9
"Retro" just means a fashion of the past, with - as shep and Vermin King noted - an implied nostalgic recollection (note that need not be an actual memory), and a strong likelihood that whatever it was is now considered obsolete or unrealistic. The Apollo Moon landers or Rovers don't fall into such a category to me, given that largely identical technologies and mechanisms are still being used now (e.g. with the NASA Mars rovers) or proposed for future use (next generation Moon landers and vehicles). Arguably, the former Soviet rockets that are currently still the ONLY means of humans accessing near-Earth space, are far more "retro" than the Space Shuttle, given they're essentially technology from the 1940s-1950s with a few more modern tweaks!
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 21, 2019 4:42:56 GMT -9
Arguably, the former Soviet rockets that are currently still the ONLY means of humans accessing near-Earth space, are far more "retro" than the Space Shuttle, given they're essentially technology from the 1940s-1950s with a few more modern tweaks! See, that's what I meant with the personal viewpoint that partly defines what people think of as retro. Would I not know about the history the Sojuz capsule and that it is still regularly flying into space, and were I to just see a picture of it, I would totally agree that the space ship is a really cool retro design ideal for a movie or game or something the like. On the other hand, the next generation of US space ships is also much more kin to the old Apollo capsules than to the Space Shuttle (which basically was a good idea, but not extremely well executed). So, what can we learn from that? The future of mankind in space comes in capsules, not in space planes...
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Post by sithcundman on Sept 21, 2019 10:21:24 GMT -9
Does Dan Dare qualify?
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Post by dafrca on Sept 21, 2019 10:25:26 GMT -9
Some great answers here. I can see how the time makes them feel retro to you. I saw the original Alien movie in the theater when it came out. So for me, it does not feel "retro" to me yet even if it is an "old" movie from the 70's. LOL
But the stuff I watched when I was a kid does. Thunderbirds for example or the original Lost in Space or Land of the Giants or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea all do.
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 21, 2019 10:46:18 GMT -9
Some great answers here. I can see how the time makes them feel retro to you. I saw the original Alien movie in the theater when it came out. So for me, it does not feel "retro" to me yet even if it is an "old" movie from the 70's. LOL But the stuff I watched when I was a kid does. Thunderbirds for example or the original Lost in Space or Land of the Giants or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea all do. There you have it, you found your personal selection of retro scifi...
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 21, 2019 10:47:06 GMT -9
Does Dan Dare qualify? What's this? And where can I get it? I looove audioplays... EDIT: I found it. Seems promising enough to order Ep. 1 from Amazon...
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Post by cowboyleland on Sept 21, 2019 18:26:41 GMT -9
I am curious, what makes a SciFi movie or TV "Retro"? Is it just the year it was made or is it a particular look or something else? I think of a few movies that might make fun sets or even play sets. Forbidden Planet, the 1968 Planet of the Apes, or Invasion of the Triffids come to mind. But then there re several from the late 60s and into the 70s that would be fun but do they count as "retro"? Remember you can submit projects "off theme" so you don't have to worry if it actually fits anyone elses idea of what the theme is. It doesn't even have to make sense to you!
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Post by nullpointer on Sept 25, 2019 14:37:59 GMT -9
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Post by squirmydad on Sept 25, 2019 18:19:14 GMT -9
Cool, Flash Gordon terrain? My projects computer is still in the shop until Friday so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish anything this month.
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 25, 2019 18:34:29 GMT -9
One of the last things I saved on my now dead computer was images of a tin toy rocket sled I wanted to do, but now I can't find them again
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 25, 2019 23:25:24 GMT -9
I just need to design the game pieces (little rockets in various colors) and put down some instructions, and my little board game will be done. However, I have a busy weekend ahead, so it might be a close call on Monday or even Tuesday (technically Oct. 1st). When do you plan on closing this hoard?
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Post by Cardstock Dane on Sept 25, 2019 23:32:51 GMT -9
Not for very much longer... I've got to keep control
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Post by alloydog on Sept 26, 2019 1:03:48 GMT -9
Many people already regard the Space Shuttle already as retro. Tell me about it! A guy at work, in his mid-20s knew vaguely about the shuttle and had never heard about the Challenger and Columbia disasters! I felt reeeeeeeally old...
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 26, 2019 4:07:38 GMT -9
I'm really feeling old today. Tough night at work last night. As far as the Hoard, we need to come up with an extension date. When do we want to close it out? Not to distract shep, but this reminded me of this
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 26, 2019 6:01:39 GMT -9
I'm really feeling old today. Tough night at work last night. As far as the Hoard, we need to come up with an extension date. When do we want to close it out? Not to distract shep, but this reminded me of this I'm wondering why... Fun fact, however, the shuttle in the model is labeled "Endeavour", but I actually saw the "Enterprise". Yup, the first of her class, so to say. And I was only about 200 to 250 meters away... *faints Oh, and to complete the useless info, the woman next to me is, of course, my mom, and the gnome in her arms is my little brother (then almost age 3). The picture was taken in May 1983, so I was 8 years old... As for the hoard's deadline, how about we delay it one week? This would make Monday Oct. 7th the final threshold for these mysterious future things from the past...
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 26, 2019 6:12:37 GMT -9
Sounds good to me. Maybe I will have time to throw something together, too
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 26, 2019 6:15:16 GMT -9
Sounds good to me. Maybe I will have time to throw something together, too Didn't you do an airship, once? Maybe you could mod it into a Flash Gordon style rocket??!?
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 26, 2019 6:35:04 GMT -9
The only airship I built was a kitbash of squirmydad's. I think I have a couple more ideas
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 27, 2019 2:23:07 GMT -9
Only a little bit more text to the file, and my little space race game is done... Also, I need to get a new set of color markers, as I want matching edge coloring for this project...
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 27, 2019 19:49:10 GMT -9
Okay, if I have a week, could I turn this old Flash Gordon Comic Book Cutout into a model?
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 28, 2019 1:11:52 GMT -9
Okay, if I have a week, could I turn this old Flash Gordon Comic Book Cutout into a model? If not you, sir, no one can...
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 28, 2019 3:26:24 GMT -9
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 28, 2019 5:28:13 GMT -9
Okay, if I have a week, could I turn this old Flash Gordon Comic Book Cutout into a model? If not you, sir, no one can... Maybe... As I have been reviewing this, it reminds me of problems with many vintage models, but on the other hand, before computers, they accomplished some pretty amazing stuff. The red lower body represents a smooth hull. Note how the front wraps around and then the top wraps over the seam. And it has a cockpit. But why would they have 'cut along this line' written on the top/outside edge of the cockpit? On the tail, I don't know why they don't have a rear end cap, which would also help it maintain its shape. As is often the case, I will have to build it as-designed to really see what is there, but I'm low on ink. Ink run time. Doing some clean-up because even the as-designed version should look good
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Post by squirmydad on Sept 28, 2019 7:21:08 GMT -9
Sweet! Do you have any build or in-game action shots of this?
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Post by Vermin King on Sept 28, 2019 9:58:08 GMT -9
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shep
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Post by shep on Sept 28, 2019 12:48:54 GMT -9
Sweet! Do you have any build or in-game action shots of this? Only the pictures of my testbuild rocket above, I'm afraid. However, since there is one week left, and I'll have to pay my local copyshop a visit, anyway, I can just as well print some more pages and build the game. There's not that much to do next week...
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