Very old school flavor. I love your model work.

I have to agree with you on Rocketship XM.

Watch the MST3K version of Rocketship X-M, it's a definite improvement. And what a beautiful job you did on the Luna.

Lisa: How do we stand on fuel now?
Crow: I'm for it.

Oh, the MST3K version is absolutely loaded with gems. If you didn't know that Lloyd Bridges made his name on Sea Hunt (and that at some point, his lungs 'were gasping for air') you will after this show. ^_^

Great stuff!

I love that film!

And we now have two rockets that land on their tails like the old movies.

Farks, post erased... I have that same model built though I didn't know the strut was supposed to be red so I'll keep mine silver, all the photos I've seen it matched the rest of the ship. For that soft lustrous silver it is painted this way (Krylon spray sticks to plastic paint): Base coat: Chrome. Wait 24 hours then clear-coat with a matte clear-coat, I used Acrylic so there wouldn't be any lifting. It gave me that soft, in the distance under searchlight silver colour you see in the movies. Beautiful 1950's rocket.

Rocketship X-M; "Because production issues had delayed the release of George Pal's high-profile Destination Moon, Rocketship X-M was quickly shot in just 18 days on a $94,000 budget; it was then rushed into movie theaters 25 days before the Pal film, while taking full advantage of Destination Moon's high-profile national publicity." Thus the low budget effects and really blocky script. Still in the 1950's when you are still under ten years old it was an awe inspiring movie, I have watched it later in my life and pointedly ignored the errors. At least it isn't as bad as say Plan Nine From Outer Space, Teenagers From Outer Space or Spocks Brain.

That would explain a lot, as XM seemed to not really know what it was doing. The first half kind of plodded along, then the ship and the story just stopped and didn't know what to do (and at that point made it all too clear that science was never allowed anywhere near the script) then rushed off to Mars and on to the hastily tacked on "important message" ending.

In the movie world today these are called Bubblegum movies; they are not intended to make money but quite the opposite, LOSE money. Why? Tax write-offs. When a B-Movie makes a profit the backers scream bloody murder. Theaters are or used to be (when i was working at Backstage) take five looser for every winner. Robin and Marian for example took seven months constant screening at Showplace 5 to break even, meaning that the money Noret bid to have first run rights took that long to be recovered and theaters even today only keep a dime (if that) of each ticket sale. For theaters B (bubblegum) movies are actually a money maker, take for example XM. Back in the 60's and seventies theaters; especially drive-ins, would run a double feature of say I Was A Teenage Wearwolf and XM to sold our crowds. Why? These were teenage make-out movies as no one really watched the things while the backers now long gone no longer cared what the movies made.

This is probably why a lot of once trash movies became cult classics and have made millions in profit for the studios that released them; so the studios are now re-making these movies. James Arness as The Thing, then John Carpenter got hold of it and turned a pretty pathetic freezing plant monster into a 'I can become anything' world killer? Look at Steve MacQueens The Blob vs what it was remade into.

Anyway, the reason that the majority of really stupid movies were made were two-fold, in the majority people who simply wanted a tax write-off, the things were cheap, easy and the IRS never checked. Second reason? People with some talent or a good idea who manage to get enough money together to film their love child but really don't have the talent, skill or budget to to a good job.

Rocketship-XM could have been either of those but after carefully looking at the film and script it is painfully obvious that it was a tax write-off; as even in the 50's we knew re-breathers were no where near enough to survive while on Mars. Not to mention the flight.


I talk too much.

The anti-science part that go to me the most was the stuck between Earth and Moon because the motor stopped, even though they had more than achieved escape velocity. Then the WTF infinite velocity to Mars bit.

ah-yep... I was trying to ignore that.

I just watched Johnny Sokko and the Flying Robot last night, talk about campy, below sub-par budget that makes the late 60s Cybermen from Dr. Who look utterly fantastic.

Always did love the tail dragger rockets from the old Sciffy films.

I never noticed the red fin while watching it on DVD. Have to look out for that now. And yeah, the surface is way different in the film.

So it's not the Tintin "Destination Moon"?

Tin tin's ship has bigger fins and slightly different shape and a keen-o red and white color scheme.

I could never look at that paint job and not think of a box of Purina Chow.

I may have plans for a flying replica. A friend was building one, but never finished it.

Funny thing about Rocketship X-M. Wade Williams secured the rights to it at some point in the seventies and re-shot a bunch of the effects shots. This is the version which currently exists, so one can only imagine that the original special effects from 1950 were even worse. At least the score by Ferde Grofe with Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman on theremin is pretty good.

The only images that might be updated that I saw was a view of the rocket exhaust plume during the launch. There were simply not many effects shots and most were still very much poor model work.

In the orginal version, the shots of Rocketship X-M taking off were stock footage of a V-2 rocket being launched at White Sands. When the rocket lands on Mars, the footage is run in reverse. The design for Rocketship X-M itself were lifted from the illustrations for an 1949 article in LIFE magazine about a moon flight. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this movie, one of the reasons being that I could visit Red Rock Canyon and Death Valley, where the Mars sequences were filmed. And ROCKETSHIP X-M has an excellent score, you're right about that.

Cool, thanks for clearing that up! And I know what you mean about visiting filming locations. I remember when I went to Vasquez Rocks, I felt just like I was in a Star Trek episode.

And don't forget "The Zanti Misfits" from THE OUTER LIMITS. Bruce Dern killed by a big ant that has the face of an Irishman... Cool!

Uniform finish is an understatement, that is a pristine paint job. Wow! I love the presentation on the lunar surface as well.

It is Tamiya spray paint silver, decanted, thinned with a bit of lacquer thinner and then airbrushed on, wide spray at moderate pressure

Hard to beat the simple elegant beauty of those 'Silver Age' designs. Beautiful model and photograph.

[As the three remaining astronauts run from the rock-throwing Stone-Age Martians…]
Servo [as Astronaut]: Well...that could have gone better.
Joel [as Tooter Turtle]: Hellllp, Mr. Wizaaaaard!
Crow [as Other Astronaut]: Nonsense!
Servo [as King Arthur]: Run away! Run away!
Joel [as Tooter Turtle]: I don't wanna be an astronaut anymore!
[Fade into the next scene, where the rocket blasts off.]
Servo [as Shaggy]: Oooh! Scooby! We gotta get outta here, Scooby!
Crow [as Mr. Wizard]: Dreezle drazzle drozzle drome!
Servo [as Mr. Wizard]: Time for zis vun to come home!

Man, they don't make them like that anymore....