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The future is made of blinky lights, cute robots, and tight, shiny spandex.
Notes:
My "dual neon generators" are finally complete, powered up, switched on, and doing whatever it is that they do. This is the configuration the prop had about 1983-1984, and which lasted up through the late 80's (not sure of exact date, but it shows up looking like this in Star Trek:TNG several times.)
Also of note, those lighted blue wall panels are another stock sci-fi prop, which show up all over the place. They've been seen attached to various walls in Knight Rider, and Star Trek: TNG. They also had a place of honor in STREET HAWK, where they lined the walls of the hi-tech loading platform where the bike was kept between missions.
Furthermore, in the background, those tube-looking things are another bit of kit that shows up everywhere. Those are the protective shipping containers for military sonar buoys (or SONOBUOYS to give their proper nomenclature) which have been used as everything from Buck Rogers force field generators, to Star Trek wall decor - and of course, most famously as the "transporter test object" in a number of episodes of TNG.
And it wouldn't really be the future, without a backlit metal gridded wall made from warehouse shelving. I think there's a law that says all science fiction sets have to have at least one of those, somewhere.
And, of course, last but not least...
Meet MICROBOT.
He is actually one of my oldest characters. When I first created him, way back when, he was little more than a TV set on wheels. (The idea being that he was a MICROcomputer made into a roBOT. So he was built to look the way computers did at the time which meant a TV monitor attached to a computer-in-a-box.)
Over the decades he's been adapted several times to various platforms: from hand drawn comics to 3d models. He was actually one of my very first 3d model subjects, back when I was lumbering along with eight megs of ram, in a clunky apple Centris 650, and using a demonstrator copy of Ray Dream Designer. I also built a version of him in Second Life. And now, here he is, with a fresh, new updated design, and a brand new model, as a poser figure.
My design intent for this version of him was to make him as realistic as possible. And to that end, I sat down and looked at a lot of technical details on real-world robot platforms, and worked out how he could have been built as an actual 1980s TV prop. I won't go into the full details here, but he is, logically, something that could have been built and operated on a TV Budget.
Oh, and the light on top flashes when he speaks. Because Robot.
TALBOC: ...and after all that retro-80s kitsch was assembled in one location for this shot, Cobalt went and blew it by bringing along his iPad. Way to anachronism!
Notes:
My "dual neon generators" are finally complete, powered up, switched on, and doing whatever it is that they do. This is the configuration the prop had about 1983-1984, and which lasted up through the late 80's (not sure of exact date, but it shows up looking like this in Star Trek:TNG several times.)
Also of note, those lighted blue wall panels are another stock sci-fi prop, which show up all over the place. They've been seen attached to various walls in Knight Rider, and Star Trek: TNG. They also had a place of honor in STREET HAWK, where they lined the walls of the hi-tech loading platform where the bike was kept between missions.
Furthermore, in the background, those tube-looking things are another bit of kit that shows up everywhere. Those are the protective shipping containers for military sonar buoys (or SONOBUOYS to give their proper nomenclature) which have been used as everything from Buck Rogers force field generators, to Star Trek wall decor - and of course, most famously as the "transporter test object" in a number of episodes of TNG.
And it wouldn't really be the future, without a backlit metal gridded wall made from warehouse shelving. I think there's a law that says all science fiction sets have to have at least one of those, somewhere.
And, of course, last but not least...
Meet MICROBOT.
He is actually one of my oldest characters. When I first created him, way back when, he was little more than a TV set on wheels. (The idea being that he was a MICROcomputer made into a roBOT. So he was built to look the way computers did at the time which meant a TV monitor attached to a computer-in-a-box.)
Over the decades he's been adapted several times to various platforms: from hand drawn comics to 3d models. He was actually one of my very first 3d model subjects, back when I was lumbering along with eight megs of ram, in a clunky apple Centris 650, and using a demonstrator copy of Ray Dream Designer. I also built a version of him in Second Life. And now, here he is, with a fresh, new updated design, and a brand new model, as a poser figure.
My design intent for this version of him was to make him as realistic as possible. And to that end, I sat down and looked at a lot of technical details on real-world robot platforms, and worked out how he could have been built as an actual 1980s TV prop. I won't go into the full details here, but he is, logically, something that could have been built and operated on a TV Budget.
Oh, and the light on top flashes when he speaks. Because Robot.
TALBOC: ...and after all that retro-80s kitsch was assembled in one location for this shot, Cobalt went and blew it by bringing along his iPad. Way to anachronism!
Category All / All
Species Bear (Other)
Size 1280 x 720px
File Size 416.8 kB
Ah the thing that serves no purpose. And I'd give the tablet computer a pass- it's one of those things that's been a staple of comic book supervillian equipment for so long. Like the giant taking-up-the-wall television and the flat screen. Now if we can only get our hands on jetpacks and ray guns.
I've been loving this particular GNDN device since the early eighties, like you. It was the first prop I ever noticed as being reused from film to film, and very likely where I first got the inkling that "prop-maker" was a freelance sort of job that anyone can do, which of course led to my brief-but-vivid Hollywood career.
I sometimes miss that life. And then I remember what a total douchecanoe our agent was and I am reminded that 90% of people in the film industry are exactly like that, and I become happy I don't work there again.
I sometimes miss that life. And then I remember what a total douchecanoe our agent was and I am reminded that 90% of people in the film industry are exactly like that, and I become happy I don't work there again.
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