Alien movie viewer from Kenner 1979

[mazinz]

A lot of you on here are aware of this toy movie viewer made by Kenner. Funny in that I was not allowed to see the film, but I was allowed to own the 18" toy figure as well as this movie viewer. So the first time I saw Alien was this 1 min and 12 second short from a 2 hour film.

I recently re-transferred this using my iphone and I know a number of people wanted to see the actual clip since it does not appear to be on youtube (well now it is)--enjoy


the viewer and my rig with the video at the bottom

[drquest]

Very cool and they showed the entire movie there! I was waiting for Ripley in her underwear to show up, LOL...

Thanks for sharing it!

[Hedji]

That. Was. AWESOME!!! I've always wondered... now I know. It really shows quite a bit of the film.

I've always found this particular toy to be more offensive than the doll which got more outcry and publicity. It's like Kenner saying... "Psst... Hey kid. Mom won't let you see a rated R film? Well, just peep through this little hole and have a lookie lookie." This is one creepy toy.

After my dog chewed up my Star Wars one, I removed the film, which was just Super8, and would thread that through a standard Super8 movie projector and enjoy. There was nothing better than cranking forward to make the X-wings explode, then backward and watch them in reverse as they reformed.

[cjefferys]

That was awesome, thanks for doing that! My first exposure to the film itself was watching this very clip on this movie viewer in K-mart (the packaging of the toy allowed you to sample watching the film) when I was around eleven years old (I was dying to see the film, but an R-rating in Canada meant that no one under 18 was allowed to see it). The footage they showed was pretty intense for a kids toy, what was Kenner thinking? A boxed example of this viewer is on my wish list!

[windebieste]

Hah! Fantastic! So glad to see this on Youtube now. Thanks for posting. I've never owned one of these and always wondered what its content was.

The great thing now, of course, is someone will rip the footage off the 'ALIEN' BluRay (or DVD) and use the movie viewer footage as a template to re-create a crystal clear interpretation of this. A bonus would be if they kept the clip silent and lifted your sprocket sounds and used that. lol. Too Awesome!

I give it about a week to show up.

-Windebieste.

[Hedji]

Great idea! If I had the time, I'd do that myself.

[Bantha5]

Super cool, thanks for posting. The cranking just makes it that much better.

[J.B.]

That was great; thanks for doing that.

[Jason73]

Thanks so much for posting this. I had no idea Kenner did a movie viewer for Alien.

[HardyGirl]

None of my Kenner movies work in my viewer. I don't think they hold up as well as the Fisher-Price. Can you do the video thing w/ Fisher Price cartridges?

[MRP]

Nice! Thanks for doing this, I really enjoyed it.

-M

[DavidCoppola]

Another Super 8 version exists. A 400 footer with sound released by Ken Films. A 17 minute version. It's on Youtube, This was right before VHS took over.

[mazinz]

Glad everyone enjoyed it. It was a pain in the *** to get the phone lined up just right and then making sure I can smush the duct tape on the viewer to keep it that way

None of my Kenner movies work in my viewer. I don't think they hold up as well as the Fisher-Price. Can you do the video thing w/ Fisher Price cartridges?

Yes, however fisher price also made this wonderful goodie back then:

The Fisher Price Movie Viewer Theater. This allowed you to not only beam it on the wall, but it also had a small built in tv screen to view it that way as well. They go for various prices on ebay. Back then a girl I knew owned this and we would watch the reels all day. I just bought one off ebay. I have 2 viewers and a few reels still left but this projector would work well to transfer the films as well as knowing my niece would love it. I also had no idea how many reels for this were made (like the Black Hole). Below the pic is another link that gives a full breakdown of them




link for the various cartridges made for the viewer

http://www.thisoldtoy.com/fisher-price/dept-1-audio-vis-mus/f-movie-viewer/a-index.html#7

[cjefferys]

Another Super 8 version exists. A 400 footer with sound released by Ken Films. A 17 minute version. It's on Youtube, This was right before VHS took over.

Oh yeah, I remember my uncle borrowing this from the local library back around 1980. I remember my sister and I watching it at his house (whenever he babysat us he would have a "movie night" and pre-VCR that meant dragging out the projector and watching some Super 8 films). Even this version of the film scared the crap out of me, it had the chest-burster scene and everything.

[windebieste]

Everybody should have a cool uncle who let's them watch Alien movies when they are young. lol.

It's really amazing how many people actually watched this movie as a kid, despite the R-rating it had at the time.

'ALIENS' is a much more kiddie friendly movie (if that's possible) for some reason. I guess being more action oriented has a lot to do with it.

-Windebieste.