Prototype Week Begins with Twiki!

[Mego-Brat]

I assume that's a sticker on his chest and not a paint job?

Yes, it is actually a photostat copy of some artwork I did. Since the photostat was only black and white, I had to color it in with magic marker!

Remember, this was WAY before computers, Photoshop and Illustrator!

Tory

[Ranger 3]

So YOU are actually the one who did that sticker! Haha... I recently tried to recreate that sticker to make my own custom 'prototype Twiki'!

Do you recall what the story was behind that? I.E., did you not have any photo reference from Universal of the Dr. Theopolis prop at the time? What were you told that circle on the chest was supposed to be?

(Sorry about the rapid-fire questions!)

Mark

[Mego-Brat]

Yup, that was me alright.

Universal sent us a nice set of studio stills (sure wish I saved those) of everything. We weren't aware of what the disc was, but had plenty of photographic reference of it!

I actually drew the image much larger and had it photostated down to fit. We had a guy (Charlie I think his name was ) that ran the photostat machine in a large darkroom in R&D. When we got the Starfighter studio model in, we loaded it into the photostat camera and did a full size plan view of it for the designers to use to generate the control drawings (bluprints). Don't have that either.

Tory

[Ranger 3]

Any insight as to why the stickers for the starfighter were so different from the way the studio model was painted and detailed? I've always liked the black sticker design around the cockpit- looks like grip surface for where the pilot would walk to get into the cockpit. The rainbow stripes and logo on the toy always looked nicer to me- the ones on the studio model were pretty small and too subtle in my opinion.

In case you need your memory jogged as to what I'm talking about, look here:

Mego Toy:
http://www.bugeyedmonster.com/toys/b...erloosebox.jpg

Studio Model (replica):
IMG_5591 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

By the way, there are places to get castings of the original studio starfighter model- the same kind that Universal sent to Mego. If you are interested, PM me and I can pass on the info.

Mark

[BlackKnight]

Thats very cool Indeed.
I have always Been a Fan of the character. Great Stuff.

[Mego-Brat]

As a matter of fact, I think I can shed some light there. The studio model came in to us assembled incorrectly and painted with enough Krylon Glossy White to cover the space shuttle. We stripped the paint and re-assembeled the model. Unfortunately, even the studio stills we recieved were missing any markings, most were of unfinished models. So the graphics department had to guess at what would be on the Starfighter based on the clip art and style guides the studio supplied us. One of the designers suggested the anti skid paneling, a nice detail I thought as well.

Thanks for the offer on aquiring a studio scale model, however I do have an unbuilt Monogram kit that I will get to eventually which is a far more manageble size. That will do for now!

Tory

[Ranger 3]

Your story is essentially what I guessed had happened- no info from the studio, and Mego had to guess! Nice job guessing! I've often thought of painting up a Monogram Starfighter kits (or even one of the aforementioned studio model replicas) with the Mego markings.

And I understand about the model- a 24" spaceship is often hard to find a place for!

Mark