Fandom in the 70s... The Star Trek Dream TV Special..

[plynch]

I have half a mind to make an Enterprise. I never could get one to turn out right. I damaged our very good dining room table when I got so mad at the E I picked up a hammer and wham-wham-wham-ed on the table. It's a table, right? Soft wood, made a big dent/hole. Tried filling it with model glue. They'll never know, right?

My trouble was getting the warp nacelles to stay up. Even when they changed the secondary hull so it had sockets for the nacelles instead of just slots. Tried building it upside down. I was too impatient, and would check it before the glue was dry. Wermp, down they would droop like someone in need of viagra, 30 years before it was invented.

And those damned decals. The long pennants for the warp nacelles - they'd curl up like no tomorrow. Many models I did fine on - had a great navy carrier Enterprise, but the one I most wanted to do well . . . no. It made me a better person, perhaps.

 

[Greg Cox]

And before Starlog, there was Famous Monsters of Filmland, which is how I first learned about Doctor Who . . ..

 

[Maurice]

Getting back to the Exploration Set model kit, as screen INaccurate as it was, it was magnitudes better than what we had earlier. I'm sure I've related this anecdote elsewhere in this forum, but please forgive me for repeating it here.

Before that kit was released, by buddy Kyle and I had to make do with some interesting subtitutes. Since I played Spock, I nabbed a binocular case along with its strap to serve as my tricorder. As it was black, it worked well enough. Less successful were our phasers and communicators. For the sidearms, we tried various items ranging from "Flair" brand felt markers to oddball assemblies from my Tog'les brand building blocks (I didn't have Legos as a kid). Most awkward were our comm's. Kyle retrieved a couple of his mother's used and discarded make-up "compacts". He kept a rectangular black one for himself, but I had to make do with a circular case molded in pink! Needless to say, I was reluctant to "call the ship" when we played outdoors!

So I was particularly thrilled when the kit arrived. At least I'd only be teased for playing "space-man" rather than being stamped a "sissy"!

Sincerely,

Bill

When I was in 3rd grade I found that my Hot Wheels Peeping Bomb car made a great Phaser I because I could pull back on the little shifter in the converitble's top to open the shuttered headlights and "fire" it.

Peeping Bomb Hot Wheels
​

As to Tog'l blocks, I had them! Made by Mattel for only a few years they were amongst my favorite building toys because you could build fairly largish objects without tons of blocks, and the "living hinge" made it easy to build things with moving parts, as I did to fashion my own crude communicators.

Tog'l blocks
​

As to other kids picking on your because you were a Trek fan, all it took was someone who knew you to spill the beans about any models or whatnot you had and you were "outed".

 

[Warped9]

Ah, Hotwheels. I had a load of them to. The '60s were a great time!

 

[Therin of Andor]

Getting back to the Exploration Set model kit, as screen INaccurate as it was

After I bought an AMT Exploration Set kit, I was bemused to see fully-assembled commercal toys in the 80s, hanging on pegs, that utilized the old AMT communicator's molds! In green and black was an "Incredible Hulk Communicator" and in blue and red was "The Amazing Spider-Man Communicator".

I nabbed a binocular case along with its strap to serve as my tricorder. As it was black, it worked well enough.

The cubic black camera bag that came with my Polaroid Colourpack 80 was perfect for landing party missions, and useful for carrying my spectacles, keys, wallet and spare blue makeup for touch-ups:


TherinTMP by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Medtrek group 3 by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


TOS Therin as a redshirt by Therin of Andor, on Flickr


Redshirt Therin by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

In later years, I glued a black UFP flag embroidered patch to a leatherette "man bag":


MOV Therin meets Grol by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[spockrocks]

The 70's were a great time for Star Trek and sci-fi in general. I could go to a news stand and there was always sci fi magazines and usually somthing about ST in at least one of them. How about "The Monster Times" loved that newspaper.

 

[ALF]

This was really special. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Noname Given]

Who among us had any idea that craft was designed by Matt Jefferies, at least at that time, during the 70s? I knew that ship never appeared in the series, so I found it interesting it was packaged similarly to the Trek kits and its picture often appeared on the side of the Trek boxes. But since its scale seemed "close enough", Kyle and I reasoned, "Eh, why not?"

Sincerely,

Bill

I knew that only after my sister got me the Star Trek Tech Manual (as well as the Enterprise blueprints) as a birthday present in 1976. And I still have both in very good condition as - even though I read and went over every page; I took care of both over the years.