Plan 9 From Outer Space/Lindberg flying saucer model kit in McCoy's office

[Maurice]

IIRC, the budget was so minuscule in Plan 9 that the ‘flying saucers’ were just car hubcaps.

They're Lindburgh saucers throughout, even when on fire.

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I'm a tad suspicious of the following photo, cuz it looks to my eye that saucers were painted silver, including the domes. But it's difficult to be certain.

One of the actual flying saucer models used by Ed Wood in Plan 9 From Outer Space. And I’m in my house, holding it in my hand. That’s insane.

Bottomless thanks to Bob & Kathy Burns.
source

Image pulled from Blu-ray, lower image brightened. No scaling or sharpening.

https://i.postimg.cc/jjrHQTnB/trek-saucer.jpg


Actually, it looks like some sort of incense burner, or maybe an oil lamp with brass legs and handles. Perhaps an anthropological artifact of medical interest? Fondue set? Orange juicer?

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Just a Bill]

You know, I suspected that. The photography looked like what the late GSchnitzer would post about the New Voyages props.

I had exactly the same thought. RIP Greg.

I can't screengrab from Paramount+

I also cannot screengrab P+ in Chrome or Firefox, but I can in Edge. First time I've ever had a reason to use Edge on my home machine....

When I'm doing lots of grabs, I find my place in Firefox (which skips commercials via adblock), then pause, then paste the URL into Edge which cues up to the same timestamp. Then get my grabs. Whenever I go to a different episode or stumble into an ad break, I go back to Firefox to find the new spot ... rinse and repeat. It's a little annoying flip-flopping the browsers, but it beats waiting for ads.

Oh, and I've noticed that in Firefox, every time I start a new episode, I have to click the "play" icon three times (not a triple-click, but three separate clicks, each performed when the icon is ready). I assume this is adblock simulating the human enduring all the ad breaks for that episode.

 

[Metryq]

I was thinking the same thing.

With some digging, we might get lucky and find the "common in the '60s" item that was turned into a prop. For example, the funky bottle in Sick Bay that "Enemy Within" Kirk was drinking from was a whisky bottle, or something like that.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey there was a "crystal-shaped" container holding the sandwiches in the Moonbus to Tycho. White plastic, and it had latches and a rubber seal that made it appear air-tight. I later noticed the same container in an episode or two of Gerry Anderson's UFO. I eventually discovered that it was a picnic basket designed to hold a bottle of wine in the narrowed end. I've since given up searching eBay and other places for one surviving from that time. It looked futuristic.

https://i.postimg.cc/zXP6GjXQ/Flightpath.jpg

 

[Maurice]

the funky bottle in Sick Bay that "Enemy Within" Kirk was drinking from was a whisky bottle, or something like that.

It's a George Dickel Tennessee Whisky souvenir bottle, first bottling 1964. I have one here, unaltered. Mine's marked U.S. INTERNAL REVENUE 226388008.

 

[Metryq]

It's a George Dickel Tennessee Whisky souvenir bottle, first bottling 1964. I have one here, unaltered. Mine's marked U.S. INTERNAL REVENUE 226388008.

Does it have the boot and leather-like harness, like the one in the show?

EDIT: double-checking the episode, the boot, handle and cork appear to be plastic.

 

[UssGlenn]

Does it have the boot and leather-like harness, like the one in the show?

EDIT: double-checking the episode, the boot, handle and cork appear to be plastic.

the handle and boot are leather and painted for the show. the cork stopper top is wood, also painted for the show.

 

[Maurice]

the handle and boot are leather and painted for the show. the cork stopper top is wood, also painted for the show.

Yep. Mine has the stopper and the leather. Also, all the original stickers.

 

[Tuskin38]

I also cannot screengrab P+ in Chrome or Firefox,

Go into your browser settings and turn off graphics acceleration. I don't know what it's called in Firefox.

There's also an browser app for Chrome (idk about firefox) called FireShot which is what I use.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Image pulled from Blu-ray, lower image brightened. No scaling or sharpening.

https://i.postimg.cc/jjrHQTnB/trek-saucer.jpg


Actually, it looks like some sort of incense burner, or maybe an oil lamp with brass legs and handles. Perhaps an anthropological artifact of medical interest? Fondue set? Orange juicer?

Now that's a screencap of it I can see. Maybe it's a mini tea service tray with handles, and the set decorator placed it on the three-legged base of a broken candle holder (for example).

Atop the tray he placed some arch-like little nick nack, which could be anything. It could for instance be the frame from a broken tail light of the period. Here's the Ford Cortina:

Rear light cluster of vintage Ford Cortina car Stock Photo - Alamy

Download this stock image: Rear light cluster of vintage Ford Cortina car - AJDP5R from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors.

www.alamy.com

If so, the assembly might have been spray painted so the chrome and silver wouldn't flare the lens.

 

[Qonundrum]

IIRC, the budget was so minuscule in Plan 9 that the ‘flying saucers’ were just car hubcaps.

Done really well, it's impressive how they thought back then in using everyday discarded objects. Nowadays, CGI can do anything - just a different mindset is needed to create the look of a spaceship.

 

[Dukhat]

Done really well, it's impressive how they thought back then in using everyday discarded objects.

But...they didn't. As has been thoroughly noted in this thread, Ed Wood used flying saucer model kits for Plan 9 From Outer Space.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

A re-issue of that saucer kit is right here (apology if it's already been mentioned):

Polar Lights Plan 9 From Outer Space Flying Saucer Model Kit

Polar Lights Plan 9 From Outer Space Flying Saucer Model Kit

www.mymoviemonsters.com

 

[CorporalCaptain]

But...they didn't. As has been thoroughly noted in this thread, Ed Wood used flying saucer model kits for Plan 9 From Outer Space.

How did the myth even get started? Does anyone know, for sure? (Apologies, if that's already been answered!)

Was it because someone who reviewed the film early on thought the flying saucers looked like hubcaps, didn't know a model kit had been used, opined in writing or on film or TV about the hubcaps, and people who came after just accepted it?

 

[Maurice]

Maybe blame the Medveds and The Golden Turkey Awards book?

 

[Mudd]

Cool.

I had the glow-in-dark reissue of this kit, circa 1977.

 

[Metryq]

Cool.

I had the glow-in-dark reissue of this kit, circa 1977.

Time for the UV laser!

The quinine in tonic water is a UV reference. With glow-in-the-dark plastics (or an olde fashioned CRT screen), you can scribble patterns with a UV laser.

 

[drt]

Now that's a screencap of it I can see. Maybe it's a mini tea service tray with handles, and the set decorator placed it on the three-legged base of a broken candle holder (for example).

When I was a kid in the early 70s, my parents entertained a lot and had all kinds of wacky service trays that were weirdly specific for a particular food item, I’d bet that’s what this is… or it’s an ashtray, lol.

 

[mb22]

Maybe blame the Medveds and The Golden Turkey Awards book?

Could be, although to be fair the book seems to say the saucers just look like hubcaps, not that they were necessarily made from them.

I don't have a copy at hand, but I seem to recall that an article in Starlog (#21 in 1979 I think) mentioned that the flying saucer model was used in Plan 9. I could be mistaken, though. In any case the truth was out there despite all the popular misinformation about the film.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I just watched the Rifftrax version of Plan 9, and, oddly enough, a couple of characters described the saucers as "cigar shaped", which makes me think Ed had the script written/finished before he had the effects and he didn't have the time or money to correct the mistake. If he even remembered it was a mistake.

 

[Dukhat]

I just watched the Rifftrax version of Plan 9, and, oddly enough, a couple of characters described the saucers as "cigar shaped", which makes me think Ed had the script written/finished before he had the effects and he didn't have the time or money to correct the mistake. If he even remembered it was a mistake.

That was the least of the film's problems.