Where's our darned Viewmaster reels?

[Gaith]

We've simply gotta have more View-Master reels. Yeah, these things:

I have three reels each from TOS' "Omega Glory" and a TAS episode, and I gotta say, seeing three dimensions of the Shat in his 1960s prime is pretty awesome. (I've also got a decent Lost World: JP set.)

Admittedly, most View-Master reels are pretty lame. They're either CG cartoons, or, worse, hand-drawn cartoons (ahem), as they're only really made for kids anymore. And a lot of old reels are of places and landscapes, which can sometimes be cool when you see people in 60s/70s duds or get a particularly layered picture, but often look as flat as a 2D picture due to lack of depth contrast.

And now I've gotta give props to DC for the SR and BB reels. I doubt I'll get either of them; I'd much rather see reels for recent Marvel movies, but good on them for doing them anyway.

I'd most like to see magazines like Newsweek and Time do at least a reel a week. There could be a sports shot, a current events shot, a famous persons shot... I'd love to see reels from the party conventions especially.

But, SF/Fantasy wise, there's hundreds of properties that would make for awesome reels. And while they'd have to be done carefully, it wouldn't be at all impossible to 3D-ify old 2D stills. Here's a brief few reels that aren't available but in a just world would be:

- More Trek. Much more Trek.

- Star Wars. For all of Lucas' 3D talk, there are no SW reels at all. Heck, Padme in AOTC needs a set to herself.

- BTTF, Indy, Princess Bride, LotR, T2... this is just too easy!

- Carnivàle. Man, would the period carnival be awesome to see. Ditto Rome. And The Daily Show.


And I'm just warming up! Seriously. A Viewmaster resurgence would be awesome.

/rant

 

[Nardpuncher]

I miss my old one! I think it was brown and still made out of metal.

When I looked through it there was some piece of plastic or soemthing that ended up making it look like I was standing at the back of an empty movie theater. I really liked that effect, though it was unintentional on ViewMaster's behalf.

ditto on the landscape shots with people from the 60s in it. Sweet.

 

[RobertVA]

Has anyone tried scanning the image pairs and viewing them on a computer using the Nvida compatible 3D video drivers and shutter glasses? Of course that would be for strictly personal use.

 

[Tulin]

As a Disneyland freak since I was a kid and living in Western Australia, my view masters of the park were as close as I got until 2001. I LOOOOOOOOOVED those things.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I LOVE View Master, but I'm not sure were my old is anymore or all of my reels. I had a lot Snoopy and Peanuts related reels from what I recall. I also other stuff but damn my crappy memory because I can't think what they were.

 

[The Old Mixer]

You can still find Viewmaster reels at the gift shops of major tourist attractions. In recent years I bought a Viewmaster and reels for Graceland and Yosemite National Park as souvenirs of trips to those places. The former was particularly useful, as they didn't allow flash photography inside Graceland.