Item Name: Star Trek Movie Viewer
Manufacturer: Chemtoy Corp.
Chemtoy released this guy way back in 1967! Sweet- a toy released while the show was still on the air!
The Rundown: The package promises "Your own movie show featuring TV favorites!". Yeah, that's not what you get...but this thing is still pretty cool and was probably a ton of fun for a kid in the 60's.
The viewer itself is pretty small, measuring a little under 3" across. There's a small viewer on one side that's only large enough for one eye. The whole thing splits into 2 parts to house the enclosed film reels.
You get 2 reels with your viewer, but...
...I guess you could get more at your local dealer. Anybody know if that's actually true? If so, I need to hit ebay!
The package made it seem like (to me at least) these film reels would be shots from the show. Nope. What you get here are 2 slides featuring the first Gold Key comic! So, while not what I expected, for a Gold Key mark like me it's quite a treat!
So you load the slides into the viewer, and the little white dial will 'catch' the strip and aloow you to cycle through the panels. Here's a cruddy pciture of what it looks like (it's much clearer in person)-
Pretty neat, huh? The only gripe I have is that you have to start the film strip a couple of panels in due to the way it fits in the viewer, so you have to miss the first few panels. Pretty keen other than that though.
I got this for a whopping $5! At around that price, this item is a great pick up to give your Trek collection a little vintage flavor!
-James
I've never seen or heard of this item before. And only $5 with original packaging!
ReplyDeleteSince I have a ton of Star Trek stuff already, I've been thinking I should stop buying stuff. To see that this over 40-year-old item only cost you $5 makes me think how worthless my collection really is compared to the amount of money that I've put into it. The joy is in the collecting I tell myself. Ha ha.
I bought this in the early 70's, and I saved the card backing with the excellent photo.. but I was so disappointed with the product that threw it away later. (short-sighted, I know.) I expected color photos, but all it was was the b&w Gold Key comic. Ripoff!
ReplyDeleteI did an entry about it some time ago here:
http://mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com/2009/02/shatner-flies-alone.html
...but your entry is so thorough! Good job! As always....
Thanks for this review. They offer this for 40 bucks (or even more) on ebay, and I was tempted to buy it. But I won't pay that price for a b/w comic! I can perfectly understand Frederick's reaction. ;)
ReplyDeleteI scanned the two filmstrips I have and turned them into a slideshow at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.startrekcomics.info/art/planetofnoreturnpart1.html
I haven't found any other Gold Key Star Trek comic filmstrips. Have you?