HAVE A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!
Monthly Archives: October 2023
Stranger than science fiction: Inside China’s newest landmark
The Chendu SF museum was commissioned in 2022 to host this year’s 81st annual World Science Fiction Convention, nicknamed Worldcon. A building of this size and complexity would typically take four to five years to build, says Flores. But the 59,000 square-meter building — which is three times the size of the Sydney Opera House — went from concept to completion in just 12 months.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/30/style/chengdu-science-fiction-museum-hnk-spc-intl/index.html
Stranger than science fiction: Inside China’s newest landmark
CNN —
The seven-point metallic star floats on the glassy surface of the lake, reminiscent of a far-flung future civilization, or a spaceship touching down on an alien planet. It looks like something straight out of science fiction. Which it is, in a way: it’s the brand new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China.
From one side, the dynamic roof mimics the sloping mountains in the distance; from another, the canopy takes on the appearance of a cloud, its cantilever arches suspended above seamless panes of glass.
“From every angle, it will always look different; it will always look unusual or unexpected,” said Paulo Flores, one of the project directors at Zaha Hadid Architects, which designed the museum.
Perhaps more unexpected than the design itself is the time it took to build.
The museum was commissioned in 2022 to host this year’s 81st annual World Science Fiction Convention, nicknamed Worldcon. A building of this size and complexity would typically take four to five years to build, says Flores. But the 59,000 square-meter building — which is three times the size of the Sydney Opera House — went from concept to completion in just 12 months.
Prometheus: First Look At Stargate’s Next Ship Model
Prometheus: First Look At Stargate’s Next Ship Model
(With thanks to Mark Hicky for bringing this to our attention.)
Check out the first look at the Prometheus model, coming soon from Master Replicas.
Your Stargate fleet is getting a brand new ship, courtesy of Master Replicas. This week the company is revealing the Prometheus model, with a first-look exclusively here at GateWorld. Check it out below.
As with previous ships in the line we expect the Prometheus model will be made of ABS plastic and die-cast metal. It will measure 8 inches (20.3 cm) long and 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) wide, and come with an included display stand. That’s just shy of the Daedalus model, at 8.8 inches.
The ship made its debut in the sixth season episode “Prometheus,” only later being formally christened with that name. The model bears the ship’s distinctive boxy look from the television series, as well as the experimental moniker “X-303” emblazed on the side.
Master Replicas advises us that the model will be available for sale in February (a delay from the previously announced November window). Pricing has not been announced yet, but previous Stargate ships have averaged somewhere around $60 U.S.
And yet another zine!
We received an actual printed zine! Our thanks to Joe Aspler who scanned it so we could post it on line.
We used to trade with Memphis, then they disappeared. This may be a resurrection? Memphen 283 fanzine
The Weird Aliens of Early Science Fiction
From the BBC, a look at some interesting early ideas on what aliens might look like.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231019-the-weird-aliens-of-early-science-fiction
Humanity’s ideas about aliens have been evolving for millennia – but in the era before television, they were considerably stranger.
In October 1961, Betty and Barney Hill sat down with an astronomy lecturer at their home in New Hampshire, and made an extraordinary claim. The previous month, they had been snatched by aliens! Their description of the little grey creatures became the archetypal alien of movies and TV. But before then, the aliens that came from our fevered imaginations were much weirder!
Lots more zines to share
Lots more zines have been arriving in the mail! In order of reception:
First, some updates to e-fanzines administered by Bill Burns
- Heath Row’s The Stf Amateur, October 2023 (apazine bundle)
- Garth Spencer’s The Obdurate Eye #32
- Opuntia #558, edited by Dale Speirs
- David Grigg’s The Megaloscope #9
- Taral Wayne’s Dark Toys #76
- Perry Middlemiss’s Perryscope #37
- Henry Grynnsten’s Wild Ideas #40
- Alexiad #130 edited by Lisa & Joseph Major
- Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #55 through 59
- Octothorpe #94, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line
From Garth Spencer:
At last, from the fevered imagination that brought you mocha tea and the Mad Science Forum, we present OBDURATE EYE #32, the personalzine that should have appeared a week ago!
And also from Garth:
From the N3F:
Time’s Arrow_Jean-Paul L Garnier
And from Leybl in Israel, the war issue
Halloween MonSFFA Meeting: Post 7 of 7, 4:30PM – Close of Meeting and Clean-Up!
12) Thank You!
We thank for their contributions to this afternoon’s meeting Joe Aspler, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister, as well as all of our contributing participants. And, we thank you who attended, both here online, and physically in the meeting hall; don’t forget to comment on today’s get-together.
13) Next Meeting
MonSFFA meets again on Sunday, November 26, 2023—note that for this instance only, we’re meeting on the Sunday, not our usual Saturday, as the Legion hall was unavailable on the 25th.
Please mark your calendars accordingly; we hope to see you all again on Sunday, November 26!
14) Sign-Off
Enjoy your Halloween and we’ll see you all next time!
Halloween MonSFFA Meeting: Post 6 of 7, 3:30PM – Frightening Horror-Movie/TV Moments + Aurora’s Classic Movie Monster Model Kits
10) Group Discussion: Your Most Frightening Horror-Movie/TV Moments!
This afternoon, we’re asking “Which are your most frightening horror-movie/TV moments?”
Hitchcock’s birds gathering in the school playground, or his famous shower scene; the alien violently bursting through Kane’s chest; little Danny encountering the ghosts of those creepy twin girls in the empty corridors of the Overlook; The scream-stripping “Gentlemen” arriving in Sunnydale to carry out their ghoulish objectives…
Or perhaps you like your screen horror old-school—the unmasking of the Phantom of the Opera or the mummy Imhotep rising from the dead, causing archeologist Sir Joseph Whemple’s hapless assistant, Norton, to descend into madness!
The floor is open. Don’t be afraid to share with the group your most frightening horror-movie/TV moments!
After our discussion, scroll down a little for more bonus content; learn about Aurora’s line of classic movie monster model kits. We originally featured this article during our 2020 virtual Halloween meeting, back when COVID-19 was something of an unknown quantity and running rampant, and there was not yet a vaccine. Scary times! So much so that Montreal authorities “cancelled” Trick-or-Treating!
This afternoon’s e-meeting is a continuing experiment. If the local technology is performing properly and all has gone well, you are viewing a live-stream of this “Halloween” MonSFFA meeting, now underway. Those joining us online may follow along, and participate, by way of our ZOOM-chat.
Are you able to clearly see and hear today’s meeting? We are testing various set-ups to ascertain which delivers the best results for our online participants. Please take a moment to leave a comment as to how well this live-stream/ZOOM-chat is working from your perspective. It is our aim to live-stream future club meetings, thereby creating hybrid events in which participation may take place both in-person and virtually.
11)
Any so-called “Monster Kid” growing up in the 1960s harboured two utmost desires: the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (co-founded by pioneering sci-fi fan Forrest J Ackerman), and the latest release in Aurora’s line of classic monster model kits!
The Long Island, NY-based Aurora Plastics Corporation was founded in 1950 as a contract manufacturer of injection-molded plastics. Before too long, the company began producing and marketing its own line of “all plastic assembly kits” for young hobbyists, focusing chiefly on aircraft and automobiles.
Aurora’s first figure kits, a set of medieval knights in armour, were introduced in the mid-’50s, quickly followed by the “Guys and Gals of All Nations” series, featuring statuettes dressed in the national costumes of Holland, China, Scotland, and other countries, this in an effort to appeal to female crafters. Throughout the late-’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, other historical subjects followed the knights, from Roman gladiators to modern U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen, along with a variety of kits spotlighting American wildlife, sports stars, comic book superheroes, sci-fi TV characters, and the prehistoric world.
But it was a licensing agreement with Universal Studios that allowed Aurora to launch what would become its most popular and successful series of all, the Movie Monster Models collection!
Universal’s classic horror films were enjoying a revival in the late-’50s-early-’60s and were all the rage with youngsters, who watched them on television, where they aired frequently, or flocked to movie houses to see them. Aurora marketing director Bill Silverstein had taken note of the appeal these old pictures had with adolescents and teens, and pitched the idea of a series of kits showcasing Universal’s stable of venerable movie monsters. He was met with ridicule and disinterest but persisted and eventually convinced skeptical upper management to gauge interest by bringing to market one model.
That model was Frankenstein, released in 1961. Silverstein was soon vindicated! Frankenstein was an instant hit and calls started coming in to Aurora’s sales offices requesting other kits in the line. Dracula and The Wolf Man were rushed into production and were on store shelves in time for Christmas 1962. The Creature (from the Black Lagoon), The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde, non-Universal behemoths King Kong and Godzilla, and others followed. There were 13 monster kits produced in all—tagged by aficionados “The Aurora 13”—plus two customizing kits and a Gigantic Frankenstein, the finished model standing some two-feet tall. A pair of affiliated models, the Munsters ’65 and the Addams Family Haunted House, are often considered part of the series.
Advertised in Famous Monsters of Filmland and DC Comics publications, Aurora’s monster kits skyrocketed in popularity. In 1964, a U.S.-wide Monster Customizing Contest was sponsored in cooperation with Universal Pictures and Famous Monsters, contributing to a growing “Monster Mania.” 
Young model-makers were tasked with creating a macabre diorama using any combination of Aurora monster kits and customizing materials. Two customizing kits were issued, providing modellers with an assortment of skulls, spiders, rats, and such with which to enhance their miniature tableaus. Each entrant received a “Master Monster Maker” certificate. Hundreds of prizes were handed out with the national winner awarded a paid trip to Hollywood and the opportunity to appear in a horror movie!
Sculptor Bill Lemon was responsible for designing and producing the patterns for most of the monster models, with Ray Meyers and Adam “Larry” Ehling taking over when Lemon left to pursue other commissions. 
The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Mare was the last kit in the line, becoming available in 1967-’68 and sporting box art by renowned pulp illustrator Mort Künstler.
It was the box art produced by James Bama, however, that indelibly marked Aurora’s Movie Monster Models. At the time, Bama was working as a commercial artist for a major New York advertising firm. He was known as a prolific paperback and magazine cover artist, as well as for dramatic interior illustrations featured in men’s adventure magazines. Genre fans would soon come to know him for his extraordinarily striking monochromatic Doc Savage covers for Bantam Books’ paperback reprints of the original novels.
The accomplished illustrator applied his signature realism to what was fantastical subject matter in rendering melodramatically lit, vividly colourful box art for the monster kits. 
Save for Künstler’s single contribution, Bama produced all of the original box art for the series, as well as a few pieces for spin-offs like the Monstermobiles line, which put our favourite monsters in crazily-exaggerated hot-rods, a concept that did not fly with either monster or hot-rod enthusiasts.
Beginning in 1969, the original monster models were modified to include luminescent parts and reissued through the early-’70s with reworked packaging that included some new art by artist Harry Schaare, who essentially copied Bama’s originals while highlighting with bright acrylics the glow-in-the-dark components of the model. In some instances, Bama’s original gouache paintings were actually painted over with acrylics—no one present back in the day seems to know who might have been responsible for that sin, or perhaps nobody wants to say!
In 1971, Aurora launched its controversial Monster Scenes line, featuring four character kits: Frankenstein, sexy comic book pin-up Vampirella, the sadistic Doctor Deadly, and a scantily-clad young woman dubbed simply “The Victim.” At about 1/13 scale, these simple, snap-together, toy-like figures were smaller and lacked the detail of their movie monster cousins. The concept, here, was to enable children to easily assemble and then play with the models. Each figure came with extra sets of movable arms and legs so that they could be assembled in different poses
In addition to the character kits, four “grisly equipment” kits with names like Gruesome Goodies and The Pain Parlour were available, together serving as a torture-chamber playset into which the figures could be placed. Aurora played up the lurid horror, violence, and sex, promoting its new line with the slogan “Rated ‘X’ for excitement!”
It wasn’t long before concerned parents were petitioning Nabisco, owners of Aurora at the time, outraged at these “sick toys” that make for a “sick society!” Women’s groups, too, admonished the company for promoting misogynistic cruelty, noting that the helpless “Victim” didn’t even rate her own name!
Nervous Nabisco quickly ordered a halt to the tooling on two new kits, a dungeon and an animal pit into which The Victim could be lowered, and announced that the Monster Scenes line was to be discontinued. Preliminary development on models of a second victim, an executioner, and more torture devices ceased. All remaining inventory, including three as yet unreleased kits—Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Giant Insect—were shipped to Canada, where The Victim was recast as Dr. Deadly’s Daughter.
The following year, Aurora recovered from this costly debacle, premiering its well-received Prehistoric Scenes line, which incorporated the same models-as-toys idea that had underpinned the short-lived Monster Scenes series.
Aurora’s swansong monster series was the 1/12-scale Monsters of the Movies line. But by now the monster craze had passed and the last kit in this series was shipped in 1977. The company shut down its molding machines that same year.
In a span of just 27 years, Aurora had progressed from humble beginnings to become one of the foremost and most innovative producers of scale-model kits in the industry, only to fall victim to a number of questionable marketing moves and product choices, as well as generally waning public interest in the hobby.
Bill Silverstein remained focused on the business of marketing toys. His stint at Aurora led him to join comic actors Don “Maxwell Smart” Adams and Bill “José Jiménez” Dana in forming a small advertising agency, securing Aurora as a client, of course! In the early-’70s, he became a partner at Helfgott & Partners (later Helfgott, Towne & Silverstein), a high-profile New York agency that represented the Ideal Toy Company.
After leaving Aurora, Bill Lemon went on to sculpt for major toy manufacturers like Remco and Marx and produced, over his decades-long career, everything from anatomical models for medical schools to Pez dispensers to a circa-1980s Michael Jackson doll.
James Bama left New York in 1968 and moved to Wyoming, where he established himself as a painter specializing in Western themes. In recognition of his Aurora box art, he was inducted into the Monster Kid Hall of Fame in 2006.
Rival model manufacturer Monogram (later merged with another rival, Revell) initially acquired many of Aurora’s molds from parent company Nabisco and reissued a number of the kits under its own banner beginning in the late-’70s. In the mid-’90s and more recently, modern scale-model manufacturers like Polar Lights and Moebius Models have retooled, updated, and rereleased many of Aurora’s most popular kits, occasioning a revival of Monster Mania for both aging Monster Kids and a new generation.
Halloween MonSFFA Meeting: Post 5 of 7, 3:15PM – Break!
It’s time for our mid-meeting break!
Get yourself a snack and a drink; we’ll resume proceedings in a moment, including our usual raffle. Also, we’ll briefly update our membership on club business.
Programming continues in about 15 minutes with a group discussion, asking “What are your most frightening horror-movie/TV moments?”
This afternoon’s e-meeting is a continuing experiment. If the local technology is performing properly and all has gone well, you are viewing a live-stream of this “Halloween” MonSFFA meeting, now underway. Those joining us online may follow along, and participate, by way of our ZOOM-chat.
Are you able to clearly see and hear today’s meeting? We are testing various set-ups to ascertain which delivers the best results for our online participants. Please take a moment to leave a comment as to how well this live-stream/ZOOM-chat is working from your perspective. It is our aim to live-stream future club meetings, thereby creating hybrid events in which participation may take place both in-person and virtually.
Halloween MonSFFA Meeting: Post 4 of 7, 2:15PM – Solar System Ain’t What It Used To Be + Photo Gallery, Aviation Museum
7)
From the earliest days of science fiction, space travellers travelled to the Moon, to Mars, to Venus, and to the other planets as they were discovered. Early science fiction – before the late 19th century – treated the planets as just different earths. Science fictional tropes from the late 19th century right to the Space Age declared Mercury to be an oven on the side facing the sun and a freezer on the other. Venus was a planet of swamps, jungles, and dinosaurs. Mars was a cool desert planet, with all the water in the canals.
Then, science had its little say. Starting in the early 1960s, the first interplanetary probes knocked down the tropes of science fiction. Or as T.H. Huxley (1825 – 1895) put it: “The great tragedy of Science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”
But have no fear, there were plenty of other ways to look at the planets … and more planets to look at.
After this presentation, scroll down for more bonus content, a review of the club’s recent field trip, with accompanying photo gallery.
The Mysterious Orbit of Mercury
8) CLUB FIELD TRIP TO MONTREAL AVIATION MUSEUM (MAM)
On Saturday morning, September 9, a group of dedicated MonSFFen visited what they found to be an unassuming yet top-flight local museum.
There’s a whole lot of aviation history packed into the Montreal Aviation Museum (MAM), which occupies not a former hangar or anything equally spacious, but an old cattle barn on McGill University’s Macdonald Campus in furthest West Island Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
The place is as much a workshop as a museum, with tools, blueprints, reference photos, and tarnished old aircraft parts scattered about amidst the various exhibits! And, visitors are able to get up close and inspect the finest of details on most of the aircraft; unlike most museums, there are very few rope-barriers in place to keep people at a certain distance from the exhibits.
A keen enthusiasm for Canadian—and particularly Quebec—aviation is a hallmark of this hidden gem of an institution, as are the aircraft restoration and reconstruction projects undertaken, overseen by a devoted team of friendly volunteer-members. One of these fellows had parked his beautifully refurbished early-1960s Corvette in the parking lot; if the same care and attention to detail applied to this classic sports car was any indication, the aircraft awaiting us within were sure to please!
Of note was one such restoration project: a WWII-era Fairchild Bolingbroke Mk. IV aircraft, which was housed in a dedicated wing of the museum. The nose and cockpit of this maritime patrol aircraft has been restored, along with her gun turret, while the rest of the plane remains a work in progress; engine parts, and sections of the fuselage and wings were strewn about, on-deck for an expert face-lift!
Parked outside on the lawn, meanwhile, was the battered fuselage of a Canadair CF-104 Starfighter jet, recently acquired and slated for restoration beginning early next year.
On display with the finely finished planes on show in the museum’s second-floor main hall were various period photographs, historical documents, associated artifacts and equipment, engines, flight suits, and some of the tools employed to bring these old birds back to life. 
Explanatory panels provided information about each plane or notable event in Canadian aviation history, like “Le Scarabée,” a French Blériot XI that made the first flight over a Canadian city—Montreal!—in 1910.
Those of a certain age may recall long-defunct airlines Nordair and Quebecair, each here represented with an assemblage of assorted memorabilia.
Several promotional models of sleek Air Canada jets were included, too—the kind one might see mounted in the window of a travel agency.
Canada’s famous aerobatics teams, the Golden Hawks and the Snowbirds, were showcased in one wing of the building, and the legendary Avro Arrow was represented, as well!
Numerous large-scale models of aircraft hung from the ceiling above the actual, full-scale planes. Model aircraft, in fact, could be found throughout the museum, presented either individually or as components of a skillfully crafted diorama.
Last, but certainly not least, an exquisite collection of aviation art was hung in the museum’s gallery, including a stained-glass piece that drew the attention of MonSFFA president Cathy Palmer-Lister, whose hobbies include the fashioning of such works. Featured painters include Jim Bruce and Don Connelly. 
The MAM is well worth a visit!