First Wonder Woman Concept

First Wonder Woman Concept: "
Illustrator Harry G. Peter's 1941 concept of Wonder Woman is fascinating to me --not so much the character design itself, which here resembles an early Snow White -- but the penciled-in correspondence between the artist and WW's creator, William Moulton Marston.

Dear Dr. Marston,

I slapped these two out in a hurry. The eagle is tough to handle as when in perspective or in profile he doesn't show up clearly — The shoes look like a stenographer's.

I think the idea might be incorporated as a sort of Roman contraption.

Peter

Dear Pete -

I think the gal with hand up is very cute. I like her skirt, legs, hair. Bracelets okay + boots. These probably will work out + see other suggestions enclosed. No on these. See suggestions enclosed for eagle. Braziers I suggest may work better in curved or slanting stripes - red + white. With eagle's wings above or below breasts as per-enclosed? Leave it to you. Don't we have to put a red stripe around her waist as belt? I thought Gaines wanted it — don't remember. Circlet will have to go higher — more like crown — see suggestions enclosed.

See you Wednesday morning — WMM

The sketch recently sold for $33,350.



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at 3:08 AM 0 comments

Other Makes: Luigi Colani LeMans Concept

Other Makes: Luigi Colani LeMans Concept: "I suspect that the fearless German designer Luigi Colani has always expected, but never waited for, The Future to catch up with him.

For a 1970 LeMans Concept Car, Colani grafted a hand-sculpted, biomorphic, plexiglass-domed, pivoting cockpit pod onto the business end of a Lamborghini Miura.



This one-of-a-kind, once-a-millennium vehicle somehow made it off the European auto show circuit and onto a trailer, three decades later, in Cross Plains, Indiana.



Where it now awaits--less than 20 hours to go!--the first bid from its new steward:



$74,999, not including shipping or the costs of refabricating the plexiglass pod roof.



How odd that the seller would offer to refabricate the bubble, for money, on a car that clearly stands in need of a complete restoration. Why not offer to replace the missing downdraft carb [which is ornamental anyway, as there is 'no engine at this time.']



Whatever its fate, it does make one wonder what other insane projects lurk in the heart of eBay Motors > Other Makes.

1970 Other Makes Other Colambo
Luigi Colani Lamborghini Miura LeMans Concept Car, starting bid, $74,999.00 [ebay via mondo-blogo]


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at 3:07 AM 0 comments

Sweet memoir of a golden age of toy design

Sweet memoir of a golden age of toy design: "

Prolific 1970s toy designer Mel Birnkrant wrote an absolutely charming, lengthy memoir of his history in the field (including the unlikely story of how he got into the business). It's called, 'The Colorforms Years,' and it's free to read.


I remember the moment the Outer Space Men were conceived as clearly as if it were yesterday. The heavily armored big front door of our NYC apartment opened into a tiny hall, hardly bigger than a phone booth. And a phone booth, in a manner of speaking, is, more or less, what it turned out to be. It measured 3'X3'. The door, when swinging open, barely missed the walls, one of which was a closet with sliding doors. The other was the portal that led to a small kitchen, hardly bigger that the hall. The third side opened out to the front room and a primitive early version of the toy collection wall, that later grew to gargantuan proportions, when recreated in the house we live in now...


The only telephone in the apartment was attached to the kitchen wall. Thus, the marathon phone conversations with Harry, that took place nearly every day, always began with the long phone cord stretched and me standing in the hall. Sooner or later, I would, inevitably, end up lying on the floor with my feet resting high up on the chained and double locked front door. But, on this occasion, I remained standing, too excited to lie down. I had just seen Matt Mason in the stores for the first time, and an earthshaking IDEA was counting down: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - to BLAST OFF in my mind.



Mel Birnkrant, The Colorforms Years

(via MeFi)


(Photo: Mel Birnkrant)






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at 3:04 AM 0 comments

What it's like to be a cocaine submarine captain

What it's like to be a cocaine submarine captain: "A former Columbian narco-sub pilot anonymously recounts his life captaining a homebrewed semi-submersible filled with millions of dollars' worth of cocaine, at gunpoint all the while:




At around 8 p.m., the tide was high and the night sufficiently dark as the ocean water tugged at the submersible. A speedboat pulled the vessel out to sea, where the crew started the engines. They accelerated to 12 knots and set off on a 270-degree course heading west, toward the open ocean. The guard provided by the drug mafia for each transport, armed with a revolver and an assault rifle, stood at the door to the engine room. It was incredibly hot in the submersible, where the engines remove oxygen from the air and enrich it with carbon monoxide, despite ventilation pipes. 'You constantly feel like you're suffocating,' says Alonso. 'Every four hours, we reduced the speed from 12 to six knots. Then we opened the hatch in the front for exactly one minute, let some fresh air in and accelerated again.'


The four-man team worked in shifts, while Alonso kept monitoring the route. Once they were in the open ocean, the man with the assault rifle gave him a piece of paper showing the target position. Their instructions were to arrive there on a specific day and at a specific time.


Each of the men tried to sleep after his shift, but the stench and the noise on board made this impossible. They had to drink copious amounts of water to make up for the buckets of sweat constantly running off their bodies. Their main source of nourishment was condensed milk, the Peruvian 'Leche Gloria' brand. The stench from fecal matter, which couldn't be disposed of during the trip, soon became almost unbearable.



Former Drug Smuggler Tells His Story

(via Beyond the Beyond)


(Photo: Luca Zanetti/DER SPIEGEL)






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at 3:03 AM 0 comments

Von Braun's Moon Suit

Von Braun's Moon Suit: "


Paleofuture brings us these delightful moon-suit scans from 1960's 'First Men to the Moon' by Wernher von Braun -- [insert wry remark about slave labor and von Braun's design sense here]. [Sorry, I went to the Imperial War Museum's Auschwitz exhibit yesterday and I'm not up to it.]


First Men to the Moon (1960)





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at 3:03 AM 0 comments

Mid-Century Architecture for Model Railroading

Former Disney creative guru, Mike Cozart has unveiled the first prototype in his tremendous series of space-age kits for scale model train enthusiasts. The fictitious but authentic 'Aloha Lanes' bowling alley features an A-framed coffee shop and 'Pele Room' cocktail lounge.

Also in the works are 1/8th (HO scale) modern department stores, shopping centers, a movie theater and a car dealership. Mike based his miniature objets d'architecture on real buildings that fascinated him as a kid growing up in San Diego. For me, this is one of the spiffiest new 'gotta-have-its' that I've encountered in a long time. Obviously, one doesn't have to be a Model Railroader to appreciate them.



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at 3:02 AM 0 comments
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