Inner Space - Outer Space - both involve extreme environments and highly specialised exploration craft, so its hardly surprising that a lot of sci-fi involves a good sub. The Abyss was a real benchmark film in this genre and spawned a few imitators such as the rather lame Leviathan and the entertaining Deep Star Six. The Beeb is currently running the lacklustre series 'The Deep', which although it has some nice visuals, is overburdened with hollywood egos and predicatable plot.
Ive collected subs alongside space toys since I was a wee sprat myself and in the last few years have been able to realise a long held ambition to be able to have a tiny submarine that I could control under water by remote control! Previously, r/c had been an expensive and clumsy affair, requiring lots of tech and a huge lake. Developments in entry level and toy based remote control meant that scores of cheap toys came on the market from toys to planes and copters to boats and finally, submarines. I got my first, a few years ago - a simple little gadgetty toy of the kind that appears every fathers day or xmas now under the 'Big Boys Toy' section in stores. Powered by a penlight battery, I had many hours zipping around the bath before I braved it in a nearby river and realised the range of the transmitter wasnt as far as I thought and had to go wading in to perform a rescue! Since then, my collection of subs has expanded to cover all iterations of toy sub, some made for acion figures and some for toy soldiers. Heres a few from my collection - ill let the pictures speak for themselves!
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| ORIGINAL MEGA RIG POWERSUITS |
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| MEGA RIG SHARK SUB AND JUNGLE SUB |
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| CRUISER SUB AND X-SUB (very first r/c one!) |
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| CAPTAIN PLANET ECO-SUB (18" LONG) |
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| NEW MATTEL MEGA RIG SQUID SUB |
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| MATTEL MEGA RIG SHARK SUB (NEW RANGE) |
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| MAJORETTE MINI SUB |
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| CORGI BATMAN BATSUB |
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| KINDER EGG MICRO MINISUB |
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| BLUEBIRD ZERO HOUR SUB |
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| LARGE R/C SUBS (7 ") |
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| HONG KONGS FINEST R/C SUBMARINE |
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| U-BOAT R/C MINISUB (actually based on a real sub!) |
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| r/c TESCO SHARKS! |
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| R/C MINI SUB WITH FIRING TORPEDO (LEFT) MEGA MINI SUB (RIGHT 4") |
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| RANETTA ATOMIC SUBMARINE (seen previously on the blog!) |
3 comments:
The Japanese were fanatical about subs in the 1960s, maybe because of the influence of Thunderball and all things James Bond. Imai and and many other plamodel manufacturers kitted fictional subs, usually elastic band powered.
Sean
Without doubt my fave sub was the huge sickle-headed beast in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea [name escapes me - early senility methinks]. The theme tune with the watery blip sound was unforgettable - what was that sound?
Woodster
the Seaview - bloop. bloop, bloop
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