Sunday, September 2, 2007

Blade Runner (1982)

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, replicant/android hunter in Los Angeles, AD2019 in the movie "Blade Runner" directed by Ridley Scott, a follow-up film to his hit "Alien"(1979) - man, do I feel old!!


The coolest vehicle in the movie - The Police Spinner, a futuristic hovercar. This was made by Kubrick under the movie banner for "Back to the Future" coz this hovercar appeared in the background in one of the scenes. A bit of trivia - the set decorators for "Back To The Future 2" needed some futuristic cars for the town-square scene, and stumbled upon a neat-looking vehicle-prop dumped in the studio’s back lot. It was overgrown with weeds and damaged by the elements, but it turned out to be the Police Spinner made for the 1982 "Blade Runner" film. The "Back To The Future" production crew bought the prop for a really good (pre-Ebay) price, re-dressed it, and stuck it in their movie. Fast forward a couple of years later, and the folks at Medicom Toys saw that they could make a Spinner by relating it to "Back To The Future 2" and not incur the wrath of Ridley!

The Spinner has wheels when it is on the streets of LA and the front wheels retract when it is in hover mode. Kubrick was able to do this, along with the winged doors that opened upwards - how cool is that!!

The glass bubble cockpit allows the occupants to look up, forward & rear as well as downwards when it is in flight.

The Spinner is missing the blinking police lights, police-blue colours and the markings, but this is as good as it gets!!

More pictures of Toy Syndicate version 1 Android Hunter (link here), with Sideshow Indiana Jones head sculpt (link here), version 2 Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard and Roy Batty

2 comments:

Shaun said...

likeness isn't very good for this piece is it, Alex? Thanks for pointing to this post. :)

alex teo said...

no, definitely not. only got it for the outfit and accessories - those were quite spot on. thanks for viewing :)