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-   -   FSI kits on TV? (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=6384)

blackshire 01-03-2010 01:50 PM

FSI kits on TV?
 
Hello All,

I never had any FSI model rocket kits when I was growing up, but I did see some of them used in television shows in the 1970s and 1980s (although I didn't know they were FSI kits until much later).

For example, several of FSI's Argo D-4 Javelin kits were featured in an episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man" as "phony ICBMs" that a terrorist group fired into the Los Angeles reservoir (they claimed that the missiles came from the other side of the world) to blackmail the US government to give in to their demands. Steve Austin eventually discovered the missiles' real, nearby launch site (several FSI Javelins were shown on a rack launcher), and at the climax Steve threw one of the missiles at the terrorists' vehicle, blowing it up.

Also, several of another FSI kit (their Black Brant II, I believe) were used in the "Mad Max" movies, being launched as assault rockets from the dune buggies. In a TV special on movie special effects, the soap opera actor who played Luke Spencer on "General Hospital" drove one of the rocket-equipped "Mad Max" dune buggies in a simulated battle, in which he fired the rockets at targets.

Were FSI kits used in any other TV shows or movies?

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

tbzep 01-03-2010 01:57 PM

I don't know about FSI, but an Estes Pershing 1A was used in an episode of Wonder Woman and the 1/100 Saturn V was used in an episode of Emergency!

sandman 01-03-2010 02:37 PM

James Bond would shoot Estes Bullpups without the front fins from his car.

CPMcGraw 01-03-2010 03:22 PM

Centuri Magnum Hornets (or a clone of it, dressed in white, with mil-type decals) were used in "The Fifth Element" being fired from a pivoting AAA stand...

stefanj 01-03-2010 05:35 PM

There was a crappy movie called "Megaforce" that reportedly employed the Reese Brothers. The motorcycles used by the heroes shoot rockets.

The fact that they were model rockets was picked up by reviewers at the time.

blackshire 01-03-2010 06:07 PM

I remember the Pershing IA in the "Wonder Woman" episode--it was painted pink and thought-controlled by a person wearing a special neurosensor-equipped transmitter helmet.

Was the movie with the rocket-firing motorcycles "Megaforce" or "Delta Force?" I recall a movie scene (toward the end of the film, whichever one it was) where Chuck Norris encountered his terrorist rival while riding a motorcylcle with two upward-angled rockets on its handlebars. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he fired one of the rockets, which arced up and then down to dispatch his foe.

Centuri provided the rockets for a late-1970s movie about a comet that struck somewhere in the western US. Another Centuri rocket (an Argus that was painted with aluminum paint all over) featured in another "Six Million Dollar Man" episode, in which a high school whiz kid who was experimenting with a new liquid monopropellant for rockets accidentally developed a new super incendiary chemical instead.

Spaceclipper 01-03-2010 08:04 PM

Estes Silver Comet was used in direct to VHS "Barney in Space" ( I think will have to dig the tape out) watched it a million times with my daughter when she was little. Can't miss the rocket. One of my faves... :chuckle:

tbzep 01-03-2010 08:13 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
I remember the Pershing IA in the "Wonder Woman" episode--it was painted pink and thought-controlled by a person wearing a special neurosensor-equipped transmitter helmet.


Yep. I posted a thread about it about a year ago. Pershing/Wonder Woman

And the Emergency! episode with Estes Saturn V.


.

rokitflite 01-03-2010 08:31 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandman
James Bond would shoot Estes Bullpups without the front fins from his car.


And without the forward fins and painted red, white and blue in "The Fifth Element".

blackshire 01-03-2010 08:52 PM

I'll have to watch that online "Emergency!" episode. My father was a fire chief, and he (who controlled the TV set in the living room) didn't watch the show much because he couldn't suspend disbelief long enough to get into the stories due to all of the technical oversights that the stories often required. His common comment on the show was, "We just don't do it that way in real life!"

I did, however, see another episode of "Emergency!" that involved a boy who built a full-scale rocket that looked just like Evel Knievel's Skycycle rocket (although it was gray or gray-green instead of red, white, and blue). The boy's father, who called the paramedics because of his son's impending launch disaster, made a sarcastic comment to them that stung me back then: "Other kids want to play football--*mine* wants to go to the Moon!"

I have also heard of (but not seen) an episode of "Family Matters" involving Steve Urkel and a Cox Saturn IB launched indoors that depicted our hobby in a less-than-positive light.


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