Milton Bradley electronic "Star Bird" review

A blast from my past

How many toys do you still recall from your childhood with an enduring surge of pleasure?  I have a few, and Milton Bradley’s Star Bird is one of the biggest nostalgic stars in my galactic pantheon.  Released in 1979, just two years after the explosion of Star Wars onto the world pop culture stage, The Star Bird clearly drew much inspiration from this budding franchise, in particular the notion of getting mom & dad to open their wallets to quell the clamoring of their shrieking spawn for the latest and greatest science fiction toy to hit the shelves!

The Star Bird was designed by Bing McCoy (what an awesome real name for a toy designer!) who also created another hallowed favorite of mine, Rom the Space Knight.

There are several homages to two of the most enduring popular sci-fi franchises.  The shape of the cockpit seems a brother to the Y-Wing from "Star Wars."

The rest of the ship bears a strong resemblance to the classic Star Trek D7 Klingon battle cruiser with the neck and body rotated 180 degrees.

There is also the rear turret, which is so artoo-ish I hear beeps and bloops in my head whenever I see it!

Despite these familiar styles from familiar spaces, the Star Bird still manages to look unique.

Toy electronics were at their inception, but the Star Bird has some snazzy features.  After inserting a 9V battery, you can create a steady engine hum once you turn on the circuit.  Then, depending on whether the ship is pointed up or down, a ball bearing switch makes the engine hum rise or drop.

Here's a great vintage commercial!

 A large button behind the cockpit causes the LED’s in the front of the nose flash.  Loud  laser sounds also erupt from underneath the cockpit out of a speaker that’s two inches in diameter!  Rudimentary features by today’s standards, but back then they were the bee’s knees!

Aside from the electronic lights & sounds, the Star Bird also has some really nice modular play features.  The two dark gray Interceptors on the wing tips can be removed and the turret ball doubles as an escape pod.  The best part is that the cockpit and engine can be removed and coupled together to form the Star Bird Fighter.  If you remove the front hull, then you have the Star Bird Power Orbiter.  I love how back then just a sticker could suggest that there was an interior!

The sticker on mine has dried out and fallen off, so I'm using this picture from an Ebay auction.

There were three other toys that followed which I hope to some day obtain.

 First there was the Star Bird Avenger, which initially appears to be the Star Bird with a different set of stickers.  They are pretty cool, and I love the new cockpit decal that is clearly a tribute to the Firebird logo that graced the hood of many a Pontiac Trans Am!

The surprise hiding inside the Avenger was infrared electronics!  Far out!  You could actually shoot a target and score a hit.  If your neighbor had an Avenger, you could have battles and a direct hit would actually cause your opponent’s engine to fail!  Way rad!

In addition to pitching Avengers against each other, you could also take on the Star Bird Intruder.  This smaller ship is basically the Star Bird cockpit with a small rear wing assembly and a pistol grip underneath.  This pistol grip activated the electronics, which were also infrared!

Good guys and bad guys duking it out!  Fazoom!  Like the Avenger, the Intruder also came with a reflective target to let you practice your aiming skills.

The final toy is not another ship, but a Command Base!   Wicked!  It’s also wickedly difficult to find complete and in good condition.  I would also be concerned about whether all the laminated paper would keep its shape or start to curl up at the edges.

Regardless, the Command Base has a lot of features, the most interesting being actual human figures that finally establish the scale of the ships.  If you plan to purchase one, better start saving your money now.  Childhood nostalgia doesn’t come cheap!

"The Day of The Triffids" review

This one will grow on you

I have loved nature documentaries since I was a child, and I eagerly devoured every one I could find.  But of all the different programs, my personal favorite has always been the string of superlative shows produced for the BBC and hosted by David Attenborough.  His enthusiasm is infectious, his naturalist knowledge is vast and this exhilarating combination makes every Attenborough documentary a full spectrum delight.

 “The Private Life of Plants”, which aired in 1995, is a visual marvel of time-lapse photography, and it also contains a fascinating examination of the mind-boggling variety of carnivorous plants that abound in every corner of our tiny blue planet.  Attenborough’s films have made it possible for audiences to vicariously travel to countless remote and forbidding places and goggle at the exotic sights that lay hidden in the foliage.

Theatrical science fiction cinema also offers similar journeys of astonishment, albeit ones typically focused less on the wonder of discovery and more on the dread of annihilation.  What makes the 1963 British film “The Day of the Triffids” so distinctive is that instead of flying saucers filled with bipedal, bug-eyed aliens armed with claws and laser guns, this time the murderous invaders are tri-stalked plants with flower-like heads that spit venom and grasping vines which entangle their victims.   

The Triffids arrive as spores via a spectacular meteor shower which the whole world watches to their lasting doom.  The exploding asteroids turn the night sky into a galactic fireworks display, but the next morning everyone wakes up to discover that they’ve been permanently blinded.  The seedling Triffids quickly grow, uproot themselves and begin roaming an urban landscape filled with easy prey.

While the special effects, story and characterizations in “The Day of The Triffids” may seem a bit dodgy by modern standards, the film has a special aura of creepiness due to the fact that the mortal threat from beyond the stars has an Earthly correlation.  Most people know that there are plants in the world that are carnivorous, the Venus Fly Trap being the most familiar for its lures that resemble red, gaping maws.

The ingenious methods that meat-eating plants have developed to attract and capture their prey is amazing and “The Day of The Triffids” becomes more than a little disturbing when one realizes that the scenario is far more realistic and plausible than most science fiction.  Thankfully, no plant has yet evolved that could capture, kill and digest a human being.  Not yet!

If you happen to be a botanophobe, then “The Day of The Triffids” may be for you what “The Exorcist” was for Catholics!

I would strongly recommend the Cheezy Flicks Entertainment DVD.  While it is not restored or remastered (crime!!), this disc at least offers a widescreen version of the film along with some delightful vintage trailers from the sixties!