Monday 12 March 2012

1978: SCIENCE FANTASY FILM CLASSICS MAGAZINE: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

SCIENCE FANTASY FILM CLASSICS magazine was one of the many post-STARLOG wannabes cashing in on the late seventies SF movie boom.  It was also one of the better ones, based on this lengthy and comprehensive article coinciding with the launch of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

The articles showcase much of Ralph (STAR WARS) McQuaarrie's pre-production designs, which adorned various pieces of official merchandise.

The CODENAME: GALACTICA toy adverts, from Mattel, are also interesting.  The ambiguous title presumably reflects some of the uncertainty around the final name of the show (at one point, earlier in 1978, it looked like it would be just Galactica).  The two action figures are something of a car crash, shamelessly recycled from Mattel's 1967 MATT MASON line.  Presumably manufactured some way ahead of the show's premiere (and therefore probably the result of some creative thinking to overcome truncated timelines), it's early evidence that Universal would accept almost any merchandising proposal as long as the dollars came flooding in.

The Colonial Viper model, with nose-mounted firing missile, is the toy that killed a child in late December 1979 after he fired the missile into his mouth and choked.

There's no sign of the smaller Mattel figures, presumably because they were launched later.

VOLUME 1, NUMBER 4
OCTOBER 1978



































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