Concept over Practicality II.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently won an eBay auction for a set of Major Matt Mason Supernaut Power Limbs.  On Wednesday of this week, I trotted over to the post office at my local Shopper's Drug Mart and, with trembling hands, took possession of the box containing this long-lost childhood memory.

I have to say that I'm impressed. We're talking about a toy which is at least 40 years old, and which depends heavily on hinges made out of crimped plastic.  On that basis, it's in extraordinarily good shape, and even has some of the original stickers.  It's very much the toy that I remember, except that it seems to be a lot smaller than it was when I was twelve. I feel a bit of nostalgic sadness about that.

A couple of people have mentioned that it reminds them of the power lifter from Aliens, and I can see how it would be easy to make that association - after all, how many exoskeletal powersuits are there in popular culture?  But, to be honest, I find it to be a bit of a dubious compliment, given that in my opinion Aliens has some of the worst designed pieces of hardware (from a practical standpoint) in the vast pantheon of science fiction movie technology.

Strike One.
Let's start with the power lifter itself.  Yes, undeniably a clever plot concept that puts Ripley on an equal footing with the Alien Queen, but let's take a moment and talk about physics.

For the last few years, I've been doing publications work for an organization that, among other things, is responsible for training people to use heavy equipment on the waterfront.  Forklifts are a firmly established piece of technology that rely heavily (no pun intended) on weight distribution and low centre of gravity in order to move heavy cargo. There's a reason that things like the power lifter don't exist in the real world, it's because they're horribly impractical.  The centre of gravity would be too high and too far forward to allow any sort of serious weight to be transported. (Not to mention how much smoother the ride is with a wheeled vehicle.)

Strike Two.
Ignoring for a moment the question of exactly what keeps this thing in the air, because it has the aerodynamic qualities of a brick, in the picture above we see it unfolding a variety of what appear to be sheaf missile launchers - AS IT FINISHES DOING AN ATMOSPHERIC INSERTION FROM AN ORBITING SPACESHIP!  As Felix Baumgartner has just demonstrated, things fall FAST when you drop them from that high up.  It makes me wince to think what would happen to an aircraft that tried to do something like this in the real world - if they were lucky, it would just rip the launchers off the hull.  Less lucky (and more likely), the lander would start to tumble almost immediately, followed by a much earlier crash than the one in the movie's script.

And Strike Three.
Why in the world would the Marines have an armoured personnel carrier with less road clearance than a Smart Car?  A US Army HMMWV has a minimum of 16 inches of ground clearance and can go anywhere an Abrams M1 main battle tank can go - this thing would have trouble going up on the sidewalk from the street.

Ah, but don't they all LOOK cool...

- Sid

P.S. If the Power Limbs look taller in the picture above than in the photos from the eBay posting, that's because there are these clever little clips that let you adjust the height of the legs.  Again, how cool is this?

"They give in to the dark side."

Politicians often start out with good intentions. This is true for both natives and non-natives, alike. They get into politics with the idea that they can change the world and make it a better place. The fortunate few succeed in their mission. Many others, however, fail. They become enamored with ego and entranced with power.  

They give in to the dark side. They forget about the principles that define us as Aboriginal people. They ignore the wisdom of the elders and instead listen to the counsel of the lawyers. They cater to their family to keep their voter base intact. They ignore the state of our language and instead focus on the state of their bank account. They would rather sing the praises of their accomplishments than sing the songs of their ancestors. They lead us into treaty instead of leading us into unity. We know that this power is simply just a mask; a mask that can be removed to make them one with the people once again. 

Andy Everson on his Darth Vader print, Power

More Star Wars influenced prints by Andy Everson as he continues to use Lucas' characters as metaphors for a variety of aboriginal concerns and issues.  The new series includes Wisdom (Yoda), Fear (Darth Maul), Control (an Imperial Stormtrooper) and Power (Darth Vader.)  I find his comments regarding the Darth Vader print to be particularly evocative in their description of power as a mask.

Political questions aside, it fascinates me to see how many artists have turned from traditional artistic influences to basing their work on imagery from comic books, video games, and science fiction and fantasy movies and television programs.  Is this an inevitable and natural result of the prevalence of these pop culture icons in the lives of the current generation, or is the artistic community taking advantage of the geek chic factor? 

- Sid

Tidbits III.

I need to have a word with HR.

The last time I did one of these little updates, I announced that we had hired someone who could sneer and say "Star Trek" at the same time.  Now we've hired a woman who is unfamiliar with the expression, "You have the bridge, Number One."  Honestly, where do we find these people? *

Well, at least I've taken care of the last one.
Damn it, I had IMPORTANT things to do this weekend!  I'm trying to build a spacesuit for Hallowe'en, I've got The Avengers on Blu-ray, six new science fiction novels from Chapters to read (courtesy of birthday gift certificates, thanks to all), and I'm behind on blog postings.  And how did I spend most of the weekend? Writing about cargo containers for work. I sometimes worry about my priorities...

Okay, so I didn't write about containers ALL weekend.
I saw William Gibson on 4th Avenue on my way back from the gym on Sunday, and it was all I could do to avoid some kind of uncomfortable fanboy moment.  On the other hand, he's got to be used to that sort of thing by now, he's been an object of geek veneration for almost 40 years.
Seriously, how cool is this?

It was actually a surprise when eBay notified me that I'd won the auction for a set of Major Matt Mason Supernaut Power Limbs with my original bid of $9.99. I'd completely forgotten that I'd even placed a bid, and I frankly expected to be outbid almost instantly - I suspect that the damn things cost about ten bucks when they first came out back in 1969.  (Okay, there was $16 of postage from Ontario, but it's still an astonishing deal.)

And really, what fun is a birthday if you don't get some toys? **

- Sid

*  As it turns out, another one of my co-workers doesn't recognize this quote. I wonder what her excuse is, did they not show The Next Generation in Australia?

** I had one of these as part of my childhood MMM collection until my brother Doug broke it, THE EVIL BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!  (Fortunately I'm not still bitter.)