"John Carter style flyers (Movie)" Topic

Has anyone seen any flyers that would pass as those from the new John Carter film. I was thinking by printing a wing pattern onto transparency I could get a real neat look.

conceptartworld.com/?p=12197

Thanks for any pointers.

You could try one of these from Hawk Wargames, they always remind me of the Disney John Carter Flyers.

link

They are 10mm though, maybe one of the bigger ones?

Actually the other force may be better once I printed the wings up.

Why didn't they do toys ? :-(

Why didn't they do toys ? :-(

Releasing toys wouldn't have worked at all with Disney's strategy of deliberate sabotage. People would have actually gone to see the movie, it would have done well at the box office, and then they would have to make more in the franchise.

Instead they greatly exaggerated its production costs, and spent an equally fictitious sum on a "marketing" campaign. You know, one that somehow didn't include any toys, model kits, collectibles, restaurant tie-ins, television commercials, posters, magazine or comic book ads. For a movie that would have directly appealed to families and to older teenage boys. All so they could report a $500 USD million loss to the IRS and their insurance underwriters.

-Chris K.

Agree with Chris and Mel Brooks "merchandizing is where the money is made". Has to be some weird backstory on why the marketing giant of Disney fell flat on their face here.

Has to be some weird backstory on why the marketing giant of Disney fell flat on their face here.

It's exactly what I said – the execs wanted to write that movie off as a financial loss and dump the franchise.

Someone who worked special effects for John Carter posted about it on a different forum. Sounds like it was a victim of internal politics – basically the people who approved its funding were no longer in charge around the time of its distribution, and the new bosses didn't want anything to do with the Barsoom franchise. So they "cooked the books" on its actual costs (apparently a very common practice among the major studios) and deliberately avoided a full-press marketing campaign. Hell, the only marketing I saw before its release was Willem Dafoe appearing on The Daily Show and a very small USA Today story.

My theory (based on hindsight and pure speculation) is that they were already preparing for the Lucasfilm buyout, and didn't want to tie up those production/postproduction resources on a non-Star Wars franchise for the next decade. With the right licensing and tie-ins, a Barsoom trilogy would have earned them millions. But they can completely phone it in when it comes to Star Wars and still make billions.

And while it was a really good movie, it still had flaws. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone like HBO will produce a rock-solid Barsoom miniseries in a decade or so.

-Chris K.

Look up "John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood" for a lot of the details.

I really liked that movie.

I thought it was pretty damn good, and I have been a fan of the books since I was a lad.

Interesting about all the backlot intrigue, Chris. In retrospect it makes a lot of sense.

Sad to say this is a big gap in miniatures that no one makes ships anymore for this.

Glenn,

I really like the ships in the film:

link

m.joblo.com/joblo/news/40665

I was thinking of making something similar, but for sand:

TMP link

Dan

Oh yes! I loved the Disney interpretation of Barsoomian airships. I was hoping someone would come out with similar ships, but I think interest in Sword & Planet gaming quickly dissolved after "John Carter" tanked.

I believe Peter Pig makes minis for it in 15mm.

Really??? Awesome!

I thought only Black Hat sold suitable figures.

Dan

You can see some painted Peter Pig Giant Tribal Martians on davebill's painting log: link

They're pretty decent looking – different style from the Black Hat ones. On the other hand, the Peter Pig Red Martians don't look all that attractive.

The Black Hat figures are definitely on my to-buy list. And I'm hoping for more goodies in the Highlander Studios' Space: 1889 range eventually… excellent sculpts so far.

-Chris K.

The Black Hat Green Tribal Martians are very nice figures – larger than the Peter Pig ones and, in my opinion, better sculpts and closer to the movie in general look. They don't have heavy support weapons though ;) – unless you count a rifle that's about 20 – 25mm long as a heavy support weapon in 15mm scale.

If you have any Iroquois left over from any French and Indian Wars projects, the musket armed figures will mix well with the Black Hat Imperial Martians as both appear to have mohawks.

I wonder if it would be feasible to model some vehicles in the theme of John Carter and make a graphics file for printing onto transparency for the wings. Too bad I can't model.

David – not a bad thought. Might find some more mounted poses that way, too.

Glenn – if you're going to make the wings out of transparency, you could almost get away with a simple mini of a small wooden ship or pirate schooner or something like that as the base model.

-Chris K.

You could maybe use the wings off of this Star Wars toy

link

My son had one and it had four wings that would come off.

To make the feather-like sails like these:

Why not use one of these and save lots:

link

I personally like hulls like the one on the bottom and on the right:

And this big one here:

Dan
TMP link

These are more to my taste, but very different from the movie's, and not what these folk are seeking.

I've a skiff action fig toy I've started to adapt to a large ship in 15mm, running backwards. My micromachine and titanium barges will probably fly in Aeronef.

I've got some cheap not-Transformer bug/bots from a 'dollar' store that I was going to try for VSF. The flyer's have some wings that might work, though a bit more angular, and more translucent than transparent.

Don't see how the hand fan, even a transparent one, would work at all, but deca-opposable-digit challenged, as said earlier.

Doug

Glenn,

It just occurred to me . . .

Why not look at Arial-like letters of thin mdf at your local craft store (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.)?

An Arial font "H" or a "Y" could serve as the basis on which to build the rest of your ship.

This is not Arial, but it is an example of thin mdf letters:

What do you think of that crazy idea?

Dan

Why not look at Arial-like letters of thin mdf at your local craft store (Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc.)?

An Arial font "H" or a "Y" could serve as the basis on which to build the rest of your ship.

…You're a one-man crime wave, Cacique Caribe.

@Dan

Have you seen these on LAF?

link

May be 'too boat-like…' ;->=

Doug

Doug,

Wow. That is absolutely stunning!!!

That would be perfect as a Martian Sandship:

TMP link

TMP link

Dan
PS. I bought a few of these sails for a sandship a while back:
auction
And a few of these blades for their keel:
auction

GlennM,

Did you ever start on your project? If so, any pics of your flyers?

link

cartermovie.com/photos

link

link

link

Thanks,

Dan
sethengstrom.blogspot.com

Glenn M,

I have been wanting to ask if you had made any progress.

Also, I hope this is information you can use:

TMP link

Dan