- 13 minutes ago
Copyright Disclaimer: under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Kind of reminds me of what the nuns used to call me at Holy Spirit grade school.
00:03It's basically the Klingon version of the phaser, and despite their bloodthirsty tendencies,
00:07there's actually a stun setting on this thing. It's right here.
00:15Lighten up, Frank. It was only on stun.
00:30Lighten up, Frank.
01:00Lighten up, we take you to a Star Trek convention where the word reality has little meaning to these trekkers.
01:06You'll meet the world's foremost Star Wars collector who likes to think of his Los Angeles home as Skywalker Ranch South.
01:14And we'll show you a store on L.A.'s famed Melrose Avenue devoted to toy robots,
01:20where we'll have a surprise encounter with a full-sized automaton from television's past.
01:25Warning! Warning!
01:26Joining us are our resident couch potatoes, Pat Carroll and Dave Nuttycomb.
01:33Yes, that's his real name.
01:35Special guest, Susan Olson.
01:37You knew her as the youngest one in curls, Cindy, on the Brady Bunch.
01:42And that's me, Jim Leinfelder.
01:44I'm from Pegasus 5.
01:53I'm on vacation.
01:55This is my only hobby, Star Trek.
01:56Man, I can't believe all this stuff.
02:02Come on down here.
02:04What is it about Star Trek that sustains our imagination over all these years?
02:09I mean, in an era when a space shuttle flight barely gets you 30 seconds on the evening news,
02:13hundreds of Trekkies will make pilgrimages to conventions like this one in Burbank, California,
02:18where they revel in imaginary space travel.
02:20I'm standing here with a group of Klingons.
02:29I'm asking people for their favorite Star Trek catchphrase.
02:32Yours?
02:33It was a matter of honor.
02:34Revenge.
02:35Revenge is best served cold.
02:38Now, I go with the classics, the obvious, you know.
02:40I can't change the laws of physics, Captain.
02:42I've got to have 30 minutes.
02:44This is my theory, see, about Star Trek, is that for every moral question that one might
02:52encounter in life, there is a Star Trek episode that answers it.
02:55It's like humanity.
02:56It is the human race.
02:59Honor above all.
03:00Kirk finds his planet all molten rock and all from this land of the earth.
03:02Kirk violated the prime directive every once in a while.
03:04That is the bottom line.
03:06He screwed up that universe, okay?
03:07I think we learned that in Somalia.
03:09Forget about the conflicts.
03:10Forget what's wrong over there.
03:11And you thought this was nothing but lightweight fantasy.
03:15This is very serious political science discussion going on.
03:19There's always going to be conflict.
03:20You cannot escape that.
03:2215,000 attending Trek fans can find everything from Franklin Mint ships, to posters and photos,
03:30to alien holograms.
03:33This event was so big, a sci-fi museum was set up on site by sci-fi addicts Jim Lata and
03:39Roger Sides.
03:40This is Commander Spock's tomb.
03:43It's an unusual piece because the four costumes here are from one specific episode, which is
03:48where the crew is being transported to a planet and some cosmic interference and they end up
03:54on an alternate enterprise, which is barbaric and Spock has a Van Dyke.
03:58It's really great when a costume saves items or something like this to find, like, the original
04:02Uhura snake armlet with the gold sash.
04:05William Shatner down here with the medals, which this is 24-karat gold brocade.
04:10What about a Tribble?
04:11This looks like, you know, something an enormous house cat coughed up.
04:14The Tribble was, um, was designed by David Gerrold for his production of, uh, Tribble Tribbles from Star Trek.
04:20He kept a bunch of originals for himself.
04:22Yeah, what we got here is the Tribble Borg.
04:25It was created as a joke.
04:27Sort of the 23rd century version of a jackalope, I guess.
04:30Exactly, yeah.
04:32Now over here we got, you know, the communicator, uh, the tricorder.
04:36As for, like, the tricorders, it's like, uh, a carry-all.
04:39It just does everything for you.
04:41In fact, I got an original drawing where two communicators fit inside the tricorder.
04:45These shoes look like something Louis XIV might have been mincing around in at court.
04:49What are those?
04:50No, actually, these are a Tuprin shoe from the old Star Trek episode of Mock Time.
04:54That's Spock's wife.
04:55We don't know where the costume is, but these are the original shoes that come up through there.
04:59Okay, my apologies to the French in that case.
05:05Okay, now here we have the Klingon Dictionary, which, uh, for those of you who don't speak fluent Klingon,
05:17uh, bong yaz iyo hupu.
05:22I accidentally killed the officer.
05:32I'm, uh, just sitting here with Joyce Mason.
05:34She was nice enough to offer me a chair at her booth.
05:36And we're just talking Trek.
05:37In fact, that's what Joyce does.
05:39You have a cable talk show called...
05:42Talk Trek.
05:43When it comes to Star Trek, there's like, Star Trek, the original, which is like the Old Testament.
05:48Then you've got Star Trek, the next generation, that's like New Testament.
05:52And then the other shows, I don't know, they're like Mormons maybe or something.
05:55You pointed out a distinction to me between a Trekkie and a Trekker.
06:01Explain that.
06:02Okay, the Trekkie is the person who wears Spock's ears and believes he's Spock.
06:07The Trekker wears the Spock ears and loves the Enterprise, but he knows he's not going to be beat up.
06:14Because he knows he's not Spock.
06:16So, one is a pathology and the other one's a hobby.
06:20Exactly.
06:21You know, when we first arrived at the convention, I have to admit, all this Trekker stuff struck me as, well, quite frankly, for dweebs.
06:32But after you've been around it for a while, it all starts to make sense.
06:37Sadly, now we must go.
06:40Commander Leica, warp back to seven.
06:42Oh, here it is.
07:02The Los Angeles Bureau of the Wall Street Journal.
07:06Excuse me, my name's Jim Leinfiller.
07:08I'm with Neat Stuff.
07:09And I'm here looking for a guy named Steve Sansweet.
07:11He's the Bureau Chief here, yeah.
07:14Any signs of his Star Wars obsession?
07:17No, not in the office.
07:20Hi, excuse me, Steve?
07:22Yeah.
07:22Hi, Jim Leinfiller, Neat Stuff.
07:24Oh, hi, Jim.
07:25We've heard about your Star Wars collection.
07:27We're here to do a story.
07:28Oh, okay.
07:30But, you know, I'm looking around the office here and I see some nice little items, but I'm not seeing anything Star Wars.
07:36Well, this is the Wall Street Journal, you know.
07:39It's not the Lucasfilm Journal.
07:41My Star Wars stuff is at home.
07:43Well, can you step away for a few hours?
07:45Well, I think so.
07:46It's close to the end of the day.
07:48Why don't we take a look?
07:50You're the Bureau Chief, actually.
07:51Oh, okay.
07:52A couple of Star Wars things here and there.
07:55We've got some good things, but this isn't exactly what I was expecting, Steve.
07:59Well, come on along.
08:00Come on along.
08:02And there's a light here.
08:05Oh, wow.
08:06So this is it, huh?
08:06No, Jim.
08:07You're still not quite there yet.
08:09This is some of the other stuff, non-Star Wars.
08:14Pick up the pace.
08:16Pacing.
08:17I'm finding it a little hard to believe there's actually more to the collection.
08:21I mean...
08:21Just be careful.
08:22You have to watch out for the stormtrooper.
08:28Why am I not surprised?
08:33Don't let this guy fool you.
08:35Oh, sure.
08:36He plays his Star Wars pinball game with the abandon of a teenager.
08:40No!
08:41But don't be naive.
08:43Steve Sansweet looks at Star Wars merchandise with the same level of scrutiny
08:47that investors bring to the Wall Street Journal stock listings.
08:51This piece, which sold for about $3 new,
08:55is now getting somewhere between $500 and $800.
08:58Which is crazy!
09:00He's got Star Wars movie props.
09:02I sort of consider myself Skywalker Ranch South.
09:07If something happens up there, I've got at least a couple of pieces down there.
09:10Right, a backup collection.
09:11That's right.
09:12Sansweet has literally written the book, two of them in fact,
09:15on Star Wars Collecting.
09:17This guy's got a serious Star Wars Jones.
09:23The journalist does not make a fortune in his job,
09:28and so the rising California housing prices enabled me to refinance the house several times,
09:34and I used that money mainly to buy Star Wars stuff.
09:39Do you tell the banker that when you come in to...
09:41Oh, well, not exactly.
09:43They usually don't ask, so I usually don't say.
09:46This is for a C-3PO helmet.
09:48Something like that.
09:49Something like that.
09:50It's been money well spent, though.
09:52You're not likely to see neat stuff like this anyplace else.
09:56Here's a speeder bike helmet from Return of the Jedi.
10:00Right.
10:00Weed through all the trees.
10:02Well, I don't think this guy quite made it.
10:05Yeah.
10:05He didn't weave close enough.
10:08His eyepiece is shattered.
10:09Here's a Han Solo prop gun.
10:11Here we have some pieces of the famous Death Star.
10:14Not...
10:15Doesn't want to come out.
10:16These are the holographic chess pieces from the first movie.
10:20Leia's wrist communicator.
10:22These are C-3PO's hands.
10:25I won't even ask what he did when he had to go to the men's room.
10:27This, of course, is the father of Darth Vader.
10:37This costume was actually used in the making of The Empire Strikes Back.
10:41And, of course, this is not an authentic lightsaber.
10:44They didn't use a neon tube that would be a little difficult.
10:47It wouldn't last for many takes, I wouldn't think.
10:50Yeah, it's great.
10:51It's got good hand grips on it.
10:52But this is a real lightsaber.
10:58This is what they really use.
11:00This is a Jedi lightsaber.
11:02It was made for Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader's.
11:05And it's funny.
11:06I mean, they use found objects all over the place.
11:09The blade is actually a German surplus tank antenna with the perfect dimensions.
11:16The force is strong in this world.
11:20Not.
11:21And there are very special figures that are...
11:25You know, wait a minute here.
11:27This may be a bootleg here.
11:28Yeah, that's...
11:29Steve Sansweet action figure.
11:31That's not available at your neighborhood store.
11:35Me as a Jedi master, yes.
11:38I'm afraid while I may aspire to that, I'm not quite there yet.
11:42I think he's gone around the bend here, folks.
11:44If it's scarce, loud, and distasteful, we want to see it.
12:02All right, joining me in the back of the truck now, Doug Bundy.
12:11Thanks for coming, Doug.
12:12Doug is a Star Wars collector, a Star Wars enthusiast from way back when he was young,
12:17as opposed to the advanced age he's reached now.
12:20But the most significant thing is what grew out of this that his father built for him,
12:25his very own X-Fighter.
12:27When you were what age, you figure?
12:28I got it for Christmas when I was eight.
12:31Wow.
12:32Every kid's dream.
12:33But he didn't just stop there.
12:35He didn't just play with it.
12:36No, no, no.
12:36He made his own Star Wars video with that.
12:40So with no further ado, let's roll the video.
13:40Major Alexander P. Dysaversky, one of aviation's most farsighted pioneers,
13:59unveils his latest brainchild.
14:01This strange device is a model of his ionocraft,
14:04a flying platform which he says could be put into operation 60 miles above the Earth.
14:09It draws its propulsion energy from the sun or light sent from the Earth.
14:14The top of the platform is energized and power is drawn from the bottom.
14:18The smoke shows how the platform with no moving parts creates its own lift.
14:23The major says one platform above New York, another above Los Angeles,
14:27would permit direct television communication.
14:29It could intercept intercontinental missiles.
14:31The inventor says the ionocraft would draw a curtain of safety around the U.S.
14:36Hi, I'm Susan Olson, your Neat Stuff correspondent,
14:49and I'm on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles,
14:51and I'm in front of the Wound and Wound Toy Company.
14:55And inside it's filled with all of our old childhood memories
14:58of what we thought the future would be like.
15:01Hello, Jody.
15:09Hi, how are you doing?
15:10Hi, I'm Susan Olson, your Neat Stuff.
15:12You're from...
15:13Yeah, Partridge family.
15:15Yeah.
15:15Anyway, this stuff is great.
15:18Gosh, some of these robots look really old.
15:21This robot is an original robot from the 50s,
15:24which is one of the first battery-operated robots.
15:28I like battery animated toys, things that do things.
15:32My robots walk, either wind up or battery,
15:35and that's basically what I like.
15:38Tin, of course, is the best.
15:44There's great, great humor in science fiction toys.
15:47This is about a perfect example of, like, really great space humor.
15:55It's kind of cartoony, it's ridiculous,
15:58and yet it's got a great look.
16:01Flying Saucers are great.
16:09This is one of my favorite toys.
16:11This is Strange Explorer, and when you turn it on, let's see.
16:17You have...
16:18Oh, my gosh.
16:19It rolls over, and you have your really bad, cheesy King Kong comes out.
16:23And that's why I like it so much, because it's so bad.
16:27I had a very nice robot at one time,
16:29but he got a little bit too loved.
16:32So first his arm came off, then his leg came off,
16:36and his face got bashed in,
16:37and he ended up in the trash.
16:41I want one of these.
16:47A lot of robot people are very pure,
16:51so they like the tin,
16:52but they can't get their fix all the time,
16:54because it's too expensive,
16:55and there's not that many around,
16:56and there's not that many new pieces around.
16:59So they're getting into the plastic
17:00only because they want a new robot.
17:03And there's one piece at the end that's kind of fun.
17:05It's this red piece right here,
17:08which is very typical of an older robot from the 50s.
17:11That's what my robot looks like.
17:12And this is a plastic with a tin chest,
17:15but the reason this is a great robot,
17:16it's made in Russia.
17:18Wow.
17:19Which is kind of very unusual to have.
17:20Wow.
17:21It's a Russian piece.
17:21Well, he's red.
17:24Putting everything in perspective,
17:25these are not just toys, they're an art.
17:30Jim, what are you doing here?
17:33I'm just doing a little shopping.
17:34I thought this was my segment.
17:36It is, it is.
17:36I'm just here to pick something up.
17:38You're going to buy that?
17:39Yeah, I'm going to buy it.
17:40It's their last one.
17:40Here, look, watch what this thing does.
17:44Aw, it's so cute.
17:49Warning, warning, alien approaching.
17:52Oh my gosh, I don't believe it.
17:54It's the robot from Lost in Space.
17:56Affirmative.
17:57Wow, you're right.
17:58Hey, robot, what have you been up to
17:59since I canceled the series?
18:00What, dinner theater?
18:02Negative.
18:03Jim, Susan, I have been making guest appearances
18:06on programs such as this one.
18:08After all, according to my calculations,
18:11I am the mechanical embodiment of neat stuff.
18:17Oh, you are.
18:19Affirmative.
18:20Being a Brady, that was fun.
18:22But deep down inside,
18:23I always secretly fantasized about being a Robinson.
18:26I just loved all those space adventures.
18:28They look like so much fun.
18:30Negative.
18:32While you Bradys were safe
18:34in your AstroTurf backyards,
18:37the Robinsons and I were being chased
18:39by interplanetary hillbilly werewolves
18:43and attacked by a large humanoid carrot.
18:47You know, when you think about it,
18:48he had a point I think you were better off
18:50in the backyard with Alice.
18:51Hey, robot, great to see you.
18:53You haven't changed a bit over the years.
18:54Keep up the regular lube jobs.
18:56You know, I think I had one of those
18:57humanoid carrots in my salad earlier.
18:59I think you did.
19:01Oh, oh, warning, warning, warning,
19:04Will Robinson.
19:05Warning, Dr. Smith.
19:06Warning, Jim.
19:08Warning, Susan.
19:09It's neat stuff.
19:10According to the British weekly
19:40The New Scientist,
19:42the Japanese Livestock Research Institute
19:44has developed a very small breed of pigs
19:47to be used as astronauts.
19:50These unusually small swine
19:52will be manning future NASA space flights.
19:55The pigs are also being studied
19:56by the Agricultural Research Council
19:58in Cambridge, England
20:00to determine what makes them bored,
20:02what makes them happy,
20:04and how to help them sleep comfortable.
20:06UFO sightings have been reported
20:12in different parts of the world
20:13as far back as 1897.
20:16That year, a Kansas farmer
20:17named Alexander Hamilton
20:19reported seeing a 300-foot cigar-shaped object
20:23hover over his cow pasture,
20:25lasso one of his cattle,
20:26and fly off with the purloin bovine.
20:29That same year,
20:30a large object was sighted
20:32in the sky over Topeka
20:33by as many as 200 people,
20:35including the governor,
20:37who when asked for comments said,
20:38I don't know what that thing is,
20:40but I hope it may yet
20:42solve the railroad problem.
20:43Princess Leia's soap.
21:01Not neat.
21:02Not neat.
21:03I used to have some of that.
21:05I had Luke, yeah,
21:07so it's pretty neat.
21:08Not neat.
21:09Not neat.
21:12Not neat.
21:13That boy.
21:14Not neat.
21:17Not.
21:18Oh, neat.
21:19What is he?
21:20The border's unoffensive.
21:22Oh, no.
21:24If her first word is neat,
21:26you win $100, by the way.
21:27Oh, right.
21:28We know that was neat.
21:30Yeah.
21:30That's neat, isn't it?
21:34You know, there's so much neat stuff
21:36that relates to science fiction.
21:37In fact, you know,
21:37back where I live in Portland, Oregon,
21:39they've got an entire museum
21:40devoted to UFOs.
21:41Warning!
21:42Warning!
21:43Jim Leinfelder,
21:44your time is running out.
21:47Yeah, I can read a watch now.
21:49Huh!
21:54That's how Dr. Smith used to handle this guy,
21:56you bubble-headed boobie.
21:57See you next week.
21:58Oh, you're welcome.
22:01Oh, you're welcome.
22:01Oh, you're welcome.
22:02See you next week.
22:02Oh, you're welcome.
22:03Oh, you're welcome.
22:03Oh, you're welcome.
22:03Oh, you're welcome.
22:04Oh, you're welcome.
22:04Oh, you're welcome.
22:04Oh, you're welcome.
22:05Oh, you're welcome.
22:05Oh, you're welcome.
22:05Oh, you're welcome.
22:05Oh, you're welcome.
22:06Oh, you're welcome.
22:06Oh, you're welcome.
22:07Oh, you're welcome.
22:07Oh, you're welcome.
22:08Oh, you're welcome.
22:08Oh, you're welcome.
22:09Oh, you're welcome.
22:09Oh, you're welcome.
22:10Oh, you're welcome.
22:10Oh, you're welcome.
22:11Oh, you're welcome.
22:12Oh, you're welcome.
Recommended
23:53
|
Up next
8:24
13:04
35:43
46:30
24:27
47:47
10:23
10:22
10:23
10:23
10:23
10:23
10:22
10:22
10:22
10:23
4:59
1:30
20:25
14:13
42:45
4:25
26:00
Be the first to comment