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Topic: 8mm films on toy projector

Winbert Hutahaean
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From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 02, 2005 04:05 AM

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I found to remember that my first touch with 8mm was not a few years back but much further than that, when I found my old toys that used to run super 8mm inside a cartdige. I don't know if this kind of toys were sold in Europe, but the catridge is endless (loop) system and the duration was about 40 seconds to 1 minute. Probably this is a miniature of Technicolor machines that used to be in the Airline... [Wink]

[Wink]

as have been discussed in the other post.

But I was quite surpised when I saw the color of the films were just good. Not reddish at all!. This toys were made in Hong Kong. So I supposed it was printed in a Hong Kong Lab during that era. I did not find any lab marks or films stock written on the edge of the films. Any body can tell me if the Hong Kong's Lab were much superior than those in the US?

Bye,

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Winbert

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Kevin Faulkner
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posted August 02, 2005 04:15 AM

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Maybe it was on a Fuji Film stock which has been holding up very well or even Agfa. I think there was a small Hong Hong film manufacturer but cant remember their name. Companies such as Mitsubishi also made photographic film and then there were companies such as Orwo who made 8mm and still not fadeing as I have some in my collection. Orwo was based on the Agfa type dye technology a bit grainy but a fair film.

Kev.

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Michael De Angelis
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posted August 02, 2005 10:45 AM

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I once had the same toy. It was made by a company named: Kenner.
It had a loop of Super 8mm film in color of selected scenes (very brief) from Star Wars. You would look in the by and holding the device up to the outside light and crank the exterior handle to move the film.

The film had pretty fairly good color quality, and the image was fairly sharp.
Although it did have scenes that were different takes than were placed in the 400 foot and 200 foot Ken films digests.

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Jan Bister
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posted August 02, 2005 07:47 PM

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I had a similar toy as a kid... it was called the DUX KINO (made and sold in Germany) and also came with endless-loop cartridges of what I think was super-8 film, but it may in fact have been a completely nonstandard format, more like 6mm or 7mm wide. Anyway, it was pretty cool, as it actually projected the film through a tiny lens, using batteries and a flashlight bulb... Ah, the thrill of seeing images on my bedroom wall roughly the size of a CD jewel case! [Cool]

[Cool]

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Call me Phoenix. *dusts off the ashes*

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Adrian Winchester
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posted August 03, 2005 06:20 AM

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It's interesting to note that toy projectors have been sold fairly recently and may be still available. I recall someone putting up a link to a site, probably in Japan, where you could buy them. I also remember Derek Simmonds, probably at a Derann open day about 5 years ago, saying that he had arranged the printing of a batch of silent films for these projectors, which would be going to Spain.

I've also seen evidence of the sort of cartridge viewers mentioned being available recently. I have a couple of the cartridges that I got cheaply on eBay - one is 'Terminator 2' (or about 30 seconds of it!) I thought I might extract the film and see what it looks like on the screen.

Adrian

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Adrian Winchester

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Trevor Adams
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From: Auckland,New Zealand
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posted August 03, 2005 06:59 AM

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There are a heap of toy viewers and projectors that use 8mm/super 8mm film.Must say most are "recently" obsolete but a few are still being sold new.e.g. Galoob Sneak Preview keychain motorised viewers-neat!

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Trevor

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Kurt Gardner
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posted August 18, 2005 09:30 AM

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And of course there was the Kenner Give-A-Show projector. That's how my mania started. When a motorized version came out, I wanted it for Christmas so much. My dad bought me a REAL 8mm projector instead, along with Castle condensations of "Dracula" and "Bride of Frankenstein." I was so surprised. It was kind of like my version of the Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun.

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Paul Adsett
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posted August 18, 2005 12:25 PM

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Hi Kurt,
I had a similar experience. My first projector was also a toy which showed small 35mm movies, very dimly, and without a shutter so the motion was blurred. My first'proper' projector was a 9.5mm Pathescope Ace, which was a quantum leap in quality from the toy 35mm. The Ace opened up new vistas of 30ft, 60ft, and feature length silent films which I rented from the local photo shop. I think the excitement generated by those first toy projectors never leaves you, and that's why we are all into collecting and projecting 8mm films today.

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James N. Savage 3
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posted August 19, 2005 02:11 PM

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I picked up one of those neat key-ring super 8 viewers from a comic book store a couple of years ago. It came with a cartridge of a Flecher "Superman" cartoon, "Volcano".

The neat thing was that on the back of the box, they listed a whole lot of other cartridges that were available, stuff thats never been on super 8, like they had about four different scenes from "Dirty Dancing" (with Patric Swazy). That would have been interesting to put up on the big screen.

Never got around to ordering the cartridges though, and I don't think the company is around anymore.

Wonder who printed their Super 8 for them?

Nick.

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Trevor Adams
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posted August 19, 2005 05:54 PM

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Have a look at Claude Mettavants wonderful site."Search Google with "mettavant".Trev

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Trevor

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Paul Adsett
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posted August 19, 2005 08:11 PM

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Hi Trev,
That's a great web site, really fascinating, makes me want to get into collecting toy projectors! [Smile]

[Smile]

I was particularly interested in the British made 'Minicine', since I remember seeeing one of these displayed in a shop window when I was growing up in the UK. I think it was around Christmas time, and the 'Minecine' was in its display box, draped with holly and garland. I wanted that projector so bad for christmas! I was really fascinated by it, trying to figure out how it worked, and how it could possibly produce any moving pictures on such a short strip of film. Well I never did get to see one working, because I got hold of a 'proper' movie projector- the Pathe Ace, which was certainly not a toy, and I was soon off and running collecting the little 9.5mm 30 and 60ft films and the rest, as they say, is history. Funny though how these little toy projectors continue to hold their fascination 50 years later. Anyway thanks to the web site that you referenced I now know for the first time how the Minicine works! Thanks Trev.

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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
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Michael Clark
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posted August 20, 2005 07:48 AM

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Same experiences here. I got a Kenner toy projector for Christmas one year as a kid. It had a plastic arm extending out from the front about 12 inches and you snapped on a small square white plastic screen. You flipped the switch and a flash-light bulb illuminated, you popped in the small rectangular green cartridge, and cranked the handle. Voila! Instant theater! I had cartridges of cartoons - Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Fat Albert. I remember at night removing the plastic screen and projectin on the wall. My cousin and I would pretend we were running a movie theater. I was probably 8 or 9 at the time. Ahh, the memories! [Smile]

[Smile]

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Tim Drage
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posted August 20, 2005 08:58 AM

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I have a few 'action replay' cartridges and viewer... 90's, so not old/collectable enough for me to feel guilty about dismantling to get the film out... and put my own in!

Also a few years back there was a Disney McDonald's happy meal thing with a viewer containing a loop of some old clip of Micky Mouse... big ugly yellow clear plastic thing, look out for them and you'll probably be able to find one in charity shops/car boot sales for almost nothing i imagine... the viewer itself it rubbish + breaks easily tho.

I always wanted to find enough toy viewers of some kind to be able to load a number of them with my own film as a 'multiple art' limited edition... inspired by the Fluxus artists who made 8mm loops supplied with those open hand-held viewers, such things being easier to come by in the 60s!

--------------------
Tim Drage
Animator & Director
Spite Your Face Productions
http://www.spiteyourface.com

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John Hourigan
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posted August 20, 2005 09:48 AM

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Ahhh yes -- those great Christmases as a kid when there would be a much asked-for toy projector under the tree. Over those years, I received several toy projectors but my all-time favorite was Kennner's Change-A-Channel TV set. It used film catridges that had two movies printed side-by-side so that you could "change the channel" and watch the other movie. I loved this toy so much that I asked for and received it in 1967 and 1969. (I just recently purchased a Change-A-Channel set off of eBay and was just as excited to receive it as I was 35 years ago!)

Then in 1971 I received a toy projector for Christmas that played 50-foot reels, and I've been hooked on film collecting ever since. I still have the Std. 8 film that came with the projector -- Ken Films' SEEIN' RED with Red Skelton.

Sure wished I had hung on to those toy projectors over the years!

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Eberhard Nuffer
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posted May 19, 2006 04:33 PM

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...here's another toy projector, the Viacom Mini Movi, currently offered on eBay Germany: http://cgi.ebay.de/MINI-MOVI-HANDFILMPROJEKTOR-VIACOM-1978-RAR_W0QQitemZ9138465127QQcategoryZ108242QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem.
According to the seller, it was made in 1978 and also uses endless loops. As it is not equipped with a light well, you have to hold it up to the outside light, but the transport is motorized and battery-operated.

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Nicholas Fair
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posted March 23, 2011 12:26 PM

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ive got something similar, made by fischer price - its called a movie viewer. they also made a small television type version with a light bulb...

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Osi Osgood
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posted March 23, 2011 12:48 PM

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There were a number of these little hand held (and otherwise) movie viewers.

There was the already mentioned Kenner brand, which housed STAR WARS movies. There was also a shortly released "The Black Hole" catridge and hand held crank super 8.

However, the Black Hole cartridge could be played on the Fisher Price projector system. That was where Fisher Price hand a one up on the other companies, as you had the option of either hand cranking it and watching it through the "peep show", or you could shove that cassette into the full size projector and watch it on the wall.

The Fisher Price company released scores of different titles, everything from Disney to Sesame Street!

Then there was the very good "Pocketflix" films, which has a small round cassette that held a full minutes worth of footage, and at 24 fps (where the fisher price was about 12 fps) these were silent as well, but they had quite a variety, ranging from thwe 1976 King Kong, the Bad News bear, laverne and Shirley, the original STAR TREK, and many others. Interestingly, most of the TV shows represented in the cassettes were made up of the Beginning intros to the shows which, (in the case of STAR TREK and Scooby Doo) you could add to the beginnings of your 400ft Scooby Doo's and such.

The last one I can remember in the states here, was the GAF View master corporation "Double View" super 8 viewer whioch had two loops of film on one cartridge, and if you wanted to switch to the other, you simply took the catridge out and reversed it.
These "double View" movie viewers held the least amount of film loop to the catridfge ands was once again at the 12 fps.

Hope that info helps.

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Desmond Godwin
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posted May 03, 2011 02:05 PM

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On the subject of the 'Toy Projector's' I happen to be looking at some 8mm items on E\bay and low and behold i came across the very 1st Toy Projector that was bought for me in the early 70's
(pic below) It came with a B+W 50' cartoon reel of standard 8 film. (somewhere in my film collection i think i still have this
original reel of film) It brought back so many memories seeing
this toy projector once again...

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Colin Robert Hunt
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posted May 03, 2011 03:02 PM

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I remember one of my friends having one of these projectors. I had not got into film at the time. There is no shutter to this projector and resulted in streaking and ghosting of the images on screen. Could only project onto a small screen. The film suffered from scratches because this machine was not the best in looking after the film running through it/

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Michael O'Regan
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posted May 03, 2011 03:05 PM

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Desmond,
This looks like the projector that was always advertised in the back pages of Famous Monsters from the Captain Company.

Is that where you got it, by any chance??

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Desmond Godwin
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posted May 03, 2011 03:36 PM

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As you describe Colin is exactly how this projector operated -
(very small dim picture,streaking,and it most certainly did scratch the film.....
Michael, My parents (or should i say Santa) got me this Projector for Christmas. I must have run that small B+W Cartoon
film through the projector, on that Christmas day about 50 times before the batteries packed up..I have never stopped being
in love with Projectors & Movie Film since i first got that toy over 40 yrs ago..

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Jeff Missinne
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posted December 10, 2012 12:09 AM

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Toy projectors...that's how I got hooked! I started out as a kid with an 8mm Brumberger that sounded like a machine gun when I turned the hand crank. Came with 3 films, 25 feet each: Popeye, Laurel & Hardy, and Tom Mix. I had a Kenner Easy-Show later, remember it coming with films of David Seville and the Chipmunks (silent!) and Lassie; the open cartridges it used tended to jam very badly. A clone of the Kenner projector is still (I think) made in Spain; it's called a Cinexin and has LEDS for light and closed cartridges of film that maybe work better than Kenner's did. Just bought a used Cragstan 8mm toy projector; those had an interesting double life, they were sold as a kiddie projector with cartoons or as a "Sports Action" projector with NFL clips (Atlas Films in NYC made Cragstan's prints as I believe they also did for Brumberger)...but quite a few ended up sold in adult-novelty shops as an "accessory" for porn clips! [Eek!]

[Eek!]

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Hugh Thompson Scott
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posted December 10, 2012 05:13 AM

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That is exactly the same projector that got me started,as soon as
I left school I got one of these from an ad in the paper.No shutter,
and a 50' spool capacity with the ability to ruin everything put
through it, it was soon junked.I remember it came with a 50'
Keystone Kops film and "free" screen on the side of the box.
My supplier for film then was a great guy by the name of John
Rowley from Brighton who ran a secondhand film business,whose
lists were full of Castle horrors etc.I remember getting "The Deadly Mantis" & "Teenage Frankenstein" in 50' versions plus
"The Mummy's Tomb" that had to be broken down onto 50' spools,another reason why it had to go, that and the poor
picture that looked like it was lit by someone with a cigarette!

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Hugh Thompson Scott
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posted December 11, 2012 05:51 AM

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Hi Jeff, thanks for mail,no the projector I had was the little
HORIPET machine that Desmond mentioned, mine was a beige
mushroom colour, but regardless of shade it liked scratching
the hell out of film, but it did lead to a love affair that has never
dwindled, so I do owe that little machine that much.

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Jeff Missinne
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posted December 11, 2012 10:12 PM

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Taking a close look at the Horipet machine, it looks extremely similar to the Cragstan. The cabinet of the Horipet looks about half again as deep (thick?) as the Cragstan, and the base is different, but the mechanism and switches appear identical. Could be an earlier version of the same machine under a different trade mark?

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