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Rocky Jones in Crash of Moons - (1954)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 27, 2014 3:03 pm    Post subject: Rocky Jones in Crash of Moons - (1954) Reply with quote

Obviously Jimbo Berkey has two things in common with me: he's a fan of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, and he's been one since the 1950s. His comments on the series are a perfect description of how I feel about all good science fiction, and Rocky Jones is a fine example.

This movie is a series of three television episodes that you and I may have seen as children.

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It was edited together and released to movie theaters in 1954, but I would have seen this adventure on television. It would probably be a sunny Saturday morning, and I would have made several slices of toast with generous amounts of oleo and peanut butter slathered on them. I would carefully set up a metal tv tray in front of the couch and put my toast and a large mug of chocolate milk on it.


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While dipping my peanut butter covered toast in the chocolate milk and quickly devouring it, I would become totally engrossed in this space adventure. I would imagine myself as one of the Space Rangers, jetting through the unknown galaxies exploring new worlds and finding new peoples.


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Unbridled imagination is one of the most blessed gifts given to mankind, and this story provides wondrous visions of what might be for young children and us old farts that can still magically allow our minds to believe.


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Without imagination most of the inventions and devices that we enjoy today would not exist. We would probably still be hunting dinosaurs with rough stone axes. Even today, when I know that we have sent men to the moon, and robots to Mars and beyond, this adventure with its simple 1950's style special effects manages to excite my imagination.


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Join me with several slices of peanut butter toast and a large mug of chocolate milk and let your imagination roam the universe with Rocky Jones and the Space Rangers.



________________


____Jimbo Berkey
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Mar 31, 2018 6:06 pm; edited 18 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

I love the Rocky Jones series, and I have all the DVD's I've been able to find of it, desperately hoping I'd find really good versions. Here's just a few of them.





Sadly, they range from bad to worse, but I still enjoy watching them. Maybe somebody like Shout Factory will find a way to improve the quality someday.

One can only hope. Meanwhile, enjoy Jimbo's free and easy version at the link above, and also below.

And please note that Jimbo provides an easy download link at the bottom of each movie's page, with simple instructions for how to use it. Very Happy What a guy!

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 2:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote



You remind me I've got a nice resin model of this ship purchased years ago from CultTVman. It's stuck away somewhere awaiting assembly and painting. I think I'll start in it just as soon as I finish the King Kong resin model I've been working on the last two years. I'm easily 1/4 finished with that one. OK. It might be 2023, but there's a Rocky ship coming.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 2:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky Jones wrote:
It might be 2023, but there's a Rocky ship coming.

Interesting! About the time you finish the model, we'll have developed the technology to build a real one! Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Mar 07, 2022 2:14 pm; edited 2 times in total
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky's rocket was always one of my favorites. I thought they also had the coolest rocket base and launch sequence.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________________________________

Yep, this is the memory I have from my boyhood days of how rockets should launch and land.



And now we've almost developed reliable ways to do this. We're living in an exciting age, my fellow space cadets! Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 3:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I actually enjoyed Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (Syndication 1954) better than Space Patrol (ABC 1950 - 1955) even though the latter was more popular.
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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another aspect that fascinated me after I grew up and watched the episodes on video was how they managed to peel off all those weird names of characters and planets so smoothly when delivering their lines.

Wikipedia wrote:
Because it was recorded on film rather than being broadcast live as were most other TV space operas of the day, it has survived in reasonably good condition. The film format also allowed more elaborate special effects and sets, exterior scenes, and much better continuity.

Ah! That's enlightening.

This, too:


Wikipedia wrote:
The Orbit Jet was a fictional spaceship in the 1954 TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. It strongly resembled a V-2 rocket in overall form, with a very prominent exhaust plume when flying, but had wings in addition to tailfins (even its radio callsign, "XV-2" relates it to that seminal World War II design). There were references in the dialog to the engines being "atomic". The Orbit Jet had a crew of two (pilot and copilot), but often had three or four others on board depending on the mission and destination. It often flew from Earth to inhabited moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which it seemed to reach in hours or days of time within the story.

Later in the series, another ship, the Silver Moon, was used, but it appeared almost identical to the Orbit Jet.

The Orbit Jet introduced many features that would become standard equipment on later TV and movie spaceships:

An electronic viewscreen (instead of a simple window or porthole) A fantastically complicated control panel (without an airplane-styled control wheel or stick)

Power doors opening side-to-side as one approaches

Subspace radio (the "Astrophone") that allowed instantaneous communications over interplanetary distances Artificial gravity as an explained feature and plot element A cloaking device that rendered the ship invisible.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 9:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

_____________________________________

The Orbit Jet tipped over and was damaged during a rock slide on an alien world in one episode, and Rocky began using the Silver Moon after that.

Brent Gair's model of the rocket from the series is accurate to the Nth degree.

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But other models I've seen screw up the wings something awful, curving the upper and lower edges drastically, or distorting the proportions.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I built my model using plans from THE SPACESHIP HANDBOOK and it does show alternate wings and fins. There was some variation. I have not seen enough of ROCKY JONES (just a couple of really bad DVD episodes) to claim any expertise. I just used the version that I found most appealing. As is often the case, there does not seem to be one absolutely definitive version.
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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, that takes care of that. Out of curiosity I went and dug my kit out and it seems to be the goofy one in the lower left picture. Now I'm thinking it may look better in a future eBay sale instead.

Actually, I've been thinking I'd try turning some classic rocket models when I finally get a mini lathe set up. The XV-2 doesn't look like it would be at all difficult to fab with a lathe and few sheets of flat material. It looks like this one would be better done as a scratch build. Ah, the things can learn in a day on the Internet.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 14, 2016 11:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
I have not seen enough of ROCKY JONES (just a couple of really bad DVD episodes) to claim any expertise.

You're too modest, Brent. As we can plainly see from the four pictures I posted above, yours is right and the other two are plum hideous.

As for source material, ALL Rocky Jones DVD's are "really bad", so your creation should be praised for getting it right in spite of the difficulties.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 3:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wikipedia wrote:
Later in the series, another ship, the Silver Moon, was used, but it appeared almost identical to the Orbit Jet. [emphasis mine]

Do we know what the differences between the Orbit Jet and the Silver Moon were?
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rocky Jones wrote:
Actually, I've been thinking I'd try turning some classic rocket models when I finally get a mini lathe set up. The XV-2 doesn't look like it would be at all difficult to fab with a lathe and few sheets of flat material. It looks like this one would be better done as a scratch build. Ah, the things can learn in a day on the Internet.

Check out my old video of building the Abbott & Costello Go to Mars ship. It's a 7 year old video shot with a low def Best Buy camera but it shows the basics:

_______________ Abbott & Costello Go To Mars


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Do we know what the differences between the Orbit Jet and the Silver Moon were?

I thought the wings of the Silver Moon were more curved than the wings of the Orbit Jet (which are mostly straight along the top and bottom, as shown on Brent's model), but I couldn't find a single scrap of evidence on line that showed that a different model was used for the "other" ship in the series.

The only versions of the ship I could find which had the curved wings were models, which apparently reflected changes in the original design made by the model makers themselves.

I finally decided that the low-budget series just used the same model and there was actually no difference between the Orbit Jet and the Silver Moon. I wish I could remember where I got the impression that the wings were different.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Jun 03, 2023 3:01 pm; edited 2 times in total
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