ALL SCI-FI

[Maurice]

[Maurice]

[Bud Brewster]

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Just a reminder, guys, that Andrew Bogdan (Bogmeister) passed away in 2015.

I have been diligently "rescuing" some of the 3,264 posts he made on his own message board, the Base of Galactic Science Fiction., which contains many of his post that were on the old All Sci-Fi, which crashed the same year Bogmeister died.

Please read this post in Contact All Sci-Fi to find out how Bogmeister seems to have risen from the grave and started posting again.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

Oh yes, I just noticed that he'd never replied to the question before he'd passed (RIP).
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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Pow]

The design for a brand new shuttlecraft for Phase II involved some interesting twists and turns.

Designer of the Enterprise and shuttlecraft for the original TV series, Matt Jefferies, was enlisted by Gene Roddenberry to help create new versions of both ships for Pahse II.

Jefferies worked on the redesign of the shuttlecraft utilizing his Leif Ericson shuttlecraft ---itself resulting from his more aerodynamic initial design for ST:TOS Class F shuttlecraft---as a design starting point.

Jefferies 1968 design for the Leif Ericson was later repurposed as the "hyper space carrier Pegasus" for George Pal's proposed 1975 War of the Worlds TV show.

In 1974 the model making company AMT included the Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery ship (Lief Ericson) into its Star Trek line of models, suggesting that it was part of the ST universe, although it never was.

The original design for the Leif Ericson was for the SF TV project "Strategic Space Command" which never came to fruition.

The Leif Ericson was also considered for Star Trek: The Animated Series.

It was a design that Jefferies loved and would not give up on.

[Gord Green]

POW, you've brought up a subject close to my heart! The AMT LIEF ERICSON was one of my favorite models and one of the first spaceships I assembled! It has a great history!







In 1967, shortly after the successful release of its 1:650 scale "Star Trek" U.S.S. Enterprise model kit, AMT models commissioned "Star Trek" art director Matt Jefferies to create designs for a new line of wholly original starships it hoped to market under the "Strategic Space Command" moniker.



The Leif Ericson originated as another of Jefferies’s fictional spacecraft, but not one that ever appeared on Trek—or at least not for many years. In 1968, Jefferies sketched a pointed, rocketlike ship along with a smaller vessel whose delta wings and bulbous front section vaguely resembled a baby bird.







Designed as a pair—the second craft would ride within the larger vehicle, inside a hangar covered by two hinged doors—the Galactic Cruiser Leif Ericson, together with its “mini scout ship,” were to be the first release in a series intended not for TV but toys: a line of model kits put out by a company called AMT.



In 1968, it launched the first kit in this proposed series, the "Leif Ericson." Later the inspiration for the starship U.S.S. MacArthur in Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's classic sci-fi novel "The Mote in God's Eye," the "Leif Ericson" contained a large shuttle bay that housed a small, in-scale scout craft, popularly known as the "Vega."





Just as the "Leif" herself carried echoes of other Matt Jefferies designs -- most notably S.S. Botany Bay sleeper ship from the "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" -- the Vega scout ship's main body and layout took unmistakable inspiration from his Klingon D-7 battlecruiser.



Although the "Leif Ericson" kit was a hit among sci-fi modelers and was subsequently re-issued by AMT as the "Mystery Ship" and "Glow in the Dark UFO," sluggish sales put the kibosh on any subsequent "Strategic Space Command" entries.






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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah heck, Gord, you beat me to it by a matter of minutes. I posted the picture below and the YouTube video, and then discovered your great post above!

I love the "submarine sail" at the front of the ship, complete with the diving planes that some subs have.





Here's a YouTube video that displays the design from all angles.

____________ AMT Leif Ericson Galactic Cruiser


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