Fisher Price Move Viewer

[Tscan]

One of the first things that really intrigued me about motion picture and color film was the old fisher price movie viewer in the late 70s when I was about 6 or 7. I remember I had the Star Wars cartridge and loved cranking it back and forth with the laser scenes. Well Fisher Price has a new one out as part of their retro toy reissues and I got one for my daughter this week for her 4th birthday. It came with 2 new cartridges that are loaded with super 8 color print film which I find somewhat intriguing. The prints don't have typical sprocket holes, the holes are actually round. The picture is a little jumper than I remember too. I did a search for some more cartridges (got a lot of 3) and also came across a Retro-Thing page about modifying the carts with your own films! I think the cartridges from the 70s used standard super 8 sprockets and perfs. I'm going to try and do it, my 4yr old is already pretty mesmerized with it. Anyone tried this or have any leads on movie viewer cartridges?

[aj]

Somebody posted here about DIY loading these things.
Super8man has a page on these.
http://super8man.filmshooting.com/super8_41.html
Interesting reading all these pages: http://super8man.filmshooting.com Already retro in themselves

Didn't retrothing report on these too?

Odd that they still have raw material to fill cartridges. Or was there a gigantic stock?

Only three years ago I bought a souvenir/viewer at Museé d'Orsay which has a strip of Kodachrome 16mm S8 perf 1R inside.
The film has 16 slides of well known paintings inside.
As Wittner reported on their site they had a stash of K40 16mm S8 perf 1R which they had slit into 8mm S8 and a strip with no perforation. I always wondered if they kept it to perforate someday. Unfortunately the processing has gone.

One might even attempt to inkjetprint S8 strips on a clear sheet film. Possibly there are long rolls? Perforating will be a chore
Nice for the winterevenings. Adapting/constructing a round perforation hole perforator should be lot easier than an original S8 perf one. I recall there was somebody who printed on thin paper. Gives pixels and paperfibres in the view.
Would it be possible to print on the emulsionside of clear S8 film? Alignment is a bit of problem feeding this through a printer.

I suppose when you put in your own productions you could use Tri-X or Fomapan too.
What length is there inside the cartridges?

Searching classifieds might bring some extra cartridges. Disney stuff etc

[slashmaster]

Yes it is supposed to be super 8 film. Are you sure the sprocket holes on the new one are round?

I have pulled the film from one of those cartridges and run it through a normal super 8 projector. It plays much too fast at 18 fps.

Then I made a film of me and my friends vandalizing and put that in the fisher price cartridge. I then brought that and the viewer to high school so I could brag about the vandalism! It was lots of fun handing the viewer to all my friends and bragging! I didn't get it right though, the film got scratched inside the cartridge, might have had too much film in it.

[Tscan]

Yes it is supposed to be super 8 film. Are you sure the sprocket holes on the new one are round?

I have pulled the film from one of those cartridges and run it through a normal super 8 projector. It plays much too fast at 18 fps.

Then I made a film of me and my friends vandalizing and put that in the fisher price cartridge. I then brought that and the viewer to high school so I could brag about the vandalism! It was lots of fun handing the viewer to all my friends and bragging! I didn't get it right though, the film got scratched inside the cartridge, might have had too much film in it.

Yes they are round and the registration is really bad. I just got 3 old carts from ebay yesterday, and those have standard S8 film with normal perfs, they run very smooth compared to the new ones. One of the carts had damaged film in it so I opened it up successfully, will try and load some of my own reversal here soon. I'll let ya'll know how it works out-

[slashmaster]

Yes they are round and the registration is really bad. I just got 3 old carts from ebay yesterday, and those have standard S8 film with normal perfs, they run very smooth compared to the new ones. One of the carts had damaged film in it so I opened it up successfully, will try and load some of my own reversal here soon. I'll let ya'll know how it works out-

Nice, what kind of damage did the film have? Film scratched? Torn sprocket holes? Or film broke in 2? I'd like to see what happens when you take apart the one with round sprocket holes. Wonder if that film will play in your super 8 projector? Wonder if ordinary super 8 film can be put in that cartridge?

[Tscan]

The damaged film definitely had been exposed to water or excess moisture although the cartridge it fine. Film from the new cartridges with the round holes won't work in a projector, and the carts won't work with standard film so they are not worth messing with. Plenty of old ones out there to play with though.

[slashmaster]

The damaged film definitely had been exposed to water or excess moisture although the cartridge it fine. Film from the new cartridges with the round holes won't work in a projector, and the carts won't work with standard film so they are not worth messing with. Plenty of old ones out there to play with though.

Interesting! Can you upload a pic of this film? Is the sprocket hole spacing the same as super 8? How big are the sprocket holes? Is there any more picture area than super 8? It's a shame it's not the same but might be nice if any aspect about it is better. It is 8mm wide right?

[Tscan]

I gave it a shot last night but splicing a closed loop and eliminating the slack inside the cartridge is no easy task. I started with a full 50ft which almost fit, trimmed it back a bit but keeping things from uncoiling and getting twisted is a trick i have to overcome. Will keep trying. I'm trying with an old roll of 100D, it matches the sprocket pitch and gate of the old cart perfect.

[Tscan]

I almost got it to work last night with maybe 20ft of film, but my splice kept breaking. What i did get to run through the viewfinder was one hell of a sight, some really saturated 100D I pulled from my trunk. If I or someone could hatch a method of loading these cart loops correctly, it would make a really cool gimmicky bonus on a wedding shoot or event.

[MovieStuff]

I always thought that GAF should have made a 3D Viewmaster movie viewer. Imagine having a cart with two loops of film and you turn the crank. Perfect separation and glorious Kodachrome image quality in 3D directly into your eyes. Wow. Maybe I'll build one. Hmmm....

[Tscan]

I always thought that GAF should have made a 3D Viewmaster movie viewer. Imagine having a cart with two loops of film and you turn the crank. Perfect separation and glorious Kodachrome image quality in 3D directly into your eyes. Wow. Maybe I'll build one. Hmmm....

I tell you what, a camera original reversal film is just as eye popping in that little viewer as projecting. Way cooler than the print stocks in those things. I'm sure TriX would look pretty cool and hopefully the new color Ferrania will too. And if you gave someone an adult version of this viewer and they were able to crank through the film images of their own wedding shots or whatever, it would be the coffee table item of the decade. The technology is as simple as anything. If you shot some out door scenes on color reversal, you could scan them with everything else then split a 50ft reel into two carts and pass it as a bonus novelty. The original films will stay clean and intact in those cases if stored properly too.

[slashmaster]

I gave it a shot last night but splicing a closed loop and eliminating the slack inside the cartridge is no easy task. I started with a full 50ft which almost fit, trimmed it back a bit but keeping things from uncoiling and getting twisted is a trick i have to overcome. Will keep trying. I'm trying with an old roll of 100D, it matches the sprocket pitch and gate of the old cart perfect.

I had read and meant to answer this one when it was fresher but got interrupted. It was a good move when you decided to do 20 feet instead of 50. You should roll the film on it's yellow core then pull the core off and tie thread from the center of the core around the outside to keep the film from unwinding while you thread it. Be aware that your film may get scratched up if you don't do it like the original and sometimes even if you do! So putting stuff from your wedding on one may not be a good idea.

[slashmaster]

I always thought that GAF should have made a 3D Viewmaster movie viewer. Imagine having a cart with two loops of film and you turn the crank. Perfect separation and glorious Kodachrome image quality in 3D directly into your eyes. Wow. Maybe I'll build one. Hmmm....

If you can get a lego technic set cheap or free it would probably be a good thing to use.