#airsoft

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #307 and Like a Hood Ornament #34: The Rocketeer’s Sidearm

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #307 and Like a Hood Ornament #34: The Rocketeer’s Sidearm

Today, we’re taking a short break from toys and looking at the Rocketeer cartoon to discuss the Rocketeer’s sidearm, which we touched on last week at bit when looking at the clip in the 1991 film where he acquires a Mauser C96 pistol.

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I always thought it was odd Cliff is often shown (in both movie stills and the original Dave Stevens comics) holding a gun despite holding one for less than a page in the comic and for only a few minutes in the film.

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In this page of the original Rocketeer saga, what is shown is the Mauser select fire M172.  You can tell by the 20 round extended magazine and the selector switch on the left hand side.

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On this sketch done prior to inking and colors, you can see that the original idea was to draw something more akin to the older, more established Mauser C96 (usually chambered for the 7.63 mm x 25 round coming in an internal 10 round box magazine) – the one shown in the 1991 film and in most of the drawings that Dave Stevens did.

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Regardless of which version of the pistol was intended, this episode touches on some history and aspects of handing and usage and what might Cliff might have had to think about had he used the Mauser pistol he is associated with more.

For background, I read about the pistol in question in this book (plus a number of other videos you can find on Youtube).

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This picture shows the stripper clip method of loading – the main way the C96 would have been loaded since there was no detachable magazine, though on the M172, the bullets could have been loaded one at a time in the magazines also.

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The Mauser pistols came with hollowed out wooden holsters that could serve as shoulder stocks as well as protecting the gun from damage or foul weather.  The airsoft version I’m using below also a similar (but plastic) stock. 

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I’m using a gas blowback airsoft version of the select fire Mauser M712 (the one pictured in the original comic) made by the Taiwanese company WE. While the Rocketeer is often shown next to an American flag, you might think more Americana would have gone into the character design. But I think Dave Stevens intentionally picked something distinctive looking that fits with the aesthetics of the costume. The fact that Cliff does not “buy American” (so to speak) and use something like a Colt Peacemaker or a 1911 fits with the character in many ways, who is a compilation of a bunch of archetypes from the mid to late 1800s (the cavalry style leather jacket, jodhpurs, and riding boots) to the 1930s (the GeeBee and the art deco styling of the rocketpack and helmet). The intricate, well machined Mauser pistol falls solidly in between, a Victorian, already somewhat overengineered and steampunkish design by the late 1930s that was nonetheless still widely used not only by the Germans but by many other countries as well, especially China, where it even had its own nickname (盒子砲, literally “box gun,” named after the distinctive box magazine).  Interestingly the Mauser M712 was apparently quite popular there pre-WW2, as an arms embargo prevented rifles and machine guns from being imported (apparently pistols that could become carbines with fully auto capacity was an adequate workaround).   

There is a video segment to this podcast which can be found here:

 

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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

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Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #165: Reflections on Rewatching Big Trouble in Little China (1986) 

Episode #165: Reflections on Rewatching Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

https://archive.org/download/Podcast165_201810/Podcast%20165.mp3

Today, we’re talking about the 1986 film, Big Trouble in Little China. It’s really fun film that has a little bit of everything – martial arts, action, fantasy, comedy, satire, even a bit of horror and romance – with a great cast.  I’m not sure what I would think of the film had I not seen it years ago or been interested in martial arts, since it’s absolutely a product of its time and its lineage (paying homage to movie serials from the first part of the 20th century and 70s and early 80s kung fu films), but if you like any of those things, you’ll probably find something to like in the film.  I’m not sure a film like it would be made today, but for the time, it not only introduced the feel of those old Hong Kong produced kung fu films to a mainstream Western audience but gave work to a lot of Asian American actors – they outnumber the Caucasian actors in this film (unusual for Hollywood at the time).

If you were interested in martial arts during the 80s or 90s, you’ll recognize a bunch of familiar faces and names. A lot of these guys showed up in martial arts magazines at the time and worked in stunts for martial arts and action movies.  For example …

Jeff Imada, Kevin Endoso, Kurt Russell, and Al Leong:

The man holding up his fingers is Victor Wong, the grandfather in 3 Ninjas.

Jeff Imada in action (above) and Gerald Okamura (below; interview with movie trivia in the link)

James Lew often did fight choreography for films (like this one) and often had larger speaking roles in various action films as well.

Click on the poster below to find a copy of the film:

Enjoy a little collection of animated gifs from the film:

Below is a clip of Carter Wong in another film – he’s the one I keep calling “the Chinese Arnold” in the podcast:

One of my favorite lines from the movie:

And if you want your own Tec 9 like Jack Burton but don’t want to deal with the black market or figure out what’s legal in your area, you might try finding an airsoft version.  This Japanese gas powered version is actually now really rare and hard to find.  It’s probably about the same vintage as the film.  But there are some electric versions that are much easier and cheaper to find these days.

There is also a comic book that continues the adventures stated in the film.  Here’s a frame that makes good use of Wang’s name …

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The podcast now has a page on Facebook, so head over there and to Instagram to check out some scenes from the film.

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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube.   This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.

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Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hourplaylist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #124: The Robocop Show (30th Anniversary Tribute with Jeremy and Brent Simon)

Episode #124: The Robocop Show (30th Anniversary Tribute with Jeremy and Brent Simon)

https://archive.org/download/Podcast124RobocopShow/Podcast%20124%20Robocop%20Show.mp3

Last show of the year! Happy holidays! Brent Simon and my brother, Jeremy, came on the show this week to cap off 2017 to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1987 film, Robocop.  We also touch on the recent remake and a number of other things from the era, like some Saturday morning cartoons (there was a trend of making kids’ cartoons out of hyper violent 80s action films, like Conan, Chuck Norris flicks, Rambo, and, of course, Robocop – click on the highlighted links or the pics below for youtube clips of the show intros).

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The original Robocop was an interesting film in many ways since it was sort of aimed at kids … yet not (in that it was over the top violent and barely squeaked by an R rating)! However, robots were all the rage at the time.  Kids, adults, we all loved them.  Remember that this was the age of super robots cartoons (Transformers, Gobots, Robotech, Voltron, M.A.S.K., and a skew of others, mostly from Japan that didn’t get as much exposure here in the US) and ones in films like Star Wars, Short Circuit, and Terminator.

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We also covered a number of Robocop spin offs, like the games and some crossover comics.  Jeremy, who has encyclopedic knowledge of comic books and is behind the Classic Batman Panels Instagram page, contributed a lot of great info on the show about comic crossovers (many of whom were published by Dark Horse), including the Robocop / Terminator miniseries written by Frank Miller.

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Of course, one must check out the AVGN videos on the games spawned by the Robocop franchise.

The originals for the NES looked pretty shite.  In this epsiode the AVG Nerd also comments on the interesting 80s/90s phenomenon of making kids games’ out of R rated movies.

The Robocop v Terminator SNES game looks like it might have been ok to while away a few hours.

I originally intended to purchase a used gas blowback airsoft replica of Robocop’s auto 9 machine pistol on eBay for the show and include a video clip of it letting loose like in the movie but decided against it when I saw the price tag. 🙂   Ganking a clip off youtube was much cheaper!

(The auto 9, as a heavily modified Beretta 93R, doesn’t actually exist in real life, so a replica is the closest you can get if you want to legally own something like in the movie.  Even so, a gas blowback airsoft pistol will still set you back ~200 USD.  If you are in the States, a retailer like Airsoft Atlanta is a good option, and you won’t have to pay international shipping charges.  However, the latter may be worth it in some cases.  The HK retailer Redwolf Airsoft has a good selection and generally reasonable prices.)

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This pixelart animation of Lara Croft for the Tomb Raider game I intended to make once upon a time shows her shooting an auto 9.

Find more Brent Simon here (parts 1 , 2 , and 3 here) or on Jeff Finely‘s channel (below, Brent’s interview and Jeff’s – they were both multipart episodes, and Jeff compiled them into these videos):

A day in the life of Brent Simon, “The Brentumentary,” done by Jeff, and Brent current project, Aerial Focused.

Giveaway:

Nirvana Pilot Yume is a recently release PC game now available on Steam created to answer the question: what happened if the 1993 space racing MS-DOS game, Skyroads, were a visual novel with 80s anime visuals and a synthwave soundtrack?

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The team who created it, Dev9k, came on the show last week (12/18/17) to talk about their influences and have graciously supplied a free copy of the game for a lucky entrant into this contest!  It will go on until next week. 

Happy holidays.  See you in the New Year!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube.   This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.

between 2 worlds EP cover 2

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!  Thanks for coming on the show, Brent!  It was a pleasure!

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