Pop Art: Fundimensions Edition

In the bicentennial year of 1976, MPC (part of General Mills out of Mount Clemens, Michigan) released a whole line of Space:1999 plastic model kits under the brand "Fundimensions."

This line included several miniatures from "The greatest space adventure of them all," including the trademark "Eagle 1 Transporter," "The Alien" (never seen on the show, but a damn cool kit...), and also "Alpha Moonbase," an "entire scene model kit."

The Eagle and Moonbase Alpha kits were eventually re-released in 1999 with new artwork to celebrate the fact that fact had caught up with fiction. But for not entirely rational reasons I've always preferred the original Fundimensions artwork of the 1970s.

Just look at that logo for a moment: it practically screams disco decade.

And I still remember prowling the model aisle of Toys 'R' Us as a six-year old kit and spotting these kits. It was like...discovering a great treasure. Does Toys 'R" Us even have a model kit aisle anymore?

I know, I know, I'm showing my age...

Anyway, one look at the art of these great retro-futuristic model kits today brings back a wave of happy memories. And even though nostalgia is commonly "the most useless of emotions," it's also a nice, warm, cozy feeling from time to time.

If you owned these kits, maybe you feel the same way...