In light of the recent surge in interest in The Rocketeer, I decided to write this.... This has probably been along time coming, but now is as good a time to write it as any.......
As I sit here now, a grown man, 25 years old, I am able to look back on my childhood and be thankful of the blessings I had.... and still have. I was lucky enough to have wonderful grandparents who were very attentive to me, and l am still very close to them. Also, I was lucky that my grandfather was a very skilled "builder" (I use this term because it takes to long to describe his machinist, mechanic, welding, bolting, sawing, Nailing ect skills...) and my grandmother who is a very skilled seamstress. I could go on and on about the Batman, Superman and He Man costumes she has sewn for me.... but I may save that for another story.... for now we will focus on the year 1992....
I was about 10 years old and this new Disney movie came out called "The Rocketeer".... WOW..... I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and to this day is still one of my favorite movies. It had such a huge impact on me, and like any kid, I wanted to have some toys from the movie. Unfortunantly hardly any were to be found. Sure, you could find a "Movie Storybook" here and a "3-D Comic" there, but I wanted that Helmet! and of course the Rocket.... and The Jacket........
I capitalize these words describing these items because of their importance to me then..... and now...... that was THE Helmet....and THE Jacket......
In response to my obvious desire for these things, we.... (well my grandparents...) started out on THE QUEST..... The first project we (they) started on was The Helmet...... It started its life out as a hard hat...... My grandfather had a hard time finding something that would fit my big head
.... The body of the helmet was formed out of a pressed paper gasket material that was flexible yet fairly rigid. The fin was cut from a peice of brass sheet metal and attached with screws on the top. The lenses were cut from clear plastic, and at this time Im writing this, i cant, for the life of me, remember what we (he) made the lenses out of.
The second project was The Jacket. At the time absolutly NO pattern existed for the Rocketeer Jacket or anything like it.... let alone something that would fit a 10 year old, so we (my grandmother) set out to find some suitable patterns to "kit bash" until we could assemble something close.... The manderian collar came from one kit.... the sleeves from another.... the tapered belted back from another..... The epulets were made from scratch without any pattern as was the bid..... This jacket, which is surprisingly still in good condition has seen ALOT of wear! I mean i used to wear this thing to school practically everyday! It has been played in and tossled around alot, and is still in great shape!
The third , and most time consuming project was the rocketpack. Since it was such a unique and "alien" design, alot of it had to be made from scratch. Several revisions and modifcations were made along the way, but overall it too us (my grandfather) and 2 months or more to make it from start to finish. The main tubes of the rockets were made from PVC pipe, The end "plates" were rather ingeniously made, by heating the PVC with a torch and flattening it with a 2x4. The nose caps of the rocket were actually small plastic flower pots and the very tips, of the rocket were turned from wood. The black rocket jet "emitter" parts are also plastic flower pots that we found that looked the part. The middle portion was cut and shaped sheet metal thats held together with small screws. The fan was cut out of sheet metal and the grill over it was made from small round part silver soldered together. The straps are heavy cotton miltary style belt webbing.
Well thats sort of a summerization of the PARTS of what we had, but this is defiantly a kit that is MORE than the sum of its parts. These items, and this movie have a HUGE sentimental value to me and my family and still to this day when I pull this stuff out of storage, it gets us all teary eyed.
So anyway, A picture is worth a thousand words.... so here are some pictures.
First.....
THE HELMET!
remember, this thing is 16 years old.... and has been played with extensivly..... no effort will EVER be made to repaint it or anything. Its a bit distorted in shape.... and some of the red primer is showing thru the paint, but each of those scratches has its on memories...
As I sit here now, a grown man, 25 years old, I am able to look back on my childhood and be thankful of the blessings I had.... and still have. I was lucky enough to have wonderful grandparents who were very attentive to me, and l am still very close to them. Also, I was lucky that my grandfather was a very skilled "builder" (I use this term because it takes to long to describe his machinist, mechanic, welding, bolting, sawing, Nailing ect skills...) and my grandmother who is a very skilled seamstress. I could go on and on about the Batman, Superman and He Man costumes she has sewn for me.... but I may save that for another story.... for now we will focus on the year 1992....
I was about 10 years old and this new Disney movie came out called "The Rocketeer".... WOW..... I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and to this day is still one of my favorite movies. It had such a huge impact on me, and like any kid, I wanted to have some toys from the movie. Unfortunantly hardly any were to be found. Sure, you could find a "Movie Storybook" here and a "3-D Comic" there, but I wanted that Helmet! and of course the Rocket.... and The Jacket........
I capitalize these words describing these items because of their importance to me then..... and now...... that was THE Helmet....and THE Jacket......
In response to my obvious desire for these things, we.... (well my grandparents...) started out on THE QUEST..... The first project we (they) started on was The Helmet...... It started its life out as a hard hat...... My grandfather had a hard time finding something that would fit my big head
.... The body of the helmet was formed out of a pressed paper gasket material that was flexible yet fairly rigid. The fin was cut from a peice of brass sheet metal and attached with screws on the top. The lenses were cut from clear plastic, and at this time Im writing this, i cant, for the life of me, remember what we (he) made the lenses out of. The second project was The Jacket. At the time absolutly NO pattern existed for the Rocketeer Jacket or anything like it.... let alone something that would fit a 10 year old, so we (my grandmother) set out to find some suitable patterns to "kit bash" until we could assemble something close.... The manderian collar came from one kit.... the sleeves from another.... the tapered belted back from another..... The epulets were made from scratch without any pattern as was the bid..... This jacket, which is surprisingly still in good condition has seen ALOT of wear! I mean i used to wear this thing to school practically everyday! It has been played in and tossled around alot, and is still in great shape!
The third , and most time consuming project was the rocketpack. Since it was such a unique and "alien" design, alot of it had to be made from scratch. Several revisions and modifcations were made along the way, but overall it too us (my grandfather) and 2 months or more to make it from start to finish. The main tubes of the rockets were made from PVC pipe, The end "plates" were rather ingeniously made, by heating the PVC with a torch and flattening it with a 2x4. The nose caps of the rocket were actually small plastic flower pots and the very tips, of the rocket were turned from wood. The black rocket jet "emitter" parts are also plastic flower pots that we found that looked the part. The middle portion was cut and shaped sheet metal thats held together with small screws. The fan was cut out of sheet metal and the grill over it was made from small round part silver soldered together. The straps are heavy cotton miltary style belt webbing.
Well thats sort of a summerization of the PARTS of what we had, but this is defiantly a kit that is MORE than the sum of its parts. These items, and this movie have a HUGE sentimental value to me and my family and still to this day when I pull this stuff out of storage, it gets us all teary eyed.
So anyway, A picture is worth a thousand words.... so here are some pictures.
First.....
THE HELMET!
remember, this thing is 16 years old.... and has been played with extensivly..... no effort will EVER be made to repaint it or anything. Its a bit distorted in shape.... and some of the red primer is showing thru the paint, but each of those scratches has its on memories...
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