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Frank Cronin
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“Fun and Games”

September 10, 2018 · in Figures · · 12 · 2.4K

"Fun and Games" is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 30 March 1964, during the first season.

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission……."

Mike Benson, (Nick Adams) ex-boxer and small-time crook, and Laura Hanley, (Nancy Malone) a divorcee … … are abducted at critical points in their lives by The Senator, a sporting alien representing the citizens of the planet Andera. The Anderans have overcome war, pestilence, avarice and envy, are no longer driven by wants and needs, and find that their lives have become quite stagnant; therefore, they replace their boredom with a constant supply of "fun & games". Mike and Laura are "electroported" to an arena planet where they are to be pitted in mortal combat against two primitive aliens from the Calco galaxy for the entertainment of the jaded audience on Andera. The goal of the tournament is species survival; the home planet of the losing team will be obliterated in a cataclysmic display lasting five years for the further enjoyment of the citizens of Andera. During the combat, Mike and Laura learn to function as a team. When the male Calco alien, having killed its mate to double its own food supply, confronts Mike on a footbridge over a river of lava, Laura kills the creature with its own saw-bladed boomerang. Mike, hanging by his fingertips and weakened by the ordeal, finally falls off the bridge into the lava. Laura, believing Mike to be dead, mourning his passing and praising his efforts in defending the human race from extinction, is informed by The Senator that since the alien perished in the lava first, Mike's life was spared, and they are declared the winners, thus saving Earth. In that split second, they are electroported to safety, unaware of what had transpired and free to resume their mundane lives.

"We now return control of your television set to you. Until next week at the same time, when the control voice will take you to – The Outer Limits…….” ( control voice, Vic Perrin)

This is a resin figure done by of San Francisco and I have no idea
how old the kit is. I was given license to paint it as I saw fit as the episode of this
story is in black and white. Also in the episode the creatures were wearing what looked
like l baggy PJ's. So I deemed to make it as hideous as I could and faked it. Just in case one should ask, that is not a man purse he is carrying. It is a food bag provided to each person containing food for three days to fight their battle.

Reader reactions:
4  Awesome

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12 responses

  1. "Hideous" is right. Looks menacing from here, my friend. Good job.

  2. Awesome. A fan of the Outer limits also. Maybe some blood on the boomerang blade...Haven't watched this episode but sounds good

  3. Now that's really different. Remember watching that show which seemed to be a counter to the Twilight Zone, but with more monsters. Never saw this kit nor knew it even existed, but you seemed to have captured the look rather well. I like it.

  4. Reminds me a lot (the story and the alien) of the original Star Trek episode ‘Arena’ where Kirk is pitted against the ‘Gorn’

    Great build and story, Frank. Do you have any more of these kind of builds lined up?

  5. David, You are very perceptive and correct...

    The story is very similar to a subsequent Star Trek episode titled "Arena". The plots of both Specht and Stefano's scripts also have elements in common with "Arena", the 1944 short story by Fredric Brown on which the Star Trek episode is based; it may have inspired Specht's story, but Stefano had not read it.[2]

    The Calco Alien mask (without its bulging eyes) and the taloned hands, made by Projects Unlimited, were reused (with an added hairy bodysuit) in the Star Trek pilot "The Cage". When Captain Pike attempts to strangle the Keeper he causes Pike to hallucinate that he is strangling a ferocious hairy alien instead (the creature is also seen in another cage near Pike's when he first awakes in captivity)
    (wikipedia)

    No more unless my friend who is an OL fan, has more. I already did one other for him "Chameleon" which I posted some time ago. This creature was played on OL by Robert Duval.

    • i didn't care for robert duval in those days...he was in everything ...the fugitive ,combat...OL...Stalin...joe kidd...i started liking him as the country singer that sounded like "lefty"...loved open range...great to see your name here...i was thinking of you the last couple days...are you still meeting with the pilots...i think your venture into this genre is really cool and the figure impressive...i did the creature a couple months back and i have batman going on now...a nice break

      • Bob,

        Yes I am still able "to sit up and sip soup"... Just turned into an octogenarian... Duval in "Open Range" was classic. He was a very convincing dirty smelly cowboy and gunfighter. He was also the cab driver in the very famous movie, "Bullitt" I do still meet with the lunch group "Military Mafia". Sadly as time moves on, two have passed on and the rest of us are just get older. Kitty Hawk's, Captain is ninety and suffering from Parkinson's. Very sad. How about yourself, How are you doing?

  6. You are clearly a man after my own tastes, Frank.

  7. Nice seeing this, looks great! Some of those The Outer Limits shows scared me as a little kid, the opening alone was imposing.

  8. Frank, I always enjoy a little nostalgic visit. Nicely done !

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