NeuronPlectrum on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/neuronplectrum/art/BigTrakPrlr-264145267NeuronPlectrum

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BigTrakPrlr

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When I was a kid, I had a radio-controlled car. It was a Lamborghini Countach, and the remote had only one button: Left Turn. The car didn't have any brakes or acceleration; you just flipped the on switch on the bottom of the car, and let it loose at full speed. If it sounds like I felt jipped for having a less-sophisticated R/C car than my brother or most other kids I knew, I wasn't. Sure, it took a little getting used to, but only being able to turn left is kind of a fun challenge. I mean, if you want to go right (or any other direction), you have to hold down the button just long enough and time your release just right. If you wanted to stop, you just held it down, and the car did donuts until you made up your mind. Plus, I think my remote's frequency interfered with my brother's, so I got a little giggle out of messing him up when he'd try and do a trick... until he'd chase me down and take the remote from me.

I bring this up because I found something of a predecessor to my little lefty Lambo. I'd never heard of this thing before ThinkGeek brought it back to life in somewhat miniaturized form: [link] . It's called the Big Trak, an electronic tank that came out in 1979 (two years before I was even born). Though distinctly electronic, it's not actually radio-controlled; that technology hadn't quite reached the average consumer just yet. Instead, it has a numeric keypad and directional buttons that you use to program its course. It's just really interesting how this toy was designed to challenge kids and effectively teach them to think ahead.

And, of course, being from the 70s, it had that wonderfully retro color scheme that's just impossible not to love. Rainbows were a really big thing in corporate identity and branding around that time, just look at the early Apple logo. Anyway, I thought I'd take that color scheme and try and make a sort of abstract version. I made it some time ago, but I wasn't quite ready to upload it. I wanted to find a construction side or spot of rocky earth to shoot it in front of. At first, I was just going to print out a photo of the lunar surface and put it on that, but I thought a bit of packing paper would give me a nice rocky texture and give it a little more of that "homey" feel.

The square format makes me think of the Jawa Sandcrawler. It's funny how that never had a toy version (that I know of). Maybe if it had a big rainbow running down its side....

Twitpic image: [link]
Image size
1920x1080px 912.32 KB
Make
SONY
Model
DSC-H55
Shutter Speed
10/80 second
Aperture
F/3.5
Focal Length
4 mm
ISO Speed
80
Date Taken
Oct 18, 2011, 7:09:46 PM
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