Posted on 03/11/2009 9:22:00 AM PDT by Borges
Amber LaPointe's introduction to one of the country's greatest tourist attractions came from small square pictures on a white wheel.
"It was like you could look into a world away," said the 28-year-old from Toledo, Ohio. "My only image of the Grand Canyon was from the View-Master."
The iconic reels of tourist attractions, often packaged with a clunky plastic viewer and first sold to promote 3-D photography, are ending their 70-year run after years of diminishing sales.
Collectors like Mary Ann Sell of Maineville, Ohio, are dismayed.
"The whole summer I was 5 years old, before I went to school, I traveled the world via View-Master. It was great, and now kids won't have the opportunity to do that," said Sell, 57, who owns upwards of 25,000 scenic reels.
Scenic discs are no longer a good fit
for the Fisher-Price division of toy maker Mattel Inc., a spokeswoman said, and the company stopped making them in December. Fisher-Price, based in East Aurora, N.Y., will keep making better-selling reels of Shrek, Dora the Explorer and other animated characters, spokeswoman Juliette Reashor said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Awwwwwwww. :( I used to love mine as a kid! 3-D pics!
Seems like anything that sells today requires a battery sad.
That’s a shame. I never got tired of mine when I was a kid.
As a kid 50-odd years ago I spent endless hours with these at Grandma’s house. Grand Canyon, Zion, Cisco Kid, lots and lots of great memories. This is, indeed, the passing of an era.
When I was young I like my dinosaur pics on these.
Awwwwwwww. :( I used to love mine as a kid! 3-D pics!
Me too. The 3-d stuuf was the best. I had a packet that was a demolition derby from Wide World of Sports and one from the movie. The Poseiden Adventure.
still have mine from when I was kid!
I had the animated Star Trek episodes on these. Always amazed me how they could take flat drawings and approximate crude 3-D from them.
Ping material?
I still have some old reels for my old Viewmaster including...
The Brussels World’s Fair including a replica of Sputnik.
(3 reels)
Robin Hood (3 reels)
Zorro (3 reels)
A Day at the Circus
Main Street, USA in Disneyland (3 reels)
Firefighters in Action
Even though I’ve never had 3-d vision these things always fascinated me. Sad the day. I’m sure some boutique manufacturer would do well to license the product.
Is mine still at your house? I’d bet the little princess would love it.
I loved that toy.
Sad. Another American icon succumbs to time.
That’s too bad. I got one last year for my kids and they love it.
I agree. We had them as children but they didn’t last because we moved so much. Oh well. At least for now I have my memories!
Ohhh bummer! I loved my ViewMaster! The scenic stuff was great; tropical fish, grand canyon, it was so cool.
I have a set of those from WWII that were made for the military. They show different enemy airplanes at different angles and different ranges. I spent many hours looking at that and can still name WWII aircraft from just a glance.
There was a collectible website that had one for sale for several thousand dollars. I contacted them and asked if they wanted to buy another one. They offered a couple of hundred bucks. I asked why the difference. They didn’t answer. Anyway, I still have it.
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