Nerdlore

[Dr.Bedlam]

It's happened again.

 

It's not EVERY episode of "The Big Bang Theory," but enough of them. At least two or three times a season.

 

I still remember how, when they were playing "Talisman" on the show, at one point, a "TOAD" token occupied the Crown of Command space. I mentioned aloud that if you actually were playing the game, it's not possible for a player on that space to become a toad, and it's not possible for a toad to get to that space, using the standard rules of the current edition.

 

...and everyone in the room looked at me like I'd just sprouted another pair of eyes.

 

It didn't help when I mentioned that in the original, it WAS theoretically possible, assuming another player hit you with the Random spell and rolled a "toad" result, right as you were entering the Crown of Command space. But not in the current edition. The errata took care of that.

 

At least this time, I was alone. Except for the cat, of course.

 

Recorded last night's "Big Bang Theory" on the DVR, and watched it when I got home from work. To keep it spoiler-free, part of the plot is driven by the fact that Penny goes to the comic shop and buys Leonard and Sheldon a pair of vintage Mego Star Trek Transporter Booths, circa 1975, mint in box! And Sheldon is overjoyed that it's scaled perfectly for his vintage 8-inch Mego Mr. Spock figure!

 

Well... it was a funny episode. I liked it. Had a terrific couple of surprises in it, which I will not spoil here. Very much plays into the nerdy premise of the show. Good episode.

 

...but Mego never made the transporter by itself, or sold it in that box (although the box art is very well done, and seems to be copied from the back of the blister cards for the figures). The transporter toy was sold only as part of the Mego Star Trek Enterprise Playset. I know. I had all of that stuff when I was eleven. Wish I still had it, to be honest. And, to be fair, the toy itself, when we see it, looks very much like the one that came with the playset, and seems to work the same way. Might even have been an original. But they were never sold boxed without the playset.

 

And this was the only place I could think of where I could post my nerd rage without being pretty sure everyone would look at me like I'd sprouted an extra set of ears...

[mjacobson]

I was wondering about that myself. I was focused on Spock's wrist joints. They looked modern to me. I remember my Planet of the Apes Mego figures (as well as some of my older super-heroes) had a metal component in their wrists.

 

[Runestone_Cowboy]

I'm with ya, Doc. I do that all the time. My band-nerd wife giggles at me every time. I celebrate when the odd geek reference creeps into pop culture in its correct form and get uber-grumpy when it is not. I loved that the creator's of Dexter's Lab had things right when paying homage to D&D, but not so much when I catch any show or movie being inaccurate with their trivia of something in a fandom.

 

Relevant to said episode and toys, I wanted, I daresay dearly coveted all the Mego Star Trek item and only ever had one single alien figure. It was half black and half white and resembled neither Bele nor Lokai and it was wearing a helmet. Utter crap to a child who wanted the entire bridge crew. He was only usable with my Batman and Robin Megos. A friend of mine that is 19 years my junior purchased an authentic 1974 Mego Captain Kirk (MIB) for $80 at a local antique store and is going to Comicon to get Shatner to sign it. I am secretly very jealous of him.

[Bruunwald]

I was wondering about that myself. I was focused on Spock's wrist joints. They looked modern to me. I remember my Planet of the Apes Mego figures (as well as some of my older super-heroes) had a metal component in their wrists.

 

Interesting. I had Spock, Kirk, Scotty and Bones. All of them had flesh-colored (and I assumed, plastic) components in their wrists. As did the superheroes I had.

 

Got mine around 1977, though a couple of them had been my stepbrothers, from '75 or '76, and I seem to remember them all being plastic.

 

I had the Enterprise set, but I could have sworn the transporter pads were sold at some point with a figure? Or maybe that was part of a re-issue years later?

[captenglish]

I told my wife that I actually had the those action figures and the Enterprise, etc., she rolled her eyes and said "god you are such a nerd" then couldn't stop laughing. BTW, I swear my figures had plastic joints.

[alchemist]

The style of the wrists/hands definitely changed at some point while the figures were being produced. I'm pretty sure I had examples of each in my collection.

 

And I think I might still have one of those Enterprise playsets up in my loft somewhere. Anyone know how much it's worth these days?

[Castlebuilder]

Hollywood makes their own reality and re-writes history at their whim and pleasure. You havn't figured that out yet?

[Dr.Bedlam]

YES, I'M A FREAKIN' NERD! AND WORSE, I'M AN OLD NERD!

 

Originally, the Mego figures (beginning with Action Jackson, and working into the first superhero figures, which were DC (Superman, Batman, and suchlike), the joints were held in place with metal screws or rivets of some sort. They later became hollow metal rivets, and the last 8 inch figures used plastic fasteners, eliminating the use of metal in Mego figures altogether. I had the entire bridge crew at one point; I know Kirk, Spock, and Scotty all had metal pinned joints. Later versions of the same figures had plastic fasteners; I had a Klingon with plastic fasteners, and I'm almost sure that my Gorn had plastic fasteners (since the Star Trek Aliens line came out WAY after the original run of Bridge Crew).

 

Mego made a LOT of changes to each line as it evolved. Very much in demand with collectors is the original Removable Mask Batman, and one of the holy grails of the line is the Removable Mask Robin, which apparently only lasted through one production run before they said the hell with it and just painted the mask on. I had a Removable Mask Batman, but a painted mask Robin, and I was in there EARLY -- I had a doting grandmother who about lived at K-Mart, and the original boxed figures were only two bucks each...

 

I'd bet pretty good money that the Tiny Spock seen in TBBT was one of the modern reissues that can be had in a clamshell case for something like $20 these days. He looked way too new, and one of the first casualties of taking a Star Trek figure out of the package was the loss of the little silver Starfleet emblem sticker that went on the chest. This was one of the more regrettable things about an otherwise great line of toys: emblems and insignia were always applied with STICKERS, for potato's sake, which meant a week or so into play, Superman and Batman were going to lose theirs. The later Marvel figures had theirs silkscreened or stitched into the fabric, but apparently this was too much of a hassle to do with the little Starfleet uniforms...

 

I'm quite sure the Transporter was never sold by itself as a boxed item, at least not when Mego was still a functioning company. There have been multiple reissues in recent years; perhaps this has changed.

 

...and as long as I'm barfin' up trivia, it's said that the Mr. Spock figure was one of the things that really pushed Leonard Nimoy over the edge, as far as being mad at Paramount; they were making substantial money off of the licensing of Nimoy's very recognizable face, and Nimoy wasn't seeing a cent of it. This wound up being a major legal issue later, when the courts finally decided that movie companies could not own your face, no matter how many movies or TV shows you appeared in, unless you specifically gave them permission in writing.

 

The guy who helped ramrod this decision through? Guy name of Bela Lugosi, Jr., attorney at law.

[Qwyksilver]

I really wish I had kept all my Mego characters. I had a ton of the Marvel and DC heroes, most of the CHiPs sets and a bunch of Star Wars. Of course, I guess if I hadn't had them, played with them, and broke most of their arms off, they wouldn't be considered collectible now.

[Dr.Bedlam]

You'd be surprised, Qwyk. The picture above is from MegoMuseum, a web site that not only acts as a museum and celebration of the old toys... it's a clearinghouse for collectors wanting to secure parts for old and used Megos. Believe it or not, I've seen individual Gorilla Soldier boots and pairs of Aquaman green mitt gloves go for real money... and if you have a Removable Robin Mask, you can about name your own price.

[Akiosama]

Well, as far as their displays of gaming are concerned, Big Bang Theory has always taken a bit of creative liberties as to what they can and can't do. A good portion of their WoW-related shots have inconsistencies with the actual game, mostly in the area that they don't deal with "bound" items - items that cannot be traded to another character. In fact, there was a whole episode dedicated to Sheldon trying to get his stuff back from someone trying to sell it, when his account gets hacked.

 

And in a more recent episode - it could be pointed out that parties in Star Wars - The Old Republic max out at four, not the five they were running - the four guys and Howard's girlfriend.

 

But I think one of the more disturbing things about their display of gaming was in an early Season One episode when the guys are all online playing WoW, and the camera starts from one side of the room, and pans across, showing each of the guys on their laptops with a headset on. Nobody's saying anything, or doing anything particularly weird, but by about halfway through the pan, there's a laugh track.

 

I guess four guys sitting around a living room with their laptops and headsets on is funny. Seemed pretty normal to me.

 

My 2 yen,

 

Akiosama

[Wren]

The makers of the show have repeatedly stated that they do not use a laugh track. I haven't been on set and then watched and episode to be able to personally verify, but they seem pretty adamant about it.

 

This week's game took us a while to spot, and it's too bad they didn't feature it a little more. (But then there were also no noticeable errors. And they showed bits stored in small tupperware type containers, which gamers definitely do.) Elder Sign, which is a Cthulhu mythos dice game from FFG.

 

I think TV shows and movies take liberties with pretty much everything for the sake of filming ease or plot purposes or to make an easy joke. If you know anyone of any profession, hobby or other activity depicted in a fictional media world, they will be able to tell you how they got things wrong. Often more significant than the geek culture errors in Big Bang (which I'm happy is at least exposing more people to different board games and so on). Do lab techs really go out and interview suspects a la CSI? Don't singing groups need to both decide on and practice their songs more than a week ahead of a contest as in Glee?

[Dr.Bedlam]

Well, real life shows use research and consultants. Jack Webb, producer of "Dragnet" and "Adam-12" did so much research, the LAPD made him an honorary cop, and used some of his "Adam-12" episodes as training films to show how given circumstances should be handled by police officers.

 

CSI is famous for being painstaking about its research, and then cutting corners on delivery. Yes, you can do super duper DNA spectroscopic analyses on hair fragments, but you're not going to get the results back anytime soon, much less in the same day.

 

I find myself wondering if Big Bang Theory has a nerd consultant... someone who changes the stock and comics at Stewart's Comic Shop in the show, and fills in the writers on what games are trending?

[Akiosama]

Yeah, maybe it's not a laugh track, Wren, but it did make me roll my eyes a bit when the audience was laughing before any real jokes (imo) were to be had. Seeing people in front of laptops with headsets just seems flat out normal to me.

 

My 2 yen,

 

Akiosama

[captenglish]

After seeing the Leonard Nimoy and Steven Hawking episodes, SWMBO has started watching BBT voluntarily, but she still thinks I am the biggest nerd (especially after she found out I know the lyrics to the theme song)