Over the weekend I watched with amazement as a frenzied bidding war broke out at eBay over old Mystery Science Theater 3000 props. MST3K was brilliant, but part of its charm was the obviously cheap, cheezy, fun props constructed out of odd plastic parts, dog chew toys, drugstore odds and ends, and anything lying around the studio. The signature visual was the enormous 42-inch "spaghetti ball" which was a hollow ball covered with spray-on insulation and the logo glued on it. This ball, rotating like a planet, was shown right before all commerical breaks to identify the show. It was ideal for invoking the hokey special effects of 50's sci fi movies.
The current bid on it is $9100. Pardon me while I question someone's sanity.
If I had the money I'd spend ten bucks and buy a copy of the MST3K movie. I saw it at the 1996 ConventioCon Fest-A-Rama the year it came out and I liked it quite a lot even though Joel didn't make an appearance. They gave This Island Earth the MST treatment, and since it was a pretty good movie to start with they got a lot of mileage out of it. For instance, I will never again be able to see the words This Island Earth without starting to sing "This Island Earth doesn't shine for me anymore...." Anyway, the movie's on sale at the Info Club home page in Gypsy's Basement, and I will probably add it to my collection. $10 for a video is reasonable, unlike that crazy spaghetti ball deal. I mean, one day that guy is going to wake up and say to himself, "Geez! I have a 42-inch ball made of foam insulation in my living room! What the heck was I thinking?"
Of course, I threw away all my old comics, so what do I know?
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