FUJIMI ‘BLADE RUNNER’ SPINNER - BUILDUP REPORT

Mat Irvine update:

After my initial report on Fujimi’s surprise release of the 1:24 scale Spinner Police Car from the classic science-fiction movie Blade Runner, here’s how I worked to complete the model.

Hard to find details

Frankly, one major problem was finding enough references, to check details when building the model. The obvious starting point might be the movie itself, but a glance at Blade Runner makes you realise that the future-view of Ridley Scott (and of author Philip K. Dick, for that matter) is pretty dank and dismal. Most Spinner shots show a cityscape shrouded in smog and rain, so trying to ascertain details direct from the movie is not worth the bother - frankly, forget it! There is however logical reasoning in that if this is how Spinners appear on-screen, it’s how they should be depicted, but even here one has to start somewhere.

Magazines to the rescue

Given the popularity of Blade Runner, I would have thought that details would be everywhere, from publications of the time and online, but it isn’t so. Fortunately, two revered publications from 1982 - Cinefantastique and Cinefex - did show such details. Cinefantastique’s double-issue, Vol 12, Numbers 5 and 6, and Issue 9 of Cinefex contained features that helped with my build considerably.

Shot in Los Angeles

Even so, there are areas of debate, even down to the main exterior colour. Yes, it’s ‘blue’ but what shade, exactly? The few colour photos that exist of the full-size car, (there were a number of miniatures) tend to show it as a fairly light blue, but the movie shots indicate it was darker, in fact more how you’d expect a police car to look! In fact, the differences in shade are almost certainly down to where the movie was made, not at a UK film studio, where many sci-fi movies of the time were shot, but in Los Angeles, where the sunshine is - most of the time - pretty bright, which was almost certainly the reason for the washed-out blue, when the car was photographed outside. Consequently, I chose Testors Dark Blue enamel, though other model paint companies have similar shades.

Two sci-fi movies

You can choose between ground or flight modes for this 1:24 scale Fujimi Spinner, though as the differences are purely down to the front wheel and cover positions, it’s possible to let the model be convertible, one to the other. Fujimi does not supply a display stand with the Spinner kit, which is a pity if you want it in flight mode - the Aoshima DeLorean from Back To The Future II (BttFII) rightly comes with one. Incidentally, there is a connection between these two movies - in the Town Square shots of BttFII, you can spot a Spinner and a number of other futuristic movie cars that were used to fill parking slots!

Ground to flight mode

The two items that move when a Spinner translates from ground to flight mode are the front wheels, which fit higher up, and the covers, which swing through 90 degrees. The Spinner’s underside is finished in the same blue. Note the ventral viewports for the police aboard to see the ground below their feet, and the onboard lights for illumination at night.

Gene Winfield’s Spinner

Cinefantastique page featuring an actual 1:1 scale Spinner, built by car customizer Gene Winfield. Note the photo at the bottom shows the washed-out light blue, and how clean the vehicle is - the exterior detailing, decals, and dirt, had yet to be added!

Mr J note:

The website Starship Modeler has a detailed look at this Fujimi kit, together with some brickbats and bouquets, so you might wish to go over and have a look. Mind you, good or bad, this is the only injection-moulded plastic kit to this scale...

Spinner and Blade Runner stuff here.

Previous SMN Spinner articles here and here.

Starship Modeler here.

Cinefantastique here.

Cinefex here.

Thanks to Hobby Link Japan who supplied the review kit.

SCIENCE-FICTION FEAST FOR 2012 - FUJIMI BRINGS US ‘BLADE RUNNER’ FLYING COP CAR

Mat Irvine reports:

Even after all these years, the model companies can still surprise us, especially when one of them - Fujimi of Japan - recently announced a model kit of a ‘star car’ that appeared in Blade Runner, a famous science-fiction movie first released no less than 30 years ago this June.

Spinner kit release

I’ll talk about Blade Runner shortly, but first of all, what about the model? Well, now the long wait is over, and kits are freely available, opening the box reveals a fully-detailed injection styrene kit of the Spinner, and it’s made to the accepted star car scale of 1:24. However the kit has managed a surprise in not coming from a US company, instead being released by Fujimi, a Japanese company not known for making star cars before.

Component count

Opening the box provides some highly favourable initial reactions. The moulding colour is white, not blue as shown in some pre-production images, which means that you’ll need to spray-paint it all. But that’s no bad thing, as plain white opens the door to easy application of different colour schemes. Fujimi has supplied clear, red and blue transparencies, contributing to a total of just under 100 parts - 70 white, the rest transparent. The kit can be finished in either of the two movie modes, road or flight, the latter being noted purely by the position of the front wheel covers. 

Hazard warning lights

Major mouldings include the floor pan and body shell. The front wheels look pretty accurate, extending as a catamaran-like pair ahead of the main hull. Of particular note are the warning and hazard lights, a small forest of which festoon the roof. These components provide an excellent contribution to the model’s realistic overall appearance. When assembled, the Fujimi Spinner measures 215 mm (8.5 in) long by 90 mm (3.5 in) wide. 

Cartograf decal sheet

Markings made by the specialist Italian decal-maker Cartograf feature various numbers, warnings, and stripes. Fujimi has also added a small photo-etch item with three ‘Spinner’ logos. These look rather like inverted coat hangers and they belong on the doors and rear, though you could also use one as a nameplate on a diorama base, which ought to be easy enough to cobble together for display purposes.

About the movie

When Director Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner hit the cinema screens it gave a distinctive glimpse of a dystopian future, making something of a change from ‘everything will be wonderful’ visions. Mind you, as the movie was based loosely (very loosely, it has it be said) on the 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the unique US novelist Philip K. Dick, you probably shouldn’t have expected anything else. 

From Syd Mead sketch to Gene Winfield reality

As with many movie projects, Blade Runner went through various versions under several producers, and what ended up on screen bore scant resemblance to the original novel. However the main character, Rick Deckard, survives. He’s an ex-cop drafted back on the job, and naturally enough, has a police car to get around in. But the movie is set in 2019 (1992 in the novel!) and the assumption is that cars can fly as well as roll. Enter ace car customizer Gene Winfield, who took futurist-designer Syd Mead’s drawn concepts, and turned them into real vehicles called Spinners. Some of Winfield’s Spinners could be driven, courtesy of Volkswagen flat-four engines, though flight was possible only through special effects (SFX) cinema magic.

Spinners by the dozen

Winfield made around 25 futuristic vehicles for the movie, including four full-size Spinners - two that could be driven, one that could be flown on wires, and a cutaway version for interior shots. Many of the SFX vehicles were destroyed by Warner Bros, but it seems that three Spinners survive - the two driveable machines and the one in flight-mode.

A long wait for the Spinner kit

Spinners may have been just a mode of transport, but soon after the movie was released, they took on a life of their own, and one question was: “When’s the kit due?” Toys and diecasts (above, below) came and went, plus some detailed ready-assembled models and several special-materials kits, including one made out of vinyl, which is fine for figures, but not the most practical material for a solid object such as a car, futuristic or otherwise. But we kit builders who wanted to get down and dirty and actually put something together had to wait... and wait. 

Why did we wait so long?

There’s still the odd reasoning of waiting so long for a kit to be made - maybe it has something to do with Ridley Scott’s sequel, now being planned for likely release in 2013. Of course whether this particular Spinner design will be in it is another matter, as there are other flying vehicles sharing the generic Spinner title. But Syd Mead’s designer visions are not so far off a future reality, and given the movie was set in 2119, we are not that far off that date either!

Thanks to Hobby Link Japan for the sample kit. Visit HLJ here.

Spinners also available here and here.

Original sketchbook showing production concepts for the movie, a must-visit page-flip site for your delectation, here.

Thinking of the dank and dirty, retro-future flavour of the movie, maybe a kitbash-session to futurize a present-day car would pay dividends in creating something suitable for display next to the Fujimi Spinner. So we present a bunch of other Fujimi 1:24 scale car kits here. 

Previous Scale Model News article, showing pre-production information here.

Spinner cgi images courtesy the talented visualizer Sendoa Bergasa. View more of his work here. 

‘BLADE RUNNER’ SPINNER FLYING CAR FROM FUJIMI

SMN report:

Due for release late October is an item that sci-fi model fans have long been crying out for - an injection-moulded kit of the Spinner Police Car from the classic 1982 science fiction movie Blade Runner. It’s going to be a 1:24 production from Fujimi, and brings that near-three decade famine to an end, and should bring Fujimi’s talents to the fore with clean mouldings and accurate detail.

Choose your Spinner mode

The Fujimi Spinner can be built in two driving modes, as a ground runner or in wheels-up flightworthy configuration. Decals are supplied by the excellent Italian Cartograf company, so these will be state-of-the-art productions. 

Test shots for the kit were completed in blue and other shades, but apparently the production models will be plain white and clear. Aaah... it’s been a looong time fellow Blade Runner fans, but Fujimi finally puts a smile on this fan’s face! Pictures above courtesy the excellent Gunjap site, link below.

Syd Mead aerodynes

A word for non-experts about the Spinner, which is the generic term for various flying cars seen in the movie. Spinners can be driven as ground-based vehicles, but are free to fly at will, or hover. How they manage this is a matter for conjecture - Syd Mead’s term was ‘aerodyne’, a vehicle that uses downward air thrust for lift. However, press releases of the time also mention conventional engines, even anti-gravity motors! So take your pick, and remember the Spinner is a sci-fi concept, not real-life transportation tech.

Props by Gene Winfield

However, the props for Blade Runner were real enough, even if they didn’t have working anti-gravity systems, more’s the pity. Twenty-five Spinner and other high-tech vehicles were built for the movie, and for those the hugely talented customizer Gene Winfield was called in. Gene was also responsible for the Star Trek Shuttle and is still busy as ever. You can view his work at the link below.

A resin Spinner

Don’t forget that the Devon, UK, based Stargazer Models has a 1:48 scale Spinner in its list. This is a neat enough little model (half the Fujimi's size, in fact) that scales out to some 102 mm (4 in) long, and is suitable for any number of dioramas to this popular scale. 

It’s a simple build with just nine major components, with smaller parts and a decal sheet also supplied. With a careful paint job, this can look a convincing model, and would be interesting to feature next to, let's say, the 'follow-me' Jeep we featured last week here, or indeed in a lineup of law enforcement vehicles to this scale.  

Thanks to the Gunjap site for information. Visit Gunjap here.

The Spinner is also available for pre-order from HobbyLink Japan here.

Stagazer resin Spinner here.

Visit Syd Mead here.

Gene Winfield here.