My 90's and 2000's Experience: The View-Master Stereoscope

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. Today I'm going to be talking about something I didn't think I'd be able to talk about after experiencing it in the modern day as an adult. I'm talking about the View-Master Stereoscope toys I had as a kid, as well as the reels that were made for them. If you grew up in the 80's and 90's you'll remember these little devices. So let's get into it.

This is probably the version of the View-Master you'd remember if you grew up in the 80's and 90's. It's also the one you see in shows like Stranger Things or The Goldbergs whenever the View-Master is needed in an episode. I also had this version when I was a kid, but it was actually the second one that we had. I do remember seeing one of these at the hospital or at school when I was in kindergarten or grade one. 

This is actually the first one I owned. I honestly don't remember when I got it exactly or who got it for me, I just remember playing with it alot when I was a kid. In case you don't know what a View-Master is, it's this device that you place these flimsy white plastic reels which show images from a movie or TV show or just random pictures and you press a button or slider on the right hand corner (if you're looking into the view finder) to change images, much like you would on a Stereoscope from the 50's and 60's to look at old pictures on. Each press of the button turns the reels around to change the 3-D image you're seeing. I had several reels to go with my View-Masters. Let's take a look.

First up is a random preview reel (Canadian apparently) that shows single images from three cartoons, a live action show, and random shots of Calgary, Alberta, the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, and the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec. The cartoons are just a random shot of Spider-Man that looks like a cartoon but is probably from a View-Master reel set from 1977 or 1978, an image from the 1973 View-Master reel set, Superman Meets Computer Crook, and a shot of Mickey Mouse facing the bear from the 1939 cartoon, The Pointer. The live action show is from the Electra Woman and Dyna Girl segment from The Krofft Supershow, which first aired in 1976.

The next set I had was called Hollywood Mickey. This was actually the only set that I had that was complete. I think this was just some stills that were never part of a cartoon or TV show, because I can't find anything online to suggest that the reels are actually from a previously released cartoon and for the time it was too modern, if you wanna called early 90's modern that is, for it to be from a Mickey Mouse animated TV show (Mickey Mouse Works wouldn't come out until 1999). So it was most likely stuff made specifically for this View-Master reel set. 

Believe it or not, this next set was my introduction to the live action Ninja Turtles movies. I had reels A and C, but not Reel B for the first movie. While I'd seen the original 1987 cartoon series, which was my first introduction to the Turtles, and read the Archie Comics series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, I didn't see any of the movies until the early 2010s when I got the three live action movies and the 2007 animated movie on DVD in a four-pack. So this was my experience with the first two movies when I was a kid.

Yes, I also had the first two reels for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. The reason that I didn't have all of the reels for these sets, besides Hollywood Mickey is because they were all second hand. Chances are my grandparents found them at a garage sale or something like that.

The last set we had, which I'd forgotten about until last week, is the set for Beauty and the Beast from 1991. We only had Reel B and Reel C, which goes from "Be Our Guest" to the end of the movie. I don't know why I didn't remember that. Probably because we had that movie on VHS and we watched it all the time. 

I don't have an image of it, but I remember we kept both View-Masters and the reels in a red and green The Real Ghostbusters lunch bag with Slimer on the front. The reason I even came up with this topic is because last week my dad was going through some stuff in our basement and found the second View-Master and all the reels we had. We got rid of them, but before we did, I spent an hour going through all of the reels. Which was pretty cool given that I hadn't seen them in about 20 years and I actually thought we'd gotten rid of both View-Masters and the reels back then. I'd had no idea that they'd stayed around for all those years since they were no longer in my personal possession. So it was cool discovering that we still had them stored away down here in the basement.

And that my friends is it for me for today. I've got some movies to watch thanks to my friends at the VHS Club Podcast, so that's what I'll be doing this weekend. I'll be back next week with more posts. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you later. Take care.