When I was about 10 I got a View-Master for Christmas. It was beige plastic and came with a few Loony Tune reels. I thought it was ace; 3D Daffy Duck in space. A little while later my Mom came home from a jumble sale* with a battered leather case and inside were two vintage View-Masters, along with a whole pile of old reels.
Now this was something else entirely. To be honest, it took a while for it to dawn on me that these were much more interesting. One View-Master was made of steel with a black enamel finish, a Model C, the other was a brown bakelite Model E.
The reels showed me the world in all it's 3D glory: lots of US landmarks and cities, European capitals, fiords of Switzerland, even pictures of the Queen's Coronation. The age of the slides giving all these places an odd yellow tinge.
As an adult, I found this Model C complete with it's original box and insert leaflet. A little digging around and you can find all you would ever want to know about them here including a really great image library of original packaging.
* Indication of the origins of Ace Jet.
See also the Typepad View-Master.
oh my god...the photo of the box...it was the first night of chanukah and i was 9 years old...i'd stare into the viewmaster and think that peter pan was in my bedroom.
Posted by: andy jacobson | 23 October 2006 at 09:43 PM
cool article. there's a portland, oregon artist who creates her own art for viewmasters. http://www.vladmaster.com
Posted by: brian alter | 24 October 2006 at 05:53 PM
You do the View-master justice..
You are Mr Viewmaster's PICK OF THE MONTH
More 3D viewmaster Reels Here
http://viewmaster.home.comcast.net/~viewmaster/
Posted by: Mrviewmaster | 06 May 2010 at 12:18 AM
http://kipbrockman.com/viewmaster/packets/index1.html
Posted by: Horatio Viewmaster | 07 October 2011 at 04:10 PM