ViewMaster: It's not dead yet

Originally published on Los Thunderlads, 23 February 2011:

The death of ViewMaster has been announced more than once, but the medium keeps rising from the dead. The latest newsletter from Las Vegas-based 3dStereo.com brings word of some new products, including an original story in the form of a booklet and three stereo reels produced by comedy writer Eric Drysdale (of The Colbert Report fame,) a new advertising reel for Embassy Suites hotels, some new soft-core porn “glamour” reels, and a lot of reissues of old sets. I’d also mention a release Fisher-Price made in October, a three-reel set of Where the Wild Things Are, which shows the pages of the original book with the white borders and text of the pages as a proscenium foreground and the illustrations inset in three dimensions. It’s a very clever envisioning of a children’s book, and a perfect use of the stereoscope. It was originally released as a gift set with a cardboard box and a Model L viewer. It’s still available in that format from 3Dstereo, but it’s in stores as a simple 3 reel blisterpak. Highly recommended.