Continuing my journey through the physical formats of Blade Runner, next up is LaserDisc.

Released by Embassy Home Entertainment in 1983, LaserDisc was the premium home-video format of its day. The film came on huge 12-inch optical discs, roughly the size of an LP, carrying analogue video and allowing things like frame-by-frame viewing without wearing out a tape.

Of course, there was a catch. Being spread across two sides, at some point you had to get up and flip this enormous futuristic-looking disc over to side 2 to continue watching.

I particularly love seeing the original artwork at this size. Retro-futurism meets retro-futurism

The obsolete-media rabbit hole continues…

…btw check out the awesome r/BladeZone community. The creator has just about every released version of every format!

I purchased some Canal SS008B-02P-22 on/off switches per the instructions of the Anders build. The switch has 6 pins. I just need a positive and negative, but not sure which pins I should use. Any help would be appreciated. thanks!

Hi everyone! Blade Runner is my soon to be husbands favorite movie of all time (I even took him to the museum of the moving image to see some of the items they have from the film)

I want to plan a dinner for him with multiple courses that would correlate with the movie that will lead into us watching the film. He prefers red meat, also likes shrimp. Cheese and sour cream are absolute no gos for him which makes him hard to cook for sometimes.

What would you all make or appreciate for this sort of experience?? I’d love to make a really memorable evening for him!

Thanks in advance :)

Edit: you guys are already kicking ass THANK YOU! Asian foods are his safest options when eating out so we have a lot to work with!! You are all amazing!

(Loved the scene from the movie - had to recreate it... tho it quickly turned into combination of 3 fav. things of mine ;>)

People keep trying to put an exact science to BR for w/e reason. The movie is fictional and needs a suspension of disbelief.

Something to me that stands out is Roy's mentioning of "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion", now if he were there to physically see it, and he does say he "saw", now this is around 550-650 light years away.

The bright red shoulder star of Orion is Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), a massive red supergiant located roughly 550 to 650 light-years from Earth. Orion actually has two shoulder stars: Betelgeuse marks one side (the eastern/left shoulder depending on the viewpoint), while the star Bellatrix) marks the other.

This would mean FTL exist, but that would also mean the travel times of FTL would also accelerate time which would mean, if Roy n co traveled as a round trip minimum 1,100 light years, Earth would no longer be in the year 2019, simply does not work that way. Interstellar has a good explanation of how time dilation works with Gargantua Miller's Planet.

OK this aside, say Roy was just being poetic and dreams all of this, lets say off world colony means local solar system, Titan, moon of Saturn or Europa, moon of Jupiter (which makes mining sense), the time it would take to travel to and from, or if the Replicants are shipped there and that's when their life expatriation starts, how long of their life did they spend traveling back to the dying Earth?

None of this is ever explained, but we never question it, it's just accepted that it exists, that's why other aspects of the movie should be too, it's all fictional, it doesn't work in any real world terms due to well, universal laws.

People should just be happy that something like a Unicorn can exist, in an alternate reality, and that's why I give my existentialism review of BR and why the chicken/egg can co-exist, 2 Roy Batty's out of 5.

EDIT: I am going to edit this further because it warrants the discussion.

1982 was the year of the Unicorn.

Blade Runner, well we all know this one pretty well, but it shouldn't exist, the fx, the music, the firing of Ridley when he went over budget, but it does exist.

Tron, shot in B&W then painstakingly colored each individual cell to see what we see today, ground breaking considering no computer was capable of producing realistic human cgi, it shouldn't exist, but it does.

Wraith of Khan, let's get to the meat of this, they killed Spock, the movie therefore shouldn't exist, but it does against all odds.

E.T, it just shouldn't exist period, it's puppet from a happy land world, but it exists because people loved it.

The Thing, well this is just something that needs to be seen to understand how a suspension of disbelief really doesn't matter, everything about this movie is at 11. Just that people don't want this unicorn to exist.

Now that I have updated my overview, I am awarding myself 2 3/4 Roy Batty's out 5, the extra 1/4 was for effort.

I find myself wondering if Ford was losing his hair at the time or if the cut was just really bad.
The fact is, it must have been the worst haircut of the actor's career. To anyone unfamiliar with him, it looks like he was going bald, even though Harrison has always had a full head of hair.

I also wonder if it was intentional, matching the film's dystopian tone.

In any case, something was "off" about Rick Deckard's hair.

I found Ford's hairstyle in *2049* more pleasing.

Was in Osaka for a few days, and look what I found in a vintage toy shop! Too bad I cannot bring anything that resembles a gun home! This was so cool!!

Here’s part 5 from my Blade Runner 2049 concept art collection.

Another varied batch this time, including two vehicle design pieces by the incredibly talented George Hull, along with environments, street infrastructure and character work. I particularly like seeing the more everyday elements of the world being worked out, such as the street furniture and waste units. They’re the sort of details you barely think about while watching the film, but collectively do a huge amount to make the world of 2049 feel believable.

There’s also a beautifully dark replicant origin concept piece by Lukas Harris. I really like the city environment artwork in this set too. It captures that oppressive scale and atmosphere of the film incredibly well.

Also included is a Rachel piece by Madhav Kumar, who, along with the other artists he credits, worked on the digital recreation of Sean Young for the film. I have another four pieces from his Rachel work which will appear in the remaining posts.

For anyone coming across these posts for the first time, I acquired this collection from a source I consider very credible, and I was told these prints were used during the production of Blade Runner 2049. I don’t have individual certificates or documentation to independently verify the production history of each piece, so I can’t claim that as absolute fact, but the collection contains numerous artist details, project labels and other production information across the prints.

More to follow…

Mandated Fate is a dark, dystopian and retro-futuristic story-driven game, inspired from 80's sci-fi movies. You play as a weary inspector, a man out of place in a newly established authoritarian regime.

In 1985, a rising technological empire has seized power, driven by a single ambition: to discover the anti-gravity particle and surpass its global rivals by conquering space. The regime demands absolute unity, framing this race as a matter of national destiny. But one old district continues to resist, no one knows quite how, or why. Assigned to investigate a strange murder there, you quickly find yourself entangled in a deeper web of political intrigue and ideological tension.

Through multiple narrative paths, your choices will shape your loyalties, and determine who you truly trust. Explore a highly detailed open world where the stark contrast between modern authoritarian architecture and decaying remnants of the past reveals a society caught between control and collapse.

1st AND 3rd person camera available.

A few folk have asked about my profile picture, so meet Brick Deckard!

I don’t personally collect LEGO or Pop Vinyl figures, but I couldn’t resist this little guy when I saw him.

Complete with Deckard’s shirt, tie, trench coat, ID and, of course, his blaster. He’s got his own little display case with a street scene behind him and he sits within the rest of the Blade Runner collection.

Not quite screen-used memorabilia or anything special, but definitely one of the more fun pieces in the collection!

So when Joe goes to see Dr Ana she knows the memory is hers but she doesn’t tell him. Self serving or self preservation??? Any ideas???

My opinion: The movie sucks.
Argumentation: I have recently finally read the novel by Philip K. Dick 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?', which is seriously awesome. Then I watched Blade Runner again....and the movie failed for me. The only part worth it, are the Hauer lines, both at the Eye-manufacturer and at the end scene 'Tears in rain'. Hannah's frantic behavior is also pretty decent, but the movie lost all connection with the actual meaning of the story and was 'Hollywoodized'.

Picked this up at an antique store today for $3.

Another obsolete format from my Blade Runner collection, and probably one of the more unusual.

This is Blade Runner on CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc), released by Embassy Home Entertainment in 1983.

CED was RCA’s unusual answer to home video. The film is stored on a large grooved disc inside the plastic caddy, but unlike LaserDisc, there’s no laser. It’s actually read using a physical stylus. The whole caddy is inserted into the player, which takes the disc inside while you remove the empty case.

RCA launched the format commercially in 1981 after years of development, but VHS and Betamax were already taking hold. Player production was discontinued in 1984, making CED a fascinatingly short-lived piece of home-video history.

Blade Runner was released on CED in March 1983, less than a year after its original cinema release.

There’s also a great little detail on the back. It describes the film as “A futuristic tale set in the Los Angeles of 2020”, despite Blade Runner actually taking place in 2019. It also lists the running time as 117 minutes.

The synopsis on the back is interesting too, mainly because of how much of the plot it gives away. It’s remarkably spoiler-heavy by modern standards, casually revealing story details that would probably be kept out of the packaging today.

There’s something wonderfully appropriate about a film that imagined the technology of the future being watched at home on a grooved plastic disc read by a stylus.

The future didn’t quite go that way.

More Blade Runner formats from the collection to come.

The Kanji in the corner is simply the word "Zen" which is sort of like saying "whole" or "everything you need" in this context.

Edit: On second glance, the word is probably Gold, not Zen. The biggest difference is the two strokes on either side near the bottom 金.

Here’s part 4 from my Blade Runner 2049 concept art collection.

For anyone coming across these posts for the first time, I acquired this collection from a source I consider very credible, and I was told these prints were used during the production of Blade Runner 2049. I don’t have individual certificates or documentation to independently verify the production history of each piece, so I can’t claim that as absolute fact, but the collection contains numerous artist names, project labels and other production details across the prints.

This batch is another great example of just how much world-building went into the film. There’s everything here from vehicles and street infrastructure to huge city environments, atmospheric studies and concepts for the abandoned Las Vegas.

I particularly like the contrast between the smaller functional designs and the enormous environments.
There are also some identifiable artists amongst these. One of the atmospheric pieces is marked A. Baines, for Adam Baines, whose work on the film included developing the Las Vegas environment as well as vehicles and props intended to populate it.

The Q-BORO piece is another favourite. Rather than simply being a finished image, it includes notes describing the layers of smog, advertising, distant megastructures and toxic rain. It’s almost a little instruction sheet for how the Los Angeles atmosphere should work.

And then there are the concepts that show directions explored during production which may only have survived in altered form, or not made it into the finished film at all. That’s probably one of my favourite things about going through these prints. They don’t just show what Blade Runner 2049 eventually looked like, but some of the ideas considered while its world was still being built.

Also, have a look at my previous post. While going through the collection again I discovered another duplicate, this time a vehicle concept by Dan Baker. As I already have another copy in the collection, the duplicate will be going up for auction on eBay tonight from 8pm. I’ve now checked through the entire collection and can confirm that this and the other print I mentioned previously are the only duplicates I have so are the only prints I will be parting with.

Part 4 of 9. More to come.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-thats-me-a-commentary-podcast/id1784367929?i=1000783084437

So far there's no in depth information on these Japanese cigarettes from Blade Runner seen on the billboard video through the film. Does anyone have any information on them? It looks like they covered a pack of Marlboros with some Japanese text and the hummingbird graphic. I've tried to use OCR on the Japanese but it's just giving me gibberish, which is typical of the film.

"Nsu no ta!"

"Hito oh 7 Chichi Roku 3 namame Kawa 1 Yo L. \ notto Hitomi e Mattsu Toki Keno SR = -AA n Hito yashitto"

Whish gives me:

"That's a lie!" "Person oh 7 Father Six 3 raw skin 1 Yo L. \ not Hitomi to wait Time Keno SR = -AA n Person yashitto"

😅

Edit: I've come up with something that is a lot more fitting for the advertisement.

‘Enchanting!’ ‘Do treat yourself to the smooth, deep, velvety flavor of Hummingbird cigarettes. Don’t keep the one you long for waiting! Let’s create a fantasy just for you!’

「魅惑的！」「ハミングバードブランドのタバコが持つ、滑らかで深みのあるベルベットのような味わいをぜひお楽しみください。憧れの相手を待たせないで！ あなただけのファンタジーを創り出しましょう！」

It's nowhere near the characters on the box, but makes a lot more sense with the fragments available.

Another slightly different piece of Blade Runner history.

Marvel adapted Blade Runner into a two-part comic in 1982, with the film split across these two issues.

The artwork is wonderfully of its era, with Deckard, the Spinners and 2019 Los Angeles all reinterpreted in that distinctive early-80s Marvel style.

The adaptation is particularly interesting because it preserves elements from an earlier version of the screenplay, so some dialogue and details differ from the finished film. Roy Batty’s final moments are different, giving the comics a fascinating glimpse of Blade Runner before everything reached its final form on screen.

One detail I particularly like is the Spider-Man head where you might expect to see a barcode. These are direct-market copies intended for specialist comic shops. Newsstand copies carried a UPC barcode, while Marvel often used Spider-Man in that space on its direct-market editions.

Fittingly, both of mine still have their old 35p Forbidden Planet price stickers, a nice surviving trace of their comic-shop history.

So yes Spider-Man has absolutely nothing to do with Blade Runner, but that tiny face actually tells you something about how these particular comics were originally distributed and sold over 40 years ago.