Oddity Archive: Episode 98.5 - Ben’s Junk: Fisher-Price Movie Viewer 

I think that opening on the side is to let light in. I used to have a red one with about 6 cartridges when I was a kid. I had the rescuers and one called goofy's glider. I watched them over and over.

It takes a steady hand to hold Ben's Junk...

I used to have one of these. The clear plastic bit is just the light source.

Replace the films with some old 1960s 8mm stag films, reseal the cases and donate all to Goodwill. Hilarity ensues.

I had one of these F-P viewers, and I played the pack-in "Lonesome Ghosts" cartridge over and over, backwards and forwards, frame by frame, fast and slow. It was simply mesmerizing to be able to command the film in a pre-VCR age. And no batteries! One of the greatest toys ever made. They have pretty simple mechanics, but mine stood up to all the wear I put into it, especially when cranking back and forth at high speed. They are a great way to illustrate the (old hand-drawn) animation process and "persistence of vision" that makes it work. I also had a chance a few years later to fiddle with a Sesame Street cartridge that had bits from their number shorts, most notably the classic fumbling pastry chef. :-)

I think that clear side piece is designed to let in light to the view piece.

They made these as late as the mid-80's. They had a Disney's Adventures of Gummi Bears produced. Have that one somewhere, I think.

I have one of these that came from France, it was bright green, but the reel it cam with was various clips from the end of Star Wars.

Ahh, Mickeys Trailer. Such a classic :')

Imagine if the smartphone had come out in the 70's! Wow what a toy, huh? It would probably be called the Kenner Telephone Movie Viewer!

That clear plastic thing on the left side lets the light in.so make sure you are close to a light source to see the video.

By the looks of it, the clear plastic bit on the left of the Movie Viewer is some kind of prism, reflecting light into the viewer and through the film. You might have got a better picture if you placed a lamp or some other light source to the left of the viewer when operating it. Could be handy clamping it into something sturdy too! I think these might have been available in the UK, too. ADDENDUM: This video shows off the view in the cartridge more clearer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--xeVGYqLs7w.html

Copyright notice: A portion of your video has been content IDed. From 4:29-5:35 You don't have to take your video down, but you won't be able to monetize it. If this is ok, you don't have to do anything.

The prism section is a light pipe to allow the thing to work without electric illumination.

love those things! the clear plastic prism on the side is just to focus ambient light in to illuminate the film (likewise the tiny mirror in the cartridges) see what happens when you cover it up or point it directly at a light source.....) "Mickey's Trailer" always reminds me of the They Might Be Giants song "Everything Right is Wrong Again" now (though it actually mentions "The Long, Long Trailer", with Lucy & Desi.)

The translucent plastic part is to let the light through the film.

Movie Viewer was made right up to 1985/86 and were still being sold into 1987. We have a large collection of Movie Viewer products from the various brands around the world. It was the most successful film "toy" ever sold. Much of the evolution of this system has been recorded in our archive. The viewer you show here is the later design. The original version was made by Action Films and there was a model that had an add-on battery operated light for use at night but none of the viewers were made for projection. That said Mupi and Mettoy/Corgi made a projector and a there was also the Fisher Price Movie Theatre with a built in screen which could also project. Mupi and Mettoy made the snazzy CineVisor and Movie Vision equivalent to the Movie Theatre.

I had one of these! God, it was so much fun to use as a kid. My favorite thing to do would be to run it super slow so I could see the film progress a frame at a time.

I used to have these, maybe not the exact carts, but had the system, and the projector version.

I've got a box full of a few of them along with the bigger projector!

I recall gameboy movie cartridge, choppy as heck but kinda cool anyway.

I had one of these as a kid. Two cartridges, the Mickey's Trailer you have and Bugs Bunny In The Lions Den. This takes me back 3:08 As others have said, that clear piece lets light in. Ambient light comes in through a window in the cartridge and hits a mirror which sends it through the film and viewpiece. You can see the window and mirror very clearly when you zoom in on the cartridge around 3:50

I decided to pop in (with some friends of mine) to Williamsburg, VA, since it's summer and why the hell not, everyone was at Busch Gardens. Anyway, we found a CVS that basically could let you have transfers of Super 8 film. If you have a CVS near you, go there and get it developed.

Thank you so very much!!! Great video and demo!!!

I had one of these (a later 70s model with the advance wheel one color only), mainly stuff from Sesame Street and some Peanuts stuff too. Nothing from the corporation's name we're not supposed to speak lest OA disappears and Code Lyoko starts talking about old A/V in those suggestions to the right.

I had one of these long after the fact (as I was born in the early 80s) and had The Rescuers cartridge! Can't remember what else I had, but there were probably only 3 or 4 total in my little collection.

I never owned one of these, but a lot of my cousins did. I actually owned the Movie projector version, also by Fisher Price. It had a small tv screen on the front, left side. the slot to push the cartridge was also on the front, right side. On the right of the projector was the crank handle and further back was a small plastic window where the image could be projected on a wall or screen. I think you could take the thing about 10 feet back before the image wasn't too good to see. next to the projector window was a switch. you moved it one way and you can see the film on the tv screen. you switched it the other way and view it on the wall. It was powered by electricity, so you needed a small light bulb to be able to view it.

I had this!...but only had Lonesome Ghosts :(

There was also a projector that used a flashlight bulb and projected onto a wall.

The clear thing on the side is a prizm, for gathering and focusing light on the film.

This was one of those things my friends had and I enjoyed playing with at their houses. :p

Wow ! I had one of those back then. Mine worked really well. I could play It forward and backwards. I just forgot what they were called. They were better than the red slide show type toy to me. Thanks for showing this.

I remember having some of these as a kid, only we had a big viewer for it that didn't work anymore by the time it was handed down to me. So this is the first time I've actually seen one in motion (from what I can recall at least) and had completely forgotten about them until I found this video.

That thing on the side is to collect ambient light I figured. I cracked my carts opened and put the films on reels.

I saw these as a very young child. Funny the toys we had as kids. Now you just pull a video up on your phone.

The clear thing you label;ed as a possible clip is the thing that captures light to allow you to see the film, if you look at the cart there is a reflective surface that backlights the cinefilm

Ah that takes me back to the early 70s. The cranks would stick when they were new too.

www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.asp - These two frames were in the The Rescuers cartridge I had as a kid.

Having had one of these growing up,I always wondered why Fischer Price never really evolved this toy over time. Could've been a lot more than an oddity from the Super 8 era if they had. Well now that they are making a comeback,who knows?

My family had this a long time ago when they were young. I found it in the garage of my grandmother's house when I was little and just watch some old cartridges like an old movie projector! Also, saw "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" on there as well!

It's scary that I still have mine...

hey ol' benny boi, shine a flashlight into that translucent thing. then it'll be cool!

This was pretty neat, imo.

I had one of those from a garage sale from a long time ago.

Yup, I remember playing with my older sister's. of course, she had the Pink Panther cart for this. I totally did forget about this really quickly.

I just vividly remember plating thus toy at my cousins and remember playing the sesame street number count with the cheft at the end falling down the stairs holding pastries. Having this retro toy and listing to it on earphones would be a better experience

My sister & I discovered back in the day, if you shine a flashlight into the plastic prism from the outside you can project the movie onto a wall, in a dark enough room. We watched The Tortoise and the Hare Silly Symphony over and over like that

benny boy!

I had totally forgotten about these! I grew up in the '80s and had a lot of hand-me-downs. This was one of them.

as a kid i used to see how fast i could loop mine

I had one of those, the crank does get jammed a lot. I had a lot of the Sesame Street films.

The side window was for the light to come in. More light made the movie clearer.

Ben!

I had this when I was a kid! I used to watch cartoons a frame at a time, to know how they were made.

One of my favorite toys, thanks!

Wonderful superb great toy's childhood I had used one 1981 have a screen and use bettery cells and 4 cassettes round type and screen. Hackle and jackle. Mikey mouse. Woody wood packer and pink penther. Old memories

Oh my God! I had one of those!!!! I had Spiderman and his amazing friends and some Mickey mouse cartoon where he's in a haunted house. my love for movies began there!

I thought when you held up the viewfinder to the camera it was going to suddenly play the "RickRoll" clip.

I had the bigger movie viewer / slash projector. They should bring thay one back. Projects the movie right on the wall. I always had fun watching the films in reverse. I still had my original one until we had an unfortunate house fire in 2013. Lost my atari then as well.

I remember this! I LOVED THIS THING as a kid!

I had the Star Wars ones when i was a kid

I was about 11 years old when I had one in the early 1970s I'm 62 years old right now I remember them clearly I had three or four cartridges that we've had to enjoy the cartoons which I really love watching.

I had something similar that used endless loop carts with super 8 film without soundtrack . One title was Angelino the golf player.

I used to have one of these back in the day as a child growing up in the late 70s thru the early 80s. I remember having mickey, sesame street, and bugs bunny cartridges that I used to watch again and again. It was one of my favorite toys as a child!

My cousin had one of these things, and she had a couple of Sesame Street cartridges. One included the baker number sketch (where the baker would present his dessert, then fall down the stairs in front of him destroying it) among other things. The other was one with Big Bird at a birthday party or something.

I HAD one of these! Never forgot them. I remember having the Snoopy vs the Red Baron and the Winnie-the-Pooh one, among others.

I had a movie viewer when I was a kid. My favorite tapes were one featuring Snoopy (the same as shown in this video) and another that had Spiderman.

Super cool toy!!!

Kenner made their own version of a movie cartridge. They were incompatible with the F-P players and projectors, but in the short term they had a leg up because they had a Star Wars tie-in. There was also a third player on the market that was battery operated and used a clear plastic click-in reel for its loops, so it felt a little bit more bad-ass. I had them all at one point or another, and all of them eventually fell to my clumsy kid hands.

I had one of those! Born in 1971.... In RU-vid years, I`m dead.

Good afternoon, I would like to know if you can give me information if the animation or internal movement of the characters are printed on a material such as film or acetate, or what material it is made of, since it could be on cassette tape or video tape. 80?, at least to know if the deterioration over time harms the images, I will appreciate your answer because I am interested in certain articles but it is essential to have details to decide if one buys, thank you very much for your attention and blessings for your excellent video.. .

That clear plastic on the side is for letting in light so you can see the film, I had one of these as ahand-me-down from my older sister when I was growing up in the 90's, I put miles on that loop of film lol! I need to see if it's still in good condition, I really loved that thing!

Believe it or not I actually used to own one of these as a kid I had the snoopy vs the red Barron one and the bugs bunny in the lion den one Then again I loved the looney tunes and peanuts as a kid (and I still do to this day for more reasons then one) so they were great novelty items for their time Hopefully I’ll reaquire the toy and collect a few more of these video cartridges for the collection if need be

The clear window coincided with the clear window on the Cartridge for lighting..

This was my favourite toy from the 70s I broke mine by turning it backwards was so upset when it broke lovely to see this again so much fund memory’s

My dad had this toy as a kid and when I used it the crank would always get stuck

i used to enclose a strong flashlight around the light source area and turn the light off and project it on the wall

My favorite was Lonesome Ghosts would love to see these out again

I remember one of my teachers had one of these and it had a Pink Panther cartridge in there.

4:58 "Contact, he shouts"

The clear piece on the side is to let light in or else you couldn't see anything.

I had this and loved it thanks for the memory

I always thought that was just there for the light to shine through.

fisher price reiisued them in 2015

Damn Autofocus.

Yeah I had one of these too :) the white one , of course :)

one part gets light and hold it up to. get my light

I Had that exact Viewer back in the day

I had the hand held and the projector.

i had those....mmcoooool

It's so cool

I have one!

These were awesome when I was a kid. I had the red baron one and I could spend hours looking at it. I hope they do come back out!

Surprised nobody tried to sell porn on them.

This thing is like Polish RU-vid.

You COULD have cackled youtube. Most of these are available on YT already.

You COULD have *checked youtube. Most of these are available on YT already.

my mom has one of these

My favorite was the pink panther. Wonderful toy.