A Brief History of 4 Disney Moonliners

[This is an update of a post that appeared in the earlier version of the Paper Hollywood Blog.]

Perhaps one of the most influential visual icons of the 20th century was the magnificent TWA Moonliner rocket that highlighted Disneyland’s Tomorrowland section from the early days of the

park. Designed by John Hench with influences from noted rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, the original was never a real rocket, but grand piece of googie architecture that stood 76 feet above Tomorrowland, a perfect landmark any small children lost from their parents. It marked the entrance to Disneyland’s Rocket To The Moon simulation ride and was envisioned in Disney’s “Man in Space” television films predicting the near future of space travel.

That was Moonliner number one, which stayed at Disneyland from 1955 to 1967, when it was dismantled for more “modern” visions of tomorrow. Few know, however, that a second Moonliner was erected just a year after the

Tomorrowland rocket’s debut. Howard Hughes’ TWA airlines, which sponsored the Disneyland Moonliner decided to place a smaller (22 ft.) version of the craft on the roof of their new headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. Sadly, it was removed and sold after only 6 years there. It then spent decades deteriorating as a RV park sign.

The 22 footer was eventually rescued and restored by concerned historian Dan Viets. It can be seen today at the National Airline History Museum in Kansas City, MO. Read this great article at Yesterland for much more on this, including some great photos.

That’s two. The third is a reproduction of that 22 foot rocket and is shown in the photo here. It was created in 2005 as part of a full restoration of the old TWA building on which the original had stood.

The forth Moonliner, as you may know, is right where it should be– in the original Disneyland’s

Tomorrowland section. In 1998, a new 66 foot tall version of the Moonliner was erected near where the original had stood. While it no longer bears the TWA logo, it stands proudly over a cleaver Coca-Cola kiosk that launches Coke bottles like rockets.

The Moonliner has been a favorite of modelers since the Strombecker styrene kit in 1958. The Strombecker kit was later produced under a different name by Glencoe and this version can often be found in online auctions. There have been a couple of paper versions for download. The ultimate, I think, is this one from The Disney Experience website (shown here). It stands 25″ tall and features fine landing gear details. This one’s a must for any Disney or spacecraft paper modeler. It makes for a great contrast piece amidst a collection of real space rockets.

More great facts about the TWA Moonliners:
Daveland: The Moonliner
Yesterland: One City, Two Moonliners
Wikipedia: TWA Moonliner
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images:
Original Moonliner from selago at Flickr
New rooftop Moonliner by Americasroof
New Moonliner from randychico at Flickr
Papercraft Moonliner by Disney Experience

One Sheet Wonders: A Few Single Page Paper Models for Beginners

[This is an update of a post that appeared in the earlier version of the Paper Hollywood Blog. I'll try to do more One Sheet Wonders post from time to time. There's nothing like a quick and easy model build.]

There are quite a few clever tricks and techniques used by paper modelers, but I believe the best way to for the beginner to get started is to simply start building. With practice you’ll quickly find the best methods that work for you. It’s nice to have a few finished successes on the shelf before tackling anything really complex. Remember one great advantage of printing your own models is that if you mess up you can always reprint the page and start over.

The purpose of this post is to guide you to a few models that look great, but can be completed by a beginner in a short time. Don’t be fooled by their size, though. Just because a model has few parts doesn’t mean there won’t be some challenges to assembly. Many experienced card modelers enjoy a one pager now and then for the quick satisfaction or simply because it’s a good looking model.

The very first paper model I ever downloaded and built was this Borg Cube available for download at Starship Modeler. While a cube might seem to be the simplest possible shape to build, it actually can be a bit tricky to make the folds such that all sides come out square and flat. I list multiple Borg Cubes in the main Paper Hollywood listing as well as lots (and lots) of other Trek models.

A good next one-page build for the Star Trek enthusiast might be this excellent version of the TOS Enterprise’s shuttle, Galileo by Dave’s Card Creations as part of his lengthy KoolWheelz collection. Dave rates this one as a “medium” difficult build. It will give you some experience a bit more
complex folding and tabbing. Note that on this page, Dave rates all his one pagers for difficulty and has several good for first timers.

If horror films interest you more than Star Trek, you might opt a Hellraiser Lament, the curious (and dangerous) puzzle box from the Hellraiser movies. Some people actually print this one with black ink on gold foil paper, but it doesn’t look at all bad printed with a good color printer. BTW, this paper version has no sharp objects inside like the one in the movie.

For a bit of beginner’s whimsy, you might want to build Mike Hungerford’s little Snoopy Doghouse model. Not nearly as easy a build as it seems, this little model has some tricky folds that will hone your beginner’s skills, but not take weeks before you’ve got something to show for it.

If, like me, you enjoy modeling an automobile now and then, try one of clearly laid-out Hummer designs at s t r e e t p a p e r . d e. The site features 7 different versions of the iconic off-roader. Like many free downloads, these models lack directions, but these are simply designed such that directions are not really necessary.


As shown above and at right and the top of this post, I love this vintage Eiffel Tower model originally printed for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair for which the tower was built. Be sure to check the many other great vintage models posted on her Flickr account by Patricia M. She has very much established herself as the web’s leading preserver of vintage French paper models and popular culture. As paper model fans we certainly owe her gratitude for her efforts.

Paper Hollywood Blog Relaunches!

Hi, my name is Wade Watson and I created the Paper Hollywood link website. I like movies, sci-fi gadgets, models and model building. I discovered card modeling back around 2004 and quickly grew to love it. And yes, I’ve downloaded far more model files than I will ever be able to build. The online card modeling phenomenon is one of those great cultures that has grown out of the emergence of the Internet of which most people are not even aware.

I first learned about it from an article by Hilber Graf in the Fall 2004 issue* of Modeler’s Resource magazine. Like many, I was at first a bit skeptical of the idea of paper models. Why would an adult glue together flimsy paper doll things? But upon searching around the web I was quickly impressed at the detail and coolness factor of models that could be downloaded and printed in just minutes. Then I glued together my first (the good ole Borg Cube) and had to do it again.

I began the Paper Hollywood link site in 2007 as pretty much a way to make a positive contribution to the worldwide community of paper model builders and designers. Besides that, it was a site I wanted to see and use myself and there wasn’t one like this. Originally hosted as a subsite on a free hosting service, the site quickly became quite popular with very little effort on my part. I think the first two years all I did was mention it on one forum and write one article for a generic article site. Eventually my free hosts were shutting the site down because it exceeded bandwidth limits and I realized I needed to give PH some breathing room.

After that I secured a domain name and moved the site to Dreamhost, which I had used for business purposes for a few years. After several years there, though, I experienced problems with a PHP virus that basically rendered my hosting there useless. I've just moved Paper Hollywood and now the Paper Hollywood Blog hosting once again. Old links to the main Paper Hollywood should be OK, but the old blog pages may not link directly. If you want to see them, though, the entire old version of the PH Blog is stored at the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

My intent for this blog was to go beyond the usual scope of card model blogs and talk about movies, TV and so forth. I've come to realized, though, that I am not very good at consistently contributing to a blog such as this. I tend to blog in spurts of activity for short periods, than go long periods of doing other things, so I'll apologize in advance for any lengthy periods without blog updates.

When I moved the PH blog to this new host this month I did go through and eliminate all the bad links. In the next weeks I intend to fold a great deal of new models into the Paper Hollywood link list, too.

One final thing I'd like to say is that this site and all of us who love these downloadable models owe considerable appreciation to the many talented model designers who have spent untold hours in the design of these models. I ask you to respect the wishes of any model designer who's work you download. That usually means only using the model for personal use and not for sale for profit.

Happy paper modeling!

Wade Watson