Any of you remember those words from early 70s Saturday morning television?

Yep, they were the opening lyrics for a very unusual series from Sid & Marty Krofft, creators of such trippy shows as H.R. Pufnstuf and Lidsville.  "Land of the Lost", what some people assumed to be little more than a live action alternative to Ruby Spears' "Valley of the Dinosaurs" went far beyond the usual trope of a "Land That Time Forgot".  With people like David Gerrold (of Trek's "...Tribbles" fame) as chief story editor and story contributions from established science fiction authors like Larry Niven, Ben Bova, Norman Spinrad and Theodore Sturgeon, the concepts presented were a bit more "heady" than the usual weekend animation fare.

One of the concepts threading its way throughout the three season run was that of the "Pylons", enigmatic towers of polished metal (?) that seemed to control various aspects of the pocket continuum within which the family found themselves trapped.  some affected weather, others the very motion of the three looming moons seen in the night sky.  At least one could access different worlds, times and dimensions.  Doctor Who fans may get a kick from the fact these artifacts were apparently far larger within than their eterior proportions would suggest.

Here is my attempt at modeling the monolithic modules.  It didn't help that life sized "facades" used on the set differed from each other and the miniatures used for the tabletop stop motion animated sequences, so I just went with a "happy" medium.  Speaking of stop motion, I posed ScottA's T-Rex with the now known to be erronious "tail dragging" stance used for the various theropods depicted in the series.  I also gave it a purposely lumpy procedural so that it would look a bit more like a latex rubber covered animation puppet than a real dinosaur.

I modeled the Pylon to have a separate material zone for the diamond shaped door.  That way I can apply a material configuration to match the rest of the surface, or turn it "invisible" as though the apeture has opened, as in this render.

So, anybody want this silly lil' thing?

Sincerely,

Bill

Tempt the Hand of Fate and it'll give you the "finger"!