Columbiad from "La Voyage Dans La Lune" (1902)

Scale: 1/32
Initial Release: 1990s
Medium: Resin
Kit Rarity: 3

About the Design

In 1902, French magician/filmmaker Georges Melies stunned the world with the world's first major science-fiction film, "La Voyage dans la Lune" ("A Trip to the Moon").  Based on Jules Vernes' classic 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon," the fanciful film featured as its centerpiece a manned  shell (named "Columbiad" in the original Vernes novel) that was literally fired at the moon from a giant cannon (based in Paris in the movie instead of the novel's original Tampa, Florida launch site.)

The shell/spacecraft striking the "Man in the Moon" in the eye is one of the cinema's most famous images.

About the Kit

This Herb Deeks all-resin kit consisted of just two pieces: the solid resin "Columbiad" shell and the textured "moon base."  Both the kit and the nameplate incorrectly date the source film as 1903 instead of 1902.  (The box also calls this a "Moon Rocket" although, having no independent means of propulsion, there's nothing "rocket"-like about it.)

This model was built from an original issue.