By Marco Scheloske - images & text © 2008

Scale: Non - saucer is 2¼"/57mm diameter

Parts: 3 resin, 5 white metal.

Instructions: One small inlay with a little drawing - but for 8 parts you don't need more than that.

Decals: None

Molding Quality: 8 - see preview

Detail: 9 - very good for such a small model

Accuracy: 8 - saucer, Gort and base are very accurate while the tank is not

MSRP: $16.95 USD (outside the US $21.95 postpaid or ~$22.20 CAN/ € 14.81 EUR) available from Skyhook

Overall Rating: A well-executed little model from a true SF classic movie for a very reasonable price.

"It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you." - Klatuu

The Day The Earth Stood Still can truly be called a “classic”. Still playing in cinema revivals in the 1990s, at outdoor summer festivals, and regularly on cable channels, it was at the forefront of the science fiction film explosion of the 1950s. A number of its basic elements, from its moralizing to its music, from its fear of apocalypse to its menacing robot, are aspects of the genre which remain today. Though the film did not bring all these elements to science fiction for the first time, the film's strong and sophisticated visual and aural style was to have a lasting impact on how the scenario of alien visitation has subsequently been presented. The Day the Earth Stood Still outlined creatively, some might even say factually, the images of alien visitation that have fascinated increasing numbers of people in the second half of the twentieth century. This mini-diorama, produced by Skyhook models, represents the remarkable scene when a nervous GI shot down Klatuu shortly after he arrived with his saucer in the park beneath the Washington monument.

What You Get

The kit contains three resin parts, the saucer with its ramp, Gort, and the base with Klatuu being part of it, lying on the ground. In addition to that you get a small tank and three tiny soldiers, made of white metal.

The casting quality of the base is pretty good, but the saucer isn't equally thick and sanding it in a way that it'll be will be a bit tricky. Gort has a lot of flesh surrounding him, I'm curious if I'll be able to remove it without breaking the legs and arms of the robot. In my eyes it is fascinating that you can really recognize him when you look veeeeeery close! Klatuu, just being hit by the shot, is part of the base and has to be painted with a steady hand...

The white metal parts contain fine details. The tank is the same Skyhook uses for their “War Of The Worlds” mini-diorama. Compared to the movie it isn't accurate in every tiny detail, but it is clearly a tank from the 1950s. Close enough for me in such a small scale.

The scene represented, for me the most remarkable one of the whole movie, is caught very well by the diorama. I may add a melted canon to it, so that you can even see how mighty Gort is as a guardian. But even without that addition you really have this classic 50ies SF-feeling by just looking at the model. I plan to paint it in “black and white” only to enhance that effect ...... I wonder if it will look the way I have in mind.

Conclusion

With this mini-dio you can have a very nice kit for a very reasonable price - what are you waiting for? Well worth getting!