THE BRIDGE OF DOOM
Mel Birnkrant's
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As I mentioned earlier, the outside talent Schaper tapped into to put ANIMAX together ranged from bad to Brilliant. Well, perhaps the bad parts weren’t all that bad. There are far worse things in the world than baby blue boars with teeth and tongues unpainted. But on the other hand, Brilliant doesn’t get more Brilliant than this Gorgeous painting! Behold, “The BRIDGE of DOOM”!
I was told this was the work of a young man, only 23 years old, who lived right there in Minneapolis. He also did the package art that, if your monitor is large enough, you see along the borders. The masterpiece above was intended to adorn the side panels of an enormous box containing some disappointing pieces of unpainted plastic intended to be a “play set” called the Bridge of Doom. With beautiful art like that on the package, what could possibly be inside that wouldn’t be a disappointment? Its hard to believe he created this fabulous painting based on only a few photographs and the crummy sketch below.
Meanwhile, I wondered what was going on with Product Dynamics. Maybe because they were running behind schedule, or maybe because I worked for free, Schaper turned to me to design the Bridge of Doom. This photo shows some of the drawings for it in the background.
These Polaroids were taken by Schaper, apparently in a conference room in Minnesota. They display various elements of the prototype.
The shot below is interesting in that it contrasts the Bridge of Doom with the more traditional items in the Schaper line. This was a dramatic departure for them.
These studio photos of the finished product were shot for the Schaper catalogue.
“The Bridge of Doom” served "on the rocks".
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Copyright Acknowledgment: All images of ANAMAX and other Products and Images created by Mel Birnkrant, are Copyright (c) BIRNKRANT KISCOM/ The OBB