Atlantis Model Company Earth vs The Flying Saucers Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Atlantis Model Company has released several more UFO kits in recent months, this one representing the distinctive design of Ray Harryhausen for the 1956 movie Earth vs the Flying Saucers. This was one of many flying saucer/alien invasion movies that appeared after the 1947 Roswell incident and contibuted to the further skepticism of the UFO phenomenon. In this classic, aliens who are the sole survivors of their race come to Earth to colonize and take over the planet. The 'animation' technology of the day was Harryhausen's stop-action photography which was featured in a variety of films including the original King Kong.

The kit itself is quite simple - a five inch saucer upper and lower halves which twist together. The kit as two additional parts, one a pedestal for the craft to sit on the ground and embark/disembark its passengers and captives, and the other is the classic dish-based ray gun for use in flight. All four parts are molded in silver styrene. This kit also has the LED lighting device we examined in our first-looks of the Monument Valley UFO kits and like those kits, this module mounts in the upper dome. What isn't clear to me is what good this lighting module would be with opaque plastic with no viewports. Nevertheless, the lighting module will be handy for other projects so I'll set this one aside for later.

This a fun project for kids of all ages and should you decide to paint the model, you'll spend far more time masking and painting that you will assembling this kit. Have a litte fun and grab one of these for yourself or your kids!

My sincere thanks to Atlantis Model Company for this review sample!