Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner

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Wile E. Coyote and
The Road Runner in 1949

Main series title: "Looney Tunes"

Title: "Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner"

Category: Cartoon

Genres: Comedy, Humor

Authors:
--- Chuck Jones (design/animation)
--- Michael Maltese (story/writing)

Country of origin: USA

Producer / Distributor: Warner Bros.

First episode title: "Fast and Furry-ous"

Released: September 17, 1949 - USA

Director: Chuck Jones

Color: Technicolor

Original language: English

Music: Carl Stalling. The first episode uses music from the Bedřich Smetana opera The Bartered Bride, specifically Dance of the Comedians. It also makes use of the popular songs "Winter", "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover", and "In My Merry Oldsmobile".

Animation: Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, Lloyd Vaughan, Ben Washam, A.C. Gamer.

Running time: 7 min.

Background: Wile E. Coyote (generally silent) repeatedly attempts to catch and subsequently eat the Road Runner, a fast-running ground bird (with a signature sound, "Beep, Beep"), but is never successful. Wile E. Coyote often obtains complex and ludicrous devices from a mail-order company, the fictitious Acme Corporation, which he hopes will help him catch the Road Runner. The devices invariably fail in improbable and spectacular ways. In the first episode "Fast and Furry-ous", released on September 17, 1949, the Coyote tries 11 ways to catch Road Runner. Failed traps include a fake tunnel, a boulder drop, a rocket, a boomerang, superhero outfit, a fridge and skis, and a school crossing. In a "jet shoes" sequence, the coyote chases the road runner all over a cloverleaf highway interchange.

Main characters:

--- Wile E. Coyote, a slim American coyote always hungry, originally presented under the pseudo-Latin name "Carnivorous vulgaris".
--- The Road Runner, a sly, fast-running ground American bird, originally presented under the pseudo-Latin name "Acceleratii incredibus".

Features: Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese. The characters star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts, the first 16 of which were written by Maltese. Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner appeared on television on Saturday mornings as the stars of their own TV series, The Road Runner Show, from September 1966 to September 1968, on CBS.

Interesting facts: Chuck Jones based the Coyote on Mark Twain's book Roughing It, in which Twain described the coyote as "a long, slim, sick and sorry-looking skeleton" that is "a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry". Jones said he created the Coyote-Road Runner cartoons as a parody of traditional "cat and mouse" cartoons such as MGM's Tom and Jerry, which Jones would work on as a director later in his career. Early model sheets for Wile E. Coyote character prior to his initial appearance identified him as "Don Coyote", in reference to Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. The Coyote's name of Wile E. is a play on the word "wily". Pseudo-Latin names were assigned to the characters through the years: "Carnivorous vulgaris" and "Acceleratii incredibus" (1949-1952), "Road-Runnerus digestus" and "Velocitus tremenjus" (1953), "Eatibus anythingus" and "Hot-roddicus supersonicus" (1954), and so on.

Quote (Chuck Jones): «When the coyote falls, he gets up and brushes himself off; it's preservation of dignity. He's humiliated, and it worries him when he ends up looking like an accordion. A coyote isn't much, but it's better than being an accordion».

Property: Warner Bros.

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, original model sheet by Chuck Jones (circa 1945). Graphite and colored pencil on paper glued to a 12 field sheet of animation paper. Note that here the coyote is called "Don Coyote".

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, original model sheet by Chuck Jones (1948) for their debut in the "Fast and Furry-ous" episode (1949)

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, title frame from the first episode "Fast and Furry-ous" (September 17, 1949). The title sign is shown first, and the card is blown away when the Road Runner whips by. The pair whip past the camera to change the credits.

The Road Runner, first appearance ("Fast and Furry-ous", Sept. 17, 1949). The camera zooms to the Road Runner and the scene shows the Latin name: "ROAD RUNNER (Accelleratii Incredibus)".

Wile E. Coyote, first appearance ("Fast and Furry-ous", Sept. 17, 1949). Wile E. Coyote, on a cliff, watches with binoculars as the Road Runner tears across the roads. He licks his lips as his name is shown: "COYOTE (Carnivorous Vulgaris)".

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, opening and first scene from the first episode "Fast and Furry-ous" (Sept. 17, 1949)

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones (Spokane, Sept. 21, 1912 - Corona del Mar, Feb. 22, 2002), creator of Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. In a career spanning over 70 years, Jones made more than 300 animated films, winning three Oscars as director and in 1996 an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

Toyota: 1st model ever

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Toyota logo
first version: "Toyoda"
1935-36

Prototype name: "Toyoda A1"

First models names:
--- "Toyoda AA" (sedan)
--- "Toyoda AB Phaeton" (cabriolet)

Category: Cars

Subcategory:
--- Sedan (AA)
--- Cabriolet (AB)

Producer: Automobile Department of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. (founded in 1926 by Sakichi Toyoda - director: his son Kiichiro Toyoda)

Prototype made in: May 1935 (engine completed on September 25, 1934)

Production start: April 1936 - Koromo, Japan

Discontinued: 1943 (AA) - 1938 (AB)

First price: 3,350 yen (AA) - 3,300 yen (AB)

Features: The Toyoda Model AA incorporated the design principles that were current in the U.S., the global leader of the auto industry at the time. Specifically, it was modeled after the De Soto Airflow, which embodied Chrysler's pioneering design approach to improve the ride comfort of rear passengers. The streamlined body styling and the rational load balancing between the front and rear wheels resulted in superior ride comfort for rear passengers and a spacious cabin. Curb mass (kg) 1500. Dimensions (mm): Length 1500, Width 1736, Height 1730, Wheelbase 2850. The engine, modeled after that of the Chevrolet, was a 3,389 cc water-cooled inline 6-cylinder OHV unit that produced 65 hp/3,000 rpm.
The Toyoda Model AB Phaeton was an open-top version of the Model AA. Although it was a commercially available production model, most of the vehicles were painted in khaki and delivered to the Japanese army with the codename ABR, and few were sold to civilians. While the mechanical components were basically the same as those of the Model AA, its coachwork was more than just that of a roofless AA sedan. The windshield was different from the AA's, and the rear-hinged rear doors were replaced with front-hinged ones. Also, the rear seats were moved further back to provide space for auxiliary seats between the front and rear seats.

Interesting facts: In 1924, Sakichi Toyoda invented the Toyoda Model G Automatic Loom. The principle of jidoka, which means the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the Toyota Production System. Looms were built on a small production line. In 1929, the patent for the automatic loom was sold to a British company, generating the starting capital for the automobile development. Toyota was started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. The first prototype engine was completed on September 25, 1934. Three A1 prototypes car were completed in May 1935, none of them survive. Because the Model AA were developed at the automobile department of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. (before the department was spun off as Toyota Motor Company), the model names were preceded by the brand name Toyoda. In April 1936, Model AA passenger car production commenced. In July, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo, which lead - in September - to a change in the brand name to what is now called "Toyota". In 1937, Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. was established to commence full-scale auto manufacturing operations; in 1942 a total of 1,404 Toyota AA and 353 units of Toyoda AB Phaeton were produced.

Quote (Sakichi Toyoda): «Before you say you can't do something, try it»

Property: Toyota Motor Corporation

Producer website: http://www.toyota-global.com

Toyoda Model A engine. The first prototype engine was completed on September 25, 1934. The parts manufactured in-house were limited to cast parts including a cylinder head, cylinder block, and pistons, while imported Chevrolet parts were used for crankshafts, camshafts, valves, plugs and electrical components.

Toyoda A1 prototype, completion ceremony (May 1935). Development started in September 1933, three A1 prototypes were realized, none of them survive.

Toyoda AA sedan, the first production passenger car by Toyota (1936)

Toyoda AA sedan, the only known pre-War original that exists in the world today. Found in Russia in 2008, it is kept in the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.

Toyoda AA sedan, newspaper advertisement (1936)

Toyoda AA sedan, a replica build for the 50th birthday of Toyota Motor Corp. (1987)

Toyoda AB Phaeton (1936-1938), original and replica. The Toyoda Model AB Phaeton was a cabriolet version of the Model AA. Although it was a commercially available production model, most of the vehicles were painted in khaki and delivered to the Japanese army with the codename ABR, and few were sold to civilians.

Sakichi Toyoda (Kosai, Feb. 14, 1867 - Kosai, Oct. 30, 1930), the Japanese inventor and industrialist who founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd. (Toyota Industries Corporation), and his son Kiichiro Toyoda (Shizuoka, June 11, 1894 - Toyota, March 27, 1952), entrepreneur and first director of the automobile department (Toyota Motor Corporation).

Toyota, an advanced model: Corolla, their top-selling sedan car ever (official video 2023)

Tetris

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Tetris logo, MS-DOS version 1986

Name: "Tetris"

Category: Video games

Subcategory: Arcade

Genre: Puzzle

Inventor: Alexey Pajitnov

Developers:
--- Alexey Pajitnov
--- Dmitry Pavlovsky
--- Vadim Gerasimov

Invented: June 6, 1984 - Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR

Released: 1984 (USSR), 1986 (EU), 1987 (USA)

Publishers: Mirrorsoft (Europe), Spectrum HoloByte (North America)

Platforms: prototype developed for Elektronika 60 (Russian clone of the PDP-11); first version developed under MS-DOS and released for IBM PC

Number of players: Originally single-player, then multiplayer

Features: Tetris was inspired by the puzzle board game pentominoes (a pentomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining five equal squares edge to edge), but its inventor Alexey Pajitnov felt that it might have been too complicated with twelve different shape variations, so switched to tetrominoes, of which there are only seven variants. "Tetriminos" are game pieces shaped like tetrominoes, geometric shapes composed of four square blocks each. A random sequence of Tetriminos fall down the playing field (a rectangular vertical shaft, called the "well" or "matrix"). The objective of the game is to manipulate these Tetriminos, by moving each one sideways (if the player feels the need) and rotating it by 90 degree units, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of ten units without gaps. When such a line is created, it disappears, and any block above the deleted line will fall. Points are awarded for each Tetrimino successfully dropped into place. When a certain number of lines are cleared, the game enters a new level. As the game progresses, each level causes the Tetriminos to fall faster, and the game ends when the stack of Tetriminos reaches the top of the playing field and no new Tetriminos are able to enter. The prototype, programmed in Pascal on an Elektronika 60 - a Soviet clone of a Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-11 computer - features monochrome graphics, and the blocks in the tetrominos are represented by a pair of delete/rubout characters (character code 177); a later revision was made where the blocks are represented by a pair of square brackets instead.

Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov
(Moscow, March 14, 1956)
video game developer and
creator of the puzzle game Tetris

Interesting facts: Tetris was created in June 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, an artificial intelligence researcher working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at their Computer Center in Moscow. Pajitnov chose the name "Tetris" after "tetra", the Greek word for four, and tennis, his favorite sport. The game proved popular with his colleagues. Academy of Sciences co-workers Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov ported the game to the IBM PC. From there, the PC game exploded into popularity, and began spreading all around Moscow. In 1986 Mirrorsoft, a British-based company, signed a deal to produce the game in the United Kingdom. In 1987 Spectrum HoloByte company released its IBM PC version of Tetris in the United States, where the game's popularity was tremendous. Tetris was the first entertainment software to be exported from the USSR to the US. Because the idea of intellectual property rights did not exist in Soviet Russia, as anything Pajitnov had made belonged to the state, he did not receive even a bonus for his work. In 1996, the rights to the game reverted from the Russian state to Pajitnov himself: The Tetris Company was founded, claiming to hold copyright registrations and taking out trademark registrations for Tetris in almost every country in the world.

Quote (Alexey Pajitnov): «I never imagined Tetris was going to be this successful. But the simple, yet addicting nature of Tetris still has me playing it a few times every week».

Property: The Tetris Company

Product website: http://tetris.com

Tetris prototype, screenshot and gameplay (1984)

Tetris, first version screenshot (1984)

Tetris, English version screenshots (1984). Since March 2013, this version is hosted in a permanent exhibit in New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Tetris, MS-DOS version screenshots and gameplay (1986)

Tetris by Atari, advertising (1988)

Tetris, arcade version cabinet and gameplay by Atari (1988). Single-player or competitive mode. The music was composed by Brad Fuller: some Traditional Russian tunes are used including Kalinka, Troika, and Katyusha. About the music introduced by Atari in the game, Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov said: «It was very embarrassing for me: when kids of the world hear these pieces of music, they start screaming: "Tetris! Tetris!" That's not very good for Russian culture».

Tetris designer Alexey Pajitnov and son holding early copies of Tetris (1989)

Tetris celebrates 30th Anniversary (1984-2014)

Playmobil

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Playmobil System logo 1974
by Rainer Willingstorfer

Series name: "Playmobil System"

Figures name: "Klicky"

Category: Toys

Subcategory: Plastic figures

Inventor: Hans Beck

Producer: Geobra Brandstätter (founded by Andreas Brandstätter in 1876)

Invented in: 1974 - debut February 2 at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg

Production start: 1974 (Germany and Benelux) - 1975 (worldwide)

Features: Playmobil is a line of toys produced and marketed since 1974 by Geobra Brandstätter in Zirndorf, Germany. The plastic figures, at 7.5 cm tall, fit in a child's hand and its facial design was based on children's drawings - a large head, a big smile, and no nose. Parts make up each figure: hair, head, torso, inner mechanism, two arms, and a set of legs. The first product series, introduced in 1974, were: Knights, Construction workers and Native Americans. Each of these three themes had it's own color. Boxes containing knights and medieval accessories were green, construction sets were blue, and boxes with Indians and wigwams were red. In the seventies, a Playmobil figure was also known as a "Klicky", referring to its typical klicking sound. A "Klicky-Tag" was printed over the cover picture. The tag also shows the number of figures contained in a particular box. Female figures were introduced in 1976.

Interesting facts: In the Sixties, Geobra had been producing hoola-hoops and large plastic toys, but in the early 70s the rising oil prices imposed on Geobra Brandstätter demanded that the company turn to products that required less solid plastic material. So, the company's owner Horst Brandstätter asked the German skilled craftsman Hans Beck to develop little toy figures for children achievable with less plastic. Hans Beck spent three years from 1971 to 1974 developing what became Playmobil. He conducted research that allowed him to develop a toy that would not be too complex but would nevertheless be flexible. He felt that too much flexibility would get in the way of children's imaginations, and too much rigidity would cause frustration.
Playmobil makes its first official appearance in 1974 at the company trade fair at geobra Brandstätter in Zirndorf. In February, at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, a Dutch firm agreed to buy a whole year's production. Playmobil began to be sold worldwide in 1975, and has remained a popular toy ever since. By court decision, the Playmobil figure is an original piece of art and, therefore, is copyright protected for up 70 years following the death of the creator.

Quote (Hans Beck): «My figures were quite simple, but they allowed children room for their imagination»

Property: Geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG

Product website: http://www.playmobil.com

Playmobil, sketch by Hans Beck. The figures had small noses, which disappeared later. (1971)

Playmobil, design by Hans Beck. In the initial design, the legs can be moved separately. (1972)

Playmobil, images from patent (February 5, 1972)

Playmobil, figures prototypes. Before these, some wooden prototypes were realized. (1973)

Playmobil, first series: Knights, Construction workers and Native Americans (1974)

Playmobil, first packages and sets (1974)

Playmobil, first catalog (1974)

Playmobil, first female figure (1976) and first castle (1977)

Hans Beck (Greiz, May 6, 1929 - Markdorf, Jan. 30, 2009), the creator of Playmobil. Top: in 1975 with Horst Brandstätter (left), Playmobil's owner and the great-grandson of the company's founder.

Playmobil celebrates 40th anniversary at London's Pirate Castle (April 30, 2014)