We are running a brand new photographic competition to celebrate today, 29th February 2012, with the goal of showcasing your favourite Irwin Allen collectibles.

Over the past 50 years, an amazing number of collectibles have been produced to celebrate and promote all of the Irwin Allen movies and television shows. This is your opportunity to show off with pride your amazing Irwin Allen collectibles. If you have a large collection of Irwin Allen toys etc, why not gather them together for a photo shoot.

If your collection is more modest as many of ours are, try some creative and fun photography showcasing which collectibles you treasure most. Collections can include books, toys, DVDs, photo collections, badges, magazines, posters, model kits and builds, and all other kinds of Irwin Allen paraphernalia. A small judging panel of Irwin Allen fans (not including any competitors) will decide between them which are the favourite collection photos. If they are available, we may even ask one or two Irwin Allen actors to take a look at the competition entries and help with the judging process.

Remember, it’s not about how many collectibles you own, but on how you present and treasure them. If you don’t have a digital camera, see if a friend or member of your family can take a snapshot of your Irwin Allen collectible(s) with their mobile phone and email the photo over as an attachment.

The best photographs will be featured and credited to your name (either your full name or a nickname if you prefer) in a special permanent gallery at the end of the competition.

Some inventive or creative ideas might be to create a Time Tunnel backdrop and photograph your collectibles in front of it. Or use camera angles to depict a giant picking up one of your Land of the Giants collectibles. If you have some photo editing software, why not add some special photographic effects to add a typical “Irwin Allen” atmosphere to your photograph. There are endless possibilities. Most of all, have fun seeing your collectibles in a different light.

Click here for details on how to enter the Leap Year Competition

The Sound of Music Family Scrapbook by Fred Bronson is a new book being published on 1st April 2012 featuring stories of the experiences of each of the child actors during the filming of classic musical The Sound of Music. Contains rare photos as well as a DVD with on-set and behind the scenes home movies.

New book written by Robert Rowe and edited by Jack Hagerty. 80 page softcover book with colour and black and white photos and illustrations.

Publisher’s Description:

Industry insider Robert Rowe was given unprecedented access to the Fox Television archives when he started researching Lost in Space in the mid ’80s. For over a decade, he continued to pore over production documents and interview the craftsmen responsible for creating the show. The result was The Jupiter 2 Repair Manual, a guide on the workings of the ship for the writers of the stillborn LiS reunion TV special. Fans of the show will be eternally grateful for Robert’s efforts since those archives are no longer accessible, and most of the people responsible for the series are no longer with us.

To make this invaluable information available to the show’s fans world-wide, Robert has expanded the Jupiter 2 Repair Manual into a series of Lost in Space Design books. This first one covers the creation of the original pilot episode, “No Place to Hide.”

Purchase Lost in Space Design: No Place to Hide direct from ARAPress.com

As Christmas approaches, we start thinking about what we can give our loved ones as a Christmas present.  This year, if your nearest and dearest happen to be Lost in Space fans, one option is the new Lost in Space Encyclopedia (edited by Flint Mitchell and William E. Anchors) which has just come out.

View US Land of the Giants Coloring Book

View British Land of the Giants Colouring Book

We have just received the revised edition of the Alpha Control Reference Manual.  For more details, please visit the LISFAN web site.

One way to further explore the work of Irwin Allen is to read the novels upon which his movies and shows were based.  Here is the novel which formed the basis of the TVM Outrage, written by Henry Denker.

Ronald Neame’s autobiography “Straight from the Horses Mouth” features a chapter (14 pages) on the making of The Poseidon Adventure. The chapter includes comments from Bill Creber and several of the stars of the movie.