BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS’ produced by Roger Corman / directed by Jimmy T Murakami

’Battle Beyond the Stars’ is a low budget sci-fi adventure film based on ‘The Seven Saumrai’ / ‘‘The Magnificent Seven’ and one of many projects that raced into the cinemas in the wake of the phenomenal success of ‘Star Wars’. It was produced by the master of low-budget film-making Roger Corman.

The film featured several distinct spaceships representing the rag tag group of mercenaries enlisted to protect the peaceful planet Akir.

The spacecraft were all designed by James Cameron - yes that James Cameron - and the admirable visual effects were handled by miniature experts Dennis and Robert Skotak, who would later work for Cameron on Aliens, Terminator, The Abyss and much more.

As the film was a low budget affair, I have represented a likely manufacturer of the time. ‘Life-Like’ Hobby Kits produced models of ships, galleons, civil war cannons and aircraft as well as some dinosaur kits.. these were not patch on the outstanding ’Prehistoric Scenes’ from Aurora. This is all ‘What If…’ and a bit of fun, as such I am not 100% concerned with ‘total‘ accuracy. I designed the artwork so that the boxes can be displayed and complete an expansive space scene.

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Spaceships designed by James Cameron

Visual Effects by Dennis Skotak and Robert Skotak