That bizarre contraption on the moon. I mean, it looks like part of an old-fashioned kitchen unit, what with the storage drawer and knobs like for a gas oven; but then what's that business about the coins and the dispenser? And it had an aerial... Has anyone even the slightest idea?
sharewho knows? I watched it yesterday for the first time in a very long time. My boyfriend and I just agreed that it was... surreal lol. Bless Wallace and Gromit, Wallace always reminded me of my grandad; when I collected the figures from tokens on cereal packets back when A Close Shave came out i named my extra Wallace Les in honour of him hehe
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?!" The Holy Grail.
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I agree that it is some sort of parking ticket machine. It acts like a cranky old meter maid, you know with the whole club business and giving the rocket a ticket for leaking oil and what not. If I had to give it a name I'd say it's a retro parking police robot. I don't think the knobs have anything to do with an oven but who knows?
shareI think It's some random machene put there so that th US has clame over the moon and you put special coins in it or it'll attack you
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Awwwww... The bounce has gone from his bungee.... ~ Hutch, W/G
I think it's an oven of some sort.
shareMy theory is it was once owned by a Scientist who created it to be his own watchman. As life went on he didn't grew to love the machine so he took it to the Moon and abandon it there.
That's the best theory I can think up of.
My theory is that the inhabitants sent out a robotic spy to take care of W and G, not having a clue that it would resemble an oven.
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Its an old parking ticket machine acting as a parking warden. Thats why it gives the rocket a fine. and has a time meter on the front. the drawer on the front is for loading the spool of tickets and emptying coins
heres its modern cousin with drawer at the base
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homemade_london/2475031585/
As far as I can tell it is an oven. As for the coin slot it is sort of a pay-as-you-go system of paying for the gas/electricity.
I've never actually seen a coin slot on the oven itself but I remember as a child in the 70s going to rented holiday accommodation and there being a coin slot for the gas/electricity on the wall (sometimes beside the oven itself and sometimes in a cupboard in the hall.
My abiding memory was that the electricity seemed always to run out in the evening when we were out. So when we got back in the pitch black the lights wouldn't go on until my parents found a candle and a match and then the relevant coin - very frustrating when you are five and just want to go to bed.
Ah, now that additional detail is useful; it seems increasingly likely that it is an oven of some description. Although, what ovens have drawers in them? It's almost as though it's a whole (nondescript) kitchen-unit: a cupboard/drawer and old-fashioned oven rolled into the one appliance. Quite, quite bizarre. Still, the film's enjoyable nonetheless.
shareI just had another look at the DVD (UK BBC Compilation Version) and one of the chapters is called 'Skiing Cooker'.
While Aardman wouldn't have put the DVD together themselves I would think it would be unlikely that they wouldn't have had notice of, if not final approval, of the chapter headings.
So I think that we can safely say that this is a cooker/oven albeit an rather odd one.
As for the drawer issue I did actually see a relatively recent model (probably 80s made by Bosch I think) that had a drawer instead of a more normal hinged door. Unlike the one in 'A Grand Day Out' this one was just a front/door and base (ie with open sides) but in essence the whole oven space was one big drawer.
All old cookers used to have a drawer. It was where you kept your baking trays and roasting tins.
My 7-year old explained it to me.
"It's the robot that takes care of the moon."
It's a cooker, complete with the handy drawer where you stored baking trays and suchlike rarely used items. It is has elements of a coin-in-the-slot electricity meter (it only comes alive when coins are put in, or Wallace hits it and jars it into motion for a short time). It also has little tricycle wheels, and arms as well (!). My theory is that it is an abandoned space probe that tried to repair itself with some junk that it found lying around. Though how it then got to the moon is, as they say, another story. In the process, it's program became slightly scrambled, and now it just wants to keep the moon tidy.
shareIt wasn't put there by the US, the coin slot accepts pence, not cents!
-it only attacks you IF you put a coin in the slot anyway!