Today The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide gets a little pricey again. All of our gift suggestions today cost more than a hundred dollars, and this time they’re way past a hundred bucks.
So these gift ideas for for people you really, really like. One of these is, I think, the most expensive thing I’ve ever included in a Gift Guide. It’s not really a practical idea for a gift unless you’re wealthy and deeply in love with the giftee, but it is really cool.
With the caveat of sticker shock in place, since we’re going by cost and not any theme, today’s three entries are a bit of a different Gift Guide trifecta: Music, A Book About Music and A Lionel Train.
I’m still undecided about whether or not to do this again next week, you’ll just have to check back and see.
Pink Floyd
The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set
Around $300 at most record shops and online retailers. Discounted at Amazon.
One of the most iconic and influential albums ever, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
The album was partly developed during live performances, and the band premiered an early version of the suite at London’s Rainbow Theatre several months before recording began. The Dark Side Of The Moon is the eighth studio album by Pink Floyd, originally released in March 1973.
The new material was recorded in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London. The iconic sleeve, which depicts a prism spectrum, was designed by Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis and drawn by George Hardie. The Dark Side Of The Moon has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
The new deluxe box set includes CD and gatefold vinyl of the newly remastered studio album and Blu-Ray + DVD audio featuring the original 5.1 mix and remastered stereo versions. The set also includes additional new Blu-ray disc of Atmos mix plus CD and LP of The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974’
This is for the die-hard Pink Floyd fan on your shopping list. The full list of goodies in this box are as follows:
KEITH EMERSON (SIGNATURE EDITION)
Limited Edition Book by Chris Welch
Rocket 88
Signed by Chris Welch and Aaron Emerson.
$350 from Rocket 88
Created with the Emerson family, this celebration and examination of the life and work of Keith Emerson is illustrated throughout with over 200 previously unpublished family photos, classic performance images and private correspondence. New interviews conducted for the book by author Chris Welch include contributions from the Emerson family, close friends, and fellow performers, among them Carl Palmer, Rick Wakeman, Geoff Downes, Alan White, Steve Howe, Lee Jackson, Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter, Marc Bonilla and many more.
This limited edition is signed by Chris Welch and Aaron Emerson, comes in a clamshell box and includes an archival quality art print portrait of Keith, a CD of an unheard interview, and specially created sheet music of Keith’s first ever original composition Quatermass Boogie Woogie, a hand-written score by the then 12-year-old, in 1956.
Rocket 88 always produces top-notch books that qualify as works of art, and the Emerson book is no exception. With the hefy price, it’s a great gift for a much-loved Keith Emerson fan on your shopping list. There is a less-elaborate, unsigned edition of the book available for $55 plus shipping.
UNION PACIFIC ROCKET BOOSTER TRAIN
by Lionel
Available from Hobby Shops or directly from Lionel
$1,699.99
You can pick your jaw up off the floor now. That really is the list price for this incredible-looking O Scale train set.
Which, by the way, does not include any track.
This is an extremely impressive train set, based on a real train used to transport Rocket Boosters for NASA. The prototype Rocket Booster Train is designed to carry the NASA’s SLS rocket over a 2,800-mile journey from the manufacturing facility in Utah to Florida’s Space Coast.
Each rocket booster consists of five individual segments weighing 180 tons each. A planning team from each railroad the train travels over assists with transportation. They have to determine the best route and account for any obstructions. As such, the set includes: a LEGACY ES44AC Locomotive; 6 Standard box cars, including one with special clearance bars; 5 Heavy Duty flatcars with loads ad protective covers; and a 21″ Sleeper Car to accomodate the crew.
The load that needs protecting is a scale model of a NASA SLS Rocket, which can be removed and assembled, whereupon it stands over 30 inches tall.
The train is loaded with all of Lionel’s latest sound, light and wireless Command Control technology, and it’s pretty astounding, and not just for the price.
I’m just here to make you aware of it as a gift idea for somebody with a love of NASA, an existing O-Scale layout, and no qualms about you spending so much.
Here’s a cool, but longish, video unboxing from Ben’s Trains…
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