If you reach for your nearest set of red and blue glasses, you can watch this simulated 3D YouTube presentation of the 1965 “Noah’s Ark” ViewMaster reels. The clay figurines are by the sculptor Florence Thomas.

YouTube isn’t as 3D friendly as it was when these videos were posted, apparently, so here’s how to watch: After clicking the link to the YouTube video, replace “watch?v=” with “v/” (no quotation marks). Play the video, then look for the gear symbol at the bottom right. Click on that, then click “options.” Make sure that “red/cyan” and “full color” are checked. You may also need to check the “swap (right left)” box if it still doesn’t look right. And of course, if you’d rather just look at the pictures, you can go back to “options” and click “off” next to the 3D heading.

A gorgeous, glossy book featuring diorama images from vintage view masters has never come out but needs to. Luckily blogs like View-Master World have gotten the picture.

The Night Before Christmas

For view master fans, the last few decades have been a dark age in which the collectable packaging of the 60s – 80s (far left) was done away with in favor of bubble packaging that suggested – if you could even find them in stores – the reels’ disposability (middle left and middle right). A recent visit to the downtown target in San Francisco, though, got me feeling optimistic; not only were regional interest View Masters in stock and packaged in a new, durable sleeve (far right), but they were on prominent display, right behind the cash registers.