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Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 4:50 pm
by Joe Huth
Check out this image from the NBC Upfronts in NYC a few days ago...sure looks like they modified KITT's scanner to resemble the Knight 2000...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/efeng/2493089743/sizes/l/
Joe
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 5:52 pm
by Lost Knight
And it appears as if they added the Shelby lettering on the hood for even more blatant advertising. It's a Shelby, OK, we get it! Not sure what I think about the modified scanner yet. I'll have to actually see it in motion, but I was sort of getting used to the "blood pumping" look from the backdoor pilot.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 7:14 pm
by Victor Kros
I believe they replaced the "blood pumping" scanner look because they had nothing but problems with it. Even the guy who created it (whose name escapes me at the moment) mentioned how much of a headache it was to get it working. In fact Bartis and the guy doing the effects specifically mentioned they had to replace the majority of the scanner scenes in the backdoor pilot with CGI.
I for one think it's an improvement to return to the older halogen like scanner look but adding "shelby" across the front of the hood isn't going to help matters much, just put a big friggin billboard for Ford more distracting then the giant friggin snake emblem in the front grill.
It also looks like they might have narrowed down the gaps in the hood scoop as well so it doesn't look like two giant nostrils. I'm curious to see what other changes they come up with especially for the "attack" KITT.
=VK=

Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 11:10 pm
by Sue
Well I guess they got a real Shelby GT 500KR. That’s an 80 thousand dollar vehicle vs. the 20 thousand dollar Mustang with the fake fiberglass hood. It’s very nice that is costs more and has more power and all, but really, the Shelby lettering has to come off. Otherwise we might as well call him Shelby and not KITT. Upfronts are put on for the advertisers, so maybe they didn’t want to scrape Ford’s emblems off just yet. Here’s hoping.
And yes I was getting attached to the new scanner too. I wonder if they will still have him morph and lose his scanner? You would think he wouldn’t be able to see.

- 08FordShelbyGT500KR_17L.jpg (50.67 KiB) Viewed 18090 times
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:54 pm
by Garthe Knight
They said they had problems with the scanner in the daylight, it was not bright enough to be seen. So I guess they made this scanner for the show event, this doesn't mean KITTs scanner will look like this on the show.
And since the car from the show was auctioned, this could be a regular Shelby with just a scanner, that would explain the logo.
Y'know, cheap advertising.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 5:52 am
by whet
plus theese days the Scanner can be enhanced later on before the show is put togather.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 10:28 am
by goldbug
Now dat's purty (the scanner). Agreed that the Shelby lettering really should go (or be colored a dark gunmetal or something so it doesn't stick out so much).
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 4:23 pm
by pheonix_knight
i liked the scanner from the pilot, the "blood pumping" one
so what if it was CGI?? still looked like a decent update of the k2000
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 8:48 pm
by tamatt27
I like the one in the pilot better...so far.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 9:51 pm
by epc1122
personally, i liked the scanner in the pilot, but would have wanted the swooshing sound like in the very first 15 second teaser. its a combination of old and new. but i'm going to reserve judgement since this may not be for the show.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:53 am
by neps
I'm of the mind to think this isn't a screen used car, but rather one just built for promotion. And if so, Ford probably wanted larger branding as it toured.
I wouldn't take anything we see here to heart. Thompson said in our interview that they were going to keep the changes to the Attack mode very close to their chest, so I feel it would be odd for them to slip any revisions out for a PR event, specially when most people are familiar with what they saw in the TV movie.
Plus, they don't start shooting till June, so would be weird to have a car already ready with the improvements. They usually keep refining until the last possible second!
Check out our photos of the KITT on the Today show before the premier - the scanner was able to be captured quite well then:
http://knightrideronline.com/news/2008/ ... s.php#more
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 4:30 pm
by DarylKnight
Guys, take it easy on the SHELBY lettering. This car is a Shelby, that lettering belongs on that car! Look at a 1967 Shelby GT 500, and a '68 Shelby 500 KR (King of the Road) and you will see the SAME style lettering in the same place on the car. If it's there in the show, well, we'll have to deal with it. Remember this though....Ford/Shelby WANT to be a part of this Knight Rider, so the advertising will be handled very differently than GM and the original KR. They may pull the letters off for the show, or they may not, I do hope they do, but if they don't, I'll deal with it.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:59 pm
by DevonStyles
How about Kitt has no lettering nor logos on him and he just happens to pull into a semi once or twice with a big FORD logo on the trailer? I think I could live with that.
Then in one of the episodes where the HOFF gueststars Kitt would want to ask michael a question..... Hey Micheal.... Yea Kitt.... Have you driven a FORD lately? ...... Kitt........ Yes michael...... Shut-up
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 9:41 pm
by Lost Knight
DarylKnight wrote:Guys, take it easy on the SHELBY lettering. This car is a Shelby, that lettering belongs on that car! Look at a 1967 Shelby GT 500, and a '68 Shelby 500 KR (King of the Road) and you will see the SAME style lettering in the same place on the car. If it's there in the show, well, we'll have to deal with it. Remember this though....Ford/Shelby WANT to be a part of this Knight Rider, so the advertising will be handled very differently than GM and the original KR. They may pull the letters off for the show, or they may not, I do hope they do, but if they don't, I'll deal with it.
That's true, but it's just that we were introduced to the Knight 3000 without the lettering and most of us thought that keeping only the Cobra emblem was bad enough. But I suppose they wouldn't want to remove the lettering off of a genuine Shelby this time around. The idea probably being that if K.I.T.T. disguises himself as a regular Shelby and the regular Shelby has the lettering, it would defeat the purpose of making the disguised version stock-looking.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:12 am
by gotigers1
Lost Knight wrote:The idea probably being that if K.I.T.T. disguises himself as a regular Shelby and the regular Shelby has the lettering, it would defeat the purpose of making the disguised version stock-looking.
I thought that was the point too. If ALL of the Shelbys have that lettering, then KITT should have it as well. I don't hear people complaining over the when they did the close ups of the hubcaps with the Ponatic logo on them....
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:52 am
by epc1122
gotigers1 wrote:Lost Knight wrote:The idea probably being that if K.I.T.T. disguises himself as a regular Shelby and the regular Shelby has the lettering, it would defeat the purpose of making the disguised version stock-looking.
I thought that was the point too. If ALL of the Shelbys have that lettering, then KITT should have it as well. I don't hear people complaining over the when they did the close ups of the hubcaps with the Ponatic logo on them....
it makes sense to put the word shelby on the front cover to help with the disguise, but the original kitt i dont think had any writing on it. the hub caps i believe were all back and so were the back lights. the back lights only lit up when he would stop. i think they modified the car this way to make it more stealthy. i could be wrong though, but i really don't think the name pontiac, or their symbol were on the car.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 1:12 pm
by Sue
epc1122 wrote:
it makes sense to put the word shelby on the front cover to help with the disguise, but the original kitt i dont think had any writing on it. the hub caps i believe were all back and so were the back lights. the back lights only lit up when he would stop. i think they modified the car this way to make it more stealthy. i could be wrong though, but i really don't think the name pontiac, or their symbol were on the car.
Yes I agree original KI2T was obviously modified to the casual observer. And really, if he’s in disguise, how can you overlook that flashy red scanner? When KI3T does want to hide he morphs into other Mustangs, and in the pilot they weren’t Shelbys, so … no lettering. The thing that is bugging me is how he morphs and loses his scanner. Maybe it’s still inside him and can see through metal.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:48 am
by PHOENIXZERO
The car having all logos removed (aside from production flubs) never stopped anyone from knowing what kind of car it was whether it be in real life or characters on the show mentioning it, especially in the first season when they just called it a Trans-AM. Leaving all the logos/emblems/writing is just a horrible by product of today's in your face advertising where product placement has become extremely important, especially since now days it's much much easier to skip commercials..
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 11:55 pm
by GarthKnight08
neps wrote:I'm of the mind to think this isn't a screen used car, but rather one just built for promotion. And if so, Ford probably wanted larger branding as it toured.
I wouldn't take anything we see here to heart. Thompson said in our interview that they were going to keep the changes to the Attack mode very close to their chest, so I feel it would be odd for them to slip any revisions out for a PR event, specially when most people are familiar with what they saw in the TV movie.
Plus, they don't start shooting till June, so would be weird to have a car already ready with the improvements. They usually keep refining until the last possible second!
Check out our photos of the KITT on the Today show before the premier - the scanner was able to be captured quite well then:
http://knightrideronline.com/news/2008/ ... s.php#more
I agree, look at these pics when KITT was being built, notice the Shelby lettering is on it. My guess is that this is the same touring car so i wouldnt worry about it.

Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 2:02 am
by Lost Knight
Bizarre that the split between the stripes doesn't go all the way through between the Shelby lettering.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 6:34 pm
by Knight316
I'd like to see a nice mockup/photshop of the car with this type of scanner lit up to see what it would actually look like compared to the type used in the pilot.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 9:53 pm
by K2007
I like the nice piece of trash behind KI3T in GarthKnight08's pic.
But to the point of the scanner...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
I like the first one!!!!!!!
And to the point of the lettering...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Ford had enough commercials and recognition (anyone notice the bad guys driving the Ford Edge?) and with recogniton, IT JUST ISN'T STEALTHY!!!!!
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 10:45 pm
by epc1122
i dont like how they say they're going to make more changes to the front rather than the back. i really didn't care for the back, i thought the spoiler was way too high. the front may not have been as sleek, but it didnt look too weird. not that the spoiler was weird, but to me it just doesn't look good.
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 1:39 am
by Lost Knight
K2007 wrote:I like the nice piece of trash behind KI3T in GarthKnight08's pic.
I hope you mean the cardboard and not that '67 'Vette!
Re: Knight 3000's Scanner to be More Familiar?
Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 9:16 am
by K2007
epc: The back end is beautiful.
Lost: Now why would I ever call a Corvette trash? They can be recycled!!!