It’s 1997, the year the Kyoto Protocol ensured that CO2 emissions were reduced to avert climate change, a small ethical start-up called Google registered their domain name, and Will Smith cemented his legacy as a forever wholesome family rapper.

It was also the year that said wholesome family rapper starred in one of the biggest movies of the decade; ‘Men in Black’, wherein an organisation ‘more secretive than the C.I.A. and more powerful than the F.B.I.’ went on a recruitment drive to help protect Earth from the scum of the universe.

Will Smith’s character of course got the gig, entering him into a top secret world of memory-erasing pen thingies and carboniser fission guns, plus the rather unique vehicles that the ‘Men in Black’ had at their disposal, including a fleet of 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victorias.

In standard form the ’87 Crown Vic could have been an entry into TLCB’s Festival of Mundanity competition, so deep was its nondescriptness. However, the Men in Black version came equipped with a few… optional extras, most notably a little red button that initiated a sequence of the finest CGI that 1997 could muster.

Previous bloggee Peter Zieske has captured the effects of pushing the aforementioned button beautifully in brick form, with the result perhaps even more visually believable than its movie counterpart.

Further images of Peter’s brilliant transforming ‘Men in Black’ Ford LTD Crown Vic can be found at his Flickr album, and you can click here to take a look, whilst we ponder the fact that the entire world seems to have been on the receiving end of the ‘Men in Black’s memory-erasing pen thingy since 1997…