Super Mario Bros. Screen-Matched Bob-omb Movie Prop

I just picked this up tonight: a screen-matched Bob-omb from Super Mario Bros. Its provenance is stellar, as the prop comes straight from a crewmember who worked on the film. He was nice enough to share some more information with me.

This exact Bob-omb can be seen when the fungus offers it to Luigi (John Leguizamo). The mono-filament attached at the top used to be covered in slimy fungus and was used to lower the Bob-omb to Luigi in that particular scene.

"Hey, look at that! What is that?" Luigi asks Mario (Bob Hoskins) as the Bob-omb appears. When Luigi reaches for it, Mario pulls him away and shouts, "Goombas! Let's go!"

This prop is actually a modified TOMY wind-up walking toy hand-painted in matte gray (the Reebok logo on the soles of the Bob-omb would have covered the TOMY copyright). The winding key was added to the prop and is no longer present because it was made of paper and did not withstand after filming. In fact, the paper-made keys did not last long on any of the several Bob-ombs used in the movie.

The Bob-ombs, themselves, were also fragile, so it is unknown how many of these have actually survived.

See the attached photos.

"Trust the fungus!"

I love it! I think I saw the auction page and was very tempted to bid. Nice piece though and thanks for sharing.

Congrats on getting the bob-omb, Mike! That is a great, iconic item from the film and definitely one of the coolest references to the video game.

I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but there is an excellent site dedicated to the SMB movie if you want to check it out. There are a ton of great interviews, photos, etc there that you might find interesting.

Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive -- Main Page

That is an "adorable" little prop!

That is too cool!

Can be this the toy based on?

just curiosity

I'm thinking it's based more off the Tomy walking bowling ball that was popular. It came in a container that turned into an alley including knock down pins and when you let him loose he'd waddle down to hit the pins. Mind you he wasn't very good at hitting the target if there was any uneven spots in whatever it was set up on.

That's pretty neat and awesome that you got some back story on it. Looking at google the feet don't look right on the bowling ball, unless TOMY changed the design or the film modded it.

I can be wrong, but didn't find yet another foot... like the monkey one

I spend a little more time... this is also same blue , like your bomb, my money on this!



ha ha ha