Star Wars Set Decorator is doing an AMA on reddit today!

@ kalkamel ... so if you gave Roger a roll of that vintage brown and bendable plastic T-track ... is that what he meant he's going to use to finish his other vintage G R A F L E X lightsabers with ... or as he said now ... would he really have newly replicated 'rubber' T-strips made ... just like the originals? :wacko

Chaim
 
Hey peeps,
check this manufacturer and his catalogue out: http://www.rubber-extrusions-seals.co.uk/

Catalogue for an abundance of profiles: http://pdfs.findtheneedle.co.uk/109094-780.pdf Look at pg. 33 onwards for t-tracks. I did not find a correct one, at least as far as I can tell, but they have around 1500 profiles in their inventory, so ...

These people take their extruded profiles very seriously.....

Might shoot them an e-mail tomorrow with pics of the profile we need. If anybody does it sooner, please say. I don't want them to get spammed and end up joining the press camera bunch in contempt of us :lol
 
can we summon @GINO ? I think he's actually held some lightsaber props in research for EFX and I'd love to hear his take on this!

I found this post by Gino in on older thread:

"I've spoken with Roger at length about this topic. ...
I think it's completely possible that at some point they might have been experimenting with rubber and then ultimately ended up using the black plastic t-track that still remains on all the screen-used props.
But make no mistake, I can tell you 100% without a doubt the stuff ultimately used was definitely black plastic t-track."
 
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James Kenobi 1138, that photo, if it was me and that was my diagram, would be cooler than any Star Wars prop that I could ever get ahold of.
 
My take on this is, even if it's proven that rubber was used, I'll probably keep plastic on my sabers. I'm passing them along and I want them to last. I think the rubber will eventually give out, get dry rot and fall off. I doubt my kids will have any idea where to get the stuff to restore them.
Just my two credits.
 
I don't think they were ever rubber. Mark said in an interview once that they were hard and left calluses on his hands.
 
Actually that was the second time I met Roger. The first time was in 2013 when he came to Kuala Lumpur to shoot his film. He held a small exhibition for the benefit of the local fan club and I was there to meet him. We spoke briefly about his "scrap tech" approach for Episode IV. He told me how he went to the London West End to look and came across the Graflex handles and how the tracks were not windshield wipers :)lol) but rather cupboard rails (no mention of draft excluders). He said currently he owns 8 Graflex handles and was looking for accurate tracks... he still had a strip from the old days and had gotten in touch with a guy in the US who had made accurate replicas (I assumed at that time that that was Gino).

Anyway, I brought along 3 of my most cherished SW props: my original Graflex which I converted into Luke ANH, my Greedo Killer blaster with a real M3 flash hider and of course, the Obi ANH which I got from scarf man. These items brought out a bit of nostalgia in him; he remarked that the Greedo Killer was the second blaster he built after the E-11 "to shoot George with" :lol. He also said he passed the modified Graflex to George, i.e. with bubbles and tracks, but it was George who drilled the d-ring holder into the base. But his eyes lit up when he saw the Obi ANH that I bought from scarf man ... he said that it was the best replica of it he's ever seen.


Here are some pics of Roger with the aforementioned props:




The second time was September 2014 when he came down to Kuala Lumpur again for KLConverge where he and a few other speakers (including J.W. Rizler) delivered a series of Masterclasses. I caught with him again and showed him more of my props as seen in the picture I attached in my earlier post, including the same Obi and Luke ANH sabers, a Rylo ROTJ hero which I finished as well as a Vader ROTJ stunt which I built from a vintage Graflex with Ken's (ElvisTrooper) parts. I also took the opportunity to give the roll of t-tracks; these are the same tracks that were offered by Saberfreak many years back, as well as James Kenobi's picture of the breakdown of parts of the Obi saber, just to show him how fanatical we here at the RPF can get in identifying the miscellaneous parts that make up our favorite weapon. We spoke again about the tracks, and again there was no mention of the draft exluders, just "cupboard rails". It was also at this event that another guy showed up and handed Roger what he claimed to be a screen used Vader ROTJ stunt. I had a look at it too: no doubt it looks totally battered and may be passed off as a vintage screen used saber, but upon close inspection, I saw that the bottom tube had no stamped GRAFLEX trades, which led me to believe that it was a Biskit. Also, the grips were obviously Blast-tech's. :p Roger just smiled and said "very nice", probably humoring that guy. :lol
 
Wasn't the Greedo Killer built back in California for that one close-up shot?

Again, 35-40 years does something to a person's memory, but I wonder if he's actually talking about the hero DL-44.
 
Maybe I'm stating the obvious here but just because it's rubber doesn't necessarily mean it's the soft and pliable variety. I just wonder if we're getting hung up on semantics. What he may be referring to as "rubber" may be no different than what we're familiar with.
 
he remarked that the Greedo Killer was the second blaster he built after the E-11 "to shoot George with"

It's comments like this and the cupboard rails vs. now draft excluders that makes me wonder if he even really remembers and with how much accuracy about what was what.

The GK was made in Cali... was he here for that?

I have great respect for him and what he does remember is treasure to us, but I can't help wondering how much is fed by US telling him what we think we know too...????
 
It's comments like this and the cupboard rails vs. now draft excluders that makes me wonder if he even really remembers and with how much accuracy about what was what.

The GK was made in Cali... was he here for that?

I have great respect for him and what he does remember is treasure to us, but I can't help wondering how much is fed by US telling him what we think we know too...????
I agree.
 
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