Hellraiser Puzzle Box

Being the new guy on the block, I have to say that finding this site is truly a godsend. With Halloween coming up, I wanted to look for some Hellraiser props, and I was thinking. I went into an Egyptian type of shop, that was selling items made in Egypt, and one of the items that caught my attention was a 3 inch square box, totally made of some sort of metal, with small 1/4 inch squares in various places, no specific design at all, but the squares were gold and dark silver, and it looked almost as if someone had sanded the surface down, so they would all fit together, or perhaps these were pieces of resin, colored like that, and then sanded to make the surface flat. All at once, I saw the possibility of making a Hellraiser cube like this, and the good thing about this was that the cube was really heavy, like it was real metal. Wish I had bought that cube, just to keep it as a guide. Does anyone know what material that could have been made from, and would some sort of resin be used for that?

Bob
 
Being the new guy on the block, I have to say that finding this site is truly a godsend. With Halloween coming up, I wanted to look for some Hellraiser props, and I was thinking. I went into an Egyptian type of shop, that was selling items made in Egypt, and one of the items that caught my attention was a 3 inch square box, totally made of some sort of metal, with small 1/4 inch squares in various places, no specific design at all, but the squares were gold and dark silver, and it looked almost as if someone had sanded the surface down, so they would all fit together, or perhaps these were pieces of resin, colored like that, and then sanded to make the surface flat. All at once, I saw the possibility of making a Hellraiser cube like this, and the good thing about this was that the cube was really heavy, like it was real metal. Wish I had bought that cube, just to keep it as a guide. Does anyone know what material that could have been made from, and would some sort of resin be used for that?

Bob

I don't use resin for my boxes, I use wood and etched brass, like the movie.
 
I don't really think that these boxes were resin, they were very heavy and very cold. They felt like metal, I was just wondering if anyone had ever made a Hellraiser box completely out of metal. I would pay for one of those.

I was also curious if anyone made the Hellraiser spike, that was seen in HR2.

C D
 
I haven't seen one completely out of metal. I've seen them out of etched cubes of acrylic, but not solid metal. There's a guy who makes Hellraiser cube tables. They're a few feet tall and cost $2500 or so dollars. He's on Ebay.

The spike is called the Leviathan Configuration. 20 years ago or so NECA made a plastic Leviathan Configuration that has lights in the middle. Those can still be found on Ebay.

There's a guy on Ebay that sells a different design of Leviathan for $75 - $150. I'm not sure what they're made of. I've been working on making these for a while. I haven't been able to get the patina I want on the brass, so if you want one soon, he's probably the way to go.
 
Hello, everyone. The one thing that I noticed was the detailing on the Hellraiser box, on the outside edges, and down towards the center disc on side A. There appears to be either boxes or circles lining the side stripes. One picture that I found clearly shows circles, and yet another clearly shows black oblong boxes. And a third clearly shows black boxes with gold smaller squares inside of each box. Which is correct as far as the movies are concerned?

I'm confused.
 
Which is correct as far as the movies are concerned?

As far as the movies are concerned? Are you trying to start a rumble? :)

Best place to look is straight from the movies. Fair warning - these screenshots have not been sized down. When I did, it lost the oval/ circle detail. So I kept them big and full.

HR 1 intro...

1-1.jpg

1-2.jpg

1-3.jpg


HR 4...

4-1.jpg

4-2.jpg


One picture that I found clearly shows circles, and yet another clearly shows black oblong boxes. And a third clearly shows black boxes with gold smaller squares inside of each box.

If it looks like this, then it came from the comic books...

1-c.jpg


Hope this helped.
 
I haven't seen one completely out of metal. I've seen them out of etched cubes of acrylic, but not solid metal. There's a guy who makes Hellraiser cube tables. They're a few feet tall and cost $2500 or so dollars. He's on Ebay.

The spike is called the Leviathan Configuration. 20 years ago or so NECA made a plastic Leviathan Configuration that has lights in the middle. Those can still be found on Ebay.

There's a guy on Ebay that sells a different design of Leviathan for $75 - $150. I'm not sure what they're made of. I've been working on making these for a while. I haven't been able to get the patina I want on the brass, so if you want one soon, he's probably the way to go.

Norfok make a very nice Leviathan. His work is quality and respected. His leviathan page is here:
Hellraiserbox.net Unique Versions of the Lament Configuration movable working puzzle boxes for sale.
 
Hello, everyone. The one thing that I noticed was the detailing on the Hellraiser box, on the outside edges, and down towards the center disc on side A. There appears to be either boxes or circles lining the side stripes. One picture that I found clearly shows circles, and yet another clearly shows black oblong boxes. And a third clearly shows black boxes with gold smaller squares inside of each box. Which is correct as far as the movies are concerned?

I'm confused.

Which is correct as far as the movie is concerned? Well...what is shown in the movie? What you see in the movie is correct as far as the movie. There's your answer.

But what The Pope wrote with the images is a good write up of the differences as far as the movies vs the comics are concerned. In HR 1 and 2, Simon Sayce is the one who designed the original box, that is the design, or a cleaned up version of it that I use. For the rest of the HR's Gary Tunnicliffe was the one who sorta designed those. His design is based on Simon's, but are a bit sloppier. That's putting it nicely, coming from Simon. But you didn't hear that from me.
 
I wish I could find one of these babies for $100, everywhere I look the movie quality versions are all over 150 bucks. Not saying that's overpriced but it does hurt the wallet lol.
 
Lots of things to comment on.

First is that while the original one was cool and highly impressive, the spacing leaves much to be desired. The theory being that Pinhead is sort of a uber manager of the highest laws of order in hell. That perfection sort of demands that the spacing be better on the boxes. The designer of the box (in the movie mythology) was a toymaker and a maker of singing birds. That's not a small thing. Singing birds are highly accurate pieces of machinery that were developed in the late 1700's. Someone who made one of these would've had better spacing in their design. :)


Any current maker of boxes uses even spacing and has cleaned up the design a bunch (that includes puzzleboxmaker, Pyramid Gallery, myself and others). There is no such thing as a screen accurate Hellraiser box unless you buy a screen used one. If I were to buy a brand new box that looked like the one in the opening credits of Hellraiser 1, I'd be pissed, and so would most people. Not to start a war - it is impressive, but with any current photo editing software, it has been made to look much better. Maybe - screen inspired - although not screen accurate.

Second - I'm 99% sure that puzzleboxmaker has spoken to Simaon Sayce and might be able to chime in on this. I seem to remember reading at some point that in the original design, the ovals were supposed to be chains. I'm not sure I'm remembering that right, but someone here might.

I wish I could find one of these babies for $100, everywhere I look the movie quality versions are all over 150 bucks. Not saying that's overpriced but it does hurt the wallet lol.

I sell fully etched boxes on Ebay and Etsy for $100 (see my links) that includes a stand and has free shipping in the US. They are 3 inch square and I etch all the metal myself. The ones that you're referring to are likely from puzzleboxmaker. They are well worth the price and come with other goodies that I don't offer.

Happy Hellraising!
 
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Lots of things to comment on.

First is that while the original one was cool and highly impressive, the spacing leaves much to be desired. The theory being that Pinhead is sort of a uber manager of the highest laws of order in hell. That perfection sort of demands that the spacing be better on the boxes. The designer of the box (in the movie mythology) was a toymaker and a maker of singing birds. That's not a small thing. Singing birds are highly accurate pieces of machinery that were developed in the late 1700's. Someone who made one of these would've had better spacing in their design. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPKFT_t2rL0

Any current maker of boxes uses even spacing and has cleaned up the design a bunch (that includes puzzleboxmaker, Pyramid Gallery, myself and others). There is no such thing as a screen accurate Hellraiser box unless you buy a screen used one. If I were to buy a brand new box that looked like the one in the opening credits of Hellraiser 1, I'd be pissed, and so would most people. Not to start a war - it is impressive, but with any current photo editing software, it has been made to look much better. Maybe - screen inspired - although not screen accurate.

Second - I'm 99% sure that puzzleboxmaker has spoken to Simaon Sayce and might be able to chime in on this. I seem to remember reading at some point that in the original design, the ovals were supposed to be chains. I'm not sure I'm remembering that right, but someone here might.



I sell fully etched boxes on Ebay and Etsy for $100 (see my links) that includes a stand and has free shipping in the US. They are 3 inch square and I etch all the metal myself. The ones that you're referring to are likely from puzzleboxmaker. They are well worth the price and come with other goodies that I don't offer.

Happy Hellraising!

I was going to refer him to your ebay boxes too. What Pope offers though is a fully hand crafted piece, something that No one does anymore. I don't know of anyone who does the etching for their boxes aside from The Pope
. The one guy that did, who I got my first box from, is no longer doing boxes. He is also the reason I started making boxes because when I got my box, after waiting like 6 months, the panels were already peeling. I swore that no one should have to buy another POS like that ever again, and that's when I started.

But anyway, I digress. Yeah check out popes boxes, they are more affordable that mine, and are of good quality as well from what I see.
 
WOW, Thanks for all the info. From your screengrabs from the first film, I can see that they are just holes drilled in at odd places, seemingly no rhyme or reason for the placement. I think that all of the boxes you guys make look really great.

Just my two cents.
 
I have a box from The Puzzle Box Maker and can attest to the quality of it. Its easily my favorite prop replica. I've had a couple puzzle boxes over the years and his is the only one that i haven't had to worry about peeling. The process he uses really locks down the brass without sacrificing appearance.
 
WOW, Thanks for all the info. From your screengrabs from the first film, I can see that they are just holes drilled in at odd places, seemingly no rhyme or reason for the placement. I think that all of the boxes you guys make look really great.

Just my two cents.

well, they're not really drilled, they're etched with a chemical etching solution. It depends on the tooling made for the process for the etching. So if your image is not clean for the tooling then your etch isn't going to be clean either.

- - - Updated - - -

I have a box from The Puzzle Box Maker and can attest to the quality of it. Its easily my favorite prop replica. I've had a couple puzzle boxes over the years and his is the only one that i haven't had to worry about peeling. The process he uses really locks down the brass without sacrificing appearance.

Ahh good to know Doc, thanks for the report back and words!
 
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