Hellraiser Puzzle Box

Thanks Nataku. Hopefully that will work for some.

I still need to find a photoetcher. I have a set of files that I can have photoeched. I have permission from the owner to use his files. I sold mine long ago and miss it now. I need to build another!

This is the one I built. It was built on a block of Walnut, a very dense (heavy) hardwood. It had razor sharp edges on it!

hellraiser.jpg

hallraiser2.jpg
 
I have the panels from my old NECA cube. They aren't completely flat but aren't creased and you would need to strip the old Varnish off of them. I was going to frame them with some chains or something but will probably never get around to it. If you need them and promise to use them to make a cube, you can have them. I have a couple pics of them if you want to see them.
 
I got your panels a week or so ago. Wow, what the heck did NECA do to these? :confused They looked like crap. It looks like they used brown wood stain to coat them with! I had my work cut out for me. :cool

I soaked them in Castrol Super Clean over night. I then took a tooth brush to them the next day and scrubbed off the now rubbery residue that was left behind. They were very tarnished though because of the chemicle soak. Next step was to polish them with super fine grit sandpaper. This brought them back to a very nice brass shine! The sanding also flattened out most of the panels. They are now very very useable! I'm waiting on my 3 inch cube of walnut to get finished. When I get it I will start a seperate build thread for this. Pic is clicky.

Thanks again Nataku.

 
would one of you guys that owns a decent NECA box PLEASE scan *all* 6 sides at 300dpi or greater and zip them up for us? here is a scan of one of my box faces for reference as far as quality:

67l3q0.jpg


this is from hellraiserpuzzlebox.com and they use the old Xane panels. the NECA boxes are supposedly off the Gary Tunnicliffe design and are slightly more accurate. please help if you can. thanks.
 
If I may jump in for a moment or two...

k, or 01001011, or Possibly Hyde, the Xane files are still the most widely used versions used because they are readily available for anyone who knows how to use Google and finds them. I use them because they were offered freely for anyone to use, and so I do. I won't get into the whole stink of screen accuracy and whatnot, the fact is - they work and nobody knows the minor differences between them and what's on the screen. The biggest difference that nobody seems to complain about is that a screen accurate box will have panels that go to the edge, not have a gigantic gap between the panel and the edge of the box - but that's for a different day. There was a huge stink over on the Hellbound Web forum about accuracy vs screen shots vs geometricaly correct boxes. Wanna rip your hair out - go for it...

case for professionally remaking the Lament Configuration faceplates - The Hellbound Web

Lurksmith has a fantastic point about expansion and contraction rates that tends to make once good boxes turn to crap over time. Some people try to get past this by coating the box with 5000 coats of crap just so the panel will stay on, then the box looks like - crap with 5000 coats on it with a cool box underneath it all. Then there's tarnishing, and people playing with it and getting a fingernail caught where it shouldn't. The fact is that it's REALLY difficult to make a pretty box that will stay pretty and not look like globs of crap were put in or in it. They certainly had the right idea to use the bell jar to cover the boxes in the movies. My kudos to those that have the woodworking skills to make a pretty box, and have it last for years.

As for panels, I have much more knowledge, as I make them. From a production standpoint, they can be frustrating as hell because there are so many areas where things can go wrong. A bad batch of stuff from a supplier, heated improperly, wrong chemical temperature, can instantly turn a beautiful panel into a piece of crap that couldn't be sold with a good conscience, and I'd feel bad giving away. Anyway I'm rambling now. For those that need panels, fear not, they are available. I make mine a full 3 inches, although I can make them any size up to 4 inches as a solid piece, much bigger if you're ok with it being 2 or more pieces. Robiwon mentioned photoetching - if you know what that is, that's what I do. If you don't know what that is (and most people don't) I just say It's chemical etching. Check my links below. I just finished etching 15 pieces today of the one's you don't see any of on my etsy page. They should be posted soon.

Sorry if this sidetracked the intent of the thread, but I had to jump in ona Hellraiser thread.
 
DP,

this is Hyde and yes that was my post. my CAD designer is 3/4 done with my version of the panels and i am still looking for a high-res scan of the Tunnicliffe faces for cross-reference. my panels will be geometrically correct and the filigree will be an amalgamation of (primarily) the Sayce panels, then Tunnicliffe, then Xane. just because Sayce designed the first panels doesn't mean they didn't have their issues, and i have spoken personally to Xane as to why he made the changes he did.

please do not disparage my thread on HBW. there's no denying both the geometric inconsistencies as well as inaccuracies between the Xane panels and the Sayce panels. to me though it is really very simple. it is like comparing the first Star Wars light saber movie props which looked like crap (up close) to the much better and perfectly crafted replicas enthusiasts make today that are professionally machined and everything. they aren't crappy like the screen-used props but are better versions of them.

to me - the Hellraiser mythos contends that Leviathan chose LeMarchand for his *perfectionism* and no self-respecting perfectionist would've done such a sloppy job on the Serat faces, especially when the Priapus and Amaimon faces are geometrically sound. this is a replication error. a Sayce, Tunnicliffe, Xane, etc error.

yes, people will continue to use the Xane panels and that's great. they've gotten us this far and i have several boxes that use those panels. it was very nice of Xane to have supplied them for everyone to use for so many years. Darkman (Larry) from thepuzzleboxmaker.com remade them using CAD and has his own version. Thomas from hellraiserbox.net also uses his own design. i am simply throwing my hat into the ring with my own version that contains the most accurate filigree artwork amalgamation possible and whose panel geometry is geometrically correct. it will be a subtle difference that most won't notice or care about. but there are a lot of people, especially on this forum, who DO care and do their BEST to make things as accurate or accurate and improved as possible.
 
Robiwon,

thanks for the offer. could use some more offers if anyone is up to it. i know a number of you own the NECA box. anyone else willing to also lend a hand here?

TIA
 
01001011,

That's TDP, DP is on another forum :)

After re-reading my post I understand your confusion. I was not trying to be disparaging of your ideas. In fact I understand and partially agree with them. I just thought that the conversation on the HBW got to be more about kicking a dead horse than the issue. Personally I'm looking forward to your designs when they come out. Hopefully you'll be able to spark more Hellraiser interest and conversation.

I agree totally that there are differences in the panels. Those differences however are only noticable to someone who freezeframes the movie with a box in hand. To the casual observer, close enough is good enough. To most people, if it even sort of looks like it - it's good enough. I also understand that people in this forum want things to be as close as possible to screen perfect as possible.

That being said, accurate and improved are two very different things. If someone made a light saber that was "imporved" by being able to be activated by voice command - someone else would say it's no longer accurate. One has to be sacrificed for the other. It's either accurate, or not accurate and improved. You can't have it both ways.

I totally get the idea of the perfectionism and what that would've meant for the box itself. I think your idea would be fantastic if we could go back in time and have that stunningly perfect piece of geometric perfection on the screen. I get that. Hell I would've loved to have seen that.

I do wonder though how Lemarchand would've come into that type of geometric perfection. A maker of singing birds in the 1780's doesn't strike me as someone who has advanced knowledge of mathematics and geometry. He certainly didn't have the use of CAD. It could be a side hobby I guess. It would of course make more sense that the commissioner of the box would have provided him with the designs (as there was a black magic element involved also), and the box built from those, but in Bloodline you are led to believe that Lenarchand made the design. A wealthy aristrocrat would have the means to have the geometric perfection you're talking about, but I don't think a toymaker would. So how did he do it? I could see that could happen if the puzzle was designed by Lemarchand, and the panels and black magic conjured by the commissioner. Again I'm rambling - if he had the designs to follow, I agree they would be goemetric perfection, and that would be neat to see.

I would like to thank you for your post on the HBW. When I started making panels, it was a post I read many times and it gave me a lot to think about. Your spirited discussion on there brought up some interesting things. Again I'd like to apologise for not making my point clearer in my previous post. My intent was not to disparage your ideas, many of which I agree with. I just got a bit frustrated (hence the hair ripping out) by the conversation that followed (hence the dead horse).
 
Wow guys, I never knew there was so much involved with the design of these panels. I'm a Hellraiser fan, always have been since I saw it in the theater. I should have guessed there was going to be accurate/inaccurate/questionable/not sure/etc. about the accuracy of these panels going on. We are all perfectionists here!

When I did my box years ago I made sure that I had laid the panels in the right orientation on my cube. I have no clue whose panels they were and I used walnut for my cube. I know that isn't accurate but it was a extremely dense wood that gave me almost razor sharp edges and corners. I will be using it again for my cleaned up NECA panels. But now I am seriously considering buying a new set that are perfectly flat for a second build as well. I made a promise to build a box with the NECAS as I got them for free.

Someone sent me files on a set of panels and asked that I don't share them publicly. Sadly that PM was purged, I have the files saved, but I don't remember who sent them to me. If your out there, send me another PM as I have a question.

 
I just saw one on ebay for $500, looks like a really nice piece, but I'd still really rather get one of the replicas which can perform some of the movements.

Hellraiser Pinhead's PUZZLE BOX Wood&Brass Official Movie Prop Replica NECA 2004 | eBay
These boxes don't have a good reputation! The brass panels tend to come off the box, because the wood they used isn't hard enough en expands when the temperature changes. You can even see in the second picture of the auction that the panel is comming off the box already. For $500 you can get much nicer and better boxes on the sites mentioned above.

I got mine from Hellraiserbox.net Unique Versions of the Lament Configuration movable working puzzle boxes for sale.
 
Actually, come to think of it I'm having issues with the brass lifting off as well.

Tony, you say the panels arelisting? when did you purchase your box from me? and if you would like to send me some pictures so I can see what you are talking about, possibley I can repair it for you, wihout messing up your signatures.
Larry,AKA Darkman, AKA The Puzzlebox Maker
 
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