re: ** New Members: Please Introduce Yourselves Here! **
Hello everyone:
Yup - another newbie here. But I've been collecting props for several years now. Haven't done any replicas yet but I thought I might to round out some areas in my collection or to complete some damaged props.
Here are some of the items in my collection.....
I play poker so I had to have some chips from the movie "Casino". The photo on top is signed by Sharon Stone, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci.
It took me awhile to collect the military swords from "Gladiator". Clockwise from top left - cavalry sword, infantry sword, Praetorian sword, and arena sword. All have scabbards except for the arena sword. The blades are aluminum not rubber or resin. The poster has seven signatures including Crowe's, Richard Harris (now deceased), and Ridley Scott the director. The only bad thing about it is that it is from the French release of the movie.
On the far left, you can see the poster from "The Rock" along with two props - one of the guidance chips from the VX rockets and the container that held the VX gas balls. The container is steel and quite heavy. It is missing the cryogenic system and an insert (which would have held the gas balls in place) so it is probably one of the background pieces from the storage facility (not stolen and taken to Alcatraz). It's a candidate for a replica (I've only seen one for sale with the cryogenic system). The poster has has four signatures including the principals on the poster.
On the near right, I have a poster signed by seven including Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg from the movie "Saving Private Ryan". This poster is a little different from the others that I have in that it is translucent for a light box at a theater rather than just in a frame. Next to the poster are two stunt guns from the movie - a Colt .45 and a Walther P38. You have to get up close to these guns to even see that they are stunt versions - the craftsmanship is great! Of course these don't fire since they are made of resin and would be used in holsters or when the actor needs to carry a gun in hand. (yes - those are my golf clubs on the right!)
The "Braveheart" poster has Mel's signature and seven others, including Randall Wallace, a descendant of William Wallace. The sword next to the poster is a metal Scottish sword with a wooden handle used during one of the battle scenes (supposedly rare since most of the battle scene swords were rubber). Mel's hero Claymore (the one in the poster) was sold at auction in 2001 for $170,000. Anyone bid on that??? That's a Scottish battle flag next to the sword.
Anyone remember the 1993 Disney version of the "Three Musketeers" with Mr. Bad Boy himself, Charlie Sheen? That's the life-saving crucifix including the smashed bullet worn by Charlie as he gets shot near the end of the film. I also have a Musketeer sword from "The Man in the Iron Mask" but haven't displayed it yet.
Notice a theme yet? Yes, I like swords. But let's not forget knives!! "The Chronicles of Riddick" is one of my favorite sci-fi films. Those are the hero knives from the scene where Vin Diesel fights off the Necromongers. They are stunt knives since no metal ones were made (can't injure those actors now, can we?). There is another version of these knives that has a spinning accessory for when Diesel does his bad-ass knife spin at the beginning of the scene. The poster is signed by 11 including the director, David Twohy and Dame Judi Dench, otherwise known as "M" from the recent James Bond films.
Another view of the fighting knives with the Necromonger knife used to kill the Lord Marshal at the end of the film. The Necromonger knife is made of hard resin and there is a very thin break near the handle. I think I have this knife screen-matched to the one that is stuck in the Lord Marshal's head and snapped off (hence the break). This knife is very detailed and ornate.
Speaking of James Bond, the poster in this pic is a generic Bond image but it has over 50 signatures of actors and actresses (girls, villains, heroes) from the Bond series, including Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan. I don't have Daniel Craig's signature because he wasn't Bond yet when I obtained the signatures. Of all my signed posters, this is the only one where I actually got the signatures (I bought the others already signed). Actually, I bought this one with about 22 signatures on it and I got the rest at a Bond convention in England in 2006. The other frames in the pic contain casino chips from "Casino Royale" and chips and a check from "The World is Not Enough".
One of my favorite Bond films is "GoldenEye" which is Pierce Brosnan's first Bond film. During the opening scene of the movie, 007 and 006 infiltrate the Soviet Arkangel Chemical Weapons Facility (which has a very cool bungee jump scene actually done at the Verzasca Dam in Cantone Ticino, Switzerland) to blow it up. The pic shows one of the nerve gas barrels that were all over the place. Surprisingly, these are very difficult to find now probably because it's plastic and many were just thrown out after the scene was done.
One last pic for now. These are two swords from "Pirates of the Caribbean" made by legendary Tony Swatton's Sword and Stone shop. I bought these at auction and was immediately offered more than I bid by two people. I think I'll hang on to these for a bit. There is also one of the gold coins from the treasure room (not one of the Aztec coins, unfortunately - they go for about $3k).
That's it for now. I have a few other things I haven't gotten around to hanging up yet.
dfb
