Axlotl
Master Member
Is this one of yours, robn1?
It's fricking gorgeous!
Alleged Screen Used Hero TOS Phaser up for auction (now the aftermath)
- Thread starter Anakin Starkiller
- Start date
It's fricking gorgeous!
USS Endeav
Sr Member
Good god that is a thing of pure beauty! Talk about a $100k phaser!
robn1
Master Member
You clearly lack self-awareness. Instead of engaging people's concerns in a meaningful way you accused us all of trying to devalue this piece out of envy and jealousy. And when you got pushback you went into your innocent "why you attacking lil' ole me" routine. It's growing tiresome.
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scarf man
Master Member
Hero Phaser Scratchbuild
I've been commissioned to build a TOS hero phaser 2. I had started a build several years ago, but I got sidetracked and put it aside. It was made back before all the great reference we now have was available. I wasn't on the interwebs back then, a lot of you guys were discovering all the...
www.therpf.com
It‘s a beauty.
Regarding the auction piece’s very blobby paintjob, I think it should be noted that the hero phaser closeups throughout all three seasons of TOS feature props with very nice and smooth paint. A few blemishes here and there, yes, but nothing at all in the ballpark of what we’re seeing in the auction photos. The phaser props were incredibly well-made, especially considering that they were filmed for broadcast on low-res, CRT TVs of the 1960s. They just weren’t slapped together with crude parts and sloppy paintjobs, as many people seem to think.
Would “repaints” and “repairs” really account for the transition from the props seen in these screencaps to the auction piece? I would imagine some flaking/chipping, but not blobs and gobs of messy paint, especially considering (as noted) that the midgrades were doing the heavy lifting after the first season, and so the heroes were only being used in static close-ups, without much risk for wear and tear.
“Court Martial” (first season):
“The Gamesters of Triskellion” (second season):
“The Cloud Minders” (third season):
Would “repaints” and “repairs” really account for the transition from the props seen in these screencaps to the auction piece? I would imagine some flaking/chipping, but not blobs and gobs of messy paint, especially considering (as noted) that the midgrades were doing the heavy lifting after the first season, and so the heroes were only being used in static close-ups, without much risk for wear and tear.
“Court Martial” (first season):
“The Gamesters of Triskellion” (second season):
“The Cloud Minders” (third season):
Gorgeous!
asalaw
Sr Member
That is drop-dead gorgeous!!
Since we’re playing show-and-tell, here are my own hero and midgrade builds.
If I could get such nice results with rattlecans, then surely the studio artisans of the 60s could have, too, as opposed to the sloppy paintjob of the auction piece.
Oh, and I repainted my hero, a few years back. It still looks nice and smooth.
Seems like a lot of forgeries over the years have played the “the props were made in the 60s, so people think they must have looked crude and sloppy” card as an excuse to fake signs of aging and hide inconsistencies with blobs of paint.
If I could get such nice results with rattlecans, then surely the studio artisans of the 60s could have, too, as opposed to the sloppy paintjob of the auction piece.
Oh, and I repainted my hero, a few years back. It still looks nice and smooth.
Seems like a lot of forgeries over the years have played the “the props were made in the 60s, so people think they must have looked crude and sloppy” card as an excuse to fake signs of aging and hide inconsistencies with blobs of paint.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
Note theis nasty and insipid "Put Down":
As a matter of habit, I do not "Google" people. That said, Googling your avatar name is by no means an indication to your identity.
Good lord, if that has to be explained to you.....
What has to be explained to you is how to "think critically". That is what is missing with all of this.
As for:
I choose not to publicize my name for security, privacy and quite possibly, the same reasons you didn't, lest us not forget, unlike James, you did not volunteer your name, it was provided by another. You cannot now claim the credit for having provided that which you are berating others for not. Pot calling out the kettle... tsk tsk tsk. Hey Dr. Von Braun I already gave a both directions and a road map.
As I have said an absolute dearth of critical thinking here. A Red Herring, what a belligerent "individual" you most obviously are.
A preal poser, a fake a sham, all talk. Show your "work".
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USS Endeav
Sr Member
Wait, they had rattle cans in the olden days?
Jokes aside, that looks great. Sadly, my best TOS phaser is the Wand Co version. Years ago, I was on a list for a fiberglass kit from someone that's posted in this thread but I for reasons of timing, I missed out...not that mine would have come out looking that million dollar example.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
Gregatron-- you made these from scratch? Really?! Why are the two rear sets of fins so different?
How about we see those patterns and molds please? Or what about a look at your milling machine and the lathe chuck you turned the barrels in 3 or 4 jaw? 5C collet? And from what specific aluminum alloy please? Or is it perhaps that you did what exactly? As "a build" means from scratch. To construct or assemble from purchased parts and then paint is I assume the reality.
Poor wording on my part. I didn’t mean to say that they had rattlecans. But they clearly knew how to brush-paint in ways which still hold up well in high-definition!
I also have the Wand Phaser and the HMS kit version.
For the record, my hero is made up of a John Long P1 and Sporak P2 body (with the rest of the parts from various other sources) and the midgrade is a Ron Shanko. I would have loved to use robn1’s hero shells, which are better and more accurate than the ones I used, but my build predates them.
That all being said, my hero features all of the working parts and functions of the originals. And, if I could successfully build a hero, then a heck of a lot of other people could, too. Especially someone with something to gain from an accurate recreation.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
John Long's Hand Phaser top and bottom shells were very thin and of irregular glass and polyester. They were off by a very real 1/16" on the sample Dave Heilman showed to me. Very expensive stamped parts where the tooling cost a small fortune and photo-etching was a far better option to avoid going broke.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
As I expected, you did not build these from scratch and that is my point.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
My very good friend, the late Steve Horsh gave me a set parts for his knocked off of Mark English's things. I also had (most unfortunate) dealing with R. Coyle decades ago and have one of those. And yet not one of those really looks like or has the flowing compound curves of Greg's original, nor do they do the things his does.
USS Endeav
Sr Member
Mk X
Dolphin Phaser
Dustbuster
I'm not a prop maker/master and I have no experience molding. I have made no assertions I am an expert. Not being an expert does not preclude me from an opinion based on the empirical evidence. My opinion just differs from yours.
robn1
Master Member
One is a hero and one is a midgrade. An expert would know that.
Highliners
Well-Known Member
But that is the precise issue here! I am being denied validity because the Fiefdom here has deemed it so. Therefore, you too cannot have an opinion as I can't or a logical incongruioty collapses all discourse.
One's a hero and the other is a midgrade. I don't know much about these phasers and I know that. If you don't know that much, what are you doing here?
USS Endeav
Sr Member
My remark about the olden days was a joke, though poorly executed, about how my kids refer to anything from my childhood as the "olden days".
Actually the rattle can sprayer was invented in 1949 so it may have been commercially available when TOS was made.
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