Arachnophobia replica props; what's out there? Anyone have any replicas?

[Odin82]

My apologies if this is in the wrong section. I've searched the site, and only one result, of a production used "baby Bob" spider.


I was probably about 8 years of age when I first saw Arachnophobia in the cinema, absolutely loved it, although the memories of it lived with me!. I'm wondering has anyone ever made any replica props from the film?


Through some google searches (icollector, propstore etc), I see some people were able to acquire the Hero Big Bob spider/s for brilliant prices in recent years (!arrghh!), so there have been some great reference photos available. So I thought, someone must have tried to make a poseable Big Bob at some stage?


Anyone ever tackle any Arachnophobia stuff? I'm considering a build at the moment (or commissioning someone more experienced and enthusiastic), try to find somewhere that stocks poseable realistic looking tarantulas, and mod from there.


I'll include some of the hero pics just to make the arachnophobes skin crawl














Toy Big Bob Spiders that were released on the release of the movie, that appear on Ebay from time to time (2 at present)

 

[Knightjar]

Your best bet for ultra-realistic tarantulas is to obtain the exuvium (shed skin) from one. All spiders shed their skin and a tarantula skin looks exactly like the complete animal (you'll need to stuff the abdomen with cotton as it is not rigid like the rest of the excoskeleton). Although they used a wide variety of completely unrelated (and wildly different looking) species as well, many of the spiders in Arachnophobia were Avicularia sp, which are commonly kept as pets. I'll happily send you a few tarantula exuvia if you like, or you could post on the British Tarantula Society page.

 

[Odin82]

Man, read the post at work, and it gave me the heebie-jeebies I think my subconscious blocked out any knowledge I ever had that spiders shed skins!! I had completely forgotten about it!

Thanks for the huge help as regards the Avicularia sp! Definitely look like what I'd be trying to build. Still early stages in the planning yet! Might post in the junkyard a commission request, and see if there is anyone interested in doing the build.

If I have any more arachnid questions, I guess you're the person to ask on here!!

 

[Knightjar]

Glad to help; spiders are very misunderstood so I'm glad to answer anything about them. If you do end up looking for someone to sculpt them, I could help you out there too...

 

[autoprops713]

Not much love for poor ole' Big Bob. I'll have to take some pics of my replica I started many years ago. I remember building and painting that old Aurora (?) model kit of the giant tarantula so Bob was a natural evolved fit for me. The plan was to sculpt a replica complete with hair, mount it on a natural tree limb, and stick it in one of those vintage Victorian glass cases. Here are some pics I saved from an old Premiere Props auction and I sure hope its not the same prop!

Also....although everyone has always disagreed with me, Bob is not a tarantula. You can tell by his head sculpt, his eyes, and his fangs (pointing towards each other, not towards the back in parallel.) I know the live stand-in during filming was a tarantula but Bob looks like he was supposed to be a giant jumping spider (Salticidae) or some kind of Wolf spider (Lycosidae). He also made that great jump on to the carry pack from the tree limb.

Going really Arachno geek for a minute....If this kind of spider mated with a Tarantula (mom spider) you would probably get off-spring that look very similar to the look of Avondale spiders (Delena Cancerides) which is what they used. Look at the length of the legs.

That's it for now....we need to get better pics from Bob Burns btw. He's got a few of Chris Wallas's Bob models.

 

[autoprops713]

A few grabs from Bob Burn's basement videos online....

 

[Odin82]

Oh man, those pictures are awesome! I sooooo want one of the big bobs so badly!!

Would love to see pics of your replica!

 

[BigBob]

this is a custom big bob I had made, I've got more pictures if anyone's interested. It's legs are bendable and has stitched felt around the top joints of the legs.

 

[Snow Builder]

Nice work, looks great.

 

[BigBob]

Thanks. Anna Shults from “MyOriginalArtDolls” (a Russian Etsy artist) made it

 

[thegnome]

I love spiders because when I was young I was and am I a Spiderman fan. I think you can get a spider immediately after they die and move their legs. I would agree with the comment above though in terms of using old skin but I would make a frame for the skin once you have the skin in order to have more solid structure.

 

[BigBob]

yeah, sort of like those museum displays that use taxidermy animals posed. I'm sure if you were delicate enough you could create a pretty accurate bob using the skin of a T Blondi or something. you would also have to paint the abdomen which might prove as a difficult task because the abdomens tend to shrivel up once the spider dies or molts

 

[Odin82]

I really wish someone made some replicas of these. Still hunting for one!