Artifact discovery: The long-lost ICONS Hero Pulse Rifle Prototype

Profiles auction of the black painted hero pulse rifle.
Dave

That auction image says "....the origional green paint is still visible underneath."

I thought they we're actaully panted brown, and the lighting they used on set just made them appear green on screen? :confused
 
Yeah, the old green versus brown debate. The black painted hero no doubt has green underneath it. Back in LA I've heard two stories concerning this.

1. The hero was painted green to differentiate it from the stunt pulse rifles on the Aliens set. Don't want to confuse the two.

2. It was painted green after Aliens wrapped but before it was sprayed black for Alien 3.

Maybe Harry shed some light here? I think these pics might be his, I'll take them down if you want. I still find it hard to believe that the ICONS guys saw brown, but decided to paint their stunt rifles and this one green.

Dave
 
Yeah, the old green versus brown debate. The black painted hero no doubt has green underneath it. Back in LA I've heard two stories concerning this.

1. The hero was painted green to differentiate it from the stunt pulse rifles on the Aliens set. Don't want to confuse the two.

2. It was painted green after Aliens wrapped but before it was sprayed black for Alien 3.

Maybe Harry shed some light here? I think these pics might be his, I'll take them down if you want. I still find it hard to believe that the ICONS guys saw brown, but decided to paint their stunt rifles and this one green.

Dave


Well if #2 was the case, it wouldn't exactly be 'origional' like the auction sheet said, would it? If someone went and painted over the 'origional' with green, before it got painted black.
 
Is there really a debate over the color though? I mean every original prop that's surfaced from Aliens has some variation of the Brown Bess color on it (some with the dark overspray) - but not one prop I've ever seen from the film was ever green.

Is the reason people think this is that:

1) most people tend to paint their replicas to what they thought they saw on screen?

2) again, at one point well after Aliens wrapped, a few of the remaining rifles were painted green by Bapty - even those these green ones were never featured on screen in Aliens or Alien 3.

If it helps, here's a few shots of an original hero rifle. These are much higher quality then what we're used to seeing and NOT capped off the DVD:

http://www.alienscollection.com/aliensbtspulse1.jpg

http://www.alienscollection.com/aliensbtspulse2.jpg

http://www.alienscollection.com/aliensbtspulse3.jpg
 
If the rumor/theory is true that James Cameron owns the original hero with the light-up counter then that would be the only one of original color. As Willie mentioned, they were all repainted black for Alien3 and then re-re-painted after the fact, so those that aren't black aren't the original color, either. They're a "close-enough" that Bapty had lying around 7+ years after the original ones were made. And if you think they had the "green vs. brown" debate there, you're kidding yourselves. Hell, most of them were actually DISASSEMBLED by Bapty and then put together again for sale.

The color was brown. As Willie said, we know this and have for a long time. Geeks only have this debate because color is being judged based on what is seen on-screen not on-set. Brown is set accurate.
 
I never intended to start a debate, infact I supported the 'brown bess as the origional colour' idea. Which is why I asked, why they Profiles auction was calling the green paint 'origional'.
 
That's also why I posted that Profiles pic.

Edit: So if you picked away the green paint that's under the black paint, you'd find Brown Bess?
 
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I never intended to start a debate, infact I supported the 'brown bess as the origional colour' idea. Which is why I asked, why they Profiles auction was calling the green paint 'origional'.

It could be they just don't know any better, which would not surprise me at all.
 
Awesome thread. Great to see so many shots of the original prop - many of these where new to me so this has been a real treat.

Thanks
 
If the rumor/theory is true that James Cameron owns the original hero with the light-up counter then that would be the only one of original color. As Willie mentioned, they were all repainted black for Alien3 and then re-re-painted after the fact, so those that aren't black aren't the original color, either. They're a "close-enough" that Bapty had lying around 7+ years after the original ones were made. And if you think they had the "green vs. brown" debate there, you're kidding yourselves. Hell, most of them were actually DISASSEMBLED by Bapty and then put together again for sale.

The color was brown. As Willie said, we know this and have for a long time. Geeks only have this debate because color is being judged based on what is seen on-screen not on-set. Brown is set accurate.

If you look at the Hicks/Ripley training scene, you will see that the pulse rifle he's showing her is the 10 hole version that is incredibly
clean and pristine/beautiful. The shroud is not beat to hell and all wonky as has been previously described. I don't believe I've ever
seen that same rifle in anybody's hands so it stands to reason that James Cameron very well could have that same one. It is ALSO
definitely NOT GREEN. Gotta love having the 720p version of Aliens.

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The giveaway on the Ripley one is the "working" counter. None of the known heroes have this -- there had to be one that did, so that is likely in Cameron's collection.
 
That is one of the pics that i have always felt was clearly green ,
A good friend painted many of the pulse rifles and worked on aliens , guess what
they used left over paint the was od green . Your seeing the same thing
brown looks green . Thats why every pulse that has surfaced has been green.
The Hero that has the digi counter is that one in the scene and its od green
clearly in that his res picture .
 
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