BTTF Plutonium Case Thread

You may already know this, but you can get Coulombe's version, without the 12 plutonium cannisters, for half the price (although still a lot of money, admittedly).
 
Yeah I've been watching the one on Ebay.. But it is pricey.. Been waiting to get my hands on my payout from work so I can grab one.. :lol
 
I would love to start a communal research thread if people are willing to live with a few inaccuracies within a budget of a few hundred dollars. I don't mind the painting and the labels, the right case seems to be the issue.
 
I don't know if this will help or not, but this looks like a Painted,and stickered, music road case. You can usually get them in all shapes and sizes, of good or high quality. I have a flat, wider roadcase I use for my guitar pedalboard, and it looks very similar in application, with metal guards, and those eaxct style latches.
 
He answers a question asked from an eBay member and indicates a case without plutonium runs almost $800.

BTW, that was really helpful JasonW. You are right about music road cases looking very close!!
 
The sticker on the side looks like one of these.

dot-1093.gif


EDIT - Seems like it would be insanely easy to make, assuming one could find exactly the correct yellow road case. It could also be a sample case, as have been used by salesmen for decades. Before the cheaper cases with plastic latches that are common now, they had that kind of latch. Yellow seems like it would be the sort of case they used for some sort of instrument related to emergency services or something.
 
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I don't know if this will help or not, but this looks like a Painted,and stickered, music road case. You can usually get them in all shapes and sizes, of good or high quality. I have a flat, wider roadcase I use for my guitar pedalboard, and it looks very similar in application, with metal guards, and those eaxct style latches.

That's funny. It looks more like one of the cases for the Arri SRIII, only painted yellow. I mean, it looks close to it being either the lens case or the Magazine case in its size.
 
That's funny. It looks more like one of the cases for the Arri SRIII, only painted yellow. I mean, it looks close to it being either the lens case or the Magazine case in its size.

Yeah, it must be some sort of flight/road case and it being for camera equipment makes total sense.....just browsing through the Gator Case website, I don't see an exact match, but they're more music/live sound oriented.
 
We have tons of those cases at work. They are road cases.

Why are they fetching so much?

Most are made by a company called KEAL....also Harding.

I am sure that case is one of the camera cases used to shoot the film.
 
Most are made by a company called KEAL....also Harding.

I think you nailed it! The Keal website has very similar size and identically constructed road cases pictured, and they're even available in yellow. Looks like all you'd have to do then is create the right decals and you'd have a screen accurate BTTF plutonium case.

However, it looks like these awesome cases aren't exactly inexpensive. No prices mentioned at all on the Keal website; you have to call or email for a quote. And it seems that even in used condition they usually go for a couple-few hundred dollars apiece.
 
Actually, in the 80's it most likely would have been made by Anvil...they were the TOP name in roadcases back then, and actually held a patent on that style...lot of clones out there these days competing on price, but nothing beats a good Anvil. You order them by size and have foam custom cut for your application...most of them come black with silver hardware and people paint them to suit there own tastes, but I believe you can order them in different colors.

http://www.anvilcase.com/
 
That looks to be an Anvil case. Anvil being the company that makes them not what goes in them. Very common equipment shipping case. They build them in whatever shape you want.

http://www.anvilcase.com/

That one I bet would run about $350 new.
 
Yes, the Anvil case design looks even closer to the screen-used one, and as pointed out, that would have been the go-to company for these back in 1985.

So, I contacted Anvil for a quote. Frank Vasquez at Anvil took a look at various screen shots from the film and agrees that it looks like one of theirs, although he couldn't find any sales records going back that far. They can do a yellow ABS case to match the screen-used one for $246. They can add the foam insert with 12 cylindrical cutouts for around $30 more.

I'm seriously thinking about ordering one. Is anyone here interested in doing screen accurate vinyl decals?

Randy
 
Woa, that is huge. I appreciate you coming back with that info...

Think he could tell the dimensions from looking? I think the best indicator of size is the fasteners (the skrews) along the trim of the case. Their are six fasterners across the top and two down the bottom side (three deep at the top).

The distance between them seems to be standard among all their cases and they can prob use that info to figure out the exact dimension.

Capture-02.jpg
 
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I'll see what more I can find out.

Interesting that this screen cap doesn't have 'PLUTONIUM HANDLE WITH CARE' stenciled on the side of the case. I think I'd prefer it with that labeling.
 
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