COLONEL J. FIZZIWIGS Steampunk Guns

[Kylash]

Anyone heard of or seen or own these? Basically they are cold cast steampunk guns very much like Weta's, but much cheaper. Wanted to get some thoughts. thanks

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/d68e/

 

[jasonw2112]

Well the "Big Daddy" is a nerf gun for sure. I can't tell about the other two, but the paint work and base aren't bad. I ran across these on eBay myself. I was thinking they were going for cheaper on eBay as well.

 

[Mr_Creepy]

Steampunk Weapons - MuseumReplicas.com

 

[Contec]

Some of them are recasts of wetas line of rayguns and the other are recasts of other raygun toys.

 

[Kylash]

yeah i recognized the Atomic Disintegrator body..

 

[rollerboi]

Some of them are recasts of wetas line of rayguns and the other are recasts of other raygun toys.

If this is true, that gets a big :thumbsdown from me. I can't tell which ones are recasts of Weta's, though. There are similarities, but I can't find anything that's an outright recast.

The Big Daddy is indeed instantly recognizable as a Nerf gun, although it's unclear if it's a recast as such. Those look like Denix mauser handles.

 

[nogga_nootch]

the middle one has the back section of the samaritan from hellboy

 

[Kylash]

on museum replicas they have oen that has the body of the victorious mongoose

 

[meimei]

The Big Daddy looks in part like a Nerf Maverick (I know because I considered buying one to make my own steampunk gun) but the handle of it seems to be cast from something else.

 

[Contec]

They have change a few thing on the original parts but you can still see that they are recasts.

 

[Kylash]

yeah they are definitely derivative of previous works... and hard to resist at those prices

 

[rollerboi]

yeah they are definitely derivative of previous works... and hard to resist at those prices

Principles above prices, perhaps? It's *really* not that hard to come up with a cool-looking imaginary gun without blatantly stealing from others.
Heck, for the price range of those guns, I'm sure you could post on here looking to commission someone to build you a one-off (based on your own ideas, even) that would be uniquely yours. That would rock. :thumbsup

 

[Contec]

yeah they are definitely derivative of previous works... and hard to resist at those prices

Yeah, but remember that you get what you pay for... Because we know they recast stuff, we can guess that they dont have a high standard of quality of their pieces. Im pretty sure that those pieces are nothing more than painted air bubbles from the deeps of recast hell.

They wanna ride on the wave of weta's rayguns, and earn a simple buck. I rather pay double price and get a genuine weta raygun...sadly the one i want is sold out.

 

[nickytea]

Maybe I'm missing something ... but these look more like cases of "inspired by" rather than "recast."

 

[rollerboi]

Maybe I'm missing something ... but these look more like cases of "inspired by" rather than "recast."

There's a graphic in post #10 that shows some of the chopped and recast parts. I thought inspired by at first, too, but I'm now convinced it's a recasting operation.

IMO it's low to recast parts from a competing product to sell your own and undercut them. It's not even the same as taking parts from unrelated markets/products, like the hairdryer taken apart to make a force pike, or something like that.

 

[Kylash]

the atomic disintgrator one, up close, looks like they actually sculpted it to look like one, the dimensions and sizes of the parts arent quite right, grip is all different etc, but its definetly inspired by it.

 

[Contec]

the atomic disintgrator one, up close, looks like they actually sculpted it to look like one, the dimensions and sizes of the parts arent quite right, grip is all different etc, but its definetly inspired by it.

They have changed a few things. But it still looks VERY MUCH THE SAME..
Did this little overlay:

Found this interesting 3 pages thread over at the brassgoggle site. The "designer" of these pieces seems like a interesting fellow.....if he came here with that attitude and did show his "original" designs he would be dipped in tar and feathers... so would those members that dont seem to care that it recast.
Colonel J. Fizziwigs NEW range of Blaster & Disruptors

 

[rollerboi]

Heh. He couldn't take the mild-mannered, polite heat from Brassgoggles?

Well haven't I created a monster? I've said it before and I don't think that I'll bother repeating it, save to say that I really thought that I was bringing something to the market that people could pop on their mantelpiece’s and appreciate, end of! I take exception to Steampunk 22's comments and if you were standing in front of me I'd throttle you! How dare you. I have been a product designer for the giftware industry for nearly 30 years, so how dare you insinuate that I would STEAL other people’s ideas, how dare you!
I shan't bother posting again, I'm going to let you all carry on squabbling amongst yourselves, but know this, Colonel J Fizziwig’s range of Blasters and Disruptors will carry on with you or without you. Thank you and goodbye.

Here, we call a thief a thief. If that thread hadn't been conveniently locked, I would have been happy to do so over there as well.

 

[TheMalum]

I briefly considered Photoshopping one of the original photos to have a different color pattern and announcing a "brand new" line of guns ("Professor Heironymous Null's Gentlemanly Defense Mechanisms"), but someone might actually miss the joke and actually send me money for one.

 

[DARTH SABER]

I believe this guy contacted me about a year ago to design some guns for him, along with interest to offer one of my actual built guns on his website.
After I saw samples of his frankenstein chop-shop samples, I never replied back.