Cost of custom TARDIS?

[Dave Ward]

OK, I know that this is heresy on this board, but the fact is, after years of woodwork and a stint on a construction site, I've had to come to terms with the fact that my skills are not to be found working with wood:lol That said, it's about time to get the ol' blue box in the garden.

I saw an old thread on another board where someone had paid a local carpenter to start his TARDIS build for him. I was thinking of doing something like that, doing the signange, glass, Fresnel, locks, paint etc myself, and maybe some of the easier construction parts, but paying for the shell to be cut and maybe even assembled.

Does anyone have an idea how much this would cost? I've no idea what kind of company to approach with this or how much to expect to pay. Thoughts and advice most welcome!

 

[CJ 617]

Yeah, I've often considered doing exactly the same. I haven't so far gone as far as to find out cost wise what such a project would be, being done by a carpenter unfortunately but if I do, I'll keep you posted.
I've been meaning to crack on with this and find out for a long time........I've still not convinced my wife about having the good ol' blue box in the rear garden!

Sorry I can't be of help right now

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Too bad you're not in my neck of the woods. I've wanted to build a TARDIS for a while now but wouldn't be able to put it anywhere. I'd build one for you!

 

[GeneralFROSTY]

Can't it be built to 'break down' into sections for shipping? Sure, they would have to be shipped by crate - but if you have a UPS store in town, they offer crate services - so long as the buyer is willing to pay.
I have seen a few TARDIS blueprints here and there. Should'nt be TOO hard to do, just time consuming.

 

[CJ 617]

yeah, but the cost of all the wood will not be cheap. Most I've seen are ones that can be taken down in a variety of pieces, almost flat packed. Thus is definetely the way to go as it will make it so much easier for transport from place to place (workshop to garden etc)

 

[Dave Ward]

Just out of curiosity, Orange_Blend, where are you located?

 

[00MrNotWrong00]

I'd like a shot at this. Do you have plans ? Shoot me a PM.

 

[MacBeath]

A friend of mine had a flatpack one made over 20 years ago that's still going strong... can't remember the price but both £500 and £1000 stick in my mind.

It comprised a base that was hinged and folded in half or transport, the four upright corners, lintels, a two-part roof (plus light), 8 door sections and four Police Box signs. The whole thing could go up in approx 45 minutes. It was based on the original Met blueprint.

Cheers

Doug

 

[Risu]

I've got a set of blueprints laying around somewhere, but after having walked around and through a fan made TARDIS I think it would be easier to do it without the blueprints, they're visually confusing. I believe the wood cost I approximated was roughly $300, but the people I talked to at a con said the hardware on theirs was the most expensive part, the wood cost didn't even come close. I'll bet Primrodo could answer all your TARDIS cost questions though.

 

[micdavis]

Time and Materials, I quoted one at $3500. Mostly time involved. A lot of board feet of wood goes through a saw for that item.

 

[robstyle]

Although not what your after, I think it may be related. This was for "Splatter" released on Netflix. If this was not a "for a friend" build, this would have been a project well into the higher thousands of dollars. For a Tardis, your looking at very few off the shelf items to base on other than hardware. It would also be double the materials as we used for our project but, it doesnt appear to be a difficult build. Your best savior would be the aforementioned blueprints.

It took a friend who is a master carpenter and myself two full days to replicate a pre "red box" English phone booth. Originally it was supposed to be a red box but due to both budget and time restraints, we sold the production on the older version.

Its a very basic design so we started with 2 off the shelf hollow core doors and one that was prehung.

And within a couple hours we were here:

and by the end of the night, just before daylight, we were here:

after hours of filler and placement of hidden removable panels:

All in all this was done for $500 with removable top, rear panels, lighting, fx phone, lexan windows, hardware, paint, materials.... Originally it was to be kicked over and set on fire but again, time restraints and safety issues put a quick stop to that idea. I did had the "telephone" signs ready to go but they just didnt look right so we left them off. The signs on the originals were mounted on top which we didnt fabricate due to obvious reasons.

I even took the time to paint it with a horse hair brush, coat up then next coat to the right to get the texture. It was painted red on the outside on all sides as per request from the director. Whats sad is due to the ignorance of the DP and lighting guy, 90% of the rigged fx were not used. No phone strobe, no upper and lower lighting strobe, no spidering flames on the windows (which is why we used lexan), no falling sparks....

the only picture I had to work from

 

[kalarcana]

Depending on the quality of the wood and other parts you get the price could go either high or low. I haven't finished mine yet but I've got $618 invested so far. That doesn't include the signs or the custom paint.



Rick

 

[protokev DMD]

Any idea what version you are looking into? Some new dimensions have come available that might be helpful. I can see if i can find my links as i was going to build a 12 incher.

 

[Dave Ward]

Robstyle - great project there!

In terms of the version of police box, I was thinking about something from the classic series, not the bigger, newer version. Probably the 80's TARDIS. I'm more than happy to put the time in with the paint and signage and what have you, and I can get the materials if need be from somewhere like Home Depot to keep the costs down, it's just the actual cutting that I can't realistically do.

 

[robstyle]

If your looking to do just an exterior, it should be a very simple project. Its when you get into functionality and durability that the costs go up.

 

[GeneralFROSTY]

I'm still surprised that there is NO ONE out there that is offering kits of these.
Sure it's big, but it is also a very 'iconic' piece and you would think someone is churning out replicas like they would Stormtrooper armor...

 

[Risu]

I blame the economy.

 

[Jamanticus]

If your looking to do just an exterior, it should be a very simple project. Its when you get into functionality and durability that the costs go up.

Yeah, I heard adding the dimensional transcendence feature is especially hard- and good luck trying to get a functional chameleon circuit for that thing- a friend of mine's got his stuck as a police call box :eek :lol

Back on topic, what sort of wood is generally used to make TARDIS replicas?

 

[clarence]

You would need lots of money to ship either a tardis or telephone kiosk around the world this phone box is over $3000.00 to buy before shipping. I have this for the tardis on my HD.:angel

 

[robstyle]

Yeah, I heard adding the dimensional transcendence feature is especially hard- and good luck trying to get a functional chameleon circuit for that thing- a friend of mine's got his stuck as a police call box :eek :lol

Back on topic, what sort of wood is generally used to make TARDIS replicas?

functional as in doors open, inside is detailed, built to be moved around and in... And anyways, we all know the Flux Capacitor came first.