GotG VOL 2 Rocket's "Groot Bomb" kit

[JOATRASH FX]

Current status:
*The run is canceled BUT we will offer kits to individuals that ask for them when the two finished copies are ready.*

Good day fellow Trash Pandas,

The electronics programmer I am working with for props is helping me make Rocket's "Groot Bomb" from GotG Vol 2 for a private collector, with working counter, lights and sound. Interest in high-end GotG props seems to have waned recently, but the model I'm doing can be adapted to be a kit if a few people want them.

Planned features:

• Accurate shell to the CGI model, transferring surface details directly from the film model with a special technique (like i did with Drax's knives and Gamora's switchblade).
• Working levers, buttons, countdown and lights like in the movie
• specially made rubber gaskets and things for switches, to make it more realistic.
• Light-pulsing Annulax (harbulary?) batteries!
• Sound FX

The programmer is currently working on the code and I am making good progress on the model. You'd think this is just a simple box wrapped with a bunch of junk, but far from it! The thing is crazy complex when you start really looking at the details, to get all the quirks and asymmetry of parts right!

Here's an angry racoon:

Cheers!

 

[JOATRASH FX]

I guess all the Marvel ships are sailing (or have already left port) with Endgame over and on Bluray.

 

[renaissance_man]

It's a tough market and with Christmas on the horizon I think disposable income for props may be at a premium.
Also trying to get a very controversial piece through international customs could be problematic for some.
Unlike other sci-fi props, there's no disguising something that does look very much like a bomb.
You do produce great props and I wish you all the best with the run.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Thanks : )

Yeah, I kinda knew before I even posted that this run wouldn't happen. (I'm doing two full builds anyway- one for me and one for a high-end collector, but I'll do them without taking into account anyone else having to build one.)

With Xmas on the horizon you'd think the finished Gamora switchblades I posted a few days ago would have been gone before I even posted them! (I've been told I should start an Etsy store, but since I don't really want to, because then all of a sudden I'm a "shopkeeper".) I think a rapidly changing (and already drastically changed) fanbase is much of it. Also, none of the movies of the last 30 years have had props that people want to obtain 30+ years later. As much as I adore the Guardians stuff, there's not much "mystery" in the props compared to scrounging for Graflex buttons and T-track of yesteryear. Today, everyone that wants to know can easily learn how most props were made (even if they can't actually build them themselves) and with that comes a much smaller interest in "high end" pieces. Something quick'n'dirty that looks the part for a con will usually do, then onto the next thing, unless you're a dinosaur (like me I guess, haha). Scifi fandom has taken on aspects of fast-food- a quick gobble, then forgotten. And you don't see a lot of people writing "I am Groot" any longer.

Getting this through customs would not have been a problem at all though. There would not have been anything in the final kit setup that would signal "bomb" when disassembled. It would have been pile of parts and components and completely inert- virtually no metal, not even batteries. There are D-I-Y electronics kits for kids that would look more menacing during an x-ray scan!

 

[renaissance_man]

An annulax battery might be a cool quick prop build for most people, it could be a neat stocking filler/Christmas treat prop for a Marvel fan.
It would also be a cool Tree decoration.
Multi purpose!

I agree with your observation about the fast food analogy to props now, there are a lot of cheap, straight off the 3D printer with a single coat of paint applied props knocking about e-bay and etsy that people just want for a con. and don't mind if it isn't 100% accurate. Different props, different needs I suppose.
I tend to slide over to the more thoroughly researched, accurate side of the prop collecting scale.