Grail Diary

Hi, I'm looking to buy one of these and I found this on eBay and I was wondering what everyone thought about it. Is it accurate, well made, etc. If not, who's made a better one, where can I buy it and for how much? Thanks for all your help.

eBay

 

Checkout the discussion at Club Obiwan for Grail Diary replicas here:

http://www.indygear.com/cow/index.php

 

My personal favorite is the Wampa diary:
http://www.atarian.org/props/indy/diary/3-2-06/

That's mine and I love it

 

There's a couple of ways to do this.

The easiest and best option is buying one of Indy Magnoli's. His is the diary against which all others are judged. They are a bit pricey (does anyone know what they're going for exactly nowadays?) but well worth it.

Then there are the do it yourself ways (the route I'm taking).

There are a few websites who have the diary available in printable form. This means that you have to print it out and then fold and sew and bound your own diary. Yyou have to get leather for the cover and figure out how to put a book together (a lot of work but very rewarding)

Then there's the option that I'm taking. I purchased a close enough diary from here http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art.../art-supplies/5 (4.75"x6.5" - I forget whether it's dark brown or medium brown), Then I downloaded the diary text and now I'm hand writing it. It takes a lot of time, but I think it offers a more realistic feel. Some of the drawings are done freehand, others are printed out and then I use carbon paper to get them in the book and then go over it with my pen.

I believe (not entirely sure) that magnoli also offers a blank grail diary, so you could, theoretically, combine two of the methods. You'd have the exactness of the physical diary, but also the realism of having it actually be hand written.

Does anyone know for sure if he offers the blank ones and how to go about getting one?

The choice is yours, but choose wisely... (sorry, couldn't resist)

-Fred

 

I ordered a Magnoli diary a couple weeks ago and I'm expecting it any day. :love I'll post some pics when it arrives, but Magnoli's reputation on the Grail Diaries is legendary for good reason.

I've seen a couple on eBay recently that I considered getting. The first one is pretty low-priced, but was very thin (only a little over 100 pages) and pretty light on inserts as well. I could have made some more inserts to beef it up but it still would have been 1/3 the thickness of a real diary.

There's another one on eBay that is quite a bit more money and has closer to the right number of pages and inserts, but just seems in many ways like a copy of Wampa's diary but with inferior inserts and weathering.

So once I weighed the options I decided to pony up the money for Magnoli's diary. That way I won't have to worry about owning a "place-holder" diary, but I'll have the next best thing to owning a real prop.

Also, I've heard MR is thinking about making the Grail Diary, so if you're willing to wait until that happens I'm sure it'll be accurate to the prop in the archives and reasonably priced.

 

I checked out the diary at indyprops.com, but I'm confused. I thought the diary belonged to Indiana Jones's father, not to Indy himself.

Looking at the pages of the diary on that site, it looks as if it chronicles all of Indy's adventures whereas I thought the diary was supposed to be about the grail itself.

What gives?

 

Last I heard he still offered blanks.
He also has the inserts that goes in it or there are sites with free downloads to print them out yourself.

Couple links for you.
Indy Magnoli
Indy Quest

I would strongly suggest looking through all the threads on COW in the Grail Diary section.

D6

 

Never mind, I just scrolled down a bit more and found Henry Jones Sr.'s grail diary.

My bad.

 

There is the Jones Sr. Grail Diary
Jones Jr / Ravenwood Tanis Diary
and the Young Indy Diary.

D6

 

Hey Winston,

Just out of curiosity, how does one go about acquiring one of magnoli's diaries and, does he offer a blank one?

Thanks,
Fred

 

You were looking at the wrong one. He offers a lot of stuff. As for his rep, I have almost all his Jones and LOTR items and let me say...

Amazing works of art.

 

Thanks for all the replies, I'll definitely take a look at all the options, no real hurry to get one so I might go the cheaper route and make one myself.

 

As for getting in touch with Magnoli, email him if you have any questions. He's always been very quick to respond and he usually works pretty quickly, too.

I actually just got my diary this afternoon, and I have to say that it's amazing. Top notch work.