bodhicitta7
Active Member
Let me lead by saying, please don’t troll me for creating an SD Studios thread. I have read the history of his business practices and am thankful that I wasn’t one of the unfortunate victims. Having lost $$ to replica prop makers in the past, I sincerely feel for those who got caught up in in the BS of this company.
That being said...I have one of the SD Studios HAL 9000 units that I purchased via private sale in 2016. SD Studios recently (February this year) listed an auction on eBay for “2001: A Space Odyssey HAL 9000 GLASS LENS, RED FILTER, WHITE LED for Moebius kit” for $49.95ea with the following comments in the auction description:
That being said...I have one of the SD Studios HAL 9000 units that I purchased via private sale in 2016. SD Studios recently (February this year) listed an auction on eBay for “2001: A Space Odyssey HAL 9000 GLASS LENS, RED FILTER, WHITE LED for Moebius kit” for $49.95ea with the following comments in the auction description:
- “Way back in 2013-2016, some company produced some "license-challenged" HAL 9000 replicas. They were the cat's meow. But they knew that they had to have the lens done properly, so they went to a big optics company in NY that did lots of work for the military. Normally, they wouldn't take on such a small, dopey project, but their project manager was a big fan of 2001 and agreed to make these. They still had to buy 250 for the minimum order, but they pulled it off.”
- “There are only a few dozen left from that long-long-ago project and they are now being offered AT COST as a service to the collector community.”
- “So this is OPTICAL GRADE. Copied from an original lens and is EXACTLY the same with the same optical properties as the original lens. These lens replicas also have a black coating (NOT PAINT! It's NOT! Seriously!) on the rear just like the original. Each one also has a scratch-resistant coating applied.”
- Does anyone know if the original run was really limited to 250?
- Were there additional runs beyond the original 250?
- Since he is auctioning off at least 30 units, is there a way to determine how many finished units exist? (220 is the obvious answer, but hoping someone knows an exact number)
- Other than me, do any other RF-ers own one of these?
- What do you think the value of the replica is? (I know it’s very subjective, and at the mercy of the market, so maybe what I’m asking is – If you own one, what would you let it go for? And also yes, I did see that there was one that sold for £250 in the junkyard recently, but that seemed extremely low to me, hence this post)
- Lastly, there is a motion sensor connection port on the motherboard, but all my attempts to add a sensor to activate the HAL voice via motion have failed due to the fact that the sensor cannot penetrate forward of the metal composition of the unit (even through the grill holes). Having a sensor hanging outside of the unit is not ideal, but I haven't been able to figure out a better option. Would love to be able to activate the HAL voice via motion versus sound. Has anyone determined a way to make the motion sensor work while keeping it hidden?
Attachments
Last edited: