Hi guys, so I wanted to read every comment on this thread before I commented. And I agree with most here. But I'm not convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt. It seems the scope is the real deal, but the rest doesn't match up with the photos we have. Other members have information the rest of us aren't privy to, so we'll have to take their word for it and move on, or just continue to not be convinced one way or the other. I'm leaning towards the latter. Not that I don't trust others words, but that just not entirely convinced there isn't some information all of us aren't privy to. So instead 9f focusing on the prop, I focused on the men. Not the pawn guys, I didn't care about them, but the Bapty guys. Mainly Karl Schmidt, spelt Carl on this episode. I've read a lot online about the man, and some of it addresses the nonchalant way he handles the prop and his overall attitude. From what I've read, he seems to not care much about Star Wars, and he's old and his recollection may not always be accurate. I've also read the accounts from Roger Christian, and he doesn't even mention Karl when he talks about talking to George, and putting the prop together. Yet most of what I've read says they collaborated, Karl and Roger, together to make the props for ANH. But I also know from my own line of work that when I design something from scratch and fabricate every aspect of it, once the word floats to the big wigs in the front offices its usual "I had this made "I took care of this" and it's never "our machinist once again pulled this out of his arse and saved our hides".
It's quite possible that Karl has some resentment? I'm merley speculating. But mainly the idea of intended deception is what I want to address.
If it was Karl or Tom's intent to deceive, even a basic fan, wouldn't they have put more effort into it? I mean so much or this prop doesn't match up to everything we've seen or know about it. They have the information available to them as well and with everything they have in their possession, they could have done a much better job of duplicating a "fake" than what we see here. It just doesn't add up. Karl's mannerisms at first seem to be, perhaps, defensiveness, but after what I've read of the man may be a retired man that wasn't given the credit he was due and just doesn't give a ***** about any of this anymore. It would be akin to a singer that has sang the same popular song that made him famous over and over again and having to listen to it to appease others, hence "that's enough of this" as he walks out of the room.
Of course I could be utterly incorrect. Maybe they are just trying a cash grab - but with their talent and knowledge, I'd say they could have done a better job of it. Right? I'm going to keep an eye on this and see if the undeniable truth comes out eventually - that's really all any of us want anyway right.
