How To Destroy Your Prized Props

That suuuucks....

I had gotten to the point of a bladerunner PKD water gun build where I had filled it with lead weights and epoxy, put hours in accurizing it with 3D print parts, got it sanded down and ready for primer...

Tripped carrying it onto my balcony and it fell through the rails, falling 9 stories to the ground, shattering into 1000's of shards.

There was a sense of relief though, cuz as it went over my immediate thought was "If someone is below, they're gonna die..."

Thankfully the pavement took the impact.

I have yet to be able to bring myself to start the second I have....
 
This is quickly turning into a painful thread! I've been pretty lucky--just the occasional drop-damage to a model or two. Nothing unrepairable. Still frustrating, but not the end of the world.

But I can't imagine damaging some one-of-a-kind item with a ton of time and work put into it, like a studio-scale Millennium Falcon or a 1/350 Refit Enterprise.
 
My JL P1 looks just like that!!! It was used in the mirror STC episode and when Vic pulled it off his belt the edge of the crispy caught his shirt and broke the shell and ripped off the site. I was going to fix it but never did.
 
My JL P1 looks just like that!!! It was used in the mirror STC episode and when Vic pulled it off his belt the edge of the crispy caught his shirt and broke the shell and ripped off the site. I was going to fix it but never did.

I feel your pain—we reach.

868069DE-7637-431C-9C2F-710E25761174.jpeg
 
At least we didn't break any props on camera like Shatner did with a communicator. He hid it pretty well.

On the up side; most things can be rebuilt. One time my grandmother had a boom box that got damaged in an earthquake. It only took a little skill to rebuild the circuit board, the mechanism and the outer plastic housing.

You can recover almost anything if you put your mind to it.
 
Well, this is not a good sign for the new year…

Did I come across an original, screen-used Star Trek Phaser One that was taken home by a Paramount employee, and abused by their children?

View attachment 1652842View attachment 1652843

Nope…this is what happens when you are transporting props in a neglectful way.

In this case, I was rotating some props and books from my office into storage. The hero phaser was sitting on a stack of books that I was carrying down into the basement, with all the care of a caveman with a pile of sticks…in a state of mental impairment, I misjudged a step, stumbled slightly, and watched the phaser slide off of the books that I was holding and crash onto the remaining steps and then onto the basement floor, essentially cracking and shattering. The dislodged internals make a nice rattle and the shattered fiberglass body is a wonder to behold (The acrylic half round and front emitter plate are only temporarily in-place for the pictures.).

Well, this restoration will be my first project for 2023. The original build was designed to look slightly screen-used but not THIS screen-used.

Look upon my disgrace and let my stupidity be a life lesson for everyone. Handle your props with the care that they deserve.

Shooting Star GIF
 
Yeah, the damage is definitely repairable. The internals basically just need to be reset / reglued and the cracked fiberglass can be repaired and repainted.

I’ll post some update pics, at some point, when the Phaser is restored.
Have made any headway on your phaser restoration? It sure looked like a nicely finished prop! Are those Jlong shells or from another artisan?

TOSfan
 
Oof, sorry to hear that. Hope you can get it fixed!

On a similar note - one of my first builds was an Enterprise D model…the one with the fiber optic lights…

I lost count how many hours I spent hand-drilling the holes for the fiber optics. But I was quite proud to have finished a model of my one of favorite sci-fi ships and displayed it on top of my dresser...

only to have my little brother bump into the dresser, knocking the model off, and having it smash into a million pieces.

Sean
 
Hurts my heart to see it, but I'm happy it can be repaired. That's such a cool prop!

We all make mistakes. Some are just bigger than others. I once stored several props in a non environmentally controlled storage unit for only a few weeks. This was more than enough time to cause condensation and a reaction between the paint and the bubblewrap. It was a sticky disaster that required so much patience and sanding and rubbing alcohol to repair.

Sean, my elderly mother lost her balance in my studio once and smashed into a book case that had 2 props on top of it. One fell forward and shattered on the hardwood floor, the other backward and slid between the wall and the book case. It messed up the prop and the wall. Most importantly though, my Mom was OK. She looked at me and said "Are your toys OK?" which made me laugh quite a bit.
 
Have made any headway on your phaser restoration? It sure looked like a nicely finished prop! Are those Jlong shells or from another artisan?

TOSfan

Yeah, it was a build-up I did of a John Long Hand Phaser kit.

No, I haven’t done much to repair the unit, other than bagging the disassembled parts in a box.

Thankfully, I still have another Hand Phaser build-up that was done by robn1, a few years ago, that is of even better quality than my own build:

A41FF514-FFD9-44F4-999E-21BB27F2CB48.jpeg
 
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After I finished my first JL kit I took it out to the shop to rework the internals, hoping to make it work a bit more smoothly. I dropped it on the concrete floor, with much the same results as you.
 
Yeah, it was a build-up I did of a John Long Hand Phaser kit.

No, I haven’t done much to repair the unit, other than bagging the disassembled parts in a box.

Thankfully, I still have another Hand Phaser build-up that was done by robn1, a few years ago, that is of even better quality than my own build:

View attachment 1664616
That’s a beautiful build up! The paint finish is fantastic. Looks like it was spray painted. Satin finish?

Robn1 made some stunning shells, I’m sorry I couldn’t get a set of them.
 
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Agreed Gregatron, they are not exact to say the Jein hero but I suspect lots of differences between the 4 hero's so we may be close to at least one of them :). And yours is a great build, I did mine a little dirty with brushed paint and such. Here's a few pics of my mess.

herophaser2.jpg
herophaser1.jpg
 

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