Julien’s Upcoming Hero Phaser & Communicator Auction

[Gregatron]

I wouldn't consider the 2021 "hero" well crafted, and I'm far from an expert on the hero phasers.

I'm just cursed with the knowledge of how paint, wears and ages over time. It really does take the fun out of some restorations I've seen as each type of finish have certain characteristics which give it away...

Let me stop my mini rant... **sigh**

I was going for the joke, more than anything.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

I was going for the joke, more than anything.

I know you were my friend.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

Fine points, as usual.

As for where I'm at:

1. At the end of the day, some of this boils down to inside baseball/egos. We normies are looking at the situation from the outside-in, and can only judge these things based on what we know.

2. If the owner and those involved are happy, that's fine and dandy.

3. I'm not a fan of taking sides with this sort of thing. My dedication is to the facts, and to keeping the historical record accurate.

4. "Restoration" can mean a lot of different things, depending on who's asked. Same with "preservation".

5. Am I disappointed that the restoration isn't as on-point as it could have been? Sure. But it's not that big a deal, since we now have a second genuine hero communicator to study and drool over.

I do see your perspective on this and I do tend to agree.

Yes, we are limited by what we are allowed to see & know.

I believe any person who has done work in "restoration" and "preservation" understands that they are two different, yet closely related things.

I say this because restoration is basically the art of returning an artifact to an earlier condition provided it can be done without damaging it or causing additional damage. Now preservation on the other hand is all about preserving the current state of an artifact. IMO

I will say the communicator as it's in worse condition now than it was before the attempted "restoration" and that's not an opinion.

I'll leave it at this......

 

[JMSupp]

I say this because restoration is basically the art of returning an artifact to an earlier condition provided it can be done without damaging it or causing additional damage. Now preservation on the other hand is all about preserving the current state of an artifact. IMO

That's pretty much the definition right there! Within that, though, is a whole range of possibilities...

I rather like "The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties" definitions, though they apply to historic buildings. Those can be really complex projects, and because they are buildings that are intended to be used, the guidelines address a whole range of challenges and compromises. They do a great job of looking at the building's intended use, and allowing flexibility based on that use. There are, of course, other standards, but most museum object standards are for antique or ancient objects where preservation is... Paramount, without addressing the desire to display, etc... Those standards also don't tend to cover modern materials, etc... very well.

Here are the Historic Property Standards:

Preservation is defined as the act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of an historic property. Work, including preliminary measures to protect and stabilize the property, generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation project. However, new exterior additions are not within the scope of this treatment. The Standards for Preservation require retention of the greatest amount of historic fabric along with the building’s historic form.

Rehabilitation is defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values. The Rehabilitation Standards acknowledge the need to alter or add to a historic building to meet continuing or new uses while retaining the building’s historic character.

Restoration is defined as the act or process of accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project. The Restoration Standards allow for the depiction of a building at a particular time in its history by preserving materials, features, finishes, and spaces from its period of significance and removing those from other periods.

Reconstruction is defined as the act or process of depicting, by means of new construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location. The Reconstruction Standards establish a limited framework for recreating a vanished or non-surviving building with new materials, primarily for interpretive purposes.

Great case in point is the recent Enterprise restorations. Their goal was to restore the Enterprise to how it looked during the filming of the 1967 episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"—the last known modification of the ship during the show's production, and set it up for long term display. They also had to reverse some of the previous restorations... and made some changes in order to make it display well, such as reinforcing the warp nacelles, etc...

A straight preservation would likely have involved making a cradle of sorts to support the nacelles, which would have made the display... awkward. And an unlit Enterprise would have been... dull. So adding LED lights to the model, reinforcing the hull, etc... was well within the remit of "Restoration".

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

Great case in point is the recent Enterprise restorations. Their goal was to restore the Enterprise to how it looked during the filming of the 1967 episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"—the last known modification of the ship during the show's production, and set it up for long term display. They also had to reverse some of the previous restorations... and made some changes in order to make it display well, such as reinforcing the warp nacelles, etc...

A straight preservation would likely have involved making a cradle of sorts to support the nacelles, which would have made the display... awkward. And an unlit Enterprise would have been... dull. So adding LED lights to the model, reinforcing the hull, etc... was well within the remit of "Restoration".

In some instances, there is a lot of room for negotiation.

In the case of the Phaser preserving, it as close to its current condition and have the option to display with replacement pieces in place.

As far as I'm concerned the communicator should have been preserved in the condition it was found as it would be nearly impossible to restore it correctly... The bad part is what was done didn't even come close to bringing it back to how it was.. The wrong color jewels and moire' pattern and other incorrect parts made it seem more like an idolized restoration attempt and at least to me totally ruined the value.

Yet it is what it is...

I don't care if anyone agrees or disagrees because I know how things should be done.

 

[Gregatron]

In some instances, there is a lot of room for negotiation.

In the case of the Phaser preserving, it as close to its current condition and have the option to display with replacement pieces in place.

As far as I'm concerned the communicator should have been preserved in the condition it was found as it would be nearly impossible to restore it correctly... The bad part is what was done didn't even come close to bringing it back to how it was.. The wrong color jewels and moire' pattern and other incorrect parts made it seem more like an idolized restoration attempt and at least to me totally ruined the value.

Yet it is what it is...

I don't care if anyone agrees or disagrees because I know how things should be done.

(...can't really disagree.)

 

[phez]

In some instances, there is a lot of room for negotiation.

In the case of the Phaser preserving, it as close to its current condition and have the option to display with replacement pieces in place.

As far as I'm concerned the communicator should have been preserved in the condition it was found as it would be nearly impossible to restore it correctly... The bad part is what was done didn't even come close to bringing it back to how it was.. The wrong color jewels and moire' pattern and other incorrect parts made it seem more like an idolized restoration attempt and at least to me totally ruined the value.

Yet it is what it is...

I don't care if anyone agrees or disagrees because I know how things should be done.

This is just incorrect (you can read and accept that there are new things to learn or stick to what you think you know, no difference to me). All of the parts left on that communicator were obviously the ones that were in it when it was originally built (John and I were initially skeptical as we thought they should be AB jewels as that was what was on other ones but the more we compared to screen caps the more we realized that is it what was on screen). The two outer hubs were counter-sunk like the center hub on Greg's comms and the glue holding the jewels in was the same as the glue holding the shells on. The same glue was holding the little jewel in the remaining knob. These were not added or swapped later. If you look at the screencaps and compare you can see that the jewels are not reflective like AB jewels are but are diffused and flat-colored. Testing them in different color light showed that they pick up and reflect whatever light is currently hitting them making them look like different colors.

To return it to exactly like it was pre-restoration all that the new owner has to do is pop off the moiré ring and remove the watch (it is not glued in). The right knob is just held on by contact cement and would come right off. The rest is pretty much how it appeared on screen.

 

[newworld]

This is just incorrect (you can read and accept that there are new things to learn or stick to what you think you know, no difference to me). All of the parts left on that communicator were obviously the ones that were in it when it was originally built (John and I were initially skeptical as we thought they should be AB jewels as that was what was on other ones but the more we compared to screen caps the more we realized that is it what was on screen). The two outer hubs were counter-sunk like the center hub on Greg's comms and the glue holding the jewels in was the same as the glue holding the shells on. The same glue was holding the little jewel in the remaining knob. These were not added or swapped later. If you look at the screencaps and compare you can see that the jewels are not reflective like AB jewels are but are diffused and flat-colored. Testing them in different color light showed that they pick up and reflect whatever light is currently hitting them making them look like different colors.

To return it to exactly like it was pre-restoration all that the new owner has to do is pop off the moiré ring and remove the watch (it is not glued in). The right knob is just held on by contact cement and would come right off. The rest is pretty much how it appeared on screen.

I wouldn’t waste my breath, FWIW, phez. Others know nothing about the agonizing decision-making that went into the project and why things were eventually done the way they were. It’s so easy to be on the sidelines and take cheap shots at those that actually do the work. Do they celebrate the work that was done? No - they degrade it. Bottom line is that it wasn’t done the way they think it should’ve been done therefore it has no value. As if their opinions matter. To imagine that the world should revolve around their thinking takes phenomenal hubris. And you can’t fight that.

The results speak for themselves. The market has spoken. And it has apparently given the middle finger to some “opinions”.

John did a hell of a job.

 

[AJK001]

I think part of the problem is who did the restorations as it seems a few people here have problems with John and anything he is involved with. As others have said, the seller and apparently the buyer don't have any problems with the restorations and that is all that really matters.

 

[Gregatron]

ITEM: If the owner and the people involved are happy, that’s perfectly fine.

ITEM: None of the “restoration” additions are permanent, which is both wise and perfectly fine.

ITEM: The additions made for the restoration are objectively not accurate to the prop as it was during filming (most notably the moire pattern, which was distinctively different from that of the Alpha comm), and people are well within their rights to have an opinion and be critical of it. Which is also perfectly fine.

People can work behind the scenes until their fingers bleed, and the result can still be objectively wrong. Ed Mirecki did the 1991 restoration of the 11-foot Enterprise based on the available data of the era, and many people objected to the heavy weathering and pronounced gridlines, which turned out to be inaccurate. Personally, I don’t blame him, because he did the best job possible under the circumstances, and with the limited research available.

In this case, whether one personally likes them or not, HeroComm did extensive and transparent research on the communicator props, and checking up on that research is very easy to do, via HD screencaps and whatnot. Since John Long is The Expert with no love for HeroComm (or the threat they’ve always represented to his Expertise), he just did the job he wanted to do and installed his usual Alpha-style moire pattern onto the real Beta prop, with no regard for their easily-verifiable research.

He may be happy and the owner may be happy—which is perfectly fine—but that moiré pattern, in particular, is still objectively wrong. It is not what I see when I pop in my Blu-Ray and watch “ Day of The Dove”, which is a moire pattern with a less-offset bottom layer, resulting in the “spider” not rotating clockwise, as opposed to the more well-known Alpha pattern.


This discussion is skewing into the feelings vs. facts nonsense which has infected society, and, personally, I stand by facts.

I also find situations like this devolving into Ego vs. Ego so very tiresome. This should be about love of the hobby and attention to detail, not bratty pissing matches between “experts”.

Sigh.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Well, I am just happy these pieces still exist in the world and we have excellent images that will help with future builds.

As far as anything else goes regarding the restoration of these pieces, I have no skin in the game, there; I’m not the owner. These are not pieces owned by the public, like the Enterprise miniature in the Smithsonian.

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

Do they celebrate the work that was done? No - they degrade it. Bottom line is that it wasn’t done the way they think it should’ve been done therefore it has no value. As if their opinions matter.

I never said the work has no value, that quite frankly is a figment of your imagination.

What I was saying that in cases like the communicator I felt that it was best to preserve the condition in which it was found. It is clear to me you failed to understand that...

 

[AdmiralBaxter]

To return it to exactly like it was pre-restoration all that the new owner has to do is pop off the moiré ring and remove the watch (it is not glued in). The right knob is just held on by contact cement and would come right off. The rest is pretty much how it appeared on screen.

My entire point was that the condition it was found in was how it should have been preserved, that is what most who specialize in doing such things would do.