KING KONG Prop Collections

[JoshuaV]

Curious who else is a Kong collector here. From the original Three Great Ape movies (King Kong, Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young) to the remakes by Dino De Laurentiis and Peter Jackson, and of course the new films. Here is my humble collection:

Most recognizable piece is the head casting of the Stegosaur from the Original Kong:

And a plaster casting of one of Marcel Delgado's (The original sculpt artist from O'Brien's Kong) last sculpture of King Kong for Don Post Studios.

And some pics of me with the Original Armature owned by Bob Burns, and me with Bob himself (Super nice guy in person).

And finally some additional pics of my Joe Young casting done by Harryhausen, and my head casting of the Kong Stop Motion puppet created by Dave Allen for IMAX film "Special Effects: Anything Can Happen" and originally for a 1974 Volkswagen Commercial. Also a coupling picture of the Marcel Delgado Kong Bust with what I believe is a resin cast of the stopmotion head. I believe it was recast off the sideshow piece and then altered to look closer to the original armature head.


Ok, eager to see your guys collections. Here's to the Great Ape Club

 

[Nanotyrannus]

Curious who else is a Kong collector here. From the original Three Great Ape movies (King Kong, Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young) to the remakes by Dino De Laurentiis and Peter Jackson, and of course the new films. Here is my humble collection:

View attachment 1289901

Most recognizable piece is the head casting of the Stegosaur from the Original Kong:
View attachment 1289903

And a plaster casting of one of Marcel Delgado's (The original sculpt artist from O'Brien's Kong) last sculpture of King Kong for Don Post Studios.

View attachment 1289909

And some pics of me with the Original Armature owned by Bob Burns, and me with Bob himself (Super nice guy in person).
View attachment 1289910View attachment 1289911

And finally some additional pics of my Joe Young casting done by Harryhausen, and my head casting of the Kong Stop Motion puppet created by Dave Allen for IMAX film "Special Effects: Anything Can Happen" and originally for a 1974 Volkswagen Commercial. Also a coupling picture of the Marcel Delgado Kong Bust with what I believe is a resin cast of the stopmotion head. I believe it was recast off the sideshow piece and then altered to look closer to the original armature head.
View attachment 1289912 View attachment 1289913 View attachment 1289914

Ok, eager to see your guys collections. Here's to the Great Ape Club

******** that's some kickass King Kong memorabilla! Need to get my A game with Kong props

 

[JoshuaV]

******** that's some kickass King Kong memorabilla! Need to get my A game with Kong props

Haha thanks. It took a few years to gather that much Kong history. Most of it from chance auctions I would just happen upon. The Marcel Delgado Bust is my most prized possession second to the Stegosaur head, but I want to say the rarest of them all is the Dave Allen head bust. I never see those available for auction, mine I got in person from a collector in San Diego, and sure enough when I showed it to Bob Burns he laughed, "Oh yeah that's Dave alright!" As he owns the original Stop Motion Puppet created by Dave Allen. Plus it photographs beautifully thanks to the amount of detail Dave put into his recreation puppet.

Look forward to seeing yours and other people's collections!
-J

 

[SickleClaw]

Okay crap these are amazing to see! Yeah that is super badass!

 

[The 48th Ronin]

That Stegosaurus head is awesome. Even though it's anatomically incorrect, the '33 Kong Stegosaur is still my absolute favorite representation of one. If I'm not mistaken, it's the first dinosaur seen in the film - that was just magic, and blew my little 7 or 8 year old mind.

Also, judging by the apparent size of the head, that puppet must have been huge.

 

[JoshuaV]

Okay crap these are amazing to see! Yeah that is super badass!

Haha thanks!

 

[JoshuaV]

That Stegosaurus head is awesome. Even though it's anatomically incorrect, the '33 Kong Stegosaur is still my absolute favorite representation of one. If I'm not mistaken, it's the first dinosaur seen in the film - that was just magic, and blew my little 7 or 8 year old mind.

Also, judging by the apparent size of the head, that puppet must have been huge.

Oh yeah the Delgado/O'Brien stop motion puppets were indeed monsters. A majority of them survived thanks to Forrest Ackerman, while he was alive he collected a good majority of Harryhausen and O'Brien/Delgado props from the classic stop motion era of films. When he passed a lot of these lots went up for auction, a majority of them going to Peter Jackson including the second or only two complete Kong Armatures (The first is with Bob).

I don't know where the Stegosaur ended up, it was without a doubt the best preserved of the puppets to survive from the films though.
Here's the state of the puppet when it was last in Ackermans possession:

And here's Ackermans Kong shelf while he was alive. You can see the Stegosaur, two Brontosaur puppets, the Delgado sculpt of Kong made for Don Post Studios, and even the Pterosaur somewhere in there hidden away.

 

[JoshuaV]

Also including this Kong pic, because why not. It's a fascinating shot though being it shows the true heft of the Kong Puppet in all its glory, but also shows the beginning stages of degrading and age for the rubber around the mouth, notably the lips as you can see them cracking. Its a great image though, if only it could have survived in this state to today and we might have used our 3D scanning tech to preserve it though time~

 

[Apollo]

So glad that Bob let Sideshow do their run of that armature which is the only “Kong” I have in my collection

Awesome collection you have there!

And some pics of me with the Original Armature owned by Bob Burns, and me with Bob himself (Super nice guy in person).
View attachment 1289910

 

[JoshuaV]

So glad that Bob let Sideshow do their run of that armature which is the only “Kong” I have in my collection

Awesome collection you have there!

Thanks!
Yeah Bob is a great guy. Whenever we meet up we just joke around. Really down to earth person. And I saw the work Sideshow did to replicate the armature thanks to Bob. Right down to the types of screws. It's indeed a work of art. Also gives me an appreciation of how they machined that armature back in the 1930's.

What number sideshow armature did you score?

 

[Apollo]

Number 102

 

[JoshuaV]

Number 102

Very nice! Especially with only 500 out there in the wild. Bravo!

 

[SickleClaw]

Oh yeah the Delgado/O'Brien stop motion puppets were indeed monsters. A majority of them survived thanks to Forrest Ackerman, while he was alive he collected a good majority of Harryhausen and O'Brien/Delgado props from the classic stop motion era of films. When he passed a lot of these lots went up for auction, a majority of them going to Peter Jackson including the second or only two complete Kong Armatures (The first is with Bob).

I don't know where the Stegosaur ended up, it was without a doubt the best preserved of the puppets to survive from the films though.
Here's the state of the puppet when it was last in Ackermans possession:
View attachment 1290145
View attachment 1290146

And here's Ackermans Kong shelf while he was alive. You can see the Stegosaur, two Brontosaur puppets, the Delgado sculpt of Kong made for Don Post Studios, and even the Pterosaur somewhere in there hidden away.

View attachment 1290147

Wow that is incredible to see the array of puppets that that made for the movie!Always love seeing more like this.

 

[PumpkinKing]

Curious who else is a Kong collector here. From the original Three Great Ape movies (King Kong, Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young) to the remakes by Dino De Laurentiis and Peter Jackson, and of course the new films. Here is my humble collection:

View attachment 1289901

Most recognizable piece is the head casting of the Stegosaur from the Original Kong:
View attachment 1289903

And a plaster casting of one of Marcel Delgado's (The original sculpt artist from O'Brien's Kong) last sculpture of King Kong for Don Post Studios.

View attachment 1289909

And some pics of me with the Original Armature owned by Bob Burns, and me with Bob himself (Super nice guy in person).
View attachment 1289910View attachment 1289911

And finally some additional pics of my Joe Young casting done by Harryhausen, and my head casting of the Kong Stop Motion puppet created by Dave Allen for IMAX film "Special Effects: Anything Can Happen" and originally for a 1974 Volkswagen Commercial. Also a coupling picture of the Marcel Delgado Kong Bust with what I believe is a resin cast of the stopmotion head. I believe it was recast off the sideshow piece and then altered to look closer to the original armature head.
View attachment 1289912 View attachment 1289913 View attachment 1289914

Ok, eager to see your guys collections. Here's to the Great Ape Club

Where did you meet Bob Burns?

 

[JoshuaV]

Wow that is incredible to see the array of puppets that that made for the movie!Always love seeing more like this.

Glad you can enjoy them. I love hunting down Hollywood history on my free time and Kong was a huge influence for me as a kid. Sure enough if you dig deep enough into the internet you'll find more and more. Such as this pic of the Pterosaur puppet before it aged further.

And here's another fun photo of a few of the other puppets to survive from Son of Kong. The giant Cavebear and the Augathumas (sp?).

Also I know the pic above says the puppet Bill Warren is holding is Kong, but I think it might be Joe. I found another pic of the Bear and this puppet, the scale isn't right for what was shot in Son of Kong, and Joe was built by Harryhausen at a smaller scale. So this might have been the model that went for auction that ended up at the Harryhausen museum/exhibit in London.

Where did you meet Bob Burns?

The time in the picture featured here was during the last anniversary of Kong (hence why Bob has cake). That was back in 2013 I believe, and that was my first time meeting and holding Kong. I've since met him a few other times over the years. Mostly through old producer friends with productions (docos) tied back to Harryhausen.

 

[celboy]

#91 sideshow Kong replica armature, 1x Jim Davidson Kong Puppet (see attached),1x replica gas bomb, 2x Joe young Jeff Taylor replica armatures (1 now skinned and likes bananas)

 

[celboy]

So this might have been the model that went for auction that ended up at the Harryhausen museum/exhibit in London.

Can you elaborate on this statement please? I don't know much of the details of the "auction"? I thought it was a gift. I thought it was that Halliwell gave it to a British film museum who eventually gave it to ray.

 

[JoshuaV]

#91 sideshow Kong replica armature, 1x Jim Davidson Kong Puppet (see attached),1x replica gas bomb, 2x Joe young Jeff Taylor replica armatures (1 now skinned and likes bananas)

Wow, those are amazing. I followed Jim's old site where he chronicles this build and I think consolidated with Marcel before he passed on his reconstruction of his Kong. Its a work of art. Also a great replica of the gas grenade, is that one of the ones that was recast from the original props? See those float around every now and then here and there.

Can you elaborate on this statement please? I don't know much of the details of the "auction"? I thought it was a gift. I thought it was that Halliwell gave it to a British film museum who eventually gave it to ray.

It could be? I know a majority of Forry's collection was either gifted or auctioned. This Joe might have been gifted being Ray I believe did already have a Joe Armature in his collection which is apart of the Harryhausen museum/exhibit. That puppet in that photo however matches the only other Joe puppet I've seen that still had its skin in a type of preservation box last I saw it on exhibit. I'll try to hunt down photos of it. But if it was gifted, then I'm glad it got to Ray and is now at its proper home with the Harryhausen estate

 

[celboy]

Also a great replica of the gas grenade, is that one of the ones that was recast from the original props? See those float around every now and then here and there.

re:gas grenade. yes, I was told it was made from the orig mold made from the one that was in Forry's possession--- that is now owned by PJ.

 

[JoshuaV]

re:gas grenade. yes, I was told it was made from the orig mold made from the one that was in Forry's possession--- that is now owned by PJ.

So jealous lol. That's a great score, congrats!