Logan's Run ---- Life Clock

[epoxinator]

As I have the yellow, green, and reds, the one missing piece is the clear. I promised the actress I bought these from that I'm not going to start making reproductions. But for my own collection, I went ahead and tried my hand (pun?) at mold making. Using Oomoo 30 silicone from Amazon I made a mold of one of my reds. Turned out really well aside from the anxiety of having to wait for the stuff to fully cure up.

Next I used Art N Glow clear epoxy casing resin from Amazon. Again, easy enough - just a long wait for it to cure up. I was careful not to get any air bubbles in there. This made a really nice, clear, sharp colorless life clock copy.

Finally, I got a roll of "chrome" 3M tape from the craft store and a 5/8" circle punch for a few dollars. This made the exactly right silver backing. It is just tricky to punch the sticky tape, so I had to first apply the tape to release paper before punching it cleanly.

The final result is a pretty darn close to screen accurate clear life clock. It has that shiny silvery look - so either I'm an infant or I left the dome and found sanctuary : )

Now I've got the full set. Going to wire an LED to one of the original reds to make it blink. I've seen others make black life clocks and I know it was referenced in the movie, but I don't think black ones were actually made for the film.

I believe there was at least one black one made. There was an original edit for the film which was over 20 minutes longer than the final edit. That version started out with Francis chasing and killing a runner, who dies in a water fountain. Francis picks up the runner's hand to examine his palm crystal, which is revealed to be black. The camera moves in to the black crystal of the dead 30 year old runner, and cross dissolves to a clear crystal in the palm of a baby that Logan is looking at in Nursery.

 

[Apollo]

Yes black ones were made

 

[calico1997]

I've not seen any photos of actual MGM props that were black, but just the Youtube sketch rendering of the deleted scene. Regardless, I went ahead and made a black one as well. If anyone has an image of a genuine black one from the film, I'd be interested. The black one earlier in this thread is assumed by me to be fan made.

 

[Clutch]

Totally awesome sauce!

 

[Jintosh]

I've not seen any photos of actual MGM props that were black, but just the Youtube sketch rendering of the deleted scene. Regardless, I went ahead and made a black one as well. If anyone has an image of a genuine black one from the film, I'd be interested. The black one earlier in this thread is assumed by me to be fan made.

Yes, I was considering some kind of TRANSLUCENT black.....so it would still look like a crystal. But that looks nice, too.

 

[epoxinator]

You made a circle of the chrome tape for the back of the clear crystal so it would reflect light. Wonder how the clear crystal would look with a circle of black tape stuck to it? Would it look black but still be translucent? I would try it with one of mine but it's really hard to get the chrome tape off of a copy made back in the 90's.

 

[calico1997]

With black tape behind the clear, it just looks like clear glass on a dark background. I know the look that Jintosh is speaking of for black. When I made my black resin, I added charcoal power to clear reason and it started to darken but was still translucent. I kept adding more but if I didn't it would be black-ish but still let light through.

 

[calico1997]

Here's my display box from Hobby Lobby. Mounted the pieces with glue dots. Added a plaque from Plaquemaker.com. On the back side I drilled a hole through the black backing and glued on the guts of a 6 volt red 555 wedge pinball LED from Pinball Life. I also added an in-wire controller to adjust the flash/pulse and intensity of the light and wired it to a 9v switched battery holder. Project complete. Now on to a dozen others.

 

[Jintosh]

Ah. Batteries. I was like.....where is that light coming from ?

 

[bondservnt]

Black lifeclocks are indeed made for the film. it was seen in a deleted scene from the beginning.

 

[epoxinator]

A long time after this thread ended, a facebook member of a group I belonged to mentioned making a 3D print of a palm crystal. I dug up the one I was working on for this thread, and after ironing out some bugs and rebuilding from ground up, I sent him an STL output. He had a friend with a printer make a real-sized print from a transparent red print media, and also a much bigger copy.

He sent the last four pictures of the prints that were done. I told him I thought the larger version would make an amazing lollipop.

By the way, a previous concern of my version was that the bottom, being flat, might be too sharp, but he said it was fine. He hasn't decided if he wants to glue it to his palm, or to install it in a glove with a blinking ight beneath.

 

[Jintosh]

Yes, I always wanted some kind of lighted version, but there's just not room on the INSIDE of the crystal. I thought of making them a little thicker and adding a tiny thin mirror to the inside. That might work, and appear to light up when turned toward a light.

 

[epoxinator]

I haven't looked into batteries lately, but I wonder if there are batteries small enough now to fit within a palmcrystal and provide the power for an LED without needing to make the piece itself thicker. Plus the current flat batteries themselved might be reflective enough that you wouldn't need a reflective backing.

 

[Jintosh]

I haven't looked into batteries lately, but I wonder if there are batteries small enough now to fit within a palmcrystal and provide the power for an LED without needing to make the piece itself thicker. Plus the current flat batteries themselved might be reflective enough that you wouldn't need a reflective backing.

What you see is raised crystal shapes in a specific pattern. But the base under the raised crystals is only as thick as a 2032 flat battery. So, to put in a battery, you would need to at least double the thickness of the base of the crystal. Which would then not be accurate and would not lay as flat in the palm. No matter how small the led and battery, you would still have to increase the thickness of the crystal. The crystal is about the size of the 2032 battery, which would mean you would have to sit the led on top of the battery, adding additional thickness. If you went with an even smaller battery than a 2032, you could put the battery and led side-by-side and save some space.

This has given me a thought on the mirror idea. Instead of adding the mirror INSIDE the crystal and surrounding it by crystal on all sides, make an indent in the bottom of the crystal the exact size and thickness of the mirror. Wedge the mirror into the slot and the back of the mirror is the part that would be in your palm.

I might come back to this project after all this time and try mirror backed lifeclocks.

 

[goldcylon]

A long time after this thread ended, a facebook member of a group I belonged to mentioned making a 3D print of a palm crystal. I dug up the one I was working on for this thread, and after ironing out some bugs and rebuilding from ground up, I sent him an STL output. He had a friend with a printer make a real-sized print from a transparent red print media, and also a much bigger copy.

He sent the last four pictures of the prints that were done. I told him I thought the larger version would make an amazing lollipop.

By the way, a previous concern of my version was that the bottom, being flat, might be too sharp, but he said it was fine. He hasn't decided if he wants to glue it to his palm, or to installit in a glove with a blinking ight beneath.

You should offer that large one to jhusel he has an awesome display in his Avatar of the Logan's run hand holding his Flame gun. That would look awesome in the center

 

[epoxinator]

You should offer that large one to jhusel he has an awesome display in his Avatar of the Logan's run hand holding his Flame gun. That would look awesome in the center

I've seen that Arcade Hand cutout gun holder. In my opinion it's kind of too busy, and competes with the gun.

Below was my thought for an interesting base, inspired by the lifeclock room where the computer also examines and destroys runner personal effects.

 

[goldcylon]

I've seen that Arcade Hand cutout gun holder. In my opinion it's kind of too busy, and competes with the gun.

Below was my thought for an interesting base, inspired by the lifeclock room where the computer also examines and destroys runner personal effects.

That looks cool as well however, I went with the classic master replicas look but the theme look is awesome as well. I completely agree that a theme look is that little bit extra.

 

[Jintosh]

So, what would be the preference for a run here......a set of one clear, yellow, green, red and black? A complete lifecycle?
(I see two reds in the display, but I think that's unnecessary.)

 

[goldcylon]

So, what would be the preference for a run here......a set of one clear, yellow, green, red and black? A complete lifecycle?
(I see two reds in the display, but I think that's unnecessary.)

I was thinking maybe there were two reds as one of them in the box was supposed to be flashing vs. just lit ?

 

[Jintosh]

I was thinking maybe there were two reds as one of them in the box was supposed to be flashing vs. just lit ?

mmm...yes, but if people are just buying a set, they're not necessarily going to light one up. I think a set, one of each, and people can buy an extra red if they want. I could have some printed up just in case.