"MagnaTRON" Home Theater Room With Movie Props

I've put my Haunted Studios Maltese Falcon upstairs in my music/studio/living room to keep one of my Staff of Ra and my older (not as accurate) Hellraiser cube company. It likes staring at and creeping the hell out of guests now in the moody backlighting behind my Carver AL-III ribbons speakers (lights sit behind ribbons and light the wall up).

FalconPiano s.jpg


Room in daylight (before Falcon placed there with Rubik's cube where the Hellraiser cube is now after I got the high-end cube to put in the theater room):

Carver AL-III Overall.jpg
 
Jintosh said:
View attachment 1055526

Yes, but if memory serves me, assorted jewels. Not just emeralds, although that looks nice.

(or has my memory failed me?)
Click to expand...

I don't remember for certain, but I think Gutman said the rarest or possibly finest of jewels. Yeah, I think it implied more than one, but I thought it looked better with a consistent color scheme. I would actually probably do diamonds in the feet (little ones fit there) and maybe alternate a few others (e.g. maybe ruby or diamond eyes), but I'd probably keep the chest feathers one type. But who knows what it might have actually been. I was just kind of curious to get an idea visually what it might look like. :)

I know Oz has a "gold dingus" option (no idea the actual price, but it implied quite high) which is probably gold plated, but fitting jewels might be some work and some like the eyes would probably need the bird customized to start with (or a heck of a lot of dremeling later). So even with fake jewels, it'd be pricey and a bit of work, but would probably look quite nice.
 
VonMagnum said:
I don't remember for certain, but I think Gutman said the rarest or possibly finest of jewels. Yeah, I think it implied more than one, but I thought it looked better with a consistent color scheme. I would actually probably do diamonds in the feet (little ones fit there) and maybe alternate a few others (e.g. maybe ruby or diamond eyes), but I'd probably keep the chest feathers one type. But who knows what it might have actually been. I was just kind of curious to get an idea visually what it might look like. :)

I know Oz has a "gold dingus" option (no idea the actual price, but it implied quite high) which is probably gold plated, but fitting jewels might be some work and some like the eyes would probably need the bird customized to start with (or a heck of a lot of dremeling later). So even with fake jewels, it'd be pricey and a bit of work, but would probably look quite nice.
Click to expand...

Either way, you did a nice piece of editing. I hadn't seen that before.
 
Jintosh said:
Either way, you did a nice piece of editing. I hadn't seen that before.
Click to expand...

I thought the jewels could have looked a bit better (the gold turned out nice), but thanks. I used to make/author pinball tables for Visual Pinball + VPinmame many years ago (like more than 30...tables, not years) and did a LOT of playfield editing and light effects and even animated toy effects using Photoshop for most of the editing. That took maybe 20 minutes total above, mostly to fit the jewels (cut out from a photo of a green jewel, probably plastic which might explain the odd look). I then ran some filtering and dodge/burn over the jewel layer with some brightness/contrast tweaks and then cut the bird back out and pasted it back into the original photo overlaying the actual black bird. It could have been better, really, but I just wanted an idea what a jewel encrusted gold Falcon might actually look like (the problem is now I kind of want to make a real one :D )
 
OK, here you go. A multi-jewel encrusted version with just a hint of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze added... :D

Gold Falcon Shelf S4.jpg
 
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They were going to remake Doc Savage with Dwayne Johnson. Could still happen.
 
Jintosh said:
They were going to remake Doc Savage with Dwayne Johnson. Could still happen.
Click to expand...

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm getting a little tired of Dwayne Johnson being in every other film. He's not that great an actor and lacks charisma, IMO (he was funny in Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle, though precisely because he was acting so unlike himself). I guess Hollywood thinks it needs an Arnold big muscle type, but Dwayne isn't so young either. I've heard Arnold's son is working out big time. Maybe he's hoping to beef up to some roles like his dad had. Without the entertaining accent, though I'm not sure it would work.

Either way, Doc Savage was kind of fun because it was corny as hell (so bad it's good) and it never got the promised sequel (so clearly most didn't think it was bad enough to be good). I guess the books sold well in the day. So the question is how do they approach it? Go for laughs/corny or try to be serious and risk it still doesn't work (at best it would probably be like the first Kingsman movie.)
 
XerocTheCreator said:
THAT FALCON IS SO BEAUTIFUL! I always love these room builds!
Click to expand...

Well, that's just a Photoshop mockup of what could possibly be done. It's based on the Oz Falcon (actual photo on the previous page somewhere). He does make a gold version (called the "gold dingus"), but I have no idea what it would cost (the listing I saw said something about your first born child so I take it that it would be pretty expensive), especially customized and the jewels would have to be fitted and glued to get the end result, but I think it's a doable project (the eyes might need some customization to pull off).

(Actual Photo pre-photoshop):

oz-falcon-shelf-s-jpg.jpg
 
New additions....

Franklin Mystery Library edition of the Maltese Falcon replaces the "Collection of Dashiell Hammett" book (which went to the bookcase shelf) as it shows the Falcon on the cover and is just that novel.


MalteseFalconBook 03s.jpg


Back Shelf New Maltese Book 2s.jpg



Bullets or Ballots mini-poster added with a collection of 1930s Ronson lighters with the pattern from the film (the one on the far right is the model actually used in the film, known as a Twentycase lighter (as it held twenty cigarettes in the case). I had to repair the ten-a-case lighter (middle one) as it had a stuck flint. The ten-a-case and twentycase lighters are both 1935. The one on the left is a Ronson Mastercase lighter (1932) with a similar design. They're all working now. I've included a black & white photo to show how they'd look in a black and white movie and a snap from Bullets or Ballots where the twentycase was used by Edward G. Robinson.

Bullets or Ballots Lighters Vertical s.jpg
1930s Case Lighters s.jpg


1930s Case Lighters BW s.jpg

BulletsOrBallotsSnap1.jpg



This one is not on display in the theater room (I'll put in my China closet or something). It's lighter supposedly made just after WWII for GIs that served there and is inscribed "Memory of Japan" that shows North and South Korea as part of Japan. It's a "Fuzi" lighter (Ronson knockoff or licensed? I'm not sure; there seems to be Fuzi graphics company today so they might be one and the same). It was a bit different from the ten-a-case and had a really stuck flint (button wouldn't even depress). I figured out how to take it apart and freed the flint, cleaned it up and installed a few flint and it's working like new again. :D


Memories of Japan Lighter Fixed s.jpg
 
Future additions to the MangaTRON Home Theater coming in the next several weeks:

-Smith & Wesson 1917 Mark VI Prop gun (Raiders pistol carried by Indy) (thought about getting a real one, but that would be very pricey just for display)

-Magnoli Coin Pouch with 18 Portuguese Gold Reis reproduction coins. (Lao Che tries to pay for the urn with this before the diamond)

-A real period vintage IMCO Super 4700 Lighter (Marion's Lighter in the Raven Bar in Raiders of the Lost Ark) is on its way from Morocco (Casablanca baby!)

-Vintage vase from India (Temple of Doom location) that will actually hold the full Staff of Ra with the bronze MK headpiece for display next to the Raiders poster (would have liked to get that nice map room floor recreation, but there's not enough room to put it where I want the staff so I had to find something that won't tip easily and this thing is beautiful and 16 inches tall).

-Hermione's wand from Harry Potter is on the way (to go with the Hermione poster I have).

Edit: Tron Legacy Identity disc is on its way...



Future thoughts:

Still looking for a Maltese Falcon (white tortoise watch) Touch Tip Lighter in good condition that doesn't cost the price of a used car

Still looking for the Ronson "New Yorker Baronet" lighter that was used both in The Maltese Falcon (Gutman's lighter) and Bullets for Ballots (Bogart uses it in the mob boss's office)....

Tried to get a Fifth Element blaster to display with my Fifth Element stones, but lost the auction....will keep an eye out for another that's not a kit

Still thinking about getting a Grail diary... (got a lot of private offers to sell me one from a half dozen prop makers, but very little information on the differences between them; I'm kind of leaning towards a story diary as repeating pages doesn't interest me when you can't see them on display anyway; if I'm going to get the book down and open it; I think I'd like to see a more "believable" diary. Some of the story ones have some nice extras not found in the hero version (e.g. a half dozen photos of Indy/Henry).

For the theater itself:

I'm looking at a new screen (I'd like a 2.35:1 dropdown, but that would require a new projector as well). A motorized tensioned 16:9 would be OK.

The second row center chair really needs to be raised up several inches (easier to see over chair in front of it and better path for center channel speaker to ears).

I've thought about turning the room behind the theater into a combination arcade game room with a snack counter (i.e. you'd enter the theater through here into the back of the theater like most real theaters; I have a back door that would work for that concept as well). I could put neon arcade signs, etc. in the room as well. I always wanted to get a few pinball machines and a MAME arcade machine and that would work right into the concept. That would be some big ticket items, though.
 
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