New BR mystery??

drusselmeyer

drusselmeyer

Master Member
After 25 years you would think that all information about a film would be known right?

Well, I just discovered a new mystery...possibly 2!

While exploring references for a model project, I discovered a couple of pics -Missing; 1 Spinner! That's right, one studio scale Spinner has not been accounted for...at least to my knowlege.

This particular model was built at the same time as all the others in 1/12 scale - the same size as the Anubis/MIM Spinner.

The second mystery is the fate of Rachael's 1/1 Alfa Spinner.

Something to ponder.
 
As far as I know, its been sitting on the back lot at the Disney MGM Florida lot. Have a picture of me standing next to it down there back from 1991. I believe it is the original one from what I had heard at the time.
 
Well, there are lots of mysteries surrounding BR. Add this one to the list. They made four sizes of Police Spinner, only 3 of which were actually used. There were three other vehicles made - the Alfa Romeo Spinner (the red car), the "lobster" car (yellow, with large forks in front), and a fuel tanker car.

The 1/4 scale Spinner is in Paris (though nobody I've spoken with including Mark Stetson) knows how it got there. It appears to be modified with some weird detail parts and a couple of graphics. The museum it is displayed in has turned down offers to have it restored and claims it is only on loan.

The 1/12th scale Spinner is MIA. I asked Mark about this a few weeks ago and he had no ide where it went. According to my notes, it was more like 15.5" long and the Anubis was something like 18" (right?). It's a pity this one is missing since it did the lion's share of the work in the film. It was built before the others, so it has the little mounts for the laser cannons on the wheels and roof.

The 4" ones were cast up in multiple but never used. I have a 3rd generation casting that is just a piece of crap. Profiles offered up a 4" a little while ago, but this was nothing more than a casting off of an original that was painted up. (I don't think it sold). The crew guys all made casting for themselves, so this one is "out there".

The 1" ones really look crappy up close. Again, they were cast up in multiples, so I'm sure they are out there as well.

The Alfa Romeo Spinner (the red one) was displayed at a VFX exhibit here in LA in the late 80's that I went to. So it is still around.

I haven't heard anything about the lobster spinner or the fuel truck. I can't remember if they were on display at the VFX exhibit.

The blimp wound up in private hands via auction.

The large section of the Tyrell building was given to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York by Mark Stetson some time ago.

The full Tyrell building miniature caught fire during filming and was junked.

Some of the other buildings were junked, but most survived as rental pieces and some of those have been sold off.

Sections of Hades show up from time to time.

Well, all I can say is remember last year's WorldCon. You never know where/when this stuff is going to show up.

Gene
 
GKvfx said:
I haven't heard anything about the lobster spinner or the fuel truck. I can't remember if they were on display at the VFX exhibit.
Click to expand...


They were, along with the Police Precinct building (complete with a perimeter ring of deco light sconces scratched from Aurora LIS Robot collar castings).
 
PHArchivist said:
I thought the blimp is (or was) at the Warner Brothers prop museum?
Click to expand...

I was told that it was going to be on display there this month. And it was used as a backdrop for some of the BR DVD interviews. As to the ownership, I don't know exactly who, only that it was offered up at auction. Conceivable that Warners might have bought it. But that would be weird. And a tad ironic.

Gene
 
The Alfa Romeo Spinner (the red one) was displayed at a VFX exhibit here in LA in the late 80's that I went to. So it is still around.

-I saw this model at a VFX exhibit at a museum in Los Angeles in 1987- It was in really good shape then.
 
GKvfx said:
I was told that it was going to be on display there this month. And it was used as a backdrop for some of the BR DVD interviews. As to the ownership, I don't know exactly who, only that it was offered up at auction. Conceivable that Warners might have bought it. But that would be weird. And a tad ironic.

Gene
Click to expand...

I'm nearly postitive it was there 5-10 years ago when I toured the studio.
 
 
From the Cinefex article / book:

"Since only one miniature of any given size was available, shots requiring two or more spinners had to be photographed as separate elements and composited together in optical. One particularly complex sequence involved an early morning flight over the Hades landscape as Deckard and Gaff make their way to the Tyrell corporate headquarters. In order to create a rush hour atmosphere, Ridley Scott wanted to show numerous flying vehicles stacked in formation, darting in and out of the aerial traffic patterns and jockeying for position. To avoid having all the vehicles look exactly alike, however, executing the plan called for further involvement on the part of the miniatures crew. "Doug asked us to come up with three different vehicles for the traffic scenes," Mark Stetson recalled. "He said: 'Don't invest too much time in them. Have them armatured for maybe one position; and if you get a minute, throw a light in: Doug makes it sound easy."

With virtually no instructions beyond coming up with three vehicles that fit the Blade Runner style, Stetson turned the project over to Bill George. "We discussed going out and buying some hand appliances and sticking some wheels on them," George quipped, "but that idea was scrapped. Aside from being spinner-like, the only other description I was given was that one of the cars must look like a futuristic Ferrari. Chris Ross came up with some design sketches for me on the Ferrari; and he also –
 
" – sketched a hybrid of a Syd Mead design which I picked out of his book, Sentinel. The third vehicle was a takeoff of one of the huge trucks we had seen out on the Burbank studios backlot. All three were built in two weeks. Later, we added more lights and different paint jobs to make them do double duty. The truck only ended up in a couple of shots, but the Ferrari and the 'Lobster' - the Syd Mead design - were used much more than originally planned. One day I was walking by Dave Dryer's office and I saw the Ferrari inside. Someone had put a little bumper sticker on it that said: 'Honk If You Love Hades.' "


-Mike
 
Truck1.jpg


Bill George building the truck.


-Mike
 
Okay then, my information was correct: No one has seen Rachael's Alfa Spinner for 25 years and the 1/12 scale Police Spinner is missing.

Does anyone have pics of the 1/12 scale Spinner? What about the missing detail pieces for the 4" spinner?

This is what I have:

2049714457_353424f31e_o.gif
 
Last edited:
How could we tell which one is the 1/12 spinner?

About what size would it be?

I think one of the 4-inchers in up for bids in the next Profiles in History auction.


-Mike
 
The 1/12th Spinner is about 15" long. There are some slight detail differences between it and the 44" (1/4 scale). It was built to have the laser cannons on the wheels, before the lights were retrofitted.

Beware of any 4" Spinners you come across. Thought the EEG guys cast up multiples for use in the film (that ultimately were never actually used), they also made several copies for themselves. And those copies were copied, and so on and so on and so on...... And the one that came up for auction just a little while ago? It was a present day recast. (I have no idea about the one that's up now.) I've got a crappy casting - it's about 3 1/2" - that I got at some convention years ago.

Gene
 
GKvfx said:
The 1/12th Spinner is about 15" long. There are some slight detail differences between it and the 44" (1/4 scale). It was built to have the laser cannons on the wheels, before the lights were retrofitted.

Beware of any 4" Spinners you come across. Thought the EEG guys cast up multiples for use in the film (that ultimately were never actually used), they also made several copies for themselves.

Gene
Click to expand...

Ok. Then, how big were the roof spinners?
 
drusselmeyer said:
Ok. Then, how big were the roof spinners?
Click to expand...

Those were the 1" ones.........

From what the guys who worked on this told me, the 4" ones were intended as traffic pattern spinners. Stuff that would be in the mid background to give a "freeway lane in the sky" look. Unfortunately, shooting them as a miniature meant a lot more elements to be shot and ultimately the technique was dropped in favor of animation.

I had thought that the Spinners seen on the rooftop of the Police HQ were the 4" ones, but Mark Stetson told me otherwise.

Gene
 
So there is no ref on the 15" workhorse Gene....at all?
Seems a huge shame TBH. I have one of the smaller kits that pop up now and then, its that bad itll never be built.
Be great to see something in the 15" range produced as a kit, anyone know what else was different from the 15" to the large model?

lee
 
Could the 4-inchers have been used on other rooftops? The Tyrell building, or the 'sushi stand', or the aborted rooftop shot?
 
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