Original Mars/Taz National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

[DBCooper]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

I have just gotten around to taking some photos of my prop that I received some time ago.

Thank you gentlemen for your hard work and dedication. This is a superb prop.

I have been reading it and coming up with inserts. I would like to have at least one unique insert for each President.

Washington - Lottery ticket
Adams - Boston Massacre paper and Mass. news paper
Lincoln - Ford Theatre ticket and Playbill, Confederate $5.00 bill he had on him when he died, and Wanted poster

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj87/dbcooper2/Displays/BookofSecrets2.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj87/dbcooper2/Displays/BookofSecrets3.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj87/dbcooper2/Displays/BookofSecretsSide.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj87/dbcooper2/Displays/WashingtonLotteryTicketInsert.jpg

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/...incolnTheatreTicketandConfederate5Inserts.jpg

I hope you enjoy these pics.

Best,
DBCooper

 

[Stefan Jones]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

Great presentation ! thanks for the ideas. I have one of these BoS myself and started to collect some additional inserts. where did you find the Lincoln Ford Theatre ticket and the Playbill and the Mass. news paper ? I would like to add these to my BoS too, when possible

 

[KramStaar]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

With the renewed interest in the Book of Secrets I figured it was about time to revisit this thread and post some updated pictures of the remarkable original book's condition. If anything, I feel this is an item that only gets better with age and through the continuous acquisition of new inserts it becomes ever more intriguing…

Here then a few pics with some previously unseen inserts:

Cheers to Mars and Taz!

Kind regards

MARK

 

[juno]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

When I saw Zach's, I was amazed at the number and quality of the inserts.

 

[Sarednab]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

Great Book and fantastic inserts! Congrats my friend!

 

[SchubroProductions]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

I love mine Tif. Can't wait to see the new one with updated fonts. Don't know if I will ever get around to purchasing that one. I'm pretty happy with the one I have but everyone who comes to my house spends several hours looking through it.

 

[DBCooper]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

KramStaar - looks incredible. I love the pics and new inserts.

What is the John Adams document? Looks really authentic.

Best,
DBCooper

 

[ichabods]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

Saw the movie again last night. First thing I thought of was this cool prop.

 

[Artemis]

Spectacular!!!!

 

[JoW]

sorry for replying almost 10 years later, but i was wondering if you could give me some info, so i could make the book myself...thx

 

[CJN]

Re: National Treasure Book of Secrets - a Review

Thanks to all for the great feedback.. in all honesty the credit belongs to Mars and to Chris because it was their vision that made this a reality.

Thanks too for the comments on the inserts. In those pictures there is a mixture of original inserts and some of my own.

In the past I have made a number of high quality items available as free downloads for the community but in this case, there are no plans to make these inserts available as a general release. Besides trying to come up with something unique for my book, most of them are worked on antique paper and board and I don't have much of that type of thing in stock. Other items (such as the seal) are one-offs that I have picked up in various places around the world. The seal I got along with some other documents from the 1700's at the markets in Portobello Road in London. They are not specifically accurate for the book but they make for nice eye candy...

regards

MARK

I am very selective when choosing props and there is something especially rewarding when one arrives that exceeds all expectations - and this happened to me recently.

Last year the gifted pair of Marsattack and TazVader published their intentions to produce their own version of the Book of Secrets from the National Treasure franchise and it was clear right from the outset, that their intentions were to produce a prop replica of the highest possible standards.
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=71612&highlight=book+secrets

Its futile to try and convey how just how well produced this prop actually is. The thick leather briefcase cover is hand selected leather with an immaculately embossed seal on the outside. There are also handmade Presidential buttons affixed to the cover - perfectly aged and polished to show just the right amount of wear.

Opening the book the first thing that you notice is how perfectly aged each of the pages is. TazVader - with a little help from Mars - wrote every story and this feat alone is worthy of a Pulitzer because it should be remembered that there are 200 pages here!
For me, the great thing is that the stories vary from being fairly serious to being downright outrageous and there has been a huge amount of attention paid in selecting fonts - some of which are perfect reproductions of the Presidents writing down to the fact that in some cases, the font actually randomly selects different common letters (like "a") to give the impression that it was hand-written and not typed....

The stories are enough to have you reading for weeks and I have found that even today, I still open the book randomly to read them and enjoy...

Then the inserts. Here again nothing has been too much of a challenge and as with the rest of the book's weathering Marsattack has produced some of the most authentically produced replicas around. This book is simply jam packed with the most amazing pieces of archival memorabilia and its clear that here too, the pair exhausted every avenue for great inserts - from futuristic blue-prints to old newspapers and photographs.

For me an additional sweetener is that I have been able to make some of my own ADDITIONAL inserts to drop into my book (Please note: these photographs show a number of my own pieces in addition to some of the original items) and this makes this prop a continual work in progress for ANY collector.

It goes without saying that I'm thrilled and honoured to own one of these extremely limited edition prop replicas and in my opinion, the price for this prop is modest in the extreme - given the colossal amount of work and expertise that has been employed in its production.

This is a wonderful piece of work. Congratulations and many thanks guys.

regards

MARK

I know it’s been many years, but do you have any leads on getting a Book of Secrets replica of this quality?

 

[KramStaar]

I know it’s been many years, but do you have any leads on getting a Book of Secrets replica of this quality?

Sorry mate, I have no idea.