Rubies TOS Phasers cheap, now with pictures

[OB10]

Okay, you know 'em, you hate 'em, but it's that time of the year again. Some Halloween shops have the goofily colored TOS phasers (and Next Gen, and the newer movie), and if this year is anything like last year, on November 1st, they'll all be half off. I picked up a few last year and probably will again this year.

Okay, yeah, it's Rubies. And the paint scheme SUCKS. But the overall shape is much closer than the Playmates phasers of not that many years ago. (Remember how excited we were when those came out?) The Playmates does have 2 sounds and light, and is a bit sturdier. Yes, it's true, the AA versions are completely done unless you want to pimp them out with aluminum parts, and the squirt guns are really nice if you can ignore the trigger or pimp them out with aluminum parts... BUT. The stupidly colored Rubies phaser next week will be around $7.

I've got a couple Playmates, a couple AA, and a couple squirters, so I know how it compares to the other toys, but I had fun sanding off the copyright marks, priming and painting one up in a solid gray. Most of the props I remember seeing for sale back in the day were the solid gray ones, and I had a hankering. (I know AA has since added that one to their line.) I've since turned a piece of acrylic so I can have the emitter done more accurately, but for a crapazoid phaser, I think it's well worth the time. And it's one more cheap phaser I can take to cons and not worry about damaging.

 

[OB10]

Re: Rubies TOS Phasers cheap

And here are some pics of the phaser I did earlier this year, or last year, or something. It's not perfect, and not finished, but I think it's less gnarly than the way it was.

I painted it with a gray primer, then used a Testors satin finish clear coat over it, if I remember correctly. I hand painted the force setting knob on the back of the P2, and the force setting display on the P1. I did't remove the decal or sticker on the P1 display, so even with one coat of paint, you can still see the orange plastic underneath, but you can see the orange tint on the sticker, so I didn't want to over do it. The force setting label came off the 10-turn on the P2 when I was masking it, and I haven't re-goobed that back on. Also haven't painted the side strips or the sorta crispy on top. I also just painted the goofy sorta Phase II style knob on the left side without modifying it, and painted the whole emitter chrome, without adding the acrylic center piece.

The thing runs of 2 AAA batteries, and it's so light, that's enough ballast to allow the phaser to sit on the butt of the pistol grip on a flat, level table.

That's what I've got to show for now. Last night I cut one apart, and will be posting phaser autopsy pictures later. I've seen autopsy pics of the AA version, but I hadn't seen any for the Rubies.

 

[robn1]

Thanks for posting this. The Rubies was copied from the AA but with a few changes. It sure is goofy lookin', but it's a good source for a cheap sound effect.