I gotta say the 'stand' for it sucks. I'm really disappointed by that, I was expecting something a little more substantial, a plaque or something. I got the card for it which I figure I'll integrate in some display, but is anyone thinking on manufacturing a better display? Since this isn't really supposed to be played with much to protect the finish, I want something worth displaying it in.
As far as the stand goes, Neill at MFX has explained that they were going for a certain effect with it. They intentionally designed the acrylic stand to be minimalist, and designed it to give the illusion of the Sonic Screwdriver floating there in mid-air. :cool
The only problem with that in practice? The acrylic they used is MUCH too glossy, creating glare off of some of the surfaces of the block of acrylic, which destroys the illusion. No matter what angle I view it from, there's always some glare somewhere, destroying the "floating" illusion. :unsure
It's still a cool looking stand, though, simple and elegant, so I'm still okay with it.
As for display ideas, here's how I'm displaying mine. First picture is without the flash, second is with it. Took me a couple minutes to find the right angle to shoot that pic from, so that I didn't get horrible glare from the flash.
What you're looking at is an inexpensive, plastic display case for 1:24 scale model cars. I bought a couple of these at Wal*Mart a few years ago. Since the whole thing is clear, including the base, I figured it goes perfectly with the included display stand. :cool
These display cases work marvelously for smaller props. The 1:24 scale ones are perfect for the Sonic Screwdriver, Star Trek communicators, and other similarly small props. The larger 1:18 scale cases are perfect for most lightsaber hilts (I've got my 2 lightsaber hilts that I wear with my Jedi costume displayed in a 1:18 scale case, been displaying them that way for a few years now!) :cool
The ONLY problem with these inexpensive cases is that they're getting harder to find, at least where I live, anyway. It used to be that here in the States, you could walk into almost any Wal*Mart, Toys "Я" Us, or KB Toys, and pick some up. Sadly, KB Toys went out of business during the Christmas season of 2008, and Wally World and TRU have both stopped carrying these. :thumbsdown
They can sometimes be found at hobby shops, but even that's getting harder where I live. Guess I'll have to start looking for them online or something. :unsure
And I know that some of you are probably thinking that a prop this nice and this expensive deserves a museum quality display case. Well, if you have a couple hundred bucks to get one custom made to fit it, by all means, knock yourself out! But with all the expensive purchases I've made lately, and an even more expensive vacation that I took, I can't afford something as nice as the cases Master Replicas used to offer. And to my eyes, these look just as nice for a fraction of the price!
Looking at the pictures I also realized my sonic had the head on wrong! One of the four 'brace bars' in the head was lined up perpendicular to the slider slot. I have emailed Martina and asked for an exchange as I know this will pester the poo out of me down the line.
There's only one problem here, NMR: Until we can lay our eyes on the ACTUAL filming prop they were replicating, how can we tell what the "right" alignment is? :confused
We've seen pictures of A filming prop, but we have no way of knowing if it's the actual one that was loaned to Neill and his team to work from. So we can't really go by those pictures for determining what's "right". :unsure
Perhaps Neill could offer some insights on this one? :confused
I will say that the alignment on mine seems to match up almost exactly to the alignment seen on the 2 prototypes that MFX showed us a picture of awhile back...
...so I'm going to assume that's how it's
supposed to look until I'm told otherwise. Makes me that much happier with my lovely prop, at any rate!
