Star Fleet Research Startup & Phaser Prototype (TOS)

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If you know Brad Nelson, and can contact him ( I am not a social media user, by choice ), then kindly ask him if he remembers ever going to a small, three day, local CT convention ,way back, sometime in 1979, just months before the premiere Star Trek The Motion Picture.
This would help to give credence to my experience and story.
I know this was a long time ago, but maybe he might remember attending this small Trek convention.

Thank You
Calling him later this evening. But I can almost guarantee he was at your convention, in uniform, and with Admiral Bill Hickey. Like Apollo mentioned, Brad mostly went to the NY cons because selling and making phasers was his full time for profit business. And he was BUSY. This however was the time just after Brad made the phasers for Roddenberry's then up and coming Phase II TV series which, was cancelled to film The Motion Picture. Good times indeed!
 
The images I posted were phasers in for repair over the years but specifically to highlight the inside of the body cavity with the circuit removed. Did Brad ever pop the top off of one of his phasers to show off his handiwork, particularly to someone such as yourself with an engineering and design background? Sure, quite possible. But we'll leave it at that as these replies are now taking the original subject of the prototype phaser off course. I suggest starting your own thread on your early convention experiences. Thank you!
Just one more posting for an image.
I found this image on the Web.
The color scheme of this Brad Nelson PHASER ( prop copy/replica? ) is very close to the PHASER I saw and handled.
A light blue ( robin’s egg blue ) color, as seen in this image.
The outside texture, is not right, though.
The one I handled clearly had a painted, but rough textured, sandpaper-like, sand finish to the exterior finish.
IMG_7261.jpeg

My reason for posting any of this is that I had thought, for many, many years, that genuine Brad Nelson PHASERS, at one time, in production, had been made with a metal/aluminium bodies, as I seen and experienced, and one of the reasons I have always wanted to own one of these.

I'll stop posting about this here, now.

Once again, I sign up into a new forum/discussion site, for something I have strong interests in, only to feel like some kimd of outsider/outllier, right off the bat.

Maybe someone here will post something, at a future date, that will help to corroborate/confirm my experience, all those years, ago.
20/20 hindsight, maybe I should have pushed my parents more to help me purchase this prop, way back then, as I would have owned this for proof.
I wonder if someone actually owns this aluminium body/grip BN PHASER, but just has no idea what they have and just do not know about. this RPF community Website to be able to discuss what they have.
Someone, out in the wild/world, has this alumimium body/handle example.
 
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Calling him later this evening. But I can almost guarantee he was at your convention, in uniform, and with Admiral Bill Hickey. Like Apollo mentioned, Brad mostly went to the NY cons because selling and making phasers was his full time for profit business. And he was BUSY. This however was the time just after Brad made the phasers for Roddenberry's then up and coming Phase II TV series which, was cancelled to film The Motion Picture. Good times indeed!
He wore NO uniform the day we were there.
I remember he was dressed in normal clothing.
No type of Trek uniform.
He was very, VERY nice to my friend and I and this was a very cool and positive experience and conversation!
Lasted about 20-30 minutes, or so. May have been a little longer. We both talked with him for a while.
There wasn’t too many people, at his table, at the time we saw him and his PHASER prop.
My BF and I were really stoked up and excited about seeing this and wondered how he could only charge $150 U.S.D. for a metal/aluminium body PHASER pistol.
I should have asked him if I could purchase the one he was demonstrating at the convention.
I don’t remember if I actually did ask him, or not. I just remember my BF and I asking about the purchase price.
 
This was a small, local three-day Trek convention.
Mr, Nelson was there and had this PHASER.
It was exactly as I described it!
He opened it up for both of us to see and he carefully handed it to me with the open electronics, so my BF and I could get a closer look.
I was barely 17 years of age, back then.
I told Mr. Nelson, that I worked for a engineering design and manufacturing company and worked there in companies draughting and design room.
I know what aluminium looks and feels like and I can, also, tell when an item has been casted, especially metals that have been sand casted.
Sand casted parts are left with a rough, “sand-like” feeling texture from the sand and sand casting process.
Why would he have a third party ripped-off aluminium made unauthorised copy of his PHASER design?
He had this and it was a very impressive functioning prop.
I am sure my BF and I were not the only ones who had seen this.
I wish I had photos of this, from back then, but I hardly ever take a camera anywhere, in those days.
Partly, because my photography skills, way back were poor and I didn't like paying for film and developement of pictures that maybe garbage.
It was 1979, no personal computers, no VCRs/CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray players, no cell or smart phones waaay back then.
All I can say is that the memory of this has stayed with my BF and I, for all of these years!
When we talk Trek and Trek tech and props, this fully functioning, electronic, aluminium PHASER came up in conversations over and over and over.
This prop came up in discussions, a lot!
I am not making any of this up.
We both saw what we saw.
No mistakes about this.
What we saw was a Mr. Brad Nelson, at a small, local, Connecticut Trek convention, taking orders or names and addresses, ( maybe even phone numbers? ) for his PHASER and he only had the one PHASER and it was made out of casted aluminium.
I believe, but not 100% certain, but this Trek convention was put together and coordinated by a Mr. Jeffrey Maynard, who had a Star Trek merchandise business, in CT, for a long time, called New Eye Studios.
I believe he was the one who coordinated everything to put together this small, three day Trek convention event.
There were lots of sci-fi and Trek goers to this venue.
I am sure others, that went to this small convention, saw this prop, from Mr. Nelson, as well!
I really wanted one of these after I saw it, but it just wasn't meant to be early in my working life.

Today, I have a very nice professionally built, detailed and painted solid resin replica of Mr. Nelson's PHASER, built from a kit that was available in the early to mid 1990's, that I purchased a few years, ago.
I only has electronics in it for lightimg and for the battery power level meter. No sound.
This kit came with everything need to build a replica of Mr. Nelson’s PHASER and that included all of the machined metal ( aluminium ) parts, acrylic parts, the taller height top rear dial/knob.
It is very high quality build that I purchased and proud to own, but looks and feels nothing like the PHASER I held in my hands all of those years, ago.
Is it possible Mr. Nelson dedided to produced a prototype, one-off cast aluminium P2 body and handle on his own?
Maybe he was thinking about making his PHASER design out of aluminium, at that time knowing about the Star Fleet Command version being made from aluminium? ( As I stated, my SFC PHASER pistol prop was NOT made of any metal body ).
Possible?
Is it possible he purchased one of Star Fleet Command props, non-functioning, aluminium PHASER pistol props, modified it and inserted all of his electronics into it?
Then repainted it in a different color scheme?
That seems very plausible from what some of you are stating here.
A bunch of people have some faulty or inaccurate or missing information on this.
I saw and handled what I saw and handled. So did my best friend.
It was a fully electrically functioning Brad Nelson PHASER pistol made from cast aluminium for the P2 body and handle and some sort of textured plastic material for the smaller P1 hand PHASER that locked in place and acted as a cover for all of the internal electronics.
No doubts, at all, on these details.
None.
Again never heard of what you are describing and I was in the trenches back in those days selling Brads Phasers and Bills uniforms

Im sure Brad can and will clear this up.

I knew Jeff Maynard very well for years

Him and Bill are missed by a lot of people as they have passed away
 
He wore NO uniform the day we were there.
I remember he was dressed in normal clothing.
No type of Trek uniform.
He was very, VERY nice to my friend and I and this was a very cool and positive experiencd and conversation!
My BF and I were really stoked up about seeing this and wondered how he could only charge $150 U.S.D. for a metal/aluminium body PHASER pistol.
I should have asked him if I could purchase the one he was demonstrating at the convention.
I don’t remember if II actually did ask him, or not. I just remember my BF and I asking about the purchase price.
Brad never sold his demos
 
Just one more posting for an image.
I found this image on the Web.
The color scheme of this Brad Nelson PHASER ( prop copy/replica? ) is very close to the PHASER I saw and handled.
A light blue ( robin’s egg blue ) color, as seen in this image.
The outside texture, is not right, though.
The one I handled clearly had a painted, but rough textured, sandpaper-like, sand finish to the exterior finish.
View attachment 1833745
My reason for posting any of this is that I had thought, for many, many years, that genuine Brad Nelson PHASERS, at one time, in production, had been made with a metal/aluminium bodies, as I seen and experienced, and one of the reasons I have always wanted to own one of these.

I'll stop posting about this here, now.

Once again, I sign up into a new forum/discussion site, for something I have strong interests in, only to feel like some kimd of outsider/outllier, right off the bat.

Maybe someone here will post something, at a future date, that will help to corroborate/confirm my experience, all those years, ago.
20/20 hindsight, maybe I should have pushed my parents more to help me purchase this prop, way back then, as I would have owned this for proof.
I wonder if someone actually owns this aluminium body/grip BN PHASER, but just has no idea what they have and just do not know about. this RPF community Website to be able to discuss what they have.
Someone, out in the wild/world, has this alumimium body/handle example.
Absolutely no need to feel like an outsider. You recall something and feel strongly about it. This is a great, welcoming community with a lot of experts on all sorts of subject matter. My expertise happens to be vintage TOS fan-produced replicas with Nelsons being a specialty. You are correct about the later finishes. They were textured versus the earlier smooth paint jobs. This was one of the requests Gene Roddenberry made for the phasers Brad made for Phase II. Textured/matte finish, shorter rear knob, the chrome lined aspirator Mylar, and a shorter & more squared off trigger box. These modifications stayed throughout the remainder of Brad's functioning phaser production run. Also, Brad always used Krylon 1318 gray primer for the body color but over the years the formula changed and so did the shade of gray with some indeed looking blue/gray. The lighting of the picture can also change how the color looks versus in person.
 
My partner just got off the phone with Brad and will jump into the discussion shortly. It's all good, no worries Nascence! Stick around and I'll post a new thread with more details on the Starfleet Command cast aluminum phasers.
 
This is Anthony Russo creator of the Copycats.org website, and Topguntech is my partner in our endeavor in that..I just called Brad personally and asked him if at any time, he made his phasers out of sand casted aluminum. His direct answer to me was a resounding "no"....His molds, ( which I took pictures of when I visited him in 2022 I believe) were RTV rubber, with which he poured the Marine fiberglass resin into to make his phaser bodies They were always made of marine fiberglass. And of course he mentioned that Jim Kirk was the culprit that copied his phaser and had his copy made out of sand casted aluminum, with the vacuum formed plastic hand unit..As the decades go on since we are not young men, the memory can fade and we can think we remember certain details, but in this case we got our answer from the maker himself.
 
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Appreciate that you posted here Anthony Russo.
My pleasure...some time ago, a recaster and reseller that still hawks his wares today, thought he knew more than Brad did, and said the reason that Kirk made his phasers with three rear fins instead for four as Brad did, was because Brad's phaser had 3 fins originally..Even though all of us that were well versed in Brad's phaser told him that was untrue....He was still not convinced...So I had to call Brad even though I knew I was correct...Brad of course confirmed that his mold had 4 fins molded in from the wood master from day one, so there never was a 3 rear fin BN phaser....some people are so behind in the race, they think they are ahead....and that hawker still did not concede....LSD can make you think alot of things, I guess..lol
 
My pleasure...some time ago, a recaster and reseller that still hawks his wares today, thought he knew more than Brad did, and said the reason that Kirk made his phasers with three rear fins instead for four as Brad did, was because Brad's phaser had 3 fins originally..Even though all of us that were well versed in Brad's phaser told him that was untrue....He was still not convinced...So I had to call Brad even though I knew I was correct...Brad of course confirmed that his mold had 4 fins molded in from the wood master from day one, so there never was a 3 rear fin BN phaser....some people are so behind in the race, they think they are ahead....and that hawker still did not concede....LSD can make you think alot of things, I guess..lol
My BF and I saw and handled what we saw an handled.
Does anyone think that this Jim Kirk guy may have/might have mis-represented himself and stated his name was Brad?
I never got, nor ever remember hearing a last name.
Brad is a common name. He just introduced himself as Brad.
It was ONLY waaaay later in my life, that I put this Brad guy’s name together when I later found out that is was a Mr. Bradley Nelson, who created this particular PHASER pistol design.
I never got any info from him, but he took my BF and I home mailing address. He asked for a home phone number, I gave him my parents’ home phone number, but my BF didn’t.
I never got anything in the mail and never recieved any phone calls from this gentleman.
If this was Jim Kirk, he managed to put working electronics ( maybe gutted from one of Brad's own PHASERS? ) and everthing worked.
It turned on made sounds and had the front strobing light bulb in the front nozzle, had working middle light on the top of the small PHASER 1 and the power/battery meter was working, which I thought was juat waaaay cool!
I do not how or what this person did to get electronics to work in an aluminium body prop, but my BF and I both handled this PHASER for a little bit of time each and neither one of us got any type of electrical shock from the prop.
I have no idea how all of electronics worked, at that time, or how he got all of it to fit, so neatly into that small cavity inside of the PHASER pistol body.
There are plenty of ways to isolate electricity put into metal object, though.
Maybe he used some sort of insulating materials inside of his aluminium body PHASER.
The cavity inside of the small P1 PHASER area was certainly deep enough to accomodate putting in some electrical insulating material.
I just, recently, called my BF ( we are 60 years old, now ) and though he is a classic Trek fan, he never really had any interests in collecting any of the Star Trek’s toys or fan made props or anything else fan made.
He barely remembered this experience, today, and he doesn't remember much, today, but DID seem to recall the fact that he remembered holding this prop, in his hand, and it feeling fairly heavy to hold, feeling like what a “real” PHASER might actually feel like or real gun would feel like, being made of metal!
Obviously, with me collecting, Star Trek props, at an early age ( my first ST non-working props were from Star Fleet Command props and, a little later, an early Ed Miarecki non-working, PHASER II pistol with removable small hand PHASER, made of solid resin, this us how I got hooked on resin material made props ), this aluminium body PHASER had a much, MUCG bigger impact on me than it did for him.
My BF was more into collecting higher end spacecraft models, from Star Trek, Space:1999 and 2001:A Space Odyssey and, later, from Firefly.
I am, definitely, a Star Trek, Sci-fi, tech prop guy.
This is my story/experience and I am sticking with all of it!
I guess I have been the only one obssessed by this elusive prop item, for all these many years.
The aluminium PHASER II, I saw/experienced and handled, was just a super cool and awesome experience, for me, and one I have never forgotten.
I just wish I had some proof of this, elusive, item.
 
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Hey Guys!
Maybe I met this Jim Kirk guy instaed?
I just found a posting and thread, here in the RPF
I hope I post the right posting link


His flyer shows a PHASER II pistol with lights and sound for $99.99!
Everyone has stated it was HIS company making the aluminium body PHASER II pistols
He was selling assembled electronic ones and ones with electronics you had to assemble yourself, as a kit!
Is this who I, actually, met and is THIS the PHASER II pistol I saw/experienced and handled?
There are still differences, though.
I, distinctly, remember the color of the body being a light blue and not gray and it had a more pronouned sand texture than what I can see in the images, in that thread post.
It had that stupid looking, automotive rainbow sticky tape, for the small P1 hand PHASER heat aspiration plate/sight cover.
And, for the top rear knob, had that “classic” Brad Nelson PHASER pistol top black knob with the silver, printer number base ring.

Take a look at this posting and all of the thread messages.
Maybe this is who my BF and I met?
Why would this guy come all the way from CA. to a 3-day, local, small Trek convention, in a small suburb of CT.?
I think this is what I saw, but he raised his pricing for this fully assembled aluminium body PHASER II pistol, with elctronics, lights and sounds, to $150.00 U.S.D..
Whaddya all think?
Is this, most likely who I, actually, met and what I saw and handled?
 
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My BF and I saw and handled what we saw an handled.
Does anyone think that this Jim Kirk guy may have/might have mis-represented himself and stated his name was Brad?
I never got, nor ever remember hearing a last name.
Brad is a common name. He just introduced himself as Brad.
It was ONLY waaaay later in my life, that I put this Brad guy’s name together when I later found out that is was a Mr. Bradley Nelson, who created this particular PHASER pistol design.
I never got any info from him, but he took my BF and I home mailing address. He asked for a home phone number, I gave him my parents’ home phone number, but my BF didn’t.
I never got anything in the mail and never recieved any phone calls from this gentleman.
If this was Jim Kirk, he managed to put working electronics ( maybe gutted from one of Brad's own PHASERS? ) and everthing worked.
It turned on made sounds and had the front strobing light bulb in the front nozzle, had working middle light on the top of the small PHASER 1 and the power/battery meter was working, which I thought was juat waaaay cool!
I do not how or what this person did to get electronics to work in an aluminium body prop, but my BF and I both handled this PHASER for a little bit of time each and neither one of us got any type of electrical shock from the prop.
I have no idea how all of electronics worked, at that time, or how he got all of it to fit, so neatly into that small cavity inside of the PHASER pistol body.
There are plenty of ways to isolate electricity put into metal object, though.
Maybe he used some sort of insulating materials inside of his aluminium body PHASER.
The cavity inside of the small P1 PHASER area was certainly deep enough to accomodate putting in some electrical insulating material.
I just, recently, called my BF ( we are 60 years old, now ) and though he is a classic Trek fan, he never really had any interests in collecting any of the Star Trek’s toys or fan made props or anything else fan made.
He barely remembered this experience, today, and he doesn't remember much, today, but DID seem to recall the fact that he remembered holding this prop, in his hand, and it feeling fairly heavy to hold, feeling like what a “real” PHASER might actually feel like or real gun would feel like, being made of metal!
Obviously, with me collecting, Star Trek props, at an early age ( my first ST non-working props were from Star Fleet Command props and, a little later, an early Ed Miarecki non-working, PHASER II pistol with removable small hand PHASER, made of solid resin, this us how I got hooked on resin material made props ), this aluminium body PHASER had a much, MUCG bigger impact on me than it did for him.
My BF was more into collecting higher end spacecraft models, from Star Trek, Space:1999 and 2001:A Space Odyssey and, later, from Firefly.
I am, definitely, a Star Trek, Sci-fi, tech prop guy.
This is my story/experience and I am sticking with all of it!
I guess I have been the only one obssessed by this elusive prop item, for all these many years.
The aluminium PHASER II, I saw/experienced and handled, was just a super cool and awesome experience, for me, and one I have never forgotten.
I just wish I had some proof of this, elusive, item.
All I can say is what Brad told me on our phone call yesterday...That he NEVER EVER made, or installed his xenon strobe circuit in any aluminum body phaser..In addition, I am Brad's historian....I have pretty much seen photographed, and handled every version Brad made, including the ones he made for Gene Roddenberry. There is still an interview I did of him thats still available to read from back in the late 80's...I visited him numerous times during the time he was making phasers and saw his entire operation..I cannot speak on what you saw..and again, the ONLY one that ever made a phaser out of sand casted aluminum that resembles Brad's phaser was Jim Kirk...and you recall that this phaser you saw made "sounds"..brad's only made ONE sound, and then the overload sound....nothing more.....So once again no offense, what I think you saw was a Jim Kirk phaser with electronics the owner may have installed...Brad Nelson also NEVER installed his strobe circuit in anyone else's phaser bodies...ever...
 
Hey Guys!
Maybe I met this Jim Kirk guy instaed?
I just found a posting and thread, here in the RPF
I hope I post the right posting link


His flyer shows a PHASER II pistol with lights and sound for $99.99!
Everyone has stated it was HIS company making the aluminium body PHASER II pistols
He was selling assembled electronic ones and ones with electronics you had to assemble yourself, as a kit!
Is this who I, actually, met and is THIS the PHASER II pistol I saw/experienced and handled?
There are still differences, though.
I, distinctly, remember the color of the body being a light blue and not gray and it had a more pronouned sand texture than what I can see in the images, in that thread post.
It had that stupid looking, automotive rainbow sticky tape, for the small P1 hand PHASER heat aspiration plate/sight cover.
And, for the top rear knob, had that “classic” Brad Nelson PHASER pistol top black knob with the silver, printed number base ring.

Take a look at this posting and all of the thread messages.
Maybe this is who my BF and I met?
Why would this guy come all the way from CA. to a 3-day, local, small Trek convention, in a small suburb of CT.?
I think this is what I saw, but he raised his pricing for this fully assembled aluminium body PHASER II pistol, with elctronics, lights and sounds, to $150.00 U.S.D..
Whaddya all think?
Is this, most likely who I, actually, met and what I saw and handled?
 
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All I can say is what Brad told me on our phone call yesterday...That he NEVER EVER made, or installed his xenon strobe circuit in any aluminum body phaser..In addition, I am Brad's historian....I have pretty much seen photographed, and handled every version Brad made, including the ones he made for Gene Roddenberry. There is still an interview I did of him thats still available to read from back in the late 80's...I visited him numerous times during the time he was making phasers and saw his entire operation..I cannot speak on what you saw..and again, the ONLY one that ever made a phaser out of sand casted aluminum that resembles Brad's phaser was Jim Kirk...and you recall that this phaser you saw made "sounds"..brad's only made ONE sound, and then the overload sound....nothing more.....So once again no offense, what I think you saw was a Jim Kirk phaser with electronics the owner may have installed...Brad Nelson also NEVER installed his strobe circuit in anyone else's phaser bodies...ever...
I am going to state now is that, apparently, I met a guy, maybe someone named Jim Kirk ( said his name was Brad, though, again, pretty good recollection about all of these details ) and he was taking orders for these fully assembled with electronic lights and sounds aluminium body PHASER II pistol props.
Had to be someone else, other than Mr. Nelson, who was selling these.
This had to be what I saw and handled. Seemed very well built, very sturdily bulit, solid and heavy feeling PHASER pstol prop, nonetheless.
I would have, for sure, liked to own one of these, back then.
Never knew anything about Brad Nelson, and his, original PHASER II pistol props, at all, back then, I guess.
Never met Mr. Nelson, at all, but someone else.
I met this guy and his metal/aluminium Brad Nelson PHASER II pistol copies.
Still am very impressed by the fact he could offer a nearly all metal prop for $100-150 U.S.D., at that time!
I still wish I had one of these.
I never received anything in the mail, from this gentleman, nor any phone calls.
So, I never got a later opportunity to ever purchase one of these all those many years, ago.
Still wish I had one of these.
They were very cool and that experience has stuck with me.
 
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