STAR TREK- TMP wrist communicators (...and now with more TMP goodies!)

[Gregatron]

I’ve developed a system for a working hero body. The outer body connects to the rear body (which is itself glued to the wristband) via magnets (which I measured and modeled for use in creating this design).

The three lens pieces are inserted from inside.

The one remaining variable is how much space would be needed inside for electronics.

 

[Gregatron]

As an aside, my mind is coming back to the tricorders.

Previously, I’d done an extensive amount of work replicating both the static hero and the flip-open hero. For all intents and purposes, the models are complete, and only need a few key tweaks. Dimensionally, the bodies are super-accurate, thanks to detailed measurements and photos of parts cast off an original prop which were supplied to me.

Several key problems/decisions were what caused me to stall:


*Deciding whether to go with the accurate mix of text fonts for the decals, or to idealize them as being uniformly in Eurostile, as the HMS/Roddenberry.com replicas did. Also, the font for some of the markings on the real props has yet to be identified.

*Deciding whether to go full-accurate, or use idealization in terms of specific detailing. For example, the real folding-head hero had different decals and details than the more well-known non-folding heroes. And the Spock, Decker, and McCoy non-folding heroes all have variations in details and decals. The non-folding heroes didn’t have opening data chip doors or card slots, and the real folding-head hero was clunkier and less idealized than my model.


Here’s where I left off at, with the folding hero and the static Spock hero. The marking details are just to work out sizing and placement for the decals, and will not be physical details on the final models.

It’s just hard to decide. I could do a replica of one non-folding hero and stick to strict accuracy (no opening door, and a decal for the card slot), or it could idealize it. I could replicate the folding hero as it was, or do an idealized version with the specific decals of one of the better-known heroes.

 

[WinstonWolf359]

My general philosophy is to either make as close of a replica as possible to one specific prop, or make a super idealized version that uses the best/most interesting features and/or cleanest appearance of a range of props.

I tend to consider close up handle-ability and wow factor when it comes to replicas. So I'd probably want to have/like to see a replica that has as many of the moving/functioning features incorporated into a single prop, and internal consistency when it comes to text fonts etc.

 

[Gregatron]

My general philosophy is to either make as close of a replica as possible to one specific prop, or make a super idealized version that uses the best/most interesting features and/or cleanest appearance of a range of props.

I tend to consider close up handle-ability and wow factor when it comes to replicas. So I'd probably want to have/like to see a replica that has as many of the moving/functioning features incorporated into a single prop, and internal consistency when it comes to text fonts etc.

Yeah, that’s kind of what I think, in this case. Depending on cost/materials, etc, I may well do a Super Hero—folding head, opening chip door, lights, idealized decals—, and one more faithful to the non-folding heroes.

 

[Gregatron]

Playing around a bit, and reevaluating the work that was done, two years ago.

Here’s the Decker hero as I left it, with its different/simplified scanner trench details and different assembly of detailing on the top of the head.

And here’s a theoretical Super Hero, with folding head, opening chip cabinet, and simulated decals from the Spock hero’s scanner trench and (ostensibly) McCoy hero’s top head.

Nowhere near the point to seriously consider it, but installing electronics would be a tricky venture, since there are lights in the half of the head which rotates. Feeding wires into it while juggling the hinge mechanism and some other factors would be difficult.

When it comes to the onscreen props, the Folding Head Hero is seen twice in the film, and is used by Spock and Scotty. It has radically different scanner trench details and head decals compared to what most people know.

The Spock non-folding hero gets the most screentime, followed by the Decker. What is ostensibly the McCoy hero (used when he scans the Ilia-Probe) is apparently the one seen in the prop reference photos (side view, top view, 3/4 top view) that we all know.


The Spock hero’s scanner trench details have solid reference, but the top of the head less so.

The specific details of the Decker prop’s head have been made available to me via private photos which can’t be shared. And, between the Decker hero and the Spock hero, the Decker hero has the nicer-looking scanner trench decal (the one also seen on the phaser), with the white bordering and the sides not abruptly trimmed off, as opposed the Spock hero’s negative space border (or gray border, since the base tricorder color is visible inside that negative space) and trimmed edges.

The McCoy hero has the best reference images, but the scanner trench details can’t be seen in any of them.


Realistically speaking, any version I try to replicate (except maybe the Decker version) would require some degree of guesswork and/or idealization.

 

[Gregatron]

I just made a discovery.


I was again skimming the TMP 4K for reference, when I noticed something. I literally got up, walked to the TV, and twisted my head at an angle to get a better look at this shot, then frame-by-framed it:

For some years, now, people (including me, in this very thread) have believed that the comm Kirk wears in this and various other scenes is some unique variant, possibly with a blue/white UFP logo on it.

For example, the build in this thread—

Star Trek TMP Wrist Coms

Heres a few wrist coms made from Eric's great kits. One is the hero and the other was worn by Kirk in the long shots. These were tougher than I thought but Im happy with how they turned out.

www.therpf.com

—and the shout-out in an old Samsung commercial both feature this mythical variant.

It’s wrong. It’s all wrong.

It never existed.



Thanks to 4K resolution, I’ve solved this mystery.

Kirk’s seemingly-unique comm is not some special variant. In fact, it’s virtually identical to the Ilia auction comm, but with several key differences:


* The white graphic on the faceplate is almost certainly (I’m 95% sure) a “5”, with the thin white border surrounding it, most of which appears scratched off. The remaining border is mostly visible on the left side of the “5”.

* The two vertical “buttons” below the faceplate (missing on the Ilia comm, but circled in red in the image below for a point of reference) appear to be black, and larger than the standard decals. Although it’s possible that these are the standard silver/gray decals, but appear darker onscreen due to lighting and angle. But the size difference compared to the standard decals seems noticable.

* The decal on the right side of the lower comm face is the exact type seen on the Ilia comm, below—complete with the white rectangles and the tiny black arrows inside them. However, 2 and 1/2 of the horiztonal “buttons” have been scratched off (see the red scribbles on the photo below). There is no UFP or Earth decal. That’s an optical illusion. It’s just a standard wrist comm/Perscan belt buckle decal, but damaged.

 

[Gregatron]

As an aside, I suspect that the “buttons” (on either side of the vertical panel line) on the Kirk comm are the inverse of the ones seen on this production-made piece:

Star Trek - The Motion Picture Wrist Communicator (stunt) original movie prop

This is a background/stunt Wrist Communicator from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. At least it is the important part of the Comm. The bracelet part is missing. It is (apparently) imp ...

www.yourprops.com

On this production-made comm shell, the same decals (black rectangles with rounded-end rectangular negative space cutouts) which can also be seen on the tricorders were applied. I submit that the Kirk comm used the inverse of these markings—that is, the positive versions (black rounded-end rectangular “buttons”) of the negative space “buttons” on the tricorder decals.


The surviving and/or auctioned props often feature missing or damaged decals. But, it appears that most comms simply used two of the “buttons” from the row of four seen on the lower right of the comms, rotated them 90 degrees, and put them on either side of the vertical panel line.

Here are two with reasonably intact decals. The two vertical “buttons” appear to be the same color, shape, and width as the row of four on the lower half of the comms.

The Kirk comm’s vertical buttons, while identical in shape, look much bigger and darker, and so the inverse tricorder button decals seem to fit the bill.



I’ve inverted the colors and circled the buttons in red on one of the YourProps images to show what I mean. The onscreen Kirk comm looks to have black vertical button decals akin to this.

 

[AnubisGuard]

Regardless of accuracy, I really like the Samsung commercial interpretation of that design.

 

[Gregatron]

Regardless of accuracy, I really like the Samsung commercial interpretation of that design.

Agreed. I’m actually a little sad that it’s not a real variant!

 

[Gregatron]

…like I said, the only good photos we have are of suriviving comms which mostly have scratched or missing decals.

But here’s a comparison of a Sulu dummy (screencap zoomed and rotated) with the Kirk version. Even when you account for viewing angle/lens distortion/lighting, the Sulu comm (which has a damaged, borderless “A” on the faceplate, and the decal variant with black rectangles on the lower body, instead of the white triangles with black arrows inside them) clearly has smaller and thinner button decals, in line with the auction versions.

As as aside, I’ve been looking into options for getting my models printed. There are many available materials to choose from, of course, from resin to ABS plastic, etc. Pricing for these materials ranges from ridiculously cheap ($5 or so) to still reasonable ($20 or so per comm body).

I’m leaning toward resin or “durable” resin. More on the expensive end, but also more accurate and easier to work with.

The tricky part would be the decals, which require both Alps white and metallic printing. My Perscan decals were custom-printed by a small business, so I’ll have to check with them, again. If that doesn’t work out, I’m not sure who else would be able to do it.

 

[pengbuzz]

...

 

[Gregatron]

An experiment:


The overall profile shape of my comm model is based on one of the vacuformed stunts. As noted, the various vacuformed and resin comm bodies were all trimmed differently.

The resin comms, however, seem to have more “pinched” bodied at either end, and rounder edges.

So, I modified my design to better reflect this look. My previous model on left, the new version on right:

At the end of the day, I find the model I already built to be a cleaner and more aesthetically-pleasing look. But what do y’all think?

 

[AnubisGuard]

Agreed. I like the vaccu-form profile better.

 

[Gregatron]

Agreed. I like the vaccu-form profile better.

I suspect that the vacuformed version’s shape is actually closer to the shape of the bucks that the plastic was pulled over, and which were presumably molded to create the resin dummies.

You can see subtle and not-so-subtle variances in the shapes from one resin dummy to another, probably because they had to both clean up/trim the resin and also install the wristbands (unless the bands were actually cast into the resin).


And here’s that “5” Kirk dummy, again. Note that it’s relatively thick compared to the other dummies, and that its profile seems closer to the vacuformed version.

 

[AnubisGuard]

Given that there were about 30,000 different props all representing the same thing, I think you're well within reason to pull whichever bits you like best to create an idealized version. It wouldn't be a Factory Entertainment-type mistake of mashing together different hero props without regard to what they represent in-universe– these are all supposed to be identical.

 

[Gregatron]

Given that there were about 30,000 different props all representing the same thing, I think you're well within reason to pull whichever bits you like best to create an idealized version. It wouldn't be a Factory Entertainment-type mistake of mashing together different hero props without regard to what they represent in-universe– these are all supposed to be identical.

Pretty much.

It’s the eternal question of prop replicas—warts-and-all accurate, or idealized/in-universe?

 

[Gregatron]

As I’ve gone through the 4K version of the film for reference, I figured I’d mention some observations of the dummy comms worn by various characters. This will prove useful if I end up making a few replicas of these from the new model.

In point of fact, there’s now enough data to make reasonably accurate versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Ilia (based on the auction version attributed to Persis Khambatta) dummy comms, and a Decker Dummy Hero (as seen late in the film).


It’s become quite clear that the actors mixed and matched dummy comms from scene to scene, and even shot to shot.


Kirk: Bordered “5” with white rectangles/black arrows, “R” with black rectangles.

Spock: “E” with black rectangles.

Sulu: “A” with black rectangles. Also worn by McCoy in publicity stills.



As an aside, I also ran a relatively low-quality image of an original Brick Price decal in my files through an AI enhancement app to sharpen and restore it, so I can make tricorder decals.

 

[Gregatron]

More tweaking. The Decker hero, flip-top Super Hero, and the latter with the head folded.

 

[Gregatron]

Decal work.

I found another contender for the big Kirk “5” buttons. My initial assumption was that they were the inverse of the decals seen on the McCoy hero tricorder—

—but this decal seen below is even larger, and may well be the one:

I’ve recreated both in the proper scale. Here they are next to the standard Perscan/wrist comm decals for comparison. My measurements indicate that both should fit on my dummy model, although the best way to know for sure is to get a comm printed in resin, then print the decals on regluar paper to test-fit them.

As it is, I plan on printing both the comms and tricorders before finalizing the scale and details of the decals.

 

[WinstonWolf359]

I suspect that the vacuformed version’s shape is actually closer to the shape of the bucks that the plastic was pulled over, and which were presumably molded to create the resin dummies.

You can see subtle and not-so-subtle variances in the shapes from one resin dummy to another, probably because they had to both clean up/trim the resin and also install the wristbands (unless the bands were actually cast into the resin).


And here’s that “5” Kirk dummy, again. Note that it’s relatively thick compared to the other dummies, and that its profile seems closer to the vacuformed version.

One thing that occurs to me is that the wrist comm, unlike almost every other prop, should be comfortable when worn. Perhaps one of the reasons there were so many slight and not-so-slight variations is due to issues/complaints from the actors wearing them, so they kept trying different things as they went. The differences might not be total for looks, but a practical change.

What I'm saying is it might be worth making a mock up of (perhaps) two of the possible profiles and see which version isn't painful to wear.