V For Vendetta Wire Tap Scrambler

[Kylash]

Ive had one of these for about 2 weeks, picked it up at the register at Walgreens cause it openned up all cool and unfolds itself. It's a pocket sized book light for $2.99. Just went and finally saw V For Vendetta today and saw they used it as a prop. It's the scrambler that the police and V use to scramble wiretaps when theyre talking about sensetive stuff to make sure no one is listening. It appears all they did was maybepaint some areas black and change the bright white LED to a red one.

 

[dr_slurpee]

Cool find. Does anyone have any screen grabs of it in the film? Just in case there are more than one model of these?

Any chance you could get more Kylash?

 

[Kylash]

i could definetly get more Screencaps would be great though.

 

[nickytea]

They also shortened the body length in half, and yes, it does appear to be painted a darked gray/bronzish color.(except for the crome top piece.
Ive been having the darndest time finding caps...no surpise, its only shown twice, maybe three times in the pic.

 

[SurferGeek]

I've seen those at Brookstone as well, although I don't remember the price.

 

[hydin]

im heading to the store later on tonight to get some shopping done. whats the brand name on these and ill see if my local one carries em as well.

thanks.
chris

 

[Kylash]

no brand name or copyright, they were just in a box near the register at Walgreens

 

[Mike J.]

Don't ask, don't tell


-Mike

 

[dr_slurpee]

Well to me it looks like that's the right light. Another cheap prop.

 

[Adar Tallon]

Originally posted by SurferGeek@Mar 25 2006, 11:52 PM
I've seen those at Brookstone as well, although I don't remember the price.

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Yeah I saw them there too. Thought they were more expensive than just $4 that's for sure.

 

[JediCarl]

I just remembered that I got 2 of these in my stocking this past Christmas.

Time to do some screen-accurate conversions.

 

[CriticalMass]

Nice find Kylash.

Time to hit up the local walgreens

 

[Funky]

Has anyone taken one of these apart yet to see if the guts will be interefered with by cutting it in half?

 

[Kylash]

eeeeeeeeek.....that bottom half they cut off....thats where the 3 batteries are ^^; and i am not good with electronics.

 

[Funky]

Crap...I was afraid of that.

 

[dr_slurpee]

I actually was thinking that was the battery area. I imagine it would be quite easy to fit a coin cell in there to run it...problem is that unless you get really good ones they wouldn't last as long.

 

[Immortal Goat]

Just got one, and does anyone think that it would be possible to just move the battery case part into the upper half that they left?

Also, the spring action in the movie was not slowed down like the model I have. Is there any way to get rid of that?

EDIT: Just took a look at the guts, and I realized that it's impossible to move the batteries to the upper half. Any other ideas?

 

[Funky]

If the battery DOES have to be replaced to a small coin battery, the bulb should be removed and replaced by a smal red LED as it draws less power.

 

[Immortal Goat]

Well, I got the movement down. It seems that the spring-loaded joints were just filled with some wierd waxy glue. All you need to do is take it apart, remove the springs, and treat each individual joint piece with a thinning agent (I used some stuff called "Goo Gone"). Then, just reassemble, and you've got fater joints.

 

[TimDrakeRobin]

it looks taller to me...which leads me to believe that when they removed the excess battery compartment that they just put the battery area on the bottom of the prop making it a bit taller.