Props lost or destroyed

CB2001 · Sep 17, 2011

poormansjb said:
**Turns out the ship never actually had a name; the guys who found the rusted prop are the one who dubbed it Icarus!

Actually, I do believe the name of the ship is mentioned in the first film during the opening scene. The ship itself is identifiable by its shape.

But then again, the ship could have been in perfect condition, but just looked the way it does (when it was found by the two guys) from its appearance in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, which the below shot is from:

Icarus from the first film:

Icarus from the Third film:

Other shots of Icarus (from the films and the TV show) can be found here and here.

But the point is, the way it sounds, the "rotting away in the backlot" thing may have been a misinterpretation due to the aging the ship was put through for the film.

KurtBergeron · Sep 17, 2011

Patattack said:
You might consider Hoggle from Labyrinth to have been destroyed, in a manner of speaking...

| Sowatzka's Dolls | HOGGLE RESTORED |

I'm glad he was restored, but talk about a loss of detail! He looks theme park statue version of himself. The wrinkles in his face weren't even attempted and that's unfortunate. I think the guy who restored Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles would have been better equipped to handle such a huge restoration. But I'm glad he's "alive" It's always sad to see something I love THAT deteriorated

KurtBergeron · Sep 17, 2011

This isn't a prop per se, but I was one of the fortunate few who was able to visit the old west Back to the Future III set. A couple years after my visit, the whole place burned down in a prairie fire.

My Story and a few pictures is here...
http://bttftour.com/locations/1885hillvalley/1885_special.html

I also wonder what was lost when Christopher Lloyd's house burned down

What cruel irony, seeing that Doc's house also burned down. Sadly go figure :/

Davlin · Sep 17, 2011

Rollerboi said:
I think a controversial member in the BTTF circles gained access to these in order to try and restore one, and salvage parts from the other. This is my vague recollection; someone else is sure to remember more than I.

Thank you very much ! Back in 97', I went to the Universal Studios in California. Saw a Delorean rotting away on the backlot train's ride, and the one in front of the ride was looking good at first, but on close inspection was wearing some serious aging artefacts.

Really made me wonder what happened to the original car.

Predian said:
Theme parks spend a lot making replica film environments around their rides, I'd go all the time if they saved original sci-fi film sets to walk around.

My two cents is that they can't. Props and sets are much always done in a way that they are looking cool on cam, during the shooting's timespan. As for a theme parks, security rules are huge and the fragile props can't be used then, too risky.

Krel · Sep 17, 2011

CB2001 said:
But then again, the ship could have been in perfect condition, but just looked the way it does (when it was found by the two guys) from its appearance in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, which the below shot is from:

But the point is, the way it sounds, the "rotting away in the backlot" thing may have been a misinterpretation due to the aging the ship was put through for the film.

I read on one site that the ship got beat-up during the filming of the opening of Escape. It broke loose during filming and drifted into the rocks, and got banged up before they could catch it.

I also read that the ship ended up as a lawn decoration on some Fox Executive's lawn.

David.

feek61 · Sep 17, 2011

I seem to remember an original TOS communicator was lost in an east coast house fire.

blewis17 · Sep 17, 2011

jedichase said:
There have been a couple found. One was stolen I think.

Harry Anderson still swears that his IS the original Maltese Falcon.

blewis17 · Sep 17, 2011

oh, here's a link to a pic of icarus on the backlit

http://www.goingfaster.com/icarus

Jack T Chance · Sep 18, 2011

Let us not forget the one-of-a-kind Sonic Screwdriver prop used by both John Pertwee and Tom Baker during their tenures as the Doctor on Doctor Who!

It originally began life as a screwdriver prop for a Thunderbirds movie, and then the Prop Master(s) for Doctor Who acquired it, dressing it up (and redressing it a few times) for use as the Doctor's signature gadget!

After serving the Producers of the show for a good decade, it was retired, taken home by Producer Johnathan Nathan Turner, and then... it mysteriously vanished. It was most likely STOLEN, and has never been seen since.

KurtBergeron · Sep 18, 2011

Jack T Chance said:
Let us not forget the one-of-a-kind Sonic Screwdriver prop used by both John Pertwee and Tom Baker during their tenures as the Doctor on Doctor Who!

It originally began life as a screwdriver prop for a Thunderbirds movie, and then the Prop Master(s) for Doctor Who acquired it, dressing it up (and redressing it a few times) for use as the Doctor's signature gadget!

After serving the Producers of the show for a good decade, it was retired, taken home by Producer Johnathan Nathan Turner, and then... it mysteriously vanished. It was most likely STOLEN, and has never been seen since.

I think some fans are looking into this. A prop seller appeared at Dragon Con a year or two back who was selling replicas of the Sonic Screwdriver and showed a fan that screwdriver and CLAIMED it was the original. I don't know how he obtained it, or if he was full of crap. But the statement was made, and the fan knew the story about the screwdriver being stolen off of JNT's desk. I believe the fan called the BBC and reported it. If it IS the real deal,....I really don't think that the prop seller was the one who stole it, but it's possible that he now HAS it. So who knows. Maybe it'll find it's way home.

robstyle · Sep 18, 2011

Movie sets are near impossible to salvage much less transport. Just like with vehicles, they tend fall under a gray area of ownership when a film wraps. A smaller studio may make a deal to leave a nice or generic set standing while large studios are more interested in the space being available for the next production. If anyone recalls the Small Soldiers exhibit at Universal Studios years back. It was the near complete house built on a set you walked through. The idea was the sets would be reused, instead they turned it into an attraction. My memory is a little vague but I seem to recall some scenes for the Jim Carrey movie "Man on the Moon" being filmed on that set as well. Its always shocked me how many deleted scenes there are for that movie.

In the 90's the LA County Natural History Museum had some Weird Al Yankovic Jurassic Park claymation sets and sculptures that were literally melting away due to the heat under lights and lack of air conditioning. We used to go every week or so just to see them melt and droop.
Behind the Scenes of Weird Al's "Jurassic Park" video - YouTube

robstyle · Sep 18, 2011

and something I dont believe many have seen since 1982, taken last month:

cking · Sep 18, 2011

Propstore of London own the original Dredd costume. It was on display at the London Film Museum for a few years. Cool to see - especially because the fabric used for the jumpsuit was the same custom fabric that was used for the Chris Reeve Superman costumes.

Chris

supa troop said:
well as soon as you find anything to do with the Movie costume can you let me know, ive been looking for years :unsure

Predian · Sep 19, 2011

I'd like to know what happened to the 3 trophy heads made by Boss films for Predator 1, a puppet was produced of the one sculpted by Steve Wang. Still hoping someone somewhere has a panel of the spaceship wall from Predator 2, I bought my AVP2 deathbed panel from the props master and he said it was the only piece not destroyed, with the corner pillars and other panels I would have thought someone else would have kept a piece.

handler · Sep 19, 2011

I've always been curious to whatever happened with that giant comb from Spaceballs. What a silly, cool prop to have!

Yorkie Fett · Sep 19, 2011

One of the only 2 AT-AT helmets was stolan in a house burglary, in the UK.
A bit more information on Jez's site.

Original ESB AT-AT Driver Helmets

Scroll down to the bottom.

richardbeater · Sep 19, 2011

yeah i second the spaceballs comb

Johnny Fever · Sep 20, 2011

CB2001 said:
How about the thing that dreams are made of? I'm talking about the Maltese Falcon, of course. I read somewhere that no one knows what happened to the original prop, and the design sketches for it also were lost.

jedichase said:
There have been a couple found. One was stolen I think.

blewis17 said:
Harry Anderson still swears that his IS the original Maltese Falcon.

I remember watching Harry Anderson on one of the tonight shows many years ago. This was either towards the end of Night Court or it may have been during his time on Dave’s World. On the show Mr. Anderson said that he had found two falcons while snooping around a prop storage area under the studio. He went on to say that he had kept one and given the other to his good friend Mel Torme.

I wonder if there is any truth to this?

-John

p51 · Sep 21, 2011

While not sci-fi, I have been on sets of TV and movies and watched all kinds of stuff get thrown away that in time would be valuable. You just can’t save it all. On the set of “Memphis Belle,” they were giving away the fiberglass 500-pound bombs made for the production to anyone who could take them off the set! Most of them got broken up because most of the people around didn’t drive cars with that much empty space. A lot of set and costume stuff from “Saving Private Ryan” was thrown en mass into CONEX boxes then sold in bulk. I’ve talked with plenty of people who walked off with complete US and German uniforms after the wrap. The same thing was reported from “Band of Brothers” set, as a small number of the extras were re-enactors who brought their own stuff anyway and I guess nobody wanted to raise a stink either way. I also have seen one of the complete Shuttle space suits from “Space Cowboys” owned by someone who swears it was left on the top of a dumpster at the studio at Burbank and he saw the trash guy heading right for it with the truck. So, he grabbed it, helmet, boots, gloves and all!
As for the Star Trek captain chairs, three are currently at Kennedy Space Center’s visitor center right now on display (a curiously large amount of Trek stuff is there). The Klingon captain chair apparently was used in many productions of Trek and they even allowed people to sit in that one!

SVTStingRay · Sep 23, 2011

ill never forget how i wanted to try to see the abyss deepcore set which was still around in 2007 but when i attempted to enter the site, turns out they were converting the site for a new nuclear reactor (in gaffney) and the sets were demolished.

Props lost or destroyed

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