GrenadeKing
Sr Member
I don't have any new/better screen caps but, I have been doing some research.
I started by digging through Trademarks from the now defunct Hercules Inc. This lead me to the US Patent & Trademark office web archive, where they sometimes have samples of the entire TM on file, including scanned documents and examples of the TM in use. Unigel, was created by Hercules, then in the mid 80s production shifted to a company called Ireco, and eventually was turned over to Dyno Nobel.
Under this search, I found some great pictures of a box of Unigel from 1972:
And, another image of a box from 1978. It's a different dynamite charge but, notice how this box is virtually identical to the one featured in the film:
Unfortunately, there were no pictures of an actual stick or wrapper from this time period. There was one from Dyno Nodel, and a forerunner from Ireco but, no similarities. So, I trawled through the patents again looking for other dynamite brands Hercules had offered.
One of those brands was "Hercosplit WR". I don't know what it is, these images are what I was more concerned about:
Notice the location of the logo and the two lines of text. It's pretty close to the sticks of Unigel in the film. Note how it says "Dangerous Explosives".
With this in hand, I kept looking. I found another product called "Unimax". Unimax was also moved to Ireco in the mid 80s. Again, I didn't find any Hercules brand images but, I did find something pretty darn close. There was an image of an early production stick from Ireco, and a later version. The later version is similar to the Unigel stick on file. The early version however:
That looks almost identical to what we see in the screen caps. Aside from the logo and lack of "Tamptite" text, everything seems to line up. In the film, it appears that the date codes may be flip flopped a bit. I think on screen it reads the year/code, and the day, and then the month closest to the text. Other than that, I think I may have more or less solved the mystery.
I'd still love to see some better screen caps because moar accuracy = moar better. :lol
I started by digging through Trademarks from the now defunct Hercules Inc. This lead me to the US Patent & Trademark office web archive, where they sometimes have samples of the entire TM on file, including scanned documents and examples of the TM in use. Unigel, was created by Hercules, then in the mid 80s production shifted to a company called Ireco, and eventually was turned over to Dyno Nobel.
Under this search, I found some great pictures of a box of Unigel from 1972:
And, another image of a box from 1978. It's a different dynamite charge but, notice how this box is virtually identical to the one featured in the film:
Unfortunately, there were no pictures of an actual stick or wrapper from this time period. There was one from Dyno Nodel, and a forerunner from Ireco but, no similarities. So, I trawled through the patents again looking for other dynamite brands Hercules had offered.
One of those brands was "Hercosplit WR". I don't know what it is, these images are what I was more concerned about:
Notice the location of the logo and the two lines of text. It's pretty close to the sticks of Unigel in the film. Note how it says "Dangerous Explosives".
With this in hand, I kept looking. I found another product called "Unimax". Unimax was also moved to Ireco in the mid 80s. Again, I didn't find any Hercules brand images but, I did find something pretty darn close. There was an image of an early production stick from Ireco, and a later version. The later version is similar to the Unigel stick on file. The early version however:
That looks almost identical to what we see in the screen caps. Aside from the logo and lack of "Tamptite" text, everything seems to line up. In the film, it appears that the date codes may be flip flopped a bit. I think on screen it reads the year/code, and the day, and then the month closest to the text. Other than that, I think I may have more or less solved the mystery.
I'd still love to see some better screen caps because moar accuracy = moar better. :lol