Goonies Copper Bones - COMPLETE

Krats

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi guys, I know there are a couple of very good replicas of this out there already (produced by two of the most respected members of our community no less) but I thought I’d take a crack at making my own version of the Copperbones.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon scanning through the goonies blu-ray trying to capture pictures of the prop but as it turns out you never get to see the Copperbones very clearly in the movie itself.

01-Copperbones-Ref.jpg

Since this was a bust I resorted to the 80's magazine article for reference which thankfully has a nice clear photo.

Copper-bones-magazine-ref.jpg

I started by rolling out a piece of Chavant Medium NSP. We’d been having some particularly cold weather here in the UK and the plasteline was proving somewhat stiffer than usual so I had to use a fair bit of elbow grease to get it rolled out flat.

CB01.jpg

Once I'd got a piece approximately the right size I stuck a rough sketch to it and used a sharp knife to trim out the outline.

CB02.jpg

Using a scalpel I traced the lines through the paper and marked them into the clay below.

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My clay sculpting tools were the next victim of the cold weather, unable to withstand the stresses involved in removing the chilled plasteline they started to fall apart on me! A bit of tape and we were back in business though.

Cheap-tools.jpg

I was careful to try to capture as much detail as possible. I exaggerated the depths slightly thinking that if I cold cast the piece I would have to rub it back to bring out the shine.

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I re-sculpted the circle at the bottom a couple of times as it was a bit of a struggle to keep the shape regular.

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I tried to copy every dink and surface detail with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

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When it got to the point I was happy with it I built a mould box and dropped a load of silicone on the sculpt. I could have (and perhaps should have) spent a little more time setting this up but I was getting kinda impatient. I'd considered using lego for the mould box but I couldn't convince myself it wouldn't leak so I went with my usual foam board and hot glue.

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Due to my lack of prep I had to trim the edges of the mould a bit but turned out nice!

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First pull from the mould was in a black resin. I didn't expect this to be any good, just wanted to clear the mould of any clay residue but was happily surprised with how it turned out.

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Next pull was a lot cleaner. I mixed some brass powder in with the resin but the effect wasn't quite what I had in mind so I went over it with some paint and rub'n'buff to replicate the appearance of the prop in the magazine.

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TBC...
 
I assumed from the name that this was meant to be made of copper so for the next attempt I mixed a load of copper powder into the resin. This again looked cool but not quite what I had expected, looking more reddy-brown than the prop reference I had seen.

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After a little look around the internet I found that copper can be aged in numerous ways however a substance called Liver of Sulphur is particularly effective. "To Amazon!" I cried. Five days later a padded envelope arrived on my doorstep containing two little bottles.

Liver-of-Sulphur.jpg

The instructions said to dilute five drops in a tub of warm water then submerge the object to be affected in the liquid. Gloves were to be worn and the process was best carried out outside the house as the smell of rotten eggs would be quite strong. They were not wrong.

Patina-prep.jpg Patina01.jpg

I was a little disappointed at the lack of reaction that occurred, so being an impatient person (did I mention that?) I sprinkled a few drops of the neat solution over the cast…

Patina02.jpg

… which turned instantly black wherever the liquid fell! That’s more like it. I washed the cast down with copious amounts of clean water to halt the chemical reaction and blotted it dry with kitchen towels before giving it another scrub with a wire brush.

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It certainly looked a lot more interesting than before. Still needs a bit of dirt rubbing over it perhaps but not too bad for now. This one looks more realistic perhaps but tink I prefer the version I painted up with Rub'n'buff. Thoughts?
 
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Don't forget the inscription on the back ;)


Is there an inscription on the back?

I haven’t seen any mention of it anywhere other than on RelicMaker’s version. His sculpt is absolutely bang on, If I was into collecting props rather than making them; his is the one I’d go for. When I compare it to the photo from the magazine I struggle to see any difference at all but I don’t think I can use details from his sculpt as a starting point for mine, particularly if the detail in question might be his own artistic flourish.

Happy to be proven wrong if anyone has more info, I know someone on the forum was claiming to have the original mould a few years back.
 
I don't think the movie prop had an inscription on the back...There was a deleted scene that had that "Ye intruders beware" inscription on the trap door ceiling entrance to Willy's room.

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BTW, Your copper bones looks fantastic!
 
Yes, there are many pictures with the text. But are the pictures based on a actual PROP, or (like me when I made a 3D STL file) did someone just copy the text that they saw on someone else's REPLICA. If the first person makes up detail that isn't on the screen used prop, but everyone else just copies the detail, that doesn't make the detail any more valid.
I'm not saying it's wrong.....but it COULD be. Where is the screen shot ? Or pictures of screen used prop with that detail ?
Or if your pic is screen used, please show the details of where you got the picture for us to verify.
 
Yes, there are many pictures with the text... if your pic is screen used, please show the details of where you got the picture for us to verify.

Thanks Jintosh, my thoughts exactly. I think the text matches one of the riddles on the map. It's a nice touch.
 
Thanks Jintosh, my thoughts exactly. I think the text matches one of the riddles on the map. It's a nice touch.
IMG_1383.JPG

Well. What do you know ? I went back and got a screen cap of the first time he puts on the Copper Bones, and he just happens to put it on BACKWARDS.
Not a high quality photo....but if there were deep writing there, it would be showing up. So, no writing.
 
I hate to go back on what I said, but this might be just such a lousy picture that you can't tell anything. At the bottom of the picture, it looks like the jawline of the skeleton which would make this the FRONT of the object. Does a blueray version of Goonies even exist ?
 
I pulled out my Blueray copy of the Goonies and stepped through this sequence this morning. The circular pattern on the key becomes visible at the very end of the shot. I'm afraid that’s the front we’re looking at.

Goonies-Blu-ray-Grab.jpg
 
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Yep. It's a dark shot and the only light is reflecting off the shiny metal. The shine hides the detail, buy you can see the rings. It's the front.
I tried Google to find the actual prop and the only thing I came up with was the one in the Astoria film Museum. It is a replica that was donated
to the museum, and it has the text on the back.
 
There is a licensed toy of the copper bones from Mezco that was sold at ComicCon. It does NOT have the inscription on the back.
 
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