20240329 Suddenly screen-accurate

 When it comes to props (aka theatrical property) there are some terms to describe them which I am wary about. Perhaps it is industry speak which by their labels indicates the origin of the prop. If you want to know more about these terms, showreelrelics.com has a much better explanation. Some props comes with COA and other forms of documentation, which increases their authenticity. But, in some reports, even authentic props were discovered (too late) to be not what it was. Below are the two terms I've often encounter but there are more here, from OriginalProp.com.

Screen Used

 Let's look at this term. It is basically saying that the prop appeared on the screen. But the question is, how can this be proven? In real life, actual props are quite rough so they do have 'tells' or unique markings which would identify them. These props can be a Hero, stunt or background props. And it can be made easier if that was a one of a kind prop. On the Internet, most have preferred to use the term, "screen matched" instead.

 One of the more reliable source to determine its authenticity is to trawl through prop Forums such as TheRPF, which is still going strong. Through the search, one can gleam information such as their history, unique anecdotes and methods to verify the prop.

Screen Accurate

 This is a much more interesting term. This applies to a prop replicas which, if held against the screen, matches in every detail. So, you would see this term often when its about the replica's accuracy, especially when the main intention is to sell it. This is also the time where each detail would be 'defended' and speculated, and everyone learns from it. I mean EVERYONE from makers to recasters to sellers to customers to... well, you get the picture.

 Apart from the tells and painting and details, there is another factor which makes screen accurate props more authentic, and sometimes, to the point of being an original prop. And this happens when the production or prop makers decide to use readily available, commercial replicas of the prop. It can be a scale model kit or a toy.

 The thing is, this has been happening for quite some time. For example, Star Trek uses scale model kits of the Enterprise while Doctor Who does the same with their Sonic Screwdrivers. . Imagine you waking up one morning to realise one of your toys is a screen accurate item. However, you won't get much out of it because everyone else who has it, has the same screen accurate item.

Using commercial replicas

 Propmakers are often under pressure to deliver a working props within budget and on time. But what happens if the production needs a hundred or two of the working props? They have to plan on how many would be Heros, stunts or even background props. I think, any number more than two or three is enough to be considered a problem. And this is where the idea of using toys or scale models come in to play.

Ghostbusters

 So, yeah, for Ghostbusters: Afterlife which needs 198 ghost traps, they went shopping at Wal-Mart. And I am sure, overnight, everyone who has one, would be overjoyed that their toy suddenly became, "screen-accurate". (I have yet to have one myself and I am sure, I will be able to come across one, or two.)

 

 

 In Ghosbusters: Frozen Empire, thanks to Adam Savage, who revealed that the prop masters actually used a Haslab Proton Pack! So, what does this all mean? The Wal-Mart Ghost Traps and Haslab's Proton Packs are now screen-accurate items. So, when (eventually) I open my Haslab pack, it is already a screen used props sans weathering, I guess

The shell (top) and the cyclotron are from Haslab.

 

 

 

 

QMx's TNG Commbadge

 And today, I can tell you that I am a very happy person. The reason being is that my USD19.95 TNG Commbadge from QMx has arrived! When QMx announced it months ago, I was already on the pre-order list and so, as you might have guessed, I ordered them asap.

Its not so much that the prices are reasonable but that I have an 'Official' prop eventhough for this item is 'glamorised'. Yeah, its gold and silver plated, which in the original prop was not. And their surface was never that shiny to begin with since its a resin sculpt. Where the silver meets the gold, its actually in two pieces.


I guess that I would need them to be casted in resin but I am mulling on this one. Should I get one from Roddenberry.com or use this as source? But fret not, its for my own personal comsumption, esp for the fridge.

Yeah, once I have some time off, I'll talk to the Caster....

Its the in-thing to use magnets for the Star Trek Badges nowadays since more than
10 years ago as those pins are really painful and if your badge happened
to snag on something...

The QMx's TNG side-by-side with my cast Voyager badge.
Its very heavy and so, if you put on a thin shirt, it will dangle about.
I think I need more fridge magnets instead...

To Jonathan Dei

OK, your daft Punk Helmet electronics is ready. There
are about 13 different patterns in there and is selectable
via a button, the other button is to 'speed' it up and one
last button is to make all LEDs light up.

My second real Star Trek Prop

Thanks to Mr. Whizz, I am now a proud owner of a Star Trek Medical Prop. I was so happy because it arrived on my desk this morning. My first was actually a Roddenberry Endgame Tricorder which I won from eBay years ago.

And now, this is my second prop. For those who are not familiar, this is actually a Hypospray. Think of it as a futuristic syringe where it delivers the drug/solution into the patient without painful injection. Slot in the vial, touch it to the skin and press the button. Voila!

And his kits are very reasonably priced too. If you want one, you can give him a shout and tell him I told you.

I like the way Mr. Whizz used Okudagrams on
the address labels. Its very imaginative and
could also easily pass off as a prop in a place
where replicators are a luxury.

And his model skills are amazing! I have yet
to find any severe issues with them. What I
got was two resin parts, two machined metal
parts and three glass vials.

Now, all I need are modelling skills, something
which I seriously lack. (Why do you think I do
Electronics, instead)

The ULTM 4753 Auto Timer

OK, I am bored. And tired from all the programming. So, I decided to refresh my mind by exploring the "Turbo timer" I got yesterday. For RM50.00, this device is a bargain and its wiring harness is complete. After looking for more information from the Internet, this device is amazing!

Basically, what is does is to switch off the car engine after letting it idle for a preset time. For actual cars with a turbo system installed, after nice drive, they need to let the engine run to 'cool' everything down naturally. You cannot switch the engine off just like that as everything is still hot. Personally, this is one of the problems which I do not accept when it came to having a turbo system, apart from costly maintenance, that it.

Anyway, how this timer works is short of amazing. You have to do things in sequence before the time starts. For example, you have to engage the handbrakes before turning the ignition key off or something before the timer starts the countdown. Even the relays are working. But if you connect the sensor wires correctly, you can have a timer in perfect working condition. This is good news for some cash-strapped bad guys.

And so, after connecting the timer briefly,
the whole circuit works. But of course, this
was not the main purpose I got it. No, sir.

My main attraction was with the plastic
casing that came with it. Its the design
that I loved.

Or to be more exact, the pivoting front
fascia. Oh, and if you look carefully, the
unit actually has three buttons but here,
the other two metal buttons are missing.

Taking the whole unit apart, this is the main circuit
board which housed all the necessary electronics to
make the whole thing work. The connector ribbons
fro the motherboard to the display is necessary as
this is the are where the unit pivots up and down.

And so, taking a few LEDs and connecting them
to a makeshift board, my idea is starting to form...

New things at SDCC 2010

Years ago, with the advent of the Internet, news reports of Cons (Conventions) do not interest me much even though I've been to one in the early 90's. But after going to MITF 2010 at Mid-Valley, I am still in a high over cons. So, while we had MITF, they had SDCC. And because being there is not economically viable, I had to contend with pictures from the Internet and maybe get my stuff from eBay.

I am not going to put up photos if chicks in costumes since they're all over the Net now. what I am going to post are the items of interest which I hope, would fall into my hands in the very near future....

The Farnsworth communicator , from Warehouse 13

by Quantum Mechanix. But I think one of the buttons

is wrong. Maybe its the middle one which is black.

Mark VI Iron Man Arc Reactor from Museum

Replicas. One of the actual companies who did

the Iron Man Helmets and went a step further

giving it a chrome look (which is a magnet for

finger prints) when you're not supposed to.

It looks very weird and personally, it looks

like one of those toy miniature Batman search

lights when it is lit.

Which means, I prefer my toy better. Just a coat of silver

paint, is all I need. Heh.

Tron Identity disk

Ghostbusters PKE Meter from Mattel

At the eFX booth, they had theMk X Medical

Tricorder. Basically, it is the same as the Mk IX.

Unfortunately, the screen is not 'Medical' in this

picture.

But with the difference that there is a handheld

scanner underneath the Tricorder. And if I am

not mistaken, there is supposed to be some blue

LEDs in there but I forgot where.

But my dream Tricorder is this one, the MkVII

aka TR-580, which debut in season three of STNG

Ah, what a beauty!

Not sure if this is the 1/1000 JJPrise

Quantum Mechanix's USD50.00 phaser from the movie

And their studio scale model (1/20?) Viper model

Which comes with a working DRADIS!

Custom remote

OK, I want to make my own custom remote control system after seeing a video on Iron Man props. The reason i am doing this is because the remote control system I bought was too big for my project: It has four channels while I only needed one. So, the only solution is to make my own.

Which (I think) is very simple since I can just follow the modules used in the original circuit. Basically, what you need is the RF transmitter and a matching RF receiver. Then you would need the voltage regulator plus a relay and that's it.

Yeah, right. Easier said than done.

This is a four channel transmitter but I will only

be using one. The other three will be useless or

until I can think of another solution for it.

The transmitter is a very simple module. Here, you have

the battery, the encoder chip and well, the code sequence.

The code sequence here is just a matter of soldering the

appropriate links. They used to have miniature dip switches

but it takes up a lot of space. The only down side is that

when you want to change the codes, you have to de-

solder and re-solder it. Which might wear out the board.

And finally, here is the decoder parts. On the left

is the RD receiver and then on the right is the IC

for decoding the code from the transmitter. As for

the SMT resistors, they are to match the RF

transmitter's frequency. What is not shown here

is the voltage regulator and the relay as I have

not decided on which voltage system to use.

Judge Dredd: Book of Law

The forum did discuss about the making of the 'Book of Law' prop replica from the movie Judge Dredd. And so, with only two screen shot pictures to look at, I can only surmise the book format is as follows:
1. It has 192 pages, with no gilt edges, 80gsm white paper & square corners
2. It has about 2cm printed ribbon, head and tail too.
3. Cover is mostly bonded leather, unpadded, with gold corners on front and back
4. It measures about 89mm x 165mm and comes with and gold foil stamping.

This was the shot that was taken

And this was the second shot

Anyway, this was the closest I could find from the
archive.

Bear in mind, this book is not easy to make

And no, I am not going to do a run mainly because:

1) The covers are different. Here, the machine would nick the edges and I am not sure if they can make one without the nicking. Chances are, it is possible.

2) The gold corners have additional nicks and again, I am not sure if the machine has the actual crimps for that pattern. Chances are, they do not.

3) SOMEONE has to come up with all the contents. Yep. To make it more accurate, someone would have to scour all the comics from Prog 001 to current Prog 16xx, the movies and so on. This would be time consuming and not only that, it could be one day, 'canon' material for every writer or artists or script bots to follow and would have to be approved/endorsed by 2000Ad's creators (and Tharg?) and copyright ppl, etc. Yeap, imagine the pressure.

4) Production is not going to believe me about making a Law Book for less than 100 units. And not only that, the cost alone if going to kill this project before it even began. So, someone else have to do this.....


No, not me.

Iron Man II Preview

OK, we finally made it. After office hours, I had to wait for two more colleagues to rush home and take their bath before we start out journey. Because it was raining, the evening jam at Kota Damansara was very bad. Not only did I waste one hour there, I lost a lot of petrol too, no thanks to the stop-go action in the jam with the air-con on as well.

Anyway, Richard promised me the free tickets since I modified his toy Arc Reactor and the costume. Still, I would like to put it on record that I would like to remove the white plastic cap in the costume and put in my Modified Arc Reactor to make the costume stand out more.

These two guys were happy as heck.

Because just after the movie, someone cut the credits
to show us the end parts. And then, War Machine and
Iron Man appeared.

Yeah, the crown went nuts!

The Repulsor
After showing this to Richard, (and he did not laugh), he advised me to put it on, something which I did not understand until the end of the movie. By the time the costumers came out, I was a bit embarrassed to show mine but after a while, everyone knew what it was and I was not shy at all. So, for the rest of the night, I showed everyone my working repulsor.

Egged on, I went down there and showed my Repulsor
along with the guys. And we took lots of photos, thanks
to Peter who took mine for me. See the yellow Arc on
the left? I did that but I wished it was brighter & white.

Although you can't see it, but Iron Man's eyes were lit with white EL (I think) while War Machine's was RED. Later on, I had to help War Machine down the stairs with the 'One, Two' buddy step system because they could not see at all in that costume. By the time I took the guys back to their homes and took my shower, it was already half past one in the morning.

The Last Minute Repulsor

OK, this is a rush job for me. All the while, I had all the time from Sunday to Wednesday to do this. But in the end, I rushed it through on Wednesday night. For it was because most of the things I have (hoarded), could not be found due to so many boxes. Secondly, the family drill, I found out, broke years ago. By Tuesday, the draft of the armature is ready. It won't be near anywhere like the one you saw in Iron Man I. And so, by Wednesday, I had bought a drill at the nearest DIY shop near the office. And then by Wednesday evening, the drill bit I had out was of the size which meant I had to waste more time and money to get the correct bit.

And so, the real project started at 9PM and by 4 in the afternoon, it was finished. I had to call it a day because the drill bit actually shattered when I accidentally hit it on a table. I was so distraught not only because of the pressure I had unnecessarily subjected myself to but it finall dawned on me the huge amount of work left to make it look reasonably convincing.

Still, at least the thing is working 4 out of 10 times.

The raw materials which I bought. I only ended up using
less than 30% of it. What a waste.

Yeah, it does not look anything remotely like what you
saw in the movie.

Still at least it worked. And the saving grace is that
in the movie, the Arc Reactor lit up exactly like you
saw in the image above.

And so, I have less than 18 hours to go, to see if this monstrosity works in front of a crowd......

Ultimate Matrix Blu-Ray from Japan

Was surfing around lunch and I saw this. An Ultimate Matrix Blu-ray Limited Edition with a 60cm Nebichadnezzar replica which double up as a CD holder. This happened in September 2008. And now, the prices have double to USD799 or so on eBay.

At first, I was thinking, and thinking about the ship. Then I remembered, I don't have a blu-ray player. A closer look at the replica is nice but that's just it. Once you remove everything, its just a normal toy.

LEDs for kertratz

Nothing much today. I am a bit busy this evening. So, I'll just post this two photos for a Forum member to see. Can or not?

More soldering

Time to solder the remaining Voltage Regulators for
the Boards.Next week, once I get the money, its time
to finish them once and for all. Then its time to solder
those long cables to the connectors and LEDs. This
is one heck of a torture for me. I doubt they would
even want to do this even if I pay the money.
Ha ha ha ha!

The Last visit to The Outpost

So, tonight can be said to be the last night for me at The Outpost. I did not plan on returning here since I was there last Sunday. But because Pol wanted to get some stuff back, its a good excuse as any to just go there one last time. And so, both of us drove there after dinner.

The place is still 'functioning' despite the fact that they have until the end of this month to clear their stuff. And so, after much looking around and waiting for the items to be found, I decided to have one last meal there. But Wife is not having any since it was just after dinner.

And so, the Blueberry Freeze was no more because no one else could find that anymore since the main supplier stopped um...... supplying.

All items for sale were tagged with orange slips.
For example, the shelf here is Rm20. Only the
shelf. But not the helmets. Not the helmets nor
the masks. But after looking back at this picture,
RM20 is worth it if they include the spotlight....

Some behind the scenes shot. Costumes for events
were all here. Note some Jedi bathrobes and two
Starfleet Uniforms. Unfortunately the mannequins
are not for sale. Even of it costs less than a limb.

Take these Broken Wings..............

The scheming area.........

Next to our dinner table, there were a
lot of Star Trek merchandise for sale.

RM2 per VHS tape. But you have to take the
whole set. Richard was waiting for Kenny to
show up. Its a bargain really, until I realised
that I do not have a VCR. That working ones
belong to my Mom and its always occupied.

Srat Trek Voyager Season 5 VHS format.

2009 toys at a bargain. Kirk for RM50
while Spock's little girl was for a lot less

This was also reduced but nah, not with
the Wife sitting next to me *ahem*

RM99.00 for an unopened Tricorder.

Finally, for RM120, you can get Number One
to sit on the Captain's Chair. This is the version
which he did not spot a macho beard, which is
the Season One Will Riker.

The Captain's Chair for RM1701.00. Told
Richard to refurbish it with more accurate
and lit panels. Oh, and I told him to put a
sound system into the chair for a Home
Theatre experience, especially a big sub-
woofer under the platform........

Carrying the NX-01 the normal way (as if
its a very precious object of desire) from
the Toy Shop through the Cinema with a
lot of patrons would surely turn a few
heads. So, I just carried it like a normal
Sci-Fi object or hand weapon and no
one turned around and screamed.

My last meal from a limited menu;
Rendang Rosti and Mango Smoothie.
While eating, Richard was at the table
on and off, discussing and telling me
some anecdotes. I was all choked up....
(because the rendang was too dry. Ha ha)

Finally, back at home, we got Pol's stuff.
Time to hide them from the girls, just in
case they got too curious one afternoon.

The Battle Damaged NX-01 with a broken impulse
engine cover. I removed the loose Warp Engine
Nacelle as it could not fit into the box. The Asajj
Ventress Unleashed still mint in the crumbling,
dog eared and scratched plastic package.

The Alien resin model. Have to get a bag for
it. But I can't find a doggie bag........ ha ha ha.
The Bronze Dewback is still waiting to be sold
while the Kotobukiya Kree Trooper is gone.
As for the four Matrix Figures, I think I heard
him said its sold too but I can't remember.

Dinner was not too bad. For Rm18.25, I got a rosti, a mango smoothie and a free kiwi/lemon smoothie. And towards closing time, the boxes of goodies were still unsold except for a customer who came in looking for some psoters.