This seems to be a lesser-known hobby. For a long time now I've been a collector of replica movie props. You know, when you see something really cool in a movie, and say "I'd like to have one o' those..".
For me, I think it all started with lightsabers. They were quite simply the coolest thing ever. Granted, none of my lightsabers actually work, but they do look quite pretty and they make good conversation pieces, especially when you have a geek friend over who's never seen one except on-screen.
My collection has thinned out quite a bit since the old days.. money problems at various times required me to sell off some of them. The ones I keep are the ones that I refuse to sell, or simply aren't worth that much.
Here are some highlights from the collection. I say "highlights" because I'm probably going to forget something in the writing.
Blade's sword from the three Blade movies.
Maximus' sword from Gladiator, w/24K gold-plated accents.
Several tricorders and phasers from Star Trek.
About a half-dozen lightsabers.
Cursed Aztec coin from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Davy Jones' key from POTC: Dead Man's Chest.
About a dozen "mini" lightsabers.. these are handy because they're small and cheap.
Crysknife from Dune (1984 David Lynch version).
Crysknife from Dune/Children of Dune (Sci-Fi Channel version).
Several wands from the Harry Potter films.
All of the above are replicas. Some of them are surprisingly cheap, being mass-produced as licensed merchandise for the film. The Pirates of the Caribbean stuff, for example, can be had for as little as ten dollars. The Harry Potter wands go for about thirty or forty dollars. Many of the rest of them are fan-made, and you'd be amazed at the quality that hard work can produce. Some of them are better quality than the official ones.
I'm actually selling off some of my stuff at the moment, in order to turn the money around and buy more stuff. Upcoming acquisitions will be the Atlantean sword from Conan the Barbarian (which I've wanted ever since I first saw the film decades ago), and a screen-used crysknife from Children of Dune. Screen-used props are exceptionally hard to come by, especially when you're looking for something specific. They also tend to be much more expensive. For example, the replica crysknife I have cost me around thirty or forty dollars. The screen-used knife is two hundred dollars. And believe me, that's cheap.. the only reason they're selling them so cheaply is because they got them in a bundle, and they don't know what characters they belonged to, simply that they came from the set. If one of the knives had been conclusively identified as belonging to a specific character, especially a major character like Stilgar or even Muad'Dib, the price would easily have gone over a thousand. I fully intend to crawl through the film to find my knife once I have it in-hand.
That will be my first "real" screen-used prop, even if it's not my first "actual" screen-used prop (I have a pair of arrows from Gladiator, but they were only two out of thousands and are virtually worthless, and can never be identified on-screen).
So does anyone else share this particular hobby? Even in a small sense of buying cheap stuff when you see it on a store shelf? (which is how I bought my Davy Jones key.. it was at Gamestop for seven dollars).
For me, I think it all started with lightsabers. They were quite simply the coolest thing ever. Granted, none of my lightsabers actually work, but they do look quite pretty and they make good conversation pieces, especially when you have a geek friend over who's never seen one except on-screen.
My collection has thinned out quite a bit since the old days.. money problems at various times required me to sell off some of them. The ones I keep are the ones that I refuse to sell, or simply aren't worth that much.
Here are some highlights from the collection. I say "highlights" because I'm probably going to forget something in the writing.
Blade's sword from the three Blade movies.
Maximus' sword from Gladiator, w/24K gold-plated accents.
Several tricorders and phasers from Star Trek.
About a half-dozen lightsabers.
Cursed Aztec coin from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Davy Jones' key from POTC: Dead Man's Chest.
About a dozen "mini" lightsabers.. these are handy because they're small and cheap.
Crysknife from Dune (1984 David Lynch version).
Crysknife from Dune/Children of Dune (Sci-Fi Channel version).
Several wands from the Harry Potter films.
All of the above are replicas. Some of them are surprisingly cheap, being mass-produced as licensed merchandise for the film. The Pirates of the Caribbean stuff, for example, can be had for as little as ten dollars. The Harry Potter wands go for about thirty or forty dollars. Many of the rest of them are fan-made, and you'd be amazed at the quality that hard work can produce. Some of them are better quality than the official ones.
I'm actually selling off some of my stuff at the moment, in order to turn the money around and buy more stuff. Upcoming acquisitions will be the Atlantean sword from Conan the Barbarian (which I've wanted ever since I first saw the film decades ago), and a screen-used crysknife from Children of Dune. Screen-used props are exceptionally hard to come by, especially when you're looking for something specific. They also tend to be much more expensive. For example, the replica crysknife I have cost me around thirty or forty dollars. The screen-used knife is two hundred dollars. And believe me, that's cheap.. the only reason they're selling them so cheaply is because they got them in a bundle, and they don't know what characters they belonged to, simply that they came from the set. If one of the knives had been conclusively identified as belonging to a specific character, especially a major character like Stilgar or even Muad'Dib, the price would easily have gone over a thousand. I fully intend to crawl through the film to find my knife once I have it in-hand.
That will be my first "real" screen-used prop, even if it's not my first "actual" screen-used prop (I have a pair of arrows from Gladiator, but they were only two out of thousands and are virtually worthless, and can never be identified on-screen).
So does anyone else share this particular hobby? Even in a small sense of buying cheap stuff when you see it on a store shelf? (which is how I bought my Davy Jones key.. it was at Gamestop for seven dollars).
