The Man with the Wooden Gun
Bond Collectors' Weekends
Gainesville, Florida USAPosts: 1,902MI6 Agent
Thoughts, 007?
Seven (007) James Bond Tours! Mission: Mexico!
Bond Collectors' Weekends
Gainesville, Florida USAPosts: 1,902MI6 Agent
Comments
Caveat Emptor.
It might be a copy of the GG in the Archive or an early FE but it is no way a copy of the Colibri GG, or the Colibri GG a copy of that.
Apparently it comes from a carpenter that worked on the set…. Ahem! 😏 Donk and Pete have looked into this, and if they smell a fish. Then there’s something fishy.
I met with H. Jack Lowenthal (his father founded Colibri) when we met him to discuss the Golden gun. Steve presented him with a Golden gun.
He brought a Molectric 88 lighter but never, at any time, did he mention anything about their having a wooden Golden gun. Pretty sure he would have showed us that. --Ed
the spyboys Facebook page
Has Prop Store been contacted?
It’s logical to have a mock-up that took life from sketches and mechanical drawings, esp. since the production contracted a 3rd party, and in this case, a manufacturer of lighters and smoking accessories. A mock-up would be useful to the production designer to determine if the shape and form of a prop meets the requirements for filming. On Collibri’s part, they need to determine the feasibility of the design.
I’ve read instances when props were made in-house by John Stears or Syd Mead based on the scantest requirements in some cases but more often mock-ups and models were used for production approval.
If you look at a pic of the original Colibri GG it has slight differences to the Rose Archive GG of which this wooden GG seems to be based on, or an early FE GG or a 2nd edition SD GG 🤓
Provenance of the actual item being auctioned is another story! I’m sure however that mock-ups existed based on practical necessities at some point.
Is the Rose one the later one made for the film? Sorry, I don’t know the history.
I saw that the provenance of the Dalek they’re selling in this sale has been questioned also (as you can imagine there are folks who have catalogued this stuff very carefully!)- it’d be a real shame if Propstore were getting this stuff wrong.
If you read Bert Luxfords book it states that the big mistake that the producers made was to only commission one GG as it was broken on location by a leading actor, he said that they had to fix it which took more time off of the shoot. EON commissioned a second GG to be made bt Rose Silversmiths, which you see in the second trailer 👀
Peter Lamont lays claim to the mock up.
Thanks 👍
Peter Lamont said there was a wood mock-up?
Peter Lamont said he made a wooden gun of some sort and poked a pen in the end. you must have heard the story, I think its even on the special edition disc's.
Do you see that the wooden so called Colibri mock up does not match up with this black and white small photo, I can see that it's not the same.
Hmm, I think this is a case of people remembering details differently from what might have actually happened. In Peter Lamont's book, The Man with the Golden Eye (which I read up on again after posting in this thread), he does say that he was the one who made a mock-up from balsa wood, on which sketches were based that were then provided to Colibri, who ultimately couldn't finish it. So using Colibri parts and a Waterman (?) pen, they approached a London based Jeweler who was able to finish it. For me, this is the piece of information that casts doubt on the provenance of the wooden mock-up being auctioned since it was supposedly constructed by Colibri, who in turn based on Lamont's account, eventually wasn't able to execute the gun in metal as specified.
And if you go back further, you will find the EON and Colibri had a big dispute and the Colibri GG was ALWAYS said to be a piece of crap, that's on a special edition Blu-ray too, go do some more research.
When FE GG was being made, ?I was told that PL and GL couldn't remember what pen was used on the balsa wood gun. look in the FE booklet, it says Dunhill from what I remember.
By "go do some more research," what do you mean exactly?
Sorry, there should have been a smiley on the end of the sentence, but I have said openly what to go and look at on discs, I'm sure that they are the special editions, that or Everything Or Nothing🤔
So are you thinking it’s more likely to be a maquette for one of the commercial release replicas rather than one of the two(?) film guns then?
I personally think it is copy of 1, the Archive GG. 2, an early Factory Entertainment GG or a 2nd Gen SD Studios. If prop shop would show it in its individual parts we could probably tell as to which one... Defiantly not the Colibri though. 🙂
Why do you think it's a copy of one of those rather than a development maquette which lead to one of them?
Smiley taken. Regarding the pen, PL in his book did mention it was a Waterman Gentleman, and the brand was also mentioned by AJB member scaramangasgoldengun: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/406835/#Comment_406835
I would agree that the disc commentaries are good sources of info, but I'm also concerned about the nature of open-ended conversations as they're recorded because at best, the contributors have their notes with them, but as for the book, which was published in 2016, I think the documentation used is more reliable and more up to date than earlier recollections on the matter; this also goes for the information (or lack thereof) from FE, whose research is earlier, at least prior to 2010 when they were advertising their GG. My point is, it seems even PL's recollections of how the GG was eventually completed wasn't cohesive until it seems when he wrote his book, what more the slightly differing accounts from those involved in the production.
Somewhat related, I remember watching Christopher Lee on a local TV horror show (San Francisco Bay Area) called Creature Features around the time he was promoting TMWTGG and on that evening they showed The Wicker Man (which, as a kid expecting horror, I thought was boring and stopped watching) and he brought along a painted plastic version of the GG that he showed off to the host; so I wonder where that came from?
Throw into the mix the accounts of Peter Murton, production designer for TMWTGG, who was mentioned in "The Art of Bond" in which he briefly mentioned that there was a long process of getting the GG props made and he too mentioned a jeweler but not Colibri.
Creature Features!!! I remember hiding under the couch when they showed the original Night of the Living Dead. It was Creature Features where I first saw the trailer for a little film called Star Wars. So many fond memories of Bob Wilkins. I have one of the Captain Cosmic decoder cards. Wonder Robot 2T2 is at Atlantis Fantasyworld in Santa Cruz.
Sorry for the digression.
It was during an episode of Captain Cosmic when I first saw the trailer for Star Wars! I got to see Bob Wilkins before he passed at a Comic Convention in San Francisco, but don’t remember the year.
The reason that I suggest the disc documentary is because it has Jack Lowenthal's son telling the story that follow the minuets of the interview Ed and SD conducted.
I 100% agree about PL not being cohesive about the GG, I also interviewed him in around 2012 for FE.
Again, Albert Luxfords book explains this ? there was only one prop going int to production.
Like I said in another post, I'd like to see this wooden gun in bits to see how the lighter fits the cigarette case 🤔😁
I'll try to check it out.
Thank you sincerely, Miranda, for making these arrangements.