Collectors opinions are wanted!
minigeff
EnglandPosts: 7,884MI6 Agent
I've been thinking lately about all things collector and prop stuff and what people actually think about the items they look for and add to their collections.
We're all aware that through various sources, forums, websites and social media, there are the official lines of collecting and other 'cottage industry' people who produce their own replica props and models from various bond films. Across this wide spectrum of people are of course their preferred methods and means of making stuff.
As time goes on and technologies become more available, some people are now doing more of the physical work themselves instead of outsourcing, things like 3D printing are becoming more affordable, with many people having machines in their own homes.
But then it dawned on me as I watched a clip of Jaguar's modern day lightweight E-type; is the art of 'hand made' on the way out? Turn back the clock and watch a documentary filmed in 1961 of the Jaguar Car Factory and you can see that pretty much everything is done by hand by men in brown coats smoking pipes as they work. These days most production methods are automated, carried out by CNC based equipment with only the high end and exclusive marques going for the 'tailor made' and 'hand crafted' methods. The standard practice of hand made seems to be now a specialist skill reserved for the elite.
So when it comes to looking out for something special to add to our collections, what do you guys look for? Is the most important aspect the screen accuracy, or do you tolerate some minor discrepancies? Do you prefer everything to be hand made? Or do you like the precision of modern techniques, even though the original might have been made in a less accurate way? Or do you crave authenticity and go for screen accurate props made in the same way the original would have been?
As a rule, I try my best to do everything myself, and over time I have had to diversify and learn new techniques. I've gone from paper drawings and bandsaws to CAD and CNC machines. Methods beyond me I sometimes outsource, but as someone who makes their own replicas it'd be interesting to hear whether you guys prefer the new methods or the old school. As far as the designs go, I always try to achieve a design as close to the original as I can manage, but I have been known to make some minor alterations and (in my opinion) enhance or improve on the original.
So when you consider something for your collection, what do you look for and value the most?
Opinion, thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
MG
We're all aware that through various sources, forums, websites and social media, there are the official lines of collecting and other 'cottage industry' people who produce their own replica props and models from various bond films. Across this wide spectrum of people are of course their preferred methods and means of making stuff.
As time goes on and technologies become more available, some people are now doing more of the physical work themselves instead of outsourcing, things like 3D printing are becoming more affordable, with many people having machines in their own homes.
But then it dawned on me as I watched a clip of Jaguar's modern day lightweight E-type; is the art of 'hand made' on the way out? Turn back the clock and watch a documentary filmed in 1961 of the Jaguar Car Factory and you can see that pretty much everything is done by hand by men in brown coats smoking pipes as they work. These days most production methods are automated, carried out by CNC based equipment with only the high end and exclusive marques going for the 'tailor made' and 'hand crafted' methods. The standard practice of hand made seems to be now a specialist skill reserved for the elite.
So when it comes to looking out for something special to add to our collections, what do you guys look for? Is the most important aspect the screen accuracy, or do you tolerate some minor discrepancies? Do you prefer everything to be hand made? Or do you like the precision of modern techniques, even though the original might have been made in a less accurate way? Or do you crave authenticity and go for screen accurate props made in the same way the original would have been?
As a rule, I try my best to do everything myself, and over time I have had to diversify and learn new techniques. I've gone from paper drawings and bandsaws to CAD and CNC machines. Methods beyond me I sometimes outsource, but as someone who makes their own replicas it'd be interesting to hear whether you guys prefer the new methods or the old school. As far as the designs go, I always try to achieve a design as close to the original as I can manage, but I have been known to make some minor alterations and (in my opinion) enhance or improve on the original.
So when you consider something for your collection, what do you look for and value the most?
Opinion, thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
MG
'Force feeding AJB humour and banter since 2009'
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
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Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Comments
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Stay tuned in 2017, I have some fun things in the pipeline. I'm determined to get back up to full steam.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Yeah, I was hoping for a few more responses if I'm honest....
Feel like I just came out the bog to find everyone's left the party
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I have a couple of your pieces and the quality/craftsmanship/attention to detail is staggering
Screen accuracy is best -{
I've asked myself which are the iconic pieces from each film or an aspect of the novels that I'd like to own and go from there.
He tries to convince me that certain details on the screen used egg where not perfect and that he can make them better.
I keep on telling him, that I want it accurate and not better.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Thanks to this forum I have been pushed further in the hobby and I look forward to the next non-clothing things that come around!
I'd like to clarify that the there is only one Bond item that was made for me, and that's clothing. (Doesn't count in my eyes.) So I have to reference other collections I have for this, and further afield.
Most of my stuff is mass produced. As my collectable topics are the likes of Star Trek Thunderbirds etc, that's a mixture of Model kits, toys - some I am in the process or planning stages of altering or modeling up myself. These are fun projects, nice things to collect and work on, but they will always lack something, because the bare bones if nothing else, still was from a mass produced machined batch in China or Taiwan. Far from bespoke.
My Father as noted in the past, is an expert on Railways. He is also a gifted model maker, and by that I mean the majority of the things he makes he does by hand. - Examples of his attention to detail include getting a job lot of small welsh slate blocks to cut into slabs twice the size of a postage stamp to create roof tiles! He also got a set of glass microscope slides to cut to the correct size for carriage window glass! My personal favorite is a signal box building he made. The shell was a stone mix kit (I think) the internal detail is extraordinary. Ok, I'm biased, he is my Dad. But the quality of his work is a standard many of his friends have said they aspire to. I guess growing up surrounded by this kind of stuff, it fascinates me more to see something where ingenuity, and original hand craftsmanship has gone into it.
Also explains my love of antiques, its not just if its pretty, and it has age, its the fact someone put so much of themselves and their skills into it. Especially furniture and paintings.
When it comes to full scale prop replicas, this is a different area for me. Most of the props I have seen at exhibitions from Bond, Star Trek and a few other things have a beaten, blocky or rough and ready look about them. They have been heavily used. Esp Trek. So many of the prop replica kits I saw in my teens were of a similar ilk. Mass produced clunky resin things, covered in mould grease, air holes, and were impractically heavy even once they were made.
Items I have seen in here - The Goldeneye and its keys, Homer and Bart, the pew-pew blasters from Moonraker, the recent Spectre ring scanner, and the jewel in the hen - the Faberge egg... These items are of a completely different level. Screen accurate? - I'd say a given, it is Bond. Hand made? Even more so. The Goldeneye Monocular and the TWINE plutonium props spring to mind. Those things look "real" real, not "prop" real. It shows a standard is being maintained, especially having seeing the likes of the real Egg, the A.T.A.C, and the miniature of the Graves Ice Palace at Designing 007.
Original items have their place too though. One that sticks in my head Mini-G was your recent Goldfinger Spirit of Ecstasy statue. The slightly frosted effect made me think of the DAD ice statues, but also all the Rolls Royce's I have admired over the years. The Auric 1, the CUB 1 and a certain pink six wheeler...
Machine mass produced? - Its Ok if the item is supposed to be generic. - a set of Martini glasses for example, or Q's Scrabble letter mug. Or an afterthought desk ornament.*
Screen Accurate? - A given for props, small gadgets etc I'd say. Its a Bond standard from what I have seen in here.
Hand made / bespoke - We have a few Q's in here, to my mind lead by Father Q and Mini-G. Even if I normally can't afford something of this standard (hopefully one day I will) it justifies itself because its not just Bond. Its carries The House of EON's standard of craftsmanship, because it's been hand made. Tom Ford and Sony can't claim that!
*You can keep that bloody china Bulldog though. I hate that thing as much as 007 does. Yuck!
I hope these ramblings help?
It's interesting for me as a model maker who has gone from working with paper drawings and hacking stuff out on bandsaws to, in the case of the Spectre Lasermic, designing something totally in CAD before having it 3D printed.
So in my mind, is the new technology becoming the new 'hand made'? Will the high precision and clinical sharpness of CAD and CNC production replace the bespoke craftsmanship of hand made? From the feedback here it appears not just yet.
As previously stated, I have in the past made some of my own improvements to a prop, and like Marcus is encountering with his eggy cheg, modern techniques give us model makers the ability to improve on the original quality and level of detail.
But it looks like if you want the most accurate and authentically made replica prop then you go for the same materials, the same period parts and the same methods of construction. And in my best Gandalf voice, "that is something I find encouraging".
Thanks guys, keep the opinions coming!
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
. . . A prop that looks shiny as on screen, whereas up close "metal" turns out to be reflective tape . . .
But I appreciate a prop being made in the same fashion and with the same methods that were employed for the screen-used piece. For me, without access to 3D printing or CAD, I'm left to create my props using my own two hands. But at some point, I would love to dabble in the new(ish) arena of 3D printing. I can't deny the fascination with it.
Kind regards,
Craig
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
The only thing I can go by is this picture of him from the latest London Meet-Up....
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org