I’m pretty fortunate to live in a city with the second-largest expo complex in the US. The Orange County Convention Center in Orlando has about 2.1 million square feet of exhibition space, and this past Saturday every bit of that space was filled with a sea of nerds, gamers, comic books, cosplayers, and furries.
Steven Sampaio and I ignored all claustrophobic impulses, took a dive into the Geek Sea, and came up with a couple of minor treasures. He found a tasteful Miskatonic University t-shirt (a reference to a fictional university in H.P. Lovecraft’s fictional city of Arkham), and I found some geeky badges and paper props:
Arkham Asylum: fictional hospital – Batman
Tyrell Corporation: fictional genetic research company – Blade Runner
Cyberdyne Systems: fictional engineering company – Terminator
Counter Terrorist Unit: fictional homeland security agency – 24
Weyland-Yutani Corp: fictional all-around evil megacorp – Alien(s)
The term “paper props” refers to replicas of IDs, passports, licenses, notes, signs, and pretty much any other prop that could be fabricated with a printer (and laminator).
Blast From the Past is a tiny site filled with every printable prop from the Back to the Future series that you could possibly imagine; all catalogued by their time periods. Some examples:
- The Save the Clock Tower flyer in 1985
- the warning note to Doc Brown in 1955
- the Western Union letter from Doc Brown in 1885
- the YOU’RE FIRED!!! fax from Mr. Fujitsu in 2015
Also present at Megacon were many representatives of local Ghostbusters fan chapters. How they got around in the insanely packed showroom while wearing those proton packs was beyond me. Perhaps the seas just naturally part when an unlicensed nuclear accelerator is coming through. Something worth considering at Best Buy on Black Friday.
The Ghostbusters Fans site run by young gear-head AJ Quick is host to some of the most devoted and complex GB replicas that you’ll find anywhere. I’m convinced that some of the top-quality stuff Steven and I repeatedly tripped over was built from some of the plans and reference photos hosted on the site.
Which brings us back to Gus Weber, master of the Ebay motherload of prop replicas – many of them paper props. I’m pretty eager to get my hands on one of Jason Bourne’s phony passports. You think he’ll give me a discount in exchange for the plug?
I asked Gus a couple of inane questions, and he obliged with actual thoughtful answers. He’s so polite:
Who the hell are you?
Gus Weber of Buenos Aires, Argentina
By Day: Real Estate
By Night: Movie Prop Hobbyist and EbayerHow long have you been designing and fabricating prop replicas? What was the first one you made?
I got to be in the business, and dragged my wife to it as well arround 6 years ago. I was just browsing ebay and I saw a Grail Diary replica from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and went bananas over it. I wanted to have it so desperately, but I remember it was like $350, and I honestly couldnt affort it back then. So I started browsing the net, getting screencaps, and found a book with all of the real, screen-used diary pages and started making my own, It took me 6 different atempts to get a decent one, but I finally got it. After that I had several blanks, and well, I started trading them, and that is how all began.
My favorite of your items are the Dapper Dan and Fop tins. I’ve seen others online, but yours are clearly the highest quality. Can you tell us a bit about how you made them?
The story of the Dapper Dan Tin cans is pretty much the same as before – I was looking for a real screen used one, but I couldn’t find one any anywere. I went to forums, ebay, etc until I decided to make one myself. Again, I designed all of the logos and tags, but the problem was to get the right tin. A factory in Argentina was the right place to go, so I ordered what I wanted, and they delivered. The wife does the painting, and I take care of the stamping.
Gus pointed me toward a couple of forums he contributes to here and here. Check them out if you desperately need a copy of one of the running magazines briefly flashed in Forrest Gump.
