my very old phasers

mrmyster

Anla-shok
many moons ago, in the late 70s, and before everyone figured out that there was a lot more money to be made from selling toys and props, i was a frustrated uber-fan of trek. of course i'm referring to TOS as TNG, DS9, voyager [gag] and so forth hadn't come on the scene yet. i wanted my own phasers, communcators, and such. and so, i had to make them. some of my early attempts were pretty poor; mostly based on still images from books like "the making of star trek".

i was beside myself when "the starfleet technical manual" was published. please keep in mind that these paper-craft have been through the proverbial mill. they've survived my playing with them, at least a couple of halloween costumes, more moves than i care to count, AND my son. they're a little worse for the wear, as they say.

just wanted to share these with everyone. i used thin cardboard, elmers glue, paper, velco, model paint and little else.

here, after making a short story long, is the type one phaser, including a working dial and display for the power setting.

cheers,
michael

TOS_type_1_phaser_A.jpg TOS_type_1_phaser_B.jpg
 

mrmyster

Anla-shok
and here is my phaser type 2. its in much worse shape. the power level dial on the butt is gone. the beam emitter has been replaced [my son 'fixed' it after loosing it].

i even had a belt my mom made me with the proper velcro patches for the communcator [which i can't find], the type one phaser, and the type two.

michael

TOS_type_2_phaser_A.jpg TOS_type_2_phaser_B.jpg
 

ganeshsingh158

New Member
I had the AMT kit as well, but I still tried to make my own. Let's just say your efforts were much better than mine. Thank goodness my old hand-made props didn't survive the ages! ;)
 

vulcan8630

Member
Hey,

Not bad....

I was also like you but a bit more ambitious.....I made my communicator and phaser type one out of scrap wood, pieces of aluminum and paint....Too young to understand why wood absorbed paint so much.......And why crazy glue does'nt really work when gluing plastic to wood!!!!!...

One claim to fame for one of my DIY props. William Shatner was making an appearance in a small science fiction store in Bezerkly...A buddy and I went to see him. We were dressed up in Star Trek uniforms and my friend went in line to get an autograph on Shatner album. My friend was carrying the phaser type one and Shatner asked to see it. Shatner held it and really scrutinized it and gave it back to my buddy.......

Yup, I remember those days!!!!
 

mrmyster

Anla-shok
I had the AMT kit as well, but I still tried to make my own. Let's just say your efforts were much better than mine. Thank goodness my old hand-made props didn't survive the ages! ;)

i had the AMT kit too [head-slap!] but i never liked them at all. the type I and II couldn't separate and the scale was WAY wrong. they were tiny compared to what they should have been. that never made sense to me. i mean, OK, the enterprise kit couldn't be 1:1, but the props ...? really?
 

mrmyster

Anla-shok
Hey,

Not bad....

I was also like you but a bit more ambitious.....I made my communicator and phaser type one out of scrap wood, pieces of aluminum and paint....Too young to understand why wood absorbed paint so much.......And why crazy glue does'nt really work when gluing plastic to wood!!!!!...!

thats pretty impressive. the one problem with mine was that the weight was never right. i didn't know what they should weigh but i knew it was way more than a few scraps of cardstock. i doubt you suffered from that shortcoming.

these were my third or fourth scratch attempts. of course, i started out w/ lego blocks and masking tape. and that was in the day when you only had a dozen [or fewer] different shaped blocks.
 

bgt01

Exemplary Confidant
I also remember the days of cardboard and wood props. Who cares what they looked like, they were awesome to play with! I used to make shuttlecraft out of large cardboard boxes. I'd make the controls out of the cardboard containers they used to stack six-packs of pop on pallets. I'd draw screens and buttons on the bottom in marker. I'd make dials by pushing straight pins (no safety first in the '70s;)) through pencil erasers and then jamming the pencils through the cardboard. I made one as a joke a few years ago and showed it to a teenage girl who worked in our office. Her confused look was priceless.
 
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