S'wak Props

Nine Gates Replica by S'wak Props on Youtube

2012-01-13T12:53:00.002+08:00

Here's a video I uploaded that shows my replica of the Nine Gates Balkan version with all the included inserts:

If you're interested in acquiring a copy, drop me an email at swakprops@gmail.com.

Nine Gates and Rorschach's Journals available now!

2010-08-03T17:56:00.000+08:00

I'm doing a new run of weathered Nine Gates and Rorschach's Journal and have 4 slots available for each book. Contact me at swakprops@gmail.com if you're interested in acquiring any of these books.

Here are some recent pics:

Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows

Rorschach's Journal

S'wak Props Exclusive #3: Henry Jones Sr Grail Diary

2010-07-15T13:09:00.000+08:00

Our third item is an oldie but goldie. It is the replica of Henry Jones Sr's Grail Diary from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The pages are printed with a laser printer. There are 284 pages in total, each page individually weathered by hand with a mixture of coffee, tea and acrylics. These pages are then hand cut to the original prop specs. They are then sent to a professional binder for stitching and binding so you can rest assured the pages won't fly off when you open the diary. Comes with a dark brown cow hide cover which has also been weathered, and an elastic strap.

The inserts are printed on different grades of paper and also individually aged like the diary pages. Included inserts are:

Anna Jones obituary
1899 Silver Dollar replica
Three newspaper clippings
Two Western Union telegrams
One Italian telegram
One blank Eastern Telegram
Two LARY tickets
One Boston ticket
One Zeppelin ticket
One Recent Publications insert
Two letters
Wolfram scrap with map-with-no-name on the reverse side
Roman numerals scrap
Indy and Henry picture
Cross Ties/Washington quote insert
Foldout Venice Map

The diary also comes with a diary package postmarked Venice, Italy.

The first flyleaf with the Insurance Co. envelope and vintage French Franc replica

Anna Jones obituary - sharper version

Pic of Henry and infant Indy

Boston ticket

Newspaper clipping 1

Replica 1899 silver dollar

Map with no name on the Omphalos page

Al-Jawf's letter - new version

Henry's lecture ticket

Codirolli's telegram

Titanic pamphlet and ticket

Henry and young Indy pic

George Washington quote sheet

1st blue LARY ticket

Purple Dragon insert

Lady Eleanora letter - new version

Huge map of Egypt and Sinai

Gold LARY ticket

Vintage Camel pack

Foldout map of the Holy Land

Western Union telegram 1

Folded 2nd blue LARY ticket on the three trials page

Staubig letter - new version

Recent publications insert

Foldout map of Venice

Roman numerals scrap

Zeppelin ticket

Eastern telegram

If you're interested in this, please email swakprops@gmail.com for details on how to purchase this item.

S'wak Props Exclusive #2: Rorschach's Journal

2010-07-05T13:02:00.000+08:00

Secondly we have Rorschach's Journal Prop Replica from Watchmen.

Cover is weathered cowhide. The journal is 200 pages thick with the entries from October 12th 1985 to November 1st 1985 repeated several times to make up the pages. Both comic and movie entries are included. Movie entry dates have ordinal suffixes (12th, 21st etc), comic entry dates do not (12, 21 etc). The pages are also weathered and are professionally bound.

Comes with:

(a) Rorschach FBI Wanted Poster;
(b) Gunga Diner flyer;
(c) Rorschach's calling card;
(d) Pyramid Transnational envelope addressed to Roy Chess;
(e) Roy Chess ID badge.

If you're interested, please emal swakprops@gmail.com for details on how to purchase this.

S'wak Props Exclusive #1: The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows

2010-07-05T12:48:00.001+08:00

Just thought I'd highlight the specialty items of S'wak Props. First up is The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows Prop Replica

The book has 300 pages with filler text with the 10 engravings (1 title page and 9 woodcuts) interspersed between them. These engravings match with those in the Balkan/Telfer copy. The pages are individually numbered (none of that 666 crap). These pages are laser printed onto A4 sized 80gsm white paper and then cut to the dimensions of the original prop (6.5" x 10"). These pages are then individually weathered by hand with a mixture of tea and coffee.Once this is done, the pages are then sent to the professional binderswho will sew and bound them in dark brown lambskin leather. The boundbook has the five raised ridges on the spine, the embossed fleur de lis frame on the front and back with the gilded pentagram (and fleur de lisdesign inside it) on the front. The cover is also mildly weathered, i.e. the edges, the spine ridges as well as the discoloration on the back which is afeature of the Balkan/Tefler copy.

The following items are included:

(a) nine LCF woodcuts
(b) the fake ninth woodcut with "CENIZA BROS" written across it
(c) the two page spread with the genuine ninth woodcut
(d) the comparison chart made by Corso to distinguish the three copies ofthe Nine Gates
(e) Corso's business card
(f) Balkan's postcard to Baroness Kessler
(g) the weathered yellow fabric to wrap the book in.

If you're interested in this, please email swakprops@gmail.com for details on how to purchase this item.

Rorschach's Journal

2010-06-30T14:34:00.000+08:00

After viewing Watchmen, I knew I wanted to make a replica of Rorschach's Journal. This journal is central to the plot of the movie as it chronicles in the masked vigilante's investigation into the death of Edward Blake a.k.a. The Comedian.

Not much reference is available on the prop. Basically there's a picture of the front cover in The Watchmen Portraits book as well as a close-up of the final entry in The Watchmen Film Companion book as shown below.

From the Companion book pic, it looks like the journal contained entries from both the comic as well as the movie, side by side. The left side is the movie final entry (notice "entry is misspelled "ENTREY" here) while the left side is the longer comic entry.

From the screencap pic, the wordings on the left page looks like the comic entry (with a reference to President Truman, which is not in the movie entry) while the right side page is ineligible. Another thing to note is that Rorschach likes to mark his page corners with his symbol, which can clearly be seen on the right page in the screencap.

So with these limited references I set upon making my replica. I decided to go with an A5 sized journal so I arranged my pages in that manner. I decided to make the entire journal with both the movie and the comic entries, just like in the Companion book pic, with movie entries on the left and comic entries on the right. The exception was the first entry, as per the screencap, with the comic entry appearing on the left.

Getting the comic entries were simple... I just copied them from the TPB I have. The movie entries required transcribing the dialogue (thank god for subtitles!).

Since the journal contained two versions of the entries, I thought the best way to distinguish them was to add ordinal suffixes to the movie entries dates. So movie entries are October 12th, 13th, 16th etc while comic entries are October 12, 13, 16 etc.

Also, its interesting to note that there are more comic entries than movie entries.

Based on the above, this is what I came up with:

I found a good handwriting font which looks recklessly scribbled, like Rorschach's handwriting, and tried to match the spacing of the entries in the reference pics.

Because both the movie and comic entries make up only about 12 pages, I repeated the entries set several times plus a few blank pages to make up 200 pages in total.

I also decided I wanted some inserts to go with the journal. I know the journal doesn't contain any inserts but I thought it'd be fun to include some.

Here's what I made:

Rorschach's Wanted poster

Gunga Diner menu

Rorschach's calling card (from the credits):

Screencap

My replica

The letter from Pyramid Transnational to Roy Chess which Rorschach found:

Screencap

My replica

Roy Chess ID tag:

Screencap

My replica

Here's a look at the entire package:

If you're interested in acquiring this replica, please email me at swakprops@gmail.com.

My gratitude goes to my Photoshop wiz bro who helped me with the images for the inserts. As I mentioned to you previously, you rock, bro.

Cyberdyne Systems Model T-800

2009-06-17T13:50:00.000+08:00

I already have two versions of Terminator 2 on DVD. When it was announced that the Blu-Ray Skynet Edition was released in a limited edition package with a 1:1 T-800 Endo-skull, I did not hesitate. And I don't even have a Blu-Ray player.

Here are some pics of the package:

The endo-skull out of the package:

The eyes light up:

Now we know why Indiana Jones is indestructable:

Overall its a nice display piece, but don't expect the quality of a Sideshow or a HCG Endo-skull. After all, this costs only a fraction of the price of those gems. Perhaps with a bit of weathering and re-painting of the teeth, this endo-skull would look better.

Battlestar Galactica Duty Blue Uniform and Flightsuit

2009-06-12T15:24:00.000+08:00

One of the best TV shows I've seen is the new Battlestar Galactica. Much to my disappointment though, it just concluded its run after 4 seasons (started in 2003), but it ended on a high note. The brainchild of former Star Trek strong man, Ronald D. Moore, Galactica had a much darker, grittier and more realistic tone than Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager or Enterprise. This was what attracted me to Galactica, having been disappointed by the cardboard sterile sets on TNG and its successors. There were no reset buttons on Galactica (but it was rampant on Star Trek, especially Voyager), if the ship suffers damages, rest assured on next week's episode, the damage is still there.

Smittened by Galactica, I immediately wanted to own a set of the costumes worn by the crew. In particular the duty blues worn by the officers as well as the flightsuit worn by the Viper and Raptor pilots.

Here's the duty blue worn by Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos):

Here's a pic of Adama and his son, Lee showing the difference in piping for Senior and Junior Officers:

This is the flightsuit as worn by Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and Athena/Boomer (Grace Park):

This is a screen-used flightsuit that was recently put up on auction by Propworx after the conclusion of Galactica's TV run:

And after years or looking, here's my duty blues. Rank pins and piping indicate Admiral rank, like Adama's (the pics of me in the uniform actually shows screen accurate Adama belly):

And of course, my flightsuit, complete with 02 sensor (thanks, CFC!) on the sleeve. The gloves are screen accurate but I haven't had the time to cover up the velcro strap yet:

Beginnings of a prop - Update 1

2009-06-10T20:13:00.000+08:00

My Klingon vibr... err... metal barrel is done. Many drill bits were lost in the process. May they rest in pieces. After the template was removed, I gave it a good shine so that priming and painting would be easier.

The shinyness of the barrel attracts a curious onlooker

Stay tuned for more progress!

Lady E has arrived!

2009-06-10T14:57:00.000+08:00

Who is Lady E you ask? Or what?

What else but the best looking ship in Starfleet history... the refitted Constitution Class U.S.S. Enterprise bearing the call sign NCC-1701-A. The proud ship captained by the greatest captain in Starfleet history... James T. Kirk.

Actually it's a kit of the NCC-1701-A. Polar Lights had previously released this kit in a limited number and it was quickly snapped up. I had wanted to get this initially but the thought of masking the kit to get the Aztec details were too daunting. If I were just to paint it white, it wouldn't do it any justice.

So I was happy that Polar Lights re-released this kit due to popular demand and included a full set of Aztec decals for it! That's right, boys and girls... no masking required. Just paint the ship and stick the decals.

Here are some pics:

The front of the box ... it is HUGE!!

How the kit looks like completed

The back of the box

Inside the box

One of Lady E's well endowed warp nacelles

The saucer section

Parts of the kit

Clear parts and the secondary hull

The display stand

The decal sheets... check out those Aztec details

The completed kit would meausre about 36 inches in length! That's right... a whopping 3 feet. Almost a studio scale. I'm hoping to light this sucker up too... wink wink CFC!!

Don't hold your breath though... I've got so many projects on the backburner, plus my real life work schedule is very hectic, it'll be awhile before I can complete this.

The beginnning of a prop build

2009-06-03T16:58:00.000+08:00

Here's the humble beginnings of a prop.

A 18 3/8" brass tube and templates stuck onto it as a cutting/drilling guide.

Can anyone guess what I'm building? And Nex, you're disqualified coz you would probably have guessed already what it is.

The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows - New Pics

2009-05-28T16:51:00.000+08:00

I've received so many queries about this replica that I made so I thought I'd post some more new pics I took of the book and the inserts that come with it.

This books has been weathered to emulate the look of the prop used in the movie. The 9 LCF woodcuts, the fake 9th woodcut and the two-page spread with the genuine 9th woodcut have also been weathered. Other inserts include Balkan's postcard, Corso's business card and Corso's chart comparing the Balkan, Fargas and Kessler copies. In the foreground is the weathered yellow fabric in which the book is wrapped in.

If you're interested in acquiring this replica, drop me a line at swakprops@gmail.com.

I am THE LAW!!!

2009-05-06T15:20:00.000+08:00

The Lawgiver is the primary weapon wielded by the Judges of Mega-City One, the most famous of which is Judge Dredd. In the film "Judge Dredd" which is based on the beloved UK comic series, the "Lawgiver Mark II" handgun is capable of firing several types of ammunition, including standard bullets, rapid fire (all types of ammo), explosive grenade rounds, the "double-whammy" (twin rounds fired simultaneously in different directions), armour piercing rounds and signal flares.

Each individual round fired is tagged with the DNA code of the Judge to whom the weapon belongs, thus making identification of the shooter possible with the recovery of the slugs from a victim. Instead of exploding when an individual other than a judge picks up the weapon it emits a very powerful, incapacitating (and often deadly) shock until the weapon is dropped.

Of course, the replica I have in my collection doesn't have all that bells and whistles. It is a solid resin one piece construction with a metal barrel, cast from the prototype Lawgiver for the movie, and was painted "scuffed finish" by Jason Wilbourne who also makes the comic book version for Termight Replicas.

As it does not have any moving parts, this is a static display piece that cannot fire or be modified to fire.

'Blade Runner' blaster gun lands on auction bloc

2009-04-23T17:59:00.000+08:00

From Reuters:

LOS ANGELES, April 10 - A blaster gun used by actor Harrison Ford to hunt down and kill futuristic humanoids in 1982 sci-fi film "Blade Runner" will be put on the auction block in an upcoming sale of Hollywood memorabilia.

Auctioneer Profiles in History expects about US$3 million (RM10.8 million) in total sales from the auction, which will include the collection of horror and science fiction promoter Forrest Ackerman and an animation puppet used in director Tim Burton's 2005 movie "Corpse Bride".

The "Blade Runner" blaster, with an estimated sales price of between US$100,000 and US$150,000, comes from Hollywood marketer and producer Jeff Walker, and Profiles in History called it the "holy grail" of sci-fi weapons.

The movie, directed by Ridley Scott, takes place in the year 2019 when Rick Deckard (Ford) is reluctantly drawn back to being a "blade runner" who tracks down and kills humanoid "replicants" that are revolting against real humans.
The movie was a critical success, but failed to ignite a great deal of excitement at box offices, earning just under US$33 million.

On video and DVD, however, it has gained a large following and become a cult classic.

Other items from Walker's "Blade Runner" collection being sold include costumes that Ford wore in the 1982 movie.

Ackerman, who edited the now defunct magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland and spent a lifetime collecting props from science fiction and horror movies, died in December at age 92.

Items to be sold from his massive collection include a ring worn by actor Bela Lugosi when he played Count Dracula on screen, and a monocle that director Fritz Lang used when he made the 1927 science fiction movie "Metropolis".

Other items include actress Rita Hayworth's dress from 1946 movie "Gilda".

Profiles in History will hold its spring sale April 30 and May 1 in Calabasas, California, allowing participants to bid live online from anywhere in the world.

Here are some pics published by Profiles in History for the auction:

Pics of the blaster in 1981 while Blade Runner was in production

And here's the blaster as it is now, prepped for auction:

Here's my version, fashioned on the present condition of the blaster (also based on the pics of it taken by Karl Tate at WorldCon 'o6). This was a Sidkit WorldCon full metal kit, blued, painted and weathered by me to follow the look of the present condition of the blaster:

And no, it does not fire and cannot be modified to fire. Its strictly a display piece.

Nine Gates Comparison

2009-03-10T14:21:00.000+08:00

I wouldn't have been able to embark on my Nine Gates run last year without the help of M. Haspil, who provided me plenty of reference materials and files. He himself embarked on a similar run a few years ago, but his Nine Gates was the definitive version as his books were bound by the same people who bound the actual books for Polanski's movie. His high end price tag reflects that.

Recently, Haspil asked me about acquiring a copy of my Nine Gates for his collection, and I look at it as a great honor. So I made him an unweathered copy (as per his request) and shipped it to him. He received it a couple of weeks later and told me he was pleased with the acquisition. He also sent me this picture of my book and the book he did from his run (my book is the one on the right):

As you can see, aside from my leather being a bit more browner, the dimensions of the book, the positioning of the frame, pentagram and the spine ridges are almost spot on. Too bad the tooling detail on the cover is not as superb as the original. Well, not bad work for binders operating out of Kampung Baru!

My saber collection

2009-03-10T13:01:00.000+08:00

I've been neglecting this blog. What more, I haven't posted anything about props for quite a while so I thought I'd post some pics of my fanmade saber hilt collection.

Here's a recent addition to my collection. This is the idealized Luke Skywalker Hero saber from Return of the Jedi. It was made by Rylo and machined out of aluminum and copper. The saber was shipped as a blank (unpainted) with a control box but without the accessories. The completing kit was obtained from JD Pilot and consists of the copper strip, the buttons, arrows and tri-ring. I had the whole saber polished on a buffing wheel and then painted the black section with Krylon Satin black.

This is the centerpiece of my collection, my weathered Obiwan saber from A New Hope. This is the holy grail of sabers and consists of very hard to find parts. The emitter is a balance pipe from a Derwent engine, the neck and grooved section is a British #3 Mk1 frag grenade body, the mid section consists of a clamp from a Graflex flash gun with a bubble strip from a vintage Exactra calculator and vintage transistors, below that is a booster from an ANM2 Browning machine gun and lastly, a vintage Armitage Shanks hand wheel/sink knob. The parts of my saber are replicas of course; the emitter is made by Gavidoc, the steel grenade by Chen, the clamp is by Parks, the transistors are real, the booster and the handwheel are by Romans Empire.

Here's my Luke Return of the Jedi saber collection, consisting of the Rylo Hero, Saberfreak's V2 and Stunt.

Here are all variation of Luke's sabers from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi. The ANH is a real Graflex with Blast-tech conversion kit, the ESB Wampa Cave saber is a Parks Graflex with Blast-tech conversion kit and the ESB Ranch saber is a real Graflex with Blast-tech conversion kit. The Jedi sabers are as aforementioned.

Here are all the sabers in my collection, which includes all the above sabers plus a Darth Vader Empire Strikes Back saber made from a replica MPP flash tube with Blast-tech conversion parts and a Darth Vader ROTJ saber made form a real Graflex with Obikenny conversion parts.

"The Nature Boy" Ric Flair honored in Greensboro, NC

2008-12-17T15:06:00.000+08:00

Twenty-five years ago, the Greensboro Coliseum hosted the inaugural Starrcade in front of a capacity crowd of 16,000 fans. Ric Flair regained the NWA World Heavyweight title from Harley Race in a historic cage match. On Friday night, December 5th 2008, to commemorate this historic event, Greensboro, North Carolina, presented Ric Flair with the key to the city.

Fans were on hand at the Proehlific Park Sports Complex to celebrate and take photos with "The 16-Time World Champion", along with the original NWA World Heaveyweight Title Belt and the robe worn at Starrcade in 1983.

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair accepts a proclamation giving him the key to the city of Greensboro:

The Dome Globe NWA World Heavyweight Title Belt now owned by Flair:

During the event, Ric also took the time to autograph some items for fans including this replica of the Big Gold Belt, for a certain someone:
A note about the watch on Ric's wrist: After his retirement match against Shawn Michaels in Wrestlemania XXIV, Shawn came over to him and he had a bag and he took out two boxes. He had two diamond Rolexes with a diamond-faced 24 for WrestleMania 24. One was Ric's and one was Shawn's. Ric's watch says Richard Fliehr vs. Shawn Michaels 'To be the man.' And Shawn's says, Richard Fliehr vs. Shawn Michaels: 'You gotta beat the man.'

And here it is, the belt that Ric signed:

Thank you, Ric! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Battlestar Galactica Bill Adama Display

2008-11-27T14:14:00.000+08:00

I accumulated some BSG stuff over the past couple of years, originally for a Galactica Blues service uniform I was planning, which I've since scrapped. So I've decided to display them in a shadow box instead.

Here are the parts:

Qmx Bill "Husker" Adama dogtags cast in metal, plated in bronze and weathered to exactly match those used on screen; BSG-75 screen accurate arm patch and senior officer wings and rank pins.

Close-up on the Qmx dogtag:

Close-up of the rank pins:

Close-up of the BSG-75 arm patch:

I know... I need a better camera...

Now if I could only find a shadow box...

The Big Gold Belt

2008-10-28T15:20:00.000+08:00

Another bit of wrestling trivia.

The Big Gold Belt is an historic professional wrestling championship belt. Originally designed on order by Jim Crockett Promotions, it was made to replace the Dome Globe belt which signified the NWA world champion at that time. At that moment, the title was held by "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair effectively making him the first to ever wear the Big Gold Belt.

The belt has three gold plates and was the first to feature a name plate onto which the champion's name was etched. The original belt simply stated "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" without indicating any designated promotion. For copyright purposes, WWE added its own logo to the belt in March 2003.

The belt was used by the NWA in that capacity from 1985 until 1993. Later it was used by WCW for its world champion. When WWE bought WCW in 2001, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship title (and the belt) was then held by Booker T. It was subsequently won by The Rock who held the title. At that time, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin held the WWE Championship so the existence of two championships and two belts in the WWE created a bit of a controversy. This was laid to rest when Chris Jericho defeated both Austin and The Rock in Vengeance PPV in 2001 thus becoming the Undisputed Champion.

Because of the unification of two titles, the WWF Attitude Era belt and the Big Gold Belt were replaced by a new Undisputed Champion belt. The first one to hold that belt was Triple H, having defeated Chris Jericho before that. The belt changed hands several times, one of those who held the title was Brock Lesnar. When the WWE decided to split the roster between Raw and Smackdown in 2002, Lesnar (and the title) was drafted to Smackdown and he agreed to defend that title only on Smackdown, thus leaving Raw without a championship title. This prompted Eric Bischoff, then Raw General Manager, to create a new World Heavyweight Championship with the Big Gold Belt to represent it. The first one to hold the title? That's right... Triple H.

It is now defended on the Raw brand and is currently held by Batista.

And after years of yearning, I've finally acquired myself a replica of the belt. This belt is BIG... and BEAUTIFUL!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

The detail on this belt is amazing!

And its damn big!

A look at the strap from the back.

It truly is a big gold belt!

Here's yours truly sporting the belt so that you have a sense of its size!

Addendum

When Ric Flair left WCW for the WWF in 1991, Flair was still champion. The belt was property of Flair as he had originally placed a $25,000 deposit on it that was required of anyone holding the belt. Flair kept the belt after parting ways with WCW due to then WCW Vice President Jim Herd refusing to pay the deposit with additional interest back. WCW stripped Flair of their recognition of world champion and introduced a new belt to represent the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

Flair soon signed with the WWF and wore the Big Gold Belt there. Flair stated on the 2008 released Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection DVD that the $25,000 he initially deposited with additional interest totalling $38,000 was never paid back to him, and as a result, Flair kept the Big Gold Belt. He also stated that he later gave the belt to Triple H as a gift.

When wrestling was cool...

2008-10-24T12:48:00.000+08:00

I used to be crazy about wrestling. Yup, you heard right. Wrestling. Or sports entertainment as they prefer to call it. Back in the 80s when WWE was known as WWF as names like Hulk Hogan, "The Macho Man" Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior were household names, wrestling was pretty much the rage. Whenever, my dad would rent the PPV tapes (back then there were only 4 a year: The Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and The Survivor Series), he, my brother and I would sit in front of our small TV and watch as these men battle it out for the highest honors in the WWF. Sure we knew it was fake, but it was still a lot of fun.

Then the 90s came and I went to university. But come vacation time and I'm back in my hometown, it was my turn to go get the tapes and we would resume our "family tradition". The mid to late 90s in particular were much more exciting because this was the era of the Monday Night War.

You see, by 1993, the WWF (World Wrestling Federation, not World Wildlife Fund) was the biggest name in wrestling. Owned by Vince McMahon, the WWF had the great athletes in sports entertainment at that time; the aforementioned Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Kevin "Diesel" Nash, Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall and many more. Vince's closest competitor at that time was World Championship Wrestling (WCW) which was owned by medial mogul Ted Turner. WCW didn't really pose much of a threat to Vince as it featured the more less known NWA wrestlers. The best the WCW had at that time was "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Sting.

This all changed when Ted Turner handed over management of WCW to an ambitious young executive named Eric Bischoff. Bischoff started by doing the unthinkable; he signed on Hogan and subsequently, Savage. Then he convinced Ted Turner to give him a prime time slot (Monday nights at 8pm) for WCW Nitro so that it could compete directly with WWF's already established Monday Night Raw. The initial broadcast of Nitro featured the debut of Lex Luger to the WCW audience. WCW's coup of obtaining Luger was significant for several reasons. Because Nitro was live at the time, premiering major stars on the show would signal to the fans the amount of excitement the broadcasts would contain. Also, Luger had just come off a successful run in the WWF and was one of the company's top stars at one point. Luger was in line to get the WWF World Title (he had several previous title matches) and was on a WWF PPV the night before. No one knew except Bischoff that he would be there that night. So the shock value was through the roof. The Monday Night War had begun.

Eric Bischoff, being an unscrupulous and yet business savvy man that he is, knew that in order to win over the already established WWF and Raw, he had to try all the dirty tactics in and out of the playbook. One advantage he had was the fact that Nitro was recorded live while Raw was taped. So he began giving away the results of some of the matches on Raw during Nitro. His reasoning? So that the viewers would just watch Nitro since they know what was gonna happen on Raw.

In another instance, Bischoff successfully signed on the WWF Women's Champion Madusa (known as Alundra Blayze in the WWF) and convinced her to throw her WWF Women's Championship belt into a trash can live on the air after jumping to WCW.

Another move made by Bischoff was hiring Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who had wrestled in the WWF respectively as Razor Ramon and Diesel. Fans were led to believe that Hall and Nash's random appearances at Nitro matches signalled an invasion of the WCW by WWF superstars when in actual fact, this marked the beginning the nWo (New World Order) storyline.

Hall and Nash announced the forthcoming appearance of a mysterious third member of the nWo. That third member turned out to be none other than Hulk Hogan. Hogan labeled the new faction a "new world order of wrestling", beginning a feud between wrestlers loyal to WCW and the nWo.

Because of this, WCW Nitro would defeat WWF RAW in the ratings for 84 consecutive weeks.

Things went worse for WWF. In 1997, the infamous Montreal Screwjob incident took place. Bret Hart, the then-WWF champion had signed a contract with WCW and McMahon was worried that he might show up on WCW with the championship belt (which Hart assured McMahon he wouldn't do). During his championship match with Shawn Michaels at his hometown of Montreal, Canada, Hart was double crossed by McMahon (in real life, not scripted). The plan was executed when the match referee, Earl Hebner, under orders from McMahon, called for the bell to ring and ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the sharpshooter submission hold, even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the victor by submission and the new WWF Champion, even as Hart and the audience were outraged. So outraged was Hart that he spat on McMahon, who was standing outside the ring.

WCW had the big stars people wanted to see: Hogan, Nash, Hall, Hart, Flair, Sting, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Diamond Dallas Page, etc. In addition, WCW had credible midcard stars like Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Raven, along with an exciting cruiserweight division featuring high-flying competitors from Mexico (the luchadores) and Japan, as well as the United States and Canada. The popular opinion at the time was that the Montreal Screwjob was too much of a blow for the WWF's image to overcome, since the screwing over of a popular wrestler like Hart would anger many fans and give WCW a great amount of hype to work with.

The WWF then went into what is now referred to as The Attitude Era (referred to as such because WWF Attitude had become the company's tagline). This era drastically changed the way wrestling TV was written and constructed, with short matches, backstage vignettes, and shocking television. Vince McMahon also took advantage of wrestling fans' widespread hatred for him after the Montreal Screwjob by recasting himself as Mr. McMahon, an evil-owner caricature who would routinely "screw" faces in order to ensure the dominance of his hand-picked heel champions. The night after WrestleMania XIV, Vince also began an epic feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was fired by Bischoff in 1995 as not being marketable enough. The feud was enormously successful due to fans' universal love of Austin and universal hatred of Vince, and it would be a major factor in the WWF finally snapping WCW's ratings winning streak with its new Attitude branding.

WWF also had a response to the nWo in the form of the D-Generation-X stable, consisting of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna. After WrestlemMnia XIV, however, Shawn Michaels would take a four year hiatus from wrestling, due to back injuries, and Triple H became the sole leader of D-X, and recruited The New Age Outlaws and Sean Waltman (X-Pac)- who had just returned to the WWF after wrestling for two years in WCW as nWo member Syxx-pac- into his new "D-X Army.

One famous angle the D-X Army also participated in during the Monday Night War was also an "invasion" of WCW Nitro on April 27, 1998.

Raw was dominating Nitro to the point where WCW was making "quick fixes" to stem the tide. In September 1999, Bischoff was removed from power. Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara, the head writers of WWF television programs, were lured away by WCW as Bischoff's replacement but they failed to capture the magic of their WWF days when they turned Nitro into more of a RAW clone, and they became known on-screen as unseen management known as "The Powers That Be". Even when Bischoff was later brought back, Nitro was already on a downward spiral.

By now, Ted Turner was no longer running the company, which had been purchased by Time Warner in 1996 and AOL in 2000. In January 2001, Fusient Media Ventures, led by Eric Bischoff, announced they had bought WCW. The deal was contingent on the Turner networks keeping Nitro on Monday and WCW Thunder on TBS on Wednesday. When Jamie Kellner took over as CEO of Turner Broadcasting, he removed all WCW programming from the network. With no national television outlet to air the shows, Fusient dropped their offer to purchase the promotion. As a stipulation in an earlier lawsuit the WWF filed against WCW, WWF had first dibs on WCW because of outstanding debts, and as a creditor basically set their price for around $7 million to acquire certain assets, including the trademarks, logos, and video library. On March 23, 2001, Vince McMahon purchased WCW, signalling the end to the Monday Night Wars with WWF clearly emerging as the victor.

McMahon did allow a final Nitro show to air from Panama City Beach which had been scheduled for the following Monday on March 26. It featured him and the WWF stars from Cleveland airing in segments during the show. The final WCW World Heavyweight Championship match for the show and the company saw Booker T unify the WCW World Heavyweight Championship and WCW United States Heavyweight Championship by defeating Scott Steiner.

Sadly, with the death of WCW and Nitro, Raw also seemed to have lost some steam. I stopped watching in 2003 after Wrestlemania XX as most of the new wrestlers are not as charismatic and lack the pull of the big names like The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Sure Triple H, Shawn Michales (who personally I think should retire already) and The Undertaker are still there, but less emphasis is given to them and instead, non-charismatic wrestlers like Randy Orton, John Cena and Edge are given the major push.

And I hate that goddamn Spinner belt.

Grail Tablet

2008-09-25T15:07:00.000+08:00

Here's something I picked up in a trade, a replica of the Grail Tablet from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This cast was made by JMTwo who created the master using screencaps and pics of the actual tablet in "From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives". The master was laser-engraved on 1-1/2" MDF which he then hand shaped to get the final result. The kits are cast in Uragel 770, which allows them to be very thin (1/16" -1/8") and light (20oz), yet very strong. The tablet measures 19" H X 20" W.

The back is hollow and I plan to fill them up, either with expanding foam or plaster of paris. The tablet is unpainted so once filled I will be painting it with a faux sandstone finish like the one seen in the below screencap from the movie.

It also comes with a nice plaque:

Another dream prop obtained!

2008-09-25T14:15:00.000+08:00

I'm a fan of the movie "Equilibrium", an action movie set in the futuristic, and dystopian city-state of Libria. Following a devastating Third World War, the strict government of Libria has eliminated war by suppressing all human emotion. In the monochromatic and sedated society, artifacts from the old world (works of art such as the Mona Lisa and music that may evoke some emotion) are destroyed and the population is required to take emotion sedatives. Those who do not adhere to this are hunted down by a special unit called the Grammaton Clerics who are trained to locate and arrest those guilty of feeling emotions. One Cleric, Preston (played by pre-Batman Christian Bale) finds himself abandoning the drug and experiencing outlawed feelings. As he struggles to conceal his feelings from his superiors, colleagues, and family, Preston finds himself drawn into a sinister world of double-crossings and lies, and becomes an unwitting pawn in a sophisticated plot which ultimately changes the repressed society forever.

One cool aspect of Equilibrium is the fighting style employed by the Clerics, called Gun Kata. It is a fictional discipline that combines martial arts and hand held firearms. It is based upon the premise that, given the positions of the participants in a gun battle, the trajectories of fire are statistically predictable. By pure memorization of the positions, one can fire at the most likely location of an enemy without aiming at him in the traditional sense of pointing a gun at a specific target. By the same token, the trajectories of incoming fire are also statistically predictable, so by assuming the appropriate stance, one can keep one's body clear of the most likely way of enemy bullets.

As a prop enthusiast, the minute I saw the Cleric sidearm (which is basically a modified Beretta 92) I was lovestruck. I knew I had to have one. Heck, I had to have TWO, since Clerics normally carry two.

For years, I have been patiently scouring Ebay and various prop forums looking for this elusive prop. Then when Matsucorp announced that he was making kits for these, I was ecstatic. Cut to the chase, I got my pair.

The kit consists of gun solid cast in black resin with grip plates, grip screws and mag base. The gun itself is solid and has no moving parts and thus cannot in any way be modified ot fire.

This is one of the cleanest casts I've ever come across. There is no seam or flash along the top barrel only under the barrel trigger guard and front grip. Matt also made sure the grip serrations ar not interrupted by the seam. And the best this is he included engraved base plates, selector switches and lanyard rings.

Nine Gates project - Completed

2008-09-17T13:34:00.000+08:00

My thanks goes to Paul Jones who talked me into making this replica and to Jeff Schmidt for his assistance on the graphics aspect. A special thanks goes to Mike Haspil for sharing his years of research into the Nine Gates with me, thus making this replica as accurate as possible.

My ultimate Grail Diary replica

2008-09-05T17:49:00.000+08:00

My ultimate Grail Diary replica is finally done.

This is the replica I've set out to create ever since I started making these back in 2006.

This replica has my best weathering work to date. It contains more inserts than ever included in my previous versions.

This is my swan song to the Grail Diary. There will be no more after this.

On to the pics.

The diary and new accurate wrapper

The first flyleaf with the Insurance Co. envelope and vintage French Franc replica

Anna Jones obituary - sharper version

Pic of Henry and infant Indy

Boston ticket

Newspaper clipping 1

Replica 1899 silver dollar

Map with no name on the Omphalos page

Al-Jawf's letter - new version

Henry's lecture ticket

Codirolli's telegram

Titanic pamphlet and ticket

Henry and young Indy pic

George Washington quote sheet

1st blue LARY ticket

Purple Dragon insert

Lady Eleanora letter - new version

Huge map of Egypt and Sinai

Gold LARY ticket

Vintage Camel pack

Foldout map of the Holy Land

Western Union telegram 1

Folded 2nd blue LARY ticket on the three trials page

Staubig letter - new version

Recent publications insert

Foldout map of Venice

Roman numerals scrap

Zeppelin ticket

Eastern telegram

All these inserts make this diary a FAT bugger!

Weathering the Nine Gates

2008-09-04T13:05:00.000+08:00

I got back from work late last night and only managed to weather 2/3rds of one book. Here are some pics of some of the weathered pages:

I haven't weathered the cover yet. Saving that for last.

De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis

2008-09-03T16:20:00.000+08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present De Umbrarum Regni Novem Portis, or The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows:

With flash:

Without flash:

The front cover:

The 5 raised bands on the spine:

The pentacle:

The back cover:

The blank flyleaves and title page:

The first woodcut - Silentium est aureum "Silence is golden"

The Porta Secunda woodcut:

The damaged S as pointed out by Fargas to Corso:

The fake 9th woodcut:

These books are still in pristine condition. I will be starting the weathering process for each book soon.

Grail Diary step by step - Part 1

2008-08-13T15:33:00.000+08:00

After I shipped out all the Grail Diaries I amde for the final run, I realized that I didn't keep one for myself. For my previous runs, I've always kept one to show the progress I've made from one run to another. But I totally forgot to keep one this time. So I decided to make the ultimate Diary for myself.

Well, not just for myself. I owe someone a new Diary because of a printing error in the first one I gave him, and I also wanted to give another friend a diary for the help he gave me in ensuring that my Nine Gates project got off the ground. So I figured I'd make 3 Diaries. Since the Nine Gates books were currently at the binders, I've got some free time to work on these ultimate Diary replicas.

First step is to print the pages out. I use a mono laser printer to print them out. Here they are printed out on regular 80gsm A4 paper:

Once they're printed out, I need to cut them to the proportions of the screen used pages. These are done manually, with a good old steel ruler and a very sharp box cutter. Here are the pages cut to size:

The diary has 3 pages which have colored illustrations. For my previous runs, I would print out these colored pages with an inkjet printer on paper which I had pre-weathered. This time I thought I'd do it differently so I had the colored pages printed out on a color laser printer:

Next comes to labor-intensive part: the weathering. For my previous runs, I filled up a baking tray with thick black coffee and then soaked each of the pages in this. The pages are then let to dry under a fan over a couple of days. The result is pages that look worn and aged. But the weathering was not really consistent for my taste. So for this ultimate Diary, I decided to try something different. I made some thick black coffee and put it in a squirt bottle. I then squirt the coffee onto the pages and then wipe it unevenly on the pages. The resulting pages look like they've been through many many years:

Stay tuned for more progress!

Snake attack!

2008-08-08T12:04:00.000+08:00

This is one of the funniest Youtube vids I've seen in a while. Couldn't stop breaking into hysterical laughter whenever I think of it. Just set it to full screen and enjoy!

Farewell and adieu, Grail Diary!

2008-08-01T17:57:00.000+08:00

As I embark on a new project, i.e. the Nine Gates, I shall bid farewell to the one that started it all. The Grail Diary replica from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

It was fun making them, but the whole process was tedious. The page by page weathering (which made my hands smell of coffee for days), the sanding down of the covers, the tearing and corner-hammering, the cutting etc. I might return to it again someday to perfect my technique, but for now, I'll lay it to rest.

These are some pics of my diaries from my final run. Each of these diaries are now en route to their respective new owners. I hope they like and cherish them.

My next project - The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows

2008-07-14T14:58:00.000+08:00

After I posted my sale thread for the Grail Diary over at The RPF, I received PMs from some RPFers asking me if I would consider making a replica of the Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows. Having seen Polanski's The Ninth Gate a few times, I was tempted.

For those not familiar with the movie, it tells of a rare book dealer named Dean Corso (played by Johnny Depp) who was hired by a collector named Boris Balkan (Frank Langella) to determine the authenticity of his copy of The Nine Gates to the Kingdom of Shadows. The Nine Gates is a very rare book written by Aristide Torchia in 1666 supposedly with the collaboration of Lucifer and could be used to summon the Devil himself. So rare is the book that only three known copies exist in the world. Other copies were destroyed when Torchia was burned at the stake for heresy.

I've managed to find all the text and woodcuts (engravings/illustrations) to make up the whole book. The weathering as seen onscreen is not as intense as the Grail Diary; probably pages soaked in tea would be sufficient. The hard part is the binding. Like the Grail Diary, the pages are bound in leather. But unlike the diary, the binding is hard and the spine has five ridges (much like those old law reports one would find at a library). The cherry on top is the gold pentagram embossed on the front cover and the intricate embossed frame on both the front and back cover. I'm not sure if my binders could achieve this but it'll at least be a fun project to try.

Here's a pic of a screen used copy belonging to another member of the RPF:

The Grail Diary - last run ever!

2008-07-08T17:36:00.000+08:00

I've just completed my latest batch of diaries. This will be my last run ever, just to cater to some pre-orders.

A bit of background info on the diaries. There are 284 pages in total, each page individually weathered by hand with a mixture of coffee, tea and acrylics. These pages are then hand cut to the original prop specs. They are then sent to a professional binder for stitching and binding so that the pages wont fly off when you open the diary. I found a nice big scrap of pre-distressed cow hide for the cover. Also comes with an elastic strap.

The inserts are printed on different grades of paper and also individually aged like the diary pages. Included inserts are:

Anna Jones obituary
1899 Silver Dollar replica
Three newspaper clippings
Two Western Union telegrams
One Italian telegram
One blank Eastern Telegram
Two LARY tickets
One Boston ticket
One Zeppelin ticket
One Recent Publications insert
Two letters
Wolfram scrap with map-with-no-name on the reverse side
Roman numerals scrap
Indy and Henry picture
Cross Ties/Washington quote insert
Foldout Venice Map

The diary also comes with a diary package postmarked Venice, Italy.

On to the pics:

Blog back up and running

2008-07-03T14:28:00.000+08:00

Well, I've sorted out some problems and my blog's back up. Unfortunately the previous posts are all gone. So I'll update the blog with new additions from this day forth.