Does anyone know about how much it would cost to make the proton pack following online instuctions?
Well, if you build just about everything from scratch, then it can be as cheap as $100-$150, plus finishing supplies (paint, bondo, etc). If you want to go full out and order parts and correct everthing, lights etc, get ready to fork out up to, i’d say $700-$900 bucks-ish.
Cam
It all depends on how accurate you want to make it…
You could follow Norm’s plans and get away with only spending $100 to $200 when it’s all said and done.
If you wanted to build one that is 100% accurate, it will cost you… depending on how resourceful you are… Probably triple that. And then if you want to add lights and sounds, it could cost several hundreds of dollars more, depending on who you buy the kits from.
The more you can do yourself, the more it will benefit you financially. But remember your time is valuable too. So sometimes, it might be cheaper to buy a part, rather than build it yourself. But that is something you’ll have to determine.
Also… Norm’s plans use mostly found parts and cost effective designs, so thats a great start to begin building something up with just one trip to Home Depot.
Cam
Hey Cam! Looks like we were answering at the same time. :lol: But it seems like our figures were in the same range. 
kinda scary! similar answer, same time… looks around for hidden cameras
Cam
Turns off camera I’ve been had runs off
:lol:
Priceless!
Well I learned this the hard way. I thought I’d only spend around $300 on the materials for the pack. But I ended spending $600 on other very small things. I’d go to wal mart and drop $30 just on glue, tape, sandpaper. Lowes another $50 just on screws, pvc, paint, bondo. It just keeps adding up. And everytime I go it’s another $30. Dremel parts, razor blades, drill bits. Unless you have a shop in your house then you’re good. Not me I had to buy tools.
I just tally’d up te actual build cost of my pack - shall we break it down!
Major pre fab components(vac shells, gun body, bumper, ion arm etc) - $350
Resin components(all resistors, clippards, grips, banjo’s, etc) - $80
Hoses, Ribbon cable - $40
Switches and buttons - $20
Motherboard(1/4 plywood) - $20
ALICE Frame - $40
Light kit (home built for pack and wand) - $100
Paints, glues, fillers, styrene, fiberglass, screws, etc - $120
OPTIONAL REAL parts I upgraded after the pack was complete:
Dale Resistors - $25
Clippard Minimatic’s - $110
Banjo tips - $15
Legris elbow’s, hose barbs - $30
GRAND TOTAL OF $950.00 give or take here and there…
I’m not even done yet! Even though the pack is “done”.. I find myself obsessed with making it better… once I get all the aluminum knobs and other little things, its going to be pushing well over the $1200 point.. and that doesent include the hours and hours of labor to put it all together.
Now make sure those camera’s STAY OFF Malcolm!
Cam
::innocent look:: I have no idea what your talking about cam ::activates hidden cam:: national enquirer, here I come
I agree with bigjuan2001 about the price adding up. My friend got the idea to build a pack after he saw some of mine. He spent a load on them just in main part material. ie- the wood for the main body of boxes, the mother board and alice frame. Im lucky enough to be a carpenter and i i have lots of pluming parts, wood items and what not. Plus i make almost all of the little parts by hand so they really don’t cost me anything but time. I haven’t put in more then 75 bucks on any of my packs with lighting in the gun and pack. So if you have alot of stuff laying around you house or free stuff you can get a hold of from ppl then your looking at a lower price otherwise for all the stuff needed, your looking at anywhere between 150 - 400 bucks depending on how good of a price shopper you are, if you willing to buy some non movie accurate parts and if you and if the pack is your only ghostbuster prop your planning on making. This is just my opinion on what i’ve seen, what my friend paid and the prices i’ve added up, but i think on average that what i’ve quoted is the price range for a pack but it may not be 100% accurate but should look pretty darn close.
It can be done cheap, like what I did! Mine is waaaaay under $100!
I had NO idea what I was doing when I started, so I overbought and mis-bought alot of stuff and only ended up spending about $700 at the MOST. I think the last I remember somewhat calculating it was more around $600, so. The Clippard Minimatics, a set of two, one R-701 and another R-331, and they both at most, including shipping was only about $65, so $110? Somebody got ripped off. Of course I live right near some Clippard dealers, so. If you call around the united states to different surplus places you can find what you need for REAL cheap. I got 4 authentic Legris 1/8" Elbows for $1 each, some guy just had them sitting on his desk. It’s just a matter of going after it yourself. Lots of people offer casts and such which is great, but “seek and ye shall find.”
Anyways, like I said, I got alot of “authentic” parts, overbought alot of stuff, ALOT of stuff actually, and still only spent about $700 at the most.
So it’s possible to do something good, just keep an open mind, creative imagination, and patient search party attitude.
-Thiago
$65 US from clippard.com
add shipping, duty and 15% tax ontop of that, then convert to Canadian funds.
Hell I probably lowballed it.
BTW my prices are all canadian funds.. so subtract about 11% off the top to make it more accurate to USD. I also paid rediculous tax and duty on just about everything I bought, Which is also in the prices I listed. I bought most of my stuff before I knew where to get it up here to avoid all of the duty/shipping hooplah. Now I can drive 10 min to get my clippards AND they are an Alcon supplier as well.
I’d call it all a learning experience rather than a rip off… a rather expensive learning experience, but now I can probably put together the exact same pack for around $500 being way way more educated and experienced than i was back when I pieced the thing together.
If anything, take my list as a worst case scenario… but it is an accurate reflection of how much my first pack cost
Cam
Depends on how accurate you want it and sorts, I will probably spend upwards of $2000 before I’m done… You can also do it on the cheap and get something nice looking for a few hundred though…
Take a look at the post I put up. It breaks down all the costs that I spent on my first pack component by component. It also breaks down the costs for the trap, uniform, gun, and ecto goggles.
The cost is kind of tricky, but if your broke like me, there is away around it. This is what ive done so far.
2005: built a proton pack out of styrofoam and newspaper mache. only lights were the cyclotron that stayed lit. Cost about $100 maybe less considering most of the stuff I used was left over from the Jango Fett I built the previous year. Was going to wear it for halloween, but remembered it was the year of Revenge of the Sith, so I sold it for about $362 on ebay.
2006: took that money, built a better pack for around $150. this one was built from wood, had tubing on it, and lots opf lights. Not film accurate, but cool for halloween. Realized it wasnt film accurate enough to care, so I added asillystring shooter to it. Was going to wear it for halloween, but decided in march to go with V for Vendetta, and sold this pack for $400
2007: Since now I have a job and profit from those two packs, I am going for full accurate. I will keep better reccords of by spending, but basically the first two packs will help pay for my version 3.0
Just keep in mind that it’s a work in progress, and the cost won’t seem as bad.
In 1st grade I went in a plastic RGB suit with the toy.
In 8th grade I went out in army camo (closest to a flight suit I could find) and the toys.
Senior year of HS I went out in Carharts with a rudimentary wooden pack my aunt and I put together. I printed out a nametag and No Ghost logo on my laser printer, laminated it, and attached it to the costume with double sided tape, but people still loved the costume.
Freshman year of college I had a flightsuit and real logos that I bought off of the web. I also had a friend dress up in a ghost sheet, ran some yellow yarn around him, and attached it to the gun.
Last year I bought a wood pack on eBay after the Halloween rush was over and people were selling low, gutted it at my aunt’s house, and added a bunch of stuff to make it more realistic. I also added the circuit board, etc.
The point is that your costume will be an ever evolving thing. I think the other IGB’s and myself have spent close to $1000 on everything, but it was over a few years so it doesn’t hurt as much as you might think.
I hope this doesn’t offend anyone in the Star Trek prop business or what not, but I see a lot of people just going after the might buck in Star Trek props..
are people in the GB prop community more helpful? Sell stuff at cost or just a little extra?
With so many parts to a proton pack it’d be hard if each piece was like $50.
Anyway,
if I was willing to spend $500.. Could that get me a close to accurate proton pack.. hey maybe even a trap and jumpsuit for an extra $100?
Doesn’t have to be super accurate, just where NO ONE but we prop fanatics could ever tell. I’d want lights, that’s the best part.