I wasn’t sure where to post this, but since I’m balls deep in laying fiberglass for my pack, I figured this place is as good as any.
I’ve been lurking around on this site for the better part of two years and I know that I echo the sentiments of several board members when I say that this site has proven to be an invaluable tool in the building of various projects.
However, it occurred to me that I was bitten by the prop bug long before I ran across this site. For me, it was growing up with my mom after The Divorce. She used to bring home all kinds of stuff and always championed our developing creativity. Whether it was random electronic gadgets or your good ol’ fashioned cardboard box, she was always supportive in helping us build… things. By the time I was 8, she had stopped buying us (working) toys altogether and just gift-wrapped whatever non-functioning crap she found at garage sales. On the flip-side my dad, son of a woodworker, being a mechanical engineer by trade and a high performance chassis builder, was highly respectful of tools and gave my brother and I our own tools one Christmas around the same time.
The possibilities were endless! No more were we shackled by the conventions of store-bought Halloween costumes or shelved toys that didn’t do anything.
This was the dawn of an era of discovery.
It’s a tradition I carry on today…and I owe it all to mom and dad.
I like that you really opened up on a personal level. We generally “talk shop” around here but the truth is that this is the only place where I can share a passion with people who relate. That makes this site a little more meaningful when you look at it that way.
I started my prop/costume building at about age 8 with a simple desire to BE the characters I admired from movies I loved. I remember making hand drawn “no ghost” patches and “venkman” name tags with magic markers then cutting them out and taping them on my clothes. I stuffed my cheap vinyl school backpack with clothes and had a pipe to wield as a thrower but ya know what? I was a Ghostbuster!
I was fortunate enough to be around when you could still buy the original Star Wars merch in stores when it was no big deal. We, however, couldn’t afford much of it so I had a lightsaber that my dad helped me make out of a spray painted pvc pipe with a bicycle handlebar grip and ya know what? I was a Jedi!
I could go on and on but the point is always the same. I didn’t know I was “prop building” but what I did know is that I was super excited with every little project and I was having all the fun in the world!
The ability to fashion “toys” out of “nothing.” These are the fond memories that help motivate me when I’m feeling down and help remind me why I was so excited to do these things in the first place.
My mom helped me build my first pack when I was around 8 using a box top from a ream of paper, a couple of 2-Liter bottles and some random stuff she had found. It was my MOM that said (a couple of weeks before Halloween) "Let’s get some black spray paint and make this official!
Oh man… these things… Thank you for sharing man! I kinda felt like a dork posting that… I think it’s one of those things that’s far overlooked…
Dave, I totally know what you’re saying. When I was 6 I wanted to be a Ghostbuster so bad for Halloween (circa 1987). My mom and Dad made me a costume out of a grey sweat suit, a cardboard box covered in tinfoil, and a Voltron pistol with a rope attaching it to the pack. Mom even made me a “No Ghost” logo out of felt. I knew at the time that it wasn’t exactly “screen accurate”, but they’d worked really hard on it and I had one of the best Halloweens of my life (so I didn’t say anything).
I was at home visiting my parent’s last month, working on my new costume, and I actually dug up the picture of 6-year-old me. You’re right Dave - it was a nice motivating thing to see how happy I was back then, and remember how my folks encouraged me.
Of course, cut to later that day and I’m out in the garage with my Dad, using the power saw to cut down the PVC pipe for the booster on my new pack… I guess some things never change. In a bit of a twist, my Dad actually e-mailed me after I’d flown back home and said how much fun he’d had working on the pack together. Damn, this is a fun hobby…
dug up an old Halloween pic of me and my dad… I had cobbled together a “jumpsuit” out of some khakis and an almost matching sweatshirt… had my RGB toy pack, modified trap (made it so it would hook on the correct side of the pack AND the right way). my dad slapped some tin foil on himself to be… something. lol whatever, good times.
anyway, I’ve been working on getting my new PKE meter working and I got stumped with how to complete it (there is VERY little room for error on those things). so, went to dear old dad who has been asking to help me on my costume this year… but I never really needed help until now. Long story long, we came up with a ton of ideas to work around my messing up… so, hopefully this week we’ll have time to implement everything
When I was 10 to 12 years old, my Dad and I made my first proton pack out of plywood and whatever scrap wood pieces we could find. It was in no way movie accurate, but it was still awesome. I threw it away a few years later (per my parents’ suggestion) when we moved to a new house and I regret it to this day.
Currently, we are both working together to build a movie accurate (as much as possible) proton pack. Great bonding experience and a lot of fun.
I hope when my son is older he’ll appreciate the time, energy, and effort I’ve been putting in to our equipment. I’ve been trying to get him involved but the most he’ll do is come out to the garage, look things over, nod, and say, ‘It looks good dad.’ and go back in the house. Guess I can’t expect too much from a 5 year old!
