I ordered (accidentally won two on ebay) Two proton pack shells. One is pretty much complete (resin / fiberglass shell) but has some warpage around the boxes. The other is a fiberglass shell (completely bare) no warping at all.
My main criteria is around durability, which one is better and would last longer. I can forgive the warping on the first pack (as someone pointed out the movie packs were a bit warped.)
Disclaimer: first time posting on the BGfans board. The fiberglass shell is from Bob’s propshop, I know… I already got some flack from the NH GB franchise. (I didn’t know) The other one’s origin is a mystery. The guy had a couple and was getting rid of one. (got the pack and gun for 350).
I’m all about community pride. I built a Jango Fett costume, and was well aware of the “recasters” and such. But really just got into the whole costuming thing this year.
So the warping doesn’t look that bad on the pack with all the parts?
The second pack looks like it is from propcrazed/hayes replicas. They typically have warping on the powercell, N-Filter, and the top of the crank box. If it came with the thrower it’s also from him and was recasted from a multimediamayhem kit. I bought one of his packs that came with a gun before I realized who it was from and recently got rid of it. I give multimediamayhem all of my business to try to make up for it. That wand is going to be a real pain in the ass to work with because of how poorly he put it together having recasting m^3’s design. I don’t believe he ever recasted someone’s pack; judging by his profile here they are pulls from the first one he created.
If your main concern is durability, keep the completed pack and get rid of Bob’s pack. Unless he has made some major changes in the quality of his construction, you are going to run into a lot problems during your assembly. How does the shell look now? Is the surface smooth, or rough? Does it have a lot of noticeable pits and dents that you would want to fix? Does it have problem areas that you are not happy with? 99% of my problems started when I sanded a Bob shell to fix the problems, and uncovered a hundred new ones. You can also get out a tape measure and compare the sizes of Bob’s shell to the available plans here. You’ll find it 1/8" - 1/4" smaller in several places, which makes a HUGE difference when you start adding parts.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to stick with the completed pack for now. Next pack will be all community based. The warping is noticable (especially along the vertical blue lights) but it can easily be dismissed when you explain your a carrying a unlicensed nuclear accelerator on your back.
The quality of the Bob’s prop shop is actually quite good… it feels very sturdy. As I stated, I didn’t realize who the sellers were (not that I knew all the GB recasters and black lists), but it’s a shame, it shipped with some real helpful information for a guy building his first proton pack.
I have just attached the motherboard to the Alice pack. (Alice pack was purchased local at an Army Navy store). I’m waiting for the aluminum L brackets to come in (MMM).
I had also ordered an extra wand (some guy named Deon on Ebay, but still waiting for that one to come in) So I will have two wands. I picked up some heavy black tubing (sounds like something my wife would like.. lol) and ran that through my splitless loom to secure it, as suggested by someone on the site.
I also hooked up some electronics for lights. I bought a bunch of cheap flash lights, took them apart and used the reflective cones to secure some LED’s in the cylcotron. I have a video on my iphone I’ll upload soon.
I plan on taking my costume and pack to Chillercon this weekend, some charity events coming w/ LI ghostbusters and to Super Mega fest in MA.
I would be interested in seeing close up images of Bob’s shell. I purchased my disaster before Christmas last year, and I’m curious to see any differences that have been made.
Is VB still claiming that the warpage of the shell makes it screen accurate? And what about VB claiming that his parts only fit his shell? You’ll never be able to switch the parts between the VB shell and the propcrazed shell.
It also looks like you bought VB’'s new and improved shell. The one with VB’s personal statement to AJ. The one that somehow looks like it could be recasted from or made by propcrazed for VB.
I don’t know how VB deals with propcrazed. PC has always made his recasted m^3 guns off to the side and for awhile was making his own warped shells from his first pack.
Sorry for the confusion. VB’s completed packs have throwers from propcrazed.
Be careful about drilling for the gun block on that PC shell. You might want to look into having an additional bracket that the bolts go into for added stability (as opposed to just having the bolts be secured by a washer and nut).
Dude. Seriously. Spell out propcrazed. I made a pepakura proton pack for everyone and my user name is abbreviated in this manner way more often in this community.
Wait until you see the wand that came in today. I was very let down. It’s a mess. $200 gone, it’s not a lot of money, but still I was so psyched to get this wand in. I’m doing a whole video review right now.
