Replica Sai from TMNT 1 & SOTO
 

Hey guys,

I'm the owner of the hero set of Raphaels sai from the first two TMNT films. I'm planning on producing sets of replicas made from the same materials and to the exact measurements of the originals.

The reason I'm making this thread is to see how much interest there is out there for something like this. I cannot currently quote a price as production costs will vary drastically due to the amount interest.

Depending on what people are after, I may offer pristine and damaged versions.

Please see the images below to have a look at the original props that all the measurements will be taken from. (Excuse the pictures I only had a 50mm lens, so they have a low depth of field)

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps9295a1b2.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps96152b9a.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps6141446b.jpg
http://moderatelygeeky.com/wp-conten...08/Raphael.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...ap-2211483.png
http://img334.imageshack.us/img334/3...iceshot7yq.jpg

Please remember, this is not a sale thread. No payments or deposits will be taken until there; A: is a sufficient amount of interest & B: is a set price not inclusive of shipping. The thread will be updated accordingly if the run goes ahead.

Please indicate if you are interested by commenting below and feel free to ask any questions.

Interest list:


1 - lordgilpin (rpf)
2 - sovereign (rpf)
3 - smylex (rpf)
4 - d_osborn (td)
5 - Brenton Portus (fb)
6 - Jason Lloyd (fb)
7 - Joseph Mercado (fb)
8 - Chris Howell (fb)
9 - Onkelpsycho (rpf)
10 - drewizzle88 (td)
11 - Westies14 (rpf)
12 - shenphong (rpf)
13 - Predatormv (rpf)
14 - teecrooz (rpf)
15 - agliarept (td)
16 - newhire13 (td)
17 - Magnum1911 (rpf)
18 - Bmaga 12 (rpf)
19 - DVDvampire (rpf)
20 - Sundowner (rpf)
21 - Rusty85 (rpf)
22 - Serenity (rpf)
23 - AlphaEarth (rpf)
24 - Gump24601 (td)
25 - Mintyfresh (td)
26 -Wingdsoldier (rpf)
27- diehard 15 (rpf)
29 - Peter Palmer (td)

Definitely interested!

I'm still kicking myself for having to back out of the props deal, but I'm glad the props went to good homes. It's super cool of you to offer this up. I forget, are you a member of the RPF? I'm sure a ton of people there would jump on in on a run.

Do you have any plans on how you're going to replicate the weapons? Handling the work yourself? Commission them out to a prop or weapons builder? I love seeing the process of this stuff!

Hey D! I can imagine, there were a few times the deal nearly fell through and I was feeling the same. I often find myself in disbelief that I own such a rarity!

The majority of the metal work I am outsourcing. Weather or not I go locally or internationally depends on the size of the run. I will be doing the assembly, the leather wrapping and weathering myself.

There has already been a bit of interest in a short amount of time which gives me hope it all may go ahead!

Very interested!

Added to the list!!

I'm also very interested, although if, in the end the price would be too steep I might not be able to buy! But oh what a great idea (and sooo jealous of you):tsmile:

just saw your listing on the RPF, definitely count me in.

Glad it looks like your going to use Metal, I was worried these would be cast in rubber or resin lol. excited for this!

I shall put you on thithe list!

I was originally considering taking a mold of them and running casts in resin with cold cast aluminum, but upon further thought I realized that going the metal route would garner the best results.

Interested!

Please add me to the list as well and also responded on the RPF forums. Thanks

As much as I'd love a set of these, unfortunately Customs would nab these as soon as they enter the county (Australia). There'd be no way I'd be able to get a licence to bring these in, even though they're only props (as they'd look too real).

I bought the originals and got them into Australia, then down to Tasmania no less! These will be shipping from within Australia, so if that is your concern it should be all good!

Oh wow, that's amazing!
I had a problem with getting a prop Halo battle rifle into the country that Customs took from me until I got a licence to take it back.

If you can, put me down as a maybe - I can't commit at the moment as finances are a little thin currently!

Yeah, I think realistic looking guns without orange barrels get pulled up. Customs definitely held the sai for a while, but only due to import taxing (and my word was there a lot of it). I checked out the legislation before importing them and declared them too. If I did a run of Mikeys nunchucks I would have to send them out as "kits" as they are illegal here.

UPDATE:

These certainly aren't going to be ready before xmas and I do realize that not everyone is able to pay upfront, so I will (mods please tell me if this is inappropriate) likely take deposits from those truly interested (the strike rate with these things seems to be around %75 ends up following through with their interest). Getting all the stuff together is fairly expensive (perspectively a few hundred dollars worth of leather to order, plus costs of having the lathing done) so without a deposit system it's a bit of a financial risk for me if people start backing out.

At the moment I am going to leave this thread up for another 5 days or so before I start getting firm quotes for materials, that will then dictate the price of the replicas. I will still be taking interested users names down incase anyone decides to back out, then people will simply be bumped up the list.

On postage, living in Australia I feel the pain of those who are far away from me. I have bought many props and had to pay for a lot of postage, I will be offering a small discount to offset the postage costs for buyers from across waters (this will be a non negotiable percentage off, relative to the postage cost of the buyer). I won't be making anyone do it, but I would prefer that people pay for insurance on these items. Obviously the sai are pretty tough, but things do happen and post does occasionally go missing (have had this happen before and I didn't have insurance :tsad:).

Payments will be taken via Paypal. No one is to pay as a "Gift". If anyone does, the money will be refunded straight away and you will receive an email/message asking asking you to pay again in the correct manner. Paypal is the safest way to purchase over the internet. Any paypal fees will be covered by the buyer.

How much would you like down as a deposit, or will that be decided when you have a better idea of the total cost? Also out of curiosity did you purchase Leos swords as well?

The deposit will most likely be a percentile of the total price, so I don't have an idea of what it would be thus far.
I don't own Leo's swords, but I do have the measurements of the props along with good reference photos.

Consider me interested, but I'll wait for the price to see if I can commit 100%. A deposit would be no problem.

I'm interested in a set of those or 1. Put me down.

im interested depending on price.. put me on the list though

Highly interested but the price may be way out of my range...