A peek into my collection -BladeRunner Blaster-
I decided to start a series of blogs peeking into my personal collection of art and geekery. Just for my own fun to give me a little downtime (hah!) project and to share some of the stuff I have weasled away.
Today it’s my Bladerunner gun.
(Click on the pics to enbiggen!)
Well it’s actually called the TOME-BLA. Due to copyright reasons. And believe me the makers did try and get it officially licensed, but to no avail.
This is one of the prized pieces of my sci-fi collection. It is a perfect replica of the screen prop used by Harrison Ford in the movie. It is mostly cast metals with some plastic parts and weighs pretty much the same as a Magnum handgun, which is a lot.. It’s a chunky, solid piece which really does look and feel like a real gun.
Manufactured by Tomenosuke in Japan it was a passion project for the owner, Mr. Shinji Nakako who was a top movie journalist in the USA in the 1980’s and is reputedly the fellow who coined the term SFX.. He is also the author of the splendid Sci-Fi film encyclopedia ” A Pictorial History of SF Films”.
The Blaster comes in a stunning foil stamped box featuring nice 1980’s style graphics recalling scenes from Mr. Scott’s splendid film.
Inside it nestles in custom cut foam with the amunition lined up below it.
Included in the box are a schematic posted of the blaster showing the breakdown of the piece with an exploded view on the rear. This really shows the amount of work that went into the production of this piece. It is about as far from a resin block prop as you can get. Also included is a cracking booklet with lots of full page photos of the actual movie prop which was scutinised and measured to get this repro as accurate as possible. It’s nice to see how beaten up the prop was and makes it tempting to “age” the Blaster from it’s factory fresh appearance to a more used look… Maybe one day, but for now it is too pretty..
There is a really nice touch in that the little lights under the barrels work. And they slowly warm up when you turn them on rather than simply click on and off.
The rear trigger operates the hammer action and revolves the barrel as you would expect. The forward trigger has no function on this prop and indeed it is unclear how it was supposed to work on the film gun had it been real. Maybe discharged a heavier round from the top barrel, though this is blocked. I recall Ridly Scott taking about how the gun was proposed to fire mini black holes which would fold the target in on itself to destroy them, but this was never made clear in the film..
I love the transparent amber resin handle. It lends a real lightness and elegance to the weapon.
Though the safety catch is locked in place, the lever action works and opens the breach as to eject some empty cartridge. This is not a common feature for handguns, usually only found on rifles. It is a lovely detail for them to have engineered into the prop.
The chamber can also be unlocked and be hinged out. It revolves and the Brass cased, Steel tipped shells can be loaded into place.
I decided I really needed a decent wall mount to properly show the Blaster off and to display is safely. So I knocked up this from some MDF, Foam-core and mounting board with steel supports. It is modelled on the wall tiles in Deckard’s apartment, which in turn are inspired by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
So now I bet you want to know where you can get your hands on one of these beauties for yourself?
Well there were two versions made of the Tomenosuke-Blaster, one is the “Hero Model”, which is this one, and another one is the “Police Model”.
Shinji wrote on his blog :
“The Police Model of Tomenosuke Blaster is the perfect reproduction of the futuristic gun that made an appearance in the sci-fi cult movie in 1982. After spending more than four years of development, the Hero Model, used by the protagonist of the same movie, was released last December to be welcomed by the fans. This time, the gun used in the movie by the police force will be released with the limited production of 300.”
The Police model is the same but has a solid black handle instead of the clear amber version.
This is the URL for the Tomenosuke-Blaster on the Japanese store site. (In Japanese.) :
http://www.tomenosuke.com/blaster/
And Shinji’s blog about the Blaster (In Japanese.) :
http://tenshu53.exblog.jp/i17/
You can also purchase them from the movie toy store “Hollywood Collectors Gallery”. They also hold stock in LA.
The Hero Model. ( Info in English at the bottom of the page..)
http://www.hollywood-japan.jp/html/newpage.html?code=11
The Police Model. ( Info in English at the bottom of the page..)
http://www.hollywood-japan.jp/html/newpage.html?code=16
I don’t think this Blaster could have been made any better than it has been. Truely a remarkable piece.
To the modelmaker who built it and to Shinji and his team who putthe project together I have to say ; “You’ve done a man’s job sir!”