William Shatner voice: "Spoooock!"

He's seen me quite recently. And out of respect for him, I did not give him the salute (he cannot return it... some people's hands just don't do that easily or painlessly; his is one of those people's). I did however get an autograph.

Oooh awesome! ^_^

That. Is. Epic. :D

Thanks. Definitely one of the older images of me!

xD!

Win :D

So, are any of those official items at the time, or was it all homemade?

Nothing was licensed save for the emblem on the shirt - that came from Lincoln Enterprises, which was run by Gene Roddenberry. The communicator was a replica made by a Los Angeles prop maker who was very famous at the time for his very close replica work - it even chirped when opened, had metal and vacu-formed parts as the original did, etc. It cost over $200 in 1970's money, which is like 2.5x as much today at least (there must be some Internet calculator somewhere for this).

Here it is: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

So "What cost $200 in 1973 would cost $1019.44 in 2012."

Yep, pretty cool

FFFF yeah I knew the damn thing was pricy as hell, but there were toys, junk, then there was that thing which OWNED. On Roddenberry.com, you can order the plastic toy version (which is licensed) that has sound bytes of the chirp, kirk, spock, and other bridge crew voices, plus some other FX. It has a moire' dial that turns, a "callback" feature, blinking lights, pretty good cosplay accessory for $50. But it's plastic, and one good drop should shatter or break it, plus if you flip it open one-handed, the top might fly off or break too... if you do it too hard or fast.

A metal one, made by a prop maker using plastics only on the body parts instead of everywhere, costs $150 (at least the one I got at the Star Trek con in Vegas recently). It just chirps and pages, has the moire' and blinking lights, plus a "scrambled signal" sound effect. But it lacks the fragility of the plastic model, but is NOT licensed. So there you have it.

I have NO contact info for the prop maker who makes the quality stuff. He's not on the net anywhere. He deals cash, in person, and only shows up at the Creation Convention Las Vegas every year (next one is in July 31 iirc, 2014, Rio hotel).

However, in his defense, I can say his stuff USUALLY starts as a kit from a Roddenberry.com that is licensed, but is very rough and you have to craft, paint, sand, glue, and install electronics in them to finalize the product... plus he is known to craft bits of metal where necessary to embellish things even further. The electronics can be purchased as a kit, or the schematic obtained with the kit or downloaded iirc.

Very 70s indeed! But quite awesome =)

"YOU KIDS QUIT HOVERIN' OVER MY YARD"

Watch it before I start putting energy dampeners on my porch!

"Live long and perspire!"

Damn dude, you look far better than I did at that age xD

Thanks. I had a few years being non-pudgy, and these were them.

Hah, I've never been non-pudgy myself :P