As a follow-up to an article published last year (see The Original BMX Bike from E.T. The Extra Terrestrial), I thought it would be productive to share some additional information about the custom Kuwahara BMX bikes used in the Steven Spielberg classic, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), including an article from “BMX Plus!” magazine circa October 1982.
The prior article was in response to claims published by The Sun in the UK (see Singer’s £8k on C-3PO & R2-D2) that Tom Meighan (the frontman for rock band Kasabian) owned an original BMX bike used in E.T.
I was subsequently contacted by a member of the RPF, who stated that he personally (and recently) had made the BMX bike for Mr. Meighan to E.T. specs, and that it was indeed a replica (though he had not saved the eBay listing and such from which he sourced the bike/parts).
Steve Blackey also posted a “Reader Comment” in the prior article a few months later, sharing his first hand knowledge of the bikes used in the film:
steve blackey on February 17th, 2008 7:33 pm
I Just came across this site doing some research on the ET Bike and I can say with 99.9% probability that this guy does not own an actual prop ET BMX bike.
I know this because I personaly assembled the 25 bikes used in the movie, and all 25 bikes used in the movie were returned after the shooting was completed to the bike shop where I had assembled them.
I kept two bikes for myself, including the one with the basket, the rest were sold for $25 each to local kids in the San Pedro Ca area. I would say it is a long shot that any of the bikes would be found in any recognizable condition.
I kick myself a lot now for what I did to my two bikes, yes I did take the basket off and rode the shit out of it (hey, I was only 16) then threw it away when I got a new bike. I gave the second bike to my brother who proceeded to repaint and modify the bike beyond recognition (he also performed stunts in the movie). Anyway, if there is any pics of this so called prop bike, I can tell if it’s real or not….
I’ve recently been contacted by a collector who believed he had an original Kuwahara BMX used in the film, and in reviewing the photos with Mr. Blackey, it appears that it is one of the licensed replicas sold at the time of the theatrical release of the movie.
Given all of this, I thought it would be informative to interested parties to share scans of the article in “BMX Plus!” magazine which talks about the bikes, and also includes an advertisement for the licensed replicas sold at the time.
Click on image below for a PDF of the article:
Jason De Bord