I was able to find a very, very old article from a long out of print magazine with a nice feature on Stembridge Gun Rentals, Inc. – circa 1934. This was published in the February 1934 issue of “Modern Mechanix and Inventions”.
It is a very interesting article with historic photos.
Along with the other Stembridge articles I have archived, it gives a great sense of history of the company: [Read more…]
Book Review: For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond
This is a review of For Your Eyes Only – Ian Fleming and James Bond (published April 7, 2008). This book is an interesting work about both James Bond and his creator, and is intended to be a companion piece to the current exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in London (see “Ian Fleming’s “James Bond” Letters Fetch Nearly $30,000 at Auction“). [Read more…]
Olivia Munn of G4’s Attack of the Show made mention of an original prop for sale at Prop Store of London on their “Gadgets” segment last night. This featured the non-firing M4 rifle from I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. Prop Store has both a non-firing and live fire version of this prop (for $8,999.00 and $12,499.00 respectively) used prominently in the film on their site: LINK [Read more…]
Per Jalopnik.com, one of five original Batmobiles from Tim Burton’s Batman was listed on eBay starting at $500,000. It appears that the listing has since been removed by eBay, but according to the article, “Found on eBay: Tim Burton’s Batmobile Makes You Feel Like Michael Keaton“, these are the photos and accompanying marketing description from the listing: [Read more…]
I was able to find a very old article from a long out of print magazine with a nice feature on Stembridge Gun Rentals, Inc. – circa 1969. This was published in the January 1969 issue of “True Magazine: For Today’s Man”.
It is quite a fascinating read with a nice historic photo. As was the case with the Guns Magazine article, “Shoot For Effect”, I have shared a PDF of the article below (see “Guns Magazine” Stembridge Gun Rentals Article – Circa 1998).
Here is a link to the full article: “7,000 GUNS FOR HIRE” [Read more…]
This is a little “off topic” from movie props, but thought this would make a nice companion article to the one published a few days ago, “The Side Arms of James Bond, 007: From The Walther PPK to the P99“.
I came across an interesting article from 1962 written by Ian Fleming about the guns used by James Bond in the novels (the first Bond film, Dr. No, was released that same year). The article is framed by the actual correspondence between Fleming and a fan of the novels (Geoffrey Boothroyd) with real world firearms expertise, showcasing his recommendations for the character and rationale for certain side arm choices, and other related exchanges and anecdotes.
The March 19, 1962 article – “The Guns of James Bond” By Ian Fleming – is available to read at the Sports Illustrated website, SI.com, with scans of the actual magazine available as well in the “SI Vault”. [Read more…]
I recently acquired a very rare James Bond Walther PPK for my own collection, so I have done some research as to what handguns have been offered to the marketplace attributed to use in the films as the side arm of James Bond. I thought it might be of interest to readers to know “what is out there”. The focus of this article is primarily hero and “real” firearms (no stunts). [Read more…]
There has been relatively sparse reporting since last week on the legal dispute over the trademark and copyright of the Stormtrooper helmet and other helmets and armor produced for Star Wars: A New Hope. This legal battle, transplanted now from the United States to the UK, is between George Lucas and his Lucasfilm production company and Andrew Ainsworth and his Shepperton Design Studios. I thought I would monitor the news and post short updates as I come across them. [Read more…]