King Kong Armature

[oxbeard]

Purely speculation, but I expect somewhere between $500 and $750. Naturally, I'll probably be wrong, but that's the price range I thought of when I first saw the news.

 

[occulum]

Does your MR lightsaber really work? I don't think so.

hilarious!

under $500 = a gimmie
over $500 = a maybe

 

[Ursus3978]

I'm a huge Kong fan, but a replica of the armature doesn't interest me.
It seems similar to repro animation cells. They're cool to look at, but I don't think they're that big of a deal to own. I've purchased reproduction items before, specifically repro G.I.Joes and enjoyed them, so I'm not against repros in general.
And I think the actual, authentic armature is pretty amazing because of what it is, but was it that ground breaking at the time? Didn't O'brien and Delgado create similar armatures for earlier projects?
Fascinating, sure, but not my idea of a collectible. (all due respect to the people jazzed about this)


A reproduction of the Kong "puppet" with fur on it - that would be sweet. Probably too expensive, but more desirable to me personally.

 

[mlarsen]

I'd be curious to know how sales are going now at Sideshow for this armature.
Now that the new movie is out.

 

[wax murderer]

The price for the Eighth Wonder is $475 for pre-order, $500 if you wait(why?). There is a Flex-Pay option(thank Gahd!), which I am taking.As an ardent Kong-ophile, this is a keeper.As to a covered model, the cost would be beyond prohibitive. The Kong puppets were built up, which is why his appearance changes throughout the film. It was impossible for Marcel Delgado(Kong's sculptor) to duplicate his work exactly each time he rebuilt the puppets, which he did on almost a nightly basis. The latex skins were wiped out fairly quickly by the hot studio lights. The puppets were built up over the armature with cotton batting to get the general shape. Sponge rubber 'muscles' were applied on top of the cotton, then liquid latex was painted on to provide a skin. Texture was sculpted directly into the latex as it dried( not an easy thing to do, I assure you!); scales, warts and horns were made separately and applied on top of the latex. Kong's fur was pruned rabbit fur, applied in strips. Delgado hated the fur; he (rightly) thought it would show the animators fingerprints. Next time you watch the film, pat attention to Kong's fur; in some scenes it's literally dancing! The 2 eighteen inch puppets were almost identical; one had slightly longer arms, but the 'skulls' were made from the same mold. It was the sculpting that made them look different. In fact, it took at least 3 tries to get a Kong that satisfied the producer, and it's not unreasonable to assume that his changing appearance was entirely unintentional. Thus ends the history lesson...PS

 

[puppet pusher]

*BUMP*

Really looking forward to this guy!! Any updates on when to expect it?

A question for the folks at sideshow...

Why are there clear support rods to hold up the armature? Can't you make use of the tiedown holes in the bottoms of the feet? After all, if it was good enough for holding the puppet onto the set during animation..... And isn't this how Bob Burns is attaching his armature to its base? Could you offer some illumination into this?

Also, will all the screws really work--in that you can use them to adjust the tightness on the joints?

Thanks for offering this wonderful piece to us!!

--Chris

 

[Alice Adrenochrome]

I cancelled mine a couple of days ago, hence there's one more available for the King Kong collectors.

 

[Andy Bergholtz]

Chris-

The Kong Armature displayed at Toy Fair (shown in the pic you posted) is a resin prototype (not metal), EXTREMELY delicate and fragile, hence the support rods. The final product will be much more stable and won't need the rods to support it's weight.

However, the armature replica is not designed to function as an actual stop-motion armature would. It will be metal (I believe), with real screws, etc, but likely won't hold up to the rigors that a steel stop motion armature is made to withstand. The website description says that the armature is "fully capable of recreating the stop-motion puppetry magic of the original film", which some SS reps have since said is not literally the case. I thought a disclaimer about this was added to the product description, but I just checked the site and am not seeing it....

Anyway, I hope that answers your questions.

 

[occulum]

what I'm HOPING this means is that it can recreate all the poses, but is just not capable of sustaining thousands of repositions and moves over and over and over again like a real one would have to endure.

If it means anythign BUT that, I may rethink my purchase also.
I hope someone can shed some light on this... ?

 

[Grim Jim]

I'm not planing on animating anything with it, but I would indeed like to change it's pose every once in a while. Have we heard anything on what type of metal it will be made of? I know that Sideshow needs to keep the cost of materials reasonable to make it an affordable collectible - but I hope to God that it's not some easily dinged or bendable gaming minature metal.

I have to be honest and say that this item/order is making me nervous & anxious. If nothing else I really want to see this project work out for Bob Burns, who has to be one of the nicest guys on the planet. A series of collectible replica props from his collection would be fantastic!

 

[Dusty]

what I'm HOPING this means is that it can recreate all the poses, but is just not capable of sustaining thousands of repositions and moves over and over and over again like a real one would have to endure.

I believe that's pretty much exactly what Andy was saying. It will NOT be steel (that would make the price in the thousands), but it will be some sort of metal alloy, with real screws, capable of holding poses, but not meant to be put under the stress of hundreds of hours of animation like the original was.

Oh, and this is a helpful blog entry referring to the Kong armature as well, for those of you wondering about the answers to the questions:

https://www.sideshowtoy.com/behindtheshow/?p=601

 

[occulum]

thanks Dusty, Im a little more at ease now.

 

[puppet pusher]

Thanks for the update, Dusty!

I've had the impression that it was going to be CAST off the original pieces and therefore a pretty exact copy. If its going to be made of metal, I know this would mean using a fairly soft metal and that would certainly be a cause of concern over metal fatigue through over-tightening or too much use of the joints.

For me, the item wouldn't have the same appeal knowing that the parts were stamped out of some type of sheet metal rather than cast off the original.

I can only imagine the complications this project presents to Sideshow--best of luck guys!

 

[wax murderer]

According to the blog(which you guys really ought to read) the Armature will be made out of a zinc alloy. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation, since zinc shows up in everything from gaming miniatures to padlocks! I just hope we're talking one of the more robust alloys; after all, who wants a droopy Kong? However it works out, August is still a LLOOOOONNGG way off(dammit!)...PS

 

[puppet pusher]

Yea, I guess there was more info in the blog.

Thanks for shaming me into reading it.

 

[wax murderer]

You're welcome. Now go stand in the corner and be quiet...PS

 

[lcummins]

Where is the Kong Armature????

 

[occulum]

Where is the Kong Armature????

I got this email back on Oct.24

Dear Valued Collector,

Thank you for placing a pre-order with us for the 1933 King Kong Stop-motion armature replica (item #7181FLEX). We wanted to take this opportunity to contact you about this anticipated collectible.


Although this item became available to pre-order almost a year ago, the delivery of this item has been significantly delayed due to production issues. The original armature has an incredible strength provided by its steel construction, which allowed it to withstand the constant handling and stress of the early stop-motion animation process. While we do not recommend for our replica to be used for stop motion animation, we are creating your collectible with strong materials, which will provide it the durability to be handled and posed for your collection.


We apologize for the delay in delivering this item to you. Our designers and fabrication facility have been hard at work to select the correct materials and construction for this item, in order to capture the same mobility and detail of the original, right down to replicating the screw caps at the joint locations. This item is among the most unique that our design team has tackled to date and the replication process has been extremely difficult, which has accounted for the delayed delivery.


At this time, we anticipate your 1933 King Kong Stop-Motion armature replica to arrive into our warehouse in March of 2007. We appreciate your patience as you wait for the arrival of this anticipated item. Our designers are adamant that they will only deliver an item that they would be proud to add to their own collections, and we support them.

 

[lcummins]

This may beat Sauron for the longest wait between pre-order and shipping!!!

I didn't get that email because I canceled my order with Sideshow and went through Adam.

 

[occulum]

yup.
I remember the Jason PF being a 1yr 2month wait too.