Quote:
Originally Posted by abarron
That is pretty sweet.
I wish someone would get a licence to make Harryhausen statues
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I'm sure more companies would happily get licenses if it weren't for the fact that the various Harryhausen films are owned by more than one film company. The vast majority are owned by Sony-Columbia, i.e.:
20 Million Miles to Earth
It Came From Beneath the Sea
Earth vs the Flying Saucers
Jason and the Argonauts
Mysterious Island
First Men in the Moon
Three Worlds of Gulliver
7th Voyage of Sinbad
Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
Warner Brothers own:
Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
Valley of Gwangi
Clash of the Titans
and I think Universal own:
Mighty Joe Young
One Million Years B.C.
When I contacted Sony-Columbia back in 2007 to ask about getting a license to produce a small run of bronze figures from the Harryhausen films they own, I was told they don't even start negotiating for less than $20,000 up front. So I ended up settling for written permission to commission one-off pieces for my own collection which cost me nothing.
If you want to own a resin model of one of Ray Harryhausen's creatures, then you need to look into the wonderful world of garage kits. These are only produced in very limited runs often 50 and under and will of course need building and painting. Ready made pieces are much harder to find.
There are several sources for this kind of model. A good starting place is MonstersInMotion who have been producing them and selling them for a long time:
http://www.monstersinmotion.com/cata...sort/3a/page/1
Of you could watch the Forum pages over at theseventhvoyage:
http://www.theseventhvoyage.com/Mainsite.htm
If you want a bronze statue, then your options are now virtually non-existent. The Video Effects Society did release a 1:1 figure of one of the skeletons used in Jason and the Argonauts. It was a limited run of just 82 pieces released to coincide with Ray's 82nd birthday in 2002 and has long since sold out though a couple have appeared for auction on eBay in the last couple of years. Mine will have to be prised from my cold, dead hands especially since I got him to autograph it:
For a short time a company called Anthony Restorations produced a model of the Ymir both as a Resin Kit and as bronze statuette. Their license for both ran out in January 2005, so neither is available any longer from the original supplier. I have only ever seen one of the bronze statuettes appear for sale on eBay and that was back in 2005. As only ten were ever produced this is hardly surprising. I know that one is owned by Peter Jackson and #8 is sat about 6 feet away from where I'm sitting:
Another short-lived but officially licensed product was 'The Prehistoric Challenge'. This piece was modelled by Ray Harryhausen and produced as both a resin kit and a bronze figure by the Janus Company. It was a scene depicting a caveman defening his mate from an allosaurus, very reminiscent of 'One Million Years BC' but not linked to the film just to Ray Harryhausen. The Janus Company has disappeared so the piece can no longer be purchased. The bronze version was intended to be a limited production of 60 pieces but as far as I know only nine were actually made before the company vanished. Ray Harryhausen has the first two and I have #7 shown here:
There is still one bronze figure available to buy and that is a lovely model of the Phororhacos that appeared in 'Mysterious Island' produced by Bowman Arts. It is not officially licensed but as with the Ymir it is available as both a resin model and a bronze figure. To the best of my knowledge only three bronze versions have so far been produced and I have the Artist's Proof.
http://www.bowmanarts.net/
Sorry, but I don't have too many piccies of this one available:
Ultimately, if you really want a statue you can always have one made to order. So far, I've only done this once to produce a bronze model of the Hydra. I'd love to do some more but lack of finances has made this impossible....so far !
