The creative director for Master Replicas joins Dial the Gate for an in-depth discussion on creating beautiful prop replicas for the Stargate franchise, honoring the show’s legacy and finding balance in re-scaling items. We also reveal some of the amazing replicas that will be coming your way later this year!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Hi there and welcome to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read, really appreciate you being with me. Ben Robinson, creative director for Master Replicas, is joining us for this episode. My relationship with Master Replicas, as a customer, goes back nearly 20 years, and the same guys at the top so I know this company. I know their quality and as Stargate fans, we’ve had middling quality in terms of merchandise, we’ve had low-quality merchandise and we’ve had top-notch. I think Master Replicas first started off with the watch, if I’m not entirely mistaken, the Stargate watch for the 10th anniversary. We are speaking with them today to talk about their spaceship and Stargate collection. Master Replicas has been putting out a number of pieces from Death Gliders to F-302s to all kinds of products and they have a really special piece now that is available for pre-order, will be shipping fairly soon here in the future. We’re gonna talk about all of it; their design process, the challenges of transforming a larger-scale object into something smaller, picking paint schemes, because lighting is all different throughout different episodes. We’re gonna have a lot of those conversations and get under the hood of these props and see maybe what’s in store for a few pieces for fans in the future. I hope you enjoy this episode. Ben Robinson, creative director of Master Replicas. Ben, I am thrilled to have you. I have many questions for you about this operation and thanks so much for being here on Dial the Gate, I really appreciate having you.

Ben Robinson:
It’s a pleasure. I only hope I can answer your questions.

David Read:
Absolutely, I know you can. The one thing that I’ve never been really sure on, the Master Replicas brand. I have owned this for over probably 20 years now, and several lightsabers like it. Is this the same company? I know you guys, this team did not create this, but is it the same company?

Ben Robinson:
It’s the same.

David Read:
Or is it just the same name?

Ben Robinson:
My boss.

David Read:
You purchased the name?

Ben Robinson:
My boss was the boss of those people too.

David Read:
I see.

Ben Robinson:
If you wanna put it that way. Master Replicas was his company way back when. It was part of a bigger group that got into some financial difficulties and he came out of that still owning the Master Replicas brand.

David Read:
It’s his brand, OK.

Ben Robinson:
It’s his brand and when Eaglemoss collapsed, my God, everybody collapses. It’s the history of Western civilization. When Eaglemoss collapsed, they found me and took on the stuff and wanted to revive what Eaglemoss had been doing. He owned the Master Replicas brand and always wanted to bring it back and it seemed like a right place to start.

David Read:
That really assures me because Master Replicas, you go to Disneyland and you see the lightsabers there? They’re toys. This is a replica. Master Replicas, I have always associated that name with top-tier quality. That assures me a little bit knowing that the same through line is threaded through all of this material that you guys have created off and on for decades, so I am thrilled to hear that. Are you a Stargate fan?

Ben Robinson:
I am, yes. My absolute expertise is Star Trek. I’m in the very small number of people who know as much as I do about Star Trek, or know as many people. Stargate, I’m a bit more of a normal fan, shall we say.

David Read:
So, you’re an extreme, extreme Star Trek fan?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, I would say that.

David Read:
Who was the captain of the Enterprise C?

Ben Robinson:
Rachel Garrett.

David Read:
That’s right. You wanna throw one at me?

Ben Robinson:
All right. Who was the captain of the Enterprise B?

David Read:
John Herriman.

Ben Robinson:
Yes.

David Read:
Correct.

Ben Robinson:
Only acting captain as he left space dock.

David Read:
That’s exactly right, on Tuesday. No, I’m kidding. That’s great. I wanna talk about how you guys decided to do Stargate and what the process has been like with this particular license, with working with MGM, and what the fan response has been like. Can you tell me?

Ben Robinson:
The fan response has been great. It’s been very, very satisfying and gratifying. MGM are very nice to work with, they’re absolutely fine. I guess the bigger part of it behind the scenes, quite often what we do, is above and beyond what the studio expects. The models that we’ve made so far are actually based on the original CG assets which Mark Savela sourced for us. It was Joe Mallozzi who introduced me to Mark, and so on and so on, it’s been a pleasure.

David Read:
These models, you’re pulling these from CG source files that were used in the show. Someone has not doctored them. These are originals.

Ben Robinson:
Pretty much. There’s the big Ra’s pyramid from the movie that we had to recreate based on study of the prop because obviously it wasn’t CG when it was originally made. When it comes to the SG-1, Atlantis and Universe assets, those all came to us from Mark. Mark got the vendor to send them direct to us and we go through a process of converting them into a format that can be used by the factory to make the tooling. A little bit of work is done to them but they are fundamentally the models that were used to make them in the show.

David Read:
Which is your favorite that you’ve released so far?

Ben Robinson:
It’s a funny thing; it’s always the last thing that you did.

David Read:
I can understand that.

Ben Robinson:
The Ra’s pyramid is extraordinary. It’s only up on pre-order at the moment and I wanna make it clear to people just how big it is. This thing is big. It’s square. It is a pyramid, obviously.

David Read:
Pyramidal in shape.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, it’s a pyramidal shape, but it’s a really big piece. You look at it and you go, “Wow. That’s quite something.” It’s also about the size of an IKEA shelf, which I always think is important to people. I figure most people have IKEA shelving and if you have something that will sit on an IKEA shelf, then you’re much more likely to be able to accommodate it in your home.

David Read:
I think that’s a great standard. You shouldn’t expect the typical client to have to go out and buy furniture to suit your piece. Unless you’re getting one of those QMX or whatever they are, the starship replicas that are three feet long that you only seem to see at Comic-Con, but never actually anyone owning except for one or two. They’re very displayable in size. Is that what you look for in terms of the benchmark of, “OK, what size are we gonna pick for something?”

Ben Robinson:
Yes, it’s exactly that. It’s what size will allow you to show something in plenty of detail so that you can get a really nice sense of it as an object, but also what size is practical for people to display? That’s one of the reasons we don’t do things in scale with one another. We make them the same size rather than the same scale. Obviously, if we did the pyramid in scale with the Death Glider, either the Death Glider would be very small or the pyramid would be very, very big. Obviously they’re not exactly the same size, although the Ha’tak, the SG-1 version, is the same size. You want people to be able to display these things, you want them to be able to put them around their desk. God, you should see the stuff that’s on my desk at the moment, it’s a complete mess. That’s the idea, is that they make nice display pieces that people can put around their computer or put on the shelf.

David Read:
Absolutely. I love your vertical book stacking by the way. The Ghostbusters will be proud.

Ben Robinson:
I have so many books, I had to find a way to stack them in every possible way.

David Read:
Where do you fall in terms of miniaturizing and losing definition of things? Because that’s gonna happen.

Ben Robinson:
Yes. If you come back and you say, “This model is three miles long,” you need to be able to retain a worthwhile level of detail. One of the things that really frustrates me about other people’s models, I think all too often in the past things have been made by people who are maybe very good at making models but aren’t familiar with the shows. They don’t have the kind of emotional attachment to the things that you or I would have. When you look at something, you want it to feel absolutely right. I spend a lot of time on color, for example. The colors of the renders or the colors of the 3D model that you get are not exactly the same all the time. If you are flying in the atmosphere of a sandy planet, you will look a different color than if you’re flying in space or if you’ve got the reflection of the sun. Or frankly, visual effects artists will make something a little brighter or a little darker depending on the needs of the shot.

David Read:
Lighting is everything that we are seeing and we don’t even realize it.

Ben Robinson:
Absolutely. Everything is about lighting. I’m very careful that although we get these reference shots, I then literally pore over all the episodes trying to get all the shots to make sure that “it’s actually 17 different shades of gray across these four episodes.” When I’m creating something, I want it to feel like it does in the show; to have that sort of sense of authenticity. That’s a judgment thing. It’s not a definitive thing because light changes all the time. You do very subtle things. You’re making a model that’s maybe eight inches, nine inches long, it’s something that in the world of the show is 300, 400 meters long. The shadows that are cast by something of that huge size are not cast by something of that small size. You can do these things where you can paint a very subtly darker shade of the same color that implies the shadow and implies the degree of depth that isn’t actually there. There are a lot of tricks you learn over the years of doing these things to try and make things feel satisfying.

David Read:
I know for a fact that there is one object in particular that is so translucent that it basically had four or five different paint layers to it. I imagine that you were absolutely pulling your hair out trying to get it exactly right. Do you know which one I’m talking about?

Ben Robinson:
I’m not. The most extreme example that I’ve ever come up with is the original paint scheme of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which has a pearlescent paint finish with 36 different shades of paint.

David Read:
Wow, man, I’m glad to know that though. That’s fascinating. I’m actually referring to the Stargate models. The puddle jumper.

Ben Robinson:
No, I don’t know which one. The puddle jumper does change.

David Read:
The puddle jumper, the green, there’s green, there’s brown, there’s a little bit of gray, and it’s four or five different layers.

Ben Robinson:
Ah, I see.

David Read:
What’s the term for it, stippled on or whatever?

Ben Robinson:
Stippled. That’s the other thing that happens; you have layers of wash and wear and there are different techniques you can use. That’s a really good example. The puddle jumper, you have an additional level of complexity in that you have a full-sized prop and you have a CG asset. If you watch the show carefully, they’re clearly not the same.

David Read:
That’s correct. The jumper design evolves from Season One to Season Five.

Ben Robinson:
Even though they’re the same, yes. Exactly. On the jumper there’s a big thing about, obviously it has those indented areas, there was a lot of experimentation and back and forth to try and make sure that the level of shadow, or is it actually darker in the grooves, came out feeling satisfying. The other thing, of course, with the puddle jumper is you’ve got the CG asset and it’s got the engine weapon pods open. You’re like, “What do you see from the outside of the puddle jumper when the pod is open?” You’re literally going through every single episode trying to find, “OK, where do you ever actually see between the pod and the interior?”

David Read:
Not really.

Ben Robinson:
No, you don’t. But you literally went through every episode trying to just…

David Read:
Just to make sure.

Ben Robinson:
But you don’t see this, because somebody will pop up and say, “Ah, Season Three, Episode Six, you can see this and you’ve got it wrong.”

David Read:
“Actually, excuse me.”

Ben Robinson:
I’m enough of a fan as well to know that’s how people look at things and that’s right, that’s what they should be doing.

David Read:
That’s right.

Ben Robinson:
The sample that’s on my desk is slightly broken, the weapons pod’s loose on this one. You look at it and start thinking, “How does the engine pod, if it’s retracted, go into the interior?” You’re looking at the episodes and going, “Where’s the engine pod?”

David Read:
Where is it going?

Ben Robinson:
“How wide is this?” You can see how wide the cabin is, yet the rear section seems to be wider than it should be if the pods are in. You end up worrying about a lot of things.

David Read:
They’re doing sleight of hand.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, of course they are. They do a pretty good job. The set and the thing do match up and they clearly did think about it. If you’re doing your job properly, you do sit there and think, “Hang on a minute, how does this work? Where does this go? How would this fold up? Where does it retract to?”

David Read:
Let’s talk about recreating the Stargates. I’d like to start with the SG-1 Stargate. I have SG-1 and Atlantis, I have them downstairs. Well done, sir. Very well done. How do you start that process? I’m assuming you didn’t have one of the CG assets.

Ben Robinson:
I did for Atlantis.

David Read:
For Atlantis? OK.

Ben Robinson:
It turned out to be wrong, believe it or not. Not for SG-1. One of the guys who does most of the modeling for me, even though we get the files in from the vendors, we still need to do a bit of work converting them. We need to export them in a particular kind of CAD file; an STL format that the factories can work with. In this particular case, a modeler called Ed Giddings who is a big Stargate fan, had actually already created the SG-1 gate for the DVD packaging, I believe. In that particular case, Ed really knows his Stargate in some depth and detail. Ed had already got a Stargate model. You then go through the whole thing of the glyphs and the correct positioning of the glyphs and are they all in the correct sequence? Is it even consistent? Can you find the reference in the episodes to check that the glyphs are the same and stay in the same sequence?

David Read:
You wanna make sure.

Ben Robinson:
There was some reference, I think MGM supplied us with some official reference which Ed was like, “I don’t think this is right.” We did a lot of back and forth on that.

David Read:
It’s funny, I could have supplied you with those because I sold your original SGC Stargate and it was nine different sections of rainbow-shaped cutouts of the glyphs. They all broke down into their sections. I could have gotten you that, but you did your job.

Ben Robinson:
One of the things is you get to know people as you work on these things. That’s a big part of it, finding out what’s where and who knows.

David Read:
That’s right, who knows what.

Ben Robinson:
When we did the variants of the Daedalus, the issue of the numbering on the engine pods came up. What happened is that most of the time they actually used the same asset, they didn’t necessarily go in and change details. You can actually see that it says 02 on, I can’t remember whether it’s the Hammond or the…

David Read:
01 would have been Daedalus, 02 would have been Odyssey.

Ben Robinson:
In theory that’s how it should be. But in fact, in the show you can find contradictory references.

David Read:
Wow, OK. Hammond says 02.

Ben Robinson:
They actually said 02 because the reality is it’s the same model. I actually asked Brad Wright about this and Brad’s like, “I can’t remember.”

David Read:
Now, to go into the weeds for a second there, they had the same issue on Battlestar Galactica with the Viper models. The tail numbers were all Kara’s tail number in the broadcast episodes and then for the DVDs they went and fixed them. They re-render the shots and made them correct for the rest of time. It’s just how it goes man. The Stargate, adapting the SG-1 prop.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, in that case, in SG-1, the gate itself, Ed had his own model of it. You go through and study it and a lot of people are like, “It’s a bit thin.” I think it’s early on, certainly the original prop is quite thin in comparison to the Atlantis version. You get big philosophical questions, “Is the Earth Stargate exactly the same as the gate on the other planet?” Can you take a contradiction between PX whatever and the Earth gate.

David Read:
There may have been minute updates.

Ben Robinson:
Can you say, “Actually it’s the same because of this. Can I use that as reference for this or not?” There’s one episode I think where you see the back of the Earth gate.

David Read:
There’s a couple of them, but they’re rare.

Ben Robinson:
It’s not got a good, clear reference. It’s that kind of thing. It’s insane the amount of time you spend looking for these things. As I say, there’s always gonna be someone who will say, “I think you’ve got this a little bit wrong.”

David Read:
So, the Atlantis gate is a straight-up digital copy?

Ben Robinson:
This was another one where the digital asset came from Mark. Obviously the digital asset was used. I think that is another instance where basically they used the digital asset. 90% of the time it was used for matting into other planets rather than into the Atlantis one, because they had their big physical permanent set piece in the Atlantis set.

David Read:
They had it there.

Ben Robinson:
So yes, it was a digital asset but wasn’t exactly like the big practical set piece that was in the Atlantis control room. There were very minor differences, and again, I think it was the positioning of the glyphs that was the issue, that the sequencing on the glyphs wasn’t quite correct. I’m trying to remember how it worked out, again, we had some MGM reference that was contradictory and then there’s some early publicity shots which are very clear for it. But then you get into, the glyphs are digital, are they always there or are they… What’s happening? Are the glyphs moving or are there these dots and everything like that?

David Read:
I always wondered. I was there on set to see the digital glyphs go. I was trying to remember, were they CG’d on?

Ben Robinson:
Did it move or did they just light up?

David Read:
Was it a trick? I can’t specifically remember. The Atlantis gate is a stunning prop in and of itself. It’s going back to, for the SG-1 gate as well, going back to the color and making sure that the lighting, that the paints that you pick are going to be as true to the look of the thing in a typical fan’s room. A lot of the promotional material for Atlantis, I hate this to this day, the gate’s brown. On half of the promotional material, it’s just incorrect lighting and the layman is not going to know any better when they’re pulling this content from MGM to create new product. It’s really up to you guys to make sure that you get it right.

Ben Robinson:
It is subjective. Color is one of those things where I suspect no two people see color exactly the same way. It’s very difficult to know that what you’re seeing is the same as what somebody else is seeing. I think I perceive tone, I’m very keenly aware of tone on color, whereas other people are more aware of reds and blues or those kinds of things. It’s tricky and you will always do it in a way that is not quite what somebody else thinks is right, there’s always that. You have photography as well. You have your own lighting in the photography, someone else has lighting in their photography and the sad truth about things of this size, people will take something that is a half an inch wide and blow it up so it’s six inches wide and then they’ll say, “It’s not very accurately painted.” You’re like, “That’s a brushstroke. That is a sixteenth of an inch or a thirty-second of an inch and you’re looking at it.”

David Read:
It’s not meant to be examined at that resolution.

Ben Robinson:
Nobody holding it in their hand would be able to see what you’re showing me.

David Read:
Geez, absolutely. The Daedalus, the BC-304. Is that gonna be your offering for the Hammond, for the Odyssey, for the Apollo, for the Korolev, for the Daedalus, or do you intend to release separate ones?

Ben Robinson:
That’s a good question. One of the things we don’t really know, you just have to guess, is what kind of appetite people have for things. Obviously, the idea is that the Daedalus is always available and that people could always buy that. I’m trying to remember which way round we did the Odyssey and the Hammond and one of them was harder to get than the other. We have a club membership thing where…

David Read:
Collect them all. Buy now.

Ben Robinson:
Does everybody want six versions of the same ship with slightly different names written on the side?

David Read:
What? That’s it.

Ben Robinson:
There are people who do. I think it’s important that you find a way of doing something that gives people the opportunity to get something special and to get something that is rare and unusual. At the same time, you don’t want to do something that annoys other people because they couldn’t get it. If you do too many retailer exclusives or you make it so that people can’t have what I would consider to be a decent collection, if you’d said, “The Death Glider is only available from Walmart.”

David Read:
A specific region, a specific country. This is a global franchise.

Ben Robinson:
That to me is unfair. As an English person I can tell you, it’s like, “It’s a Walmart exclusive, there are no Walmarts in England.” Or I presume, in Canada for that matter. It’s hard enough for people to get things in Canada so you wanna find a nice balance where you’re able to say, look, you can have a collection that feels complete but there are also some slightly more esoteric things, whether it’s the Korolev, which we haven’t done yet but perhaps we will, or whatever, that are rare. They take a bit of extra effort. You will be able to get them if you try really hard. It’s an interesting balance but I think it’s important that people could still get everything that they want, everything at a basic level.

David Read:
To be perfectly honest, I’ve been surprised at the pricing. These are more than reasonable, in my opinion, considering the cost of manufacturing and everything else today, shipping from overseas, what with the waves and all, takes a while. The question that I have for you is twofold. First of all, how has the response been, please be honest, to the Stargate line compared to some of the other properties? What is some of the product that you would like to create given the momentum of the brand on Master Replicas?

Ben Robinson:
It has been great. It’s been really gratifying to see how people have embraced the Stargate line. You see some interesting things. I used to run the same kind of thing at Eaglemoss and then Master Replicas picked up and carried on the torch after Eaglemoss fell apart. We’re only just getting stuff out now. We’ve had stuff that’s been on pre-order and the pre-orders have been very gratifying. It’s only just now that the Puddle Jumper and the Biliskner and the Pyramid are only just coming out now. What you never know is how the pre-orders will translate into the actual sale, but the pre-orders have been very healthy. You don’t know whether everybody is gonna buy it or 10% of the people are gonna buy it. The response has been great, to the point when you’re looking through and saying, “OK, what’s the logical extension? What’s the extent of this collection?” If we did every ship, what would that mean? I tell you, from Battlestar Galactica there is a line at which people are like, OK, there are some people that would love this third ship from the back in the Ragtag Fleet, but for most people, the line is somewhere a little bit more mainstream than that.

David Read:
It’s not worth the R&D.

Ben Robinson:
Lots of people just wanna have everything but there are also people who really want the hero ships and the things that everybody remembers. With any franchise like Stargate, you’re like, “Well, I wonder where the popularity lies” because there aren’t so many ships. With Star Trek, we did 400 models.

David Read:
That Eaglemoss did, he actually did them. “This was from episode 200…” Some of the oddest selections, I’m like, “Yeah, that was a ship. That’s right. OK.” Man, absolutely wild.

Ben Robinson:
Whereas with Stargate, it’s not quite like that. There aren’t that many ships in it.

David Read:
It’s not mainly a ship show. That’s right.

Ben Robinson:
It’s mainly a show you go through Stargates. It’s interesting seeing that so far, the Asgard ship slightly outselling the Puddle Jumper.

David Read:
Interesting. Wow.

Ben Robinson:
That’s not necessarily what I would have expected.

David Read:
I agree. Sounds like an O’Neill class maybe along the way.

Ben Robinson:
It may indeed. That’s the kind of thing that you have to do more in order to learn. It’s no surprise that the Daedalus sells really well or the Death Glider or the F-402. Those things are what you’d expect. Learning that maybe anything from SG-1 is a little more popular than anything from Atlantis? Maybe not, who knows? Maybe more people know about it.

David Read:
That’s true. They each have their own silos of fans. A lot of the fans crisscross over, but some of them stay inside that. What about Destiny?

Ben Robinson:
I’m working on it right now, actually. I was looking at it yesterday.

David Read:
Really? So this is more than just a pipe dream?

Ben Robinson:
It is definitely more than a pipe dream. It’ll be out this year.

David Read:
That’s wonderful. You guys secured the franchise license, not series by series.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, and the movie, obviously. I’m very keen to hear feedback from people. I think we need to get reviews turned on on the site. I’d really love to see people leave their reviews of the ships, I think that’s a functionality. We just relaunched the website so there’s a bunch of stuff that you can do now that you couldn’t do before. Spread the word. The strategy is these things are obviously made for the true fan. This is not little Tommy picking it up in Target because he quite likes Stargate or because it looked cool.

David Read:
These are works of art.

Ben Robinson:
I hope so. These are made for people who are passionate and know what they are and really wish they could put a bit more Stargate in their life. There isn’t any new Stargate on TV at the moment and it’s still a great show and they want to have something on their desk. We need the feedback; we need people to tell other people. Obviously, lots of hardcore guys are still coming and talking to you and stuff like that, but there are still a lot of people out there who love Stargate who maybe don’t even know that there are models.

David Read:
It’s in their rearview mirror; they haven’t seen it on television for years. If MGM would figure out what it wants to do with the new product, all of a sudden Google searches for Stargate – besides the one that the US government has suddenly skewed all of our search results, for some strange reason they decided to do that, thanks guys — will start being popular again. We’re all waiting. I do have a question about the design choice for the bases underneath the Stargates. It surprised me a little bit how hefty and large they are. Can you tell me about the thought behind that? Was it to give a counterbalance to the shape on top, make it a more pleasing display piece? Has there been any consideration to sell separate dioramas that you can stick it into?

Ben Robinson:
The problem with Stargate is always, when you see them, they’re very rare. You don’t just see a Stargate, unless it’s floating in space, you don’t just get the Stargate. Particularly the SG-1 gate, it’s built into this quite involved diorama. It’s got all those metal plates and the ramp and the concrete walls around it with a very specific shape and all of that. When you come to doing it, in everybody’s mind, it probably does have a ramp and maybe it has a DHD and it has all those things. Once you start doing that, you’re suddenly talking about a $200 model instead of, like, a $50, $60 model. You have to have some display base that is affordable and pleasing. I was determined that, with the gates themselves, you would have the whole gate. If you wanted to display it in a different way, you could. There was a practical consideration about how much of the gate needed to sit inside some kind of base in order to support it so that it didn’t just fall over. You need a certain amount of depth, you need to cover up a certain amount of the gate, particularly if it’s just gonna be supported by its own weight. Those are the starting considerations. It also had to have a certain width because of that; it had to sort of contain a certain percentage of the gate. You didn’t wanna get trapped into building a specific location. Like Atlantis, you had to build a bit of marble flooring. I’d actually just been on a holiday in Egypt, believe it or not, at the time, and there are those very distinctive temple shapes with the slight flare at the top and the angle. That was the inspiration for it and that’s why it’s the way it is. It could probably be a bit slimmer front to back. It’s not gone from my mind completely to do something with more of a diorama-type setting. The irony, of course, is that the DHDs are not in the principal locations, if you think about it. In SG-1, you’ve got the control room rather than them using a DHD.

David Read:
Same with Atlantis.

Ben Robinson:
They’re punching it up in the big control room. Destiny, it doesn’t really look like a DHD, I guess, it’s like a console.

David Read:
They’ve got devices that do it, it’s all remote.

Ben Robinson:
Or a remote control. When you do the DHD, suddenly you’re not doing the main gate anymore, you’re doing a gate on PX whatever. That doesn’t mean we won’t do a DHD, I think it’s an obvious thing to do. But then again, do people wanna buy a DHD without a gate? Do you want a scale DHD?

David Read:
You don’t wanna get a big DHD that you can actually see and sit it next to a Stargate, one of these. It’s gonna look out of place if you create one that’s that size, it’s gonna be too small.

Ben Robinson:
It’d be interesting. These are all the questions; these are the things that you run through and there are no completely satisfying answers. Maybe we do do a DHD that is three times the size that it should be, to go with the gate, but then people will complain about that.

David Read:
The line has to come down somewhere.

Ben Robinson:
“It’s gotta scale with the gate. Why can’t you do it in scale with the gate?” As you say, “because it would only be three inches tall.”

David Read:
That’s it. I would imagine the 3D printing market would scare the hell out of you guys. I’ve been delighted to see some of my friends have posted their own custom 3D printed dioramas that fit these Stargates and you guys have liked them on social media. It’s spreading the word of this.

Ben Robinson:
Absolutely. The first thing to say is 3D printing is not as easy as anyone thinks. It’s getting more and more sophisticated all the time and I’m just beginning to hear that it may become practical for mass production. The reality of 3D printing is that it is a model-maker skill-level activity. There are people who are doing beautiful work that’s 3D printed, but it’s beyond me. I couldn’t do it. Even though I’ve got the right file, most output from most 3D printers still needs to be sanded and that’s not as easy as you might think.

David Read:
Yeah, it’s not just plug and play.

Ben Robinson:
No, and it has little bits of banding and stuff like that and then you’ve gotta paint it. One of the reasons these things are the way they are is my complete incompetence in that area. I would always want something that was painted as high a standard as it reasonably could be, rather than me trying to do it. No, I’m not at all scared, because I think it’s actually much harder than people realize and also much more expensive than people realize. You see people saying, “Oh, I could 3D print it for a fraction of the cost.”

David Read:
Yeah, but are you gonna spend the time on it?

Ben Robinson:
You really couldn’t.

David Read:
Time is cost too.

Ben Robinson:
You really couldn’t. No, even just the cost, you really couldn’t.

David Read:
Absolutely.

Ben Robinson:
I think people are always charring, “Oh, I could 3D print this,” or whatever, then you should.

David Read:
Sure, why not? Post it. I wanna see it. Go ahead.

Ben Robinson:
There are people who do beautiful 3D printed work of this size.

David Read:
Scale replicas, we’ve got it covered. Any thoughts on prop replicas? Any thoughts on creating the DHD remote from Universe or your own version of the Eye of Ra necklace. What’s the thought process there and what is being considered?

Ben Robinson:
All of these things are within our grant of rights. I think a Jaffa helmet is the obvious place to go.

David Read:
Like the Serpent helmets?

Ben Robinson:
Like the serpent helmet, I guess, or you could have the horsehead ones as well. I assume people would want the Serpent helmet more.

David Read:
I do. Anubis and Horus have been released. I don’t think a Serpent Guard helmet has been released from a licensed distributor. Would this be scale or would this be full size?

Ben Robinson:
There again, what do people want? We could do either. Full size is certainly not something you can fit on an IKEA shelf.

David Read:
No, I’ve got one in my hallway and my dad wants to punch it every time he comes out of his room when they visit.

Ben Robinson:
I figure a half-size or quarter-size replica is probably the sweet spot for something like that.

David Read:
Glowing eyes?

Ben Robinson:
One of the things we still talk about is, “could we make a Stargate that spun?”

David Read:
Some people are doing it through 3D printing, but it is a bear. It’s very meticulous. It’s not easy to do.

Ben Robinson:
You need magnets.

David Read:
How many revolutions do you get before it breaks?

Ben Robinson:
Exactly. How fast does it spin and how do you control where it spins? It’s spinning, but now I want the chevrons to lock.

David Read:
That’s right. How much detail are you gonna go? It’s not done until you get a puddle to come out of it, I’m sorry.

Ben Robinson:
Exactly.

David Read:
That’s funny.

Ben Robinson:
Certainly the Serpent Guard helmet, in some form, is on the list. A Zat’nik’tel.

David Read:
Zat’nik’tel?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, also a possibility. We can do anything; it’s about what people want. We’re very open to being lobbied.

David Read:
Can you hold on for 10 seconds?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah.

David Read:
I’ll be right back. Legends Memorabilia put this out years ago [Zat’nik’tel]. It’s great because it’s in the closed position so you can carry it for cosplay. I would love one that’s on a stand that is in the open position.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, that’s how I would imagine doing it, to be honest.

David Read:
People would have the option of either finding these on the secondary market or getting one that you can pose that looks like it’s ready to strike. As phallic as they are, they’re SG-1, they represent that series. That would be really cool.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, these are all, as I say, on the list. I’m keen to look at them, but we haven’t done anything yet. People should feel free to lobby us.

David Read:
They can go to masterreplicas.com and contact you?

Ben Robinson:
Probably the Facebook page is the thing.

David Read:
Facebook?

Ben Robinson:
If you look for Master Replicas on Facebook, that’s a good place to go and put, “Oh, I would really love to see this,” or, “I would love to see that.” If people really wanna replicate a model, I’m looking at the shelves behind you…

David Read:
Naquadah reactor anyone?

Ben Robinson:
Exactly. If that’s what people want, then you can tell us.

David Read:
ZPM, I think, would probably be the big one. That’s really tricky. If you’re gonna do a genuine, full-scale prop replica, I would do the ZPM. BlueBrixx did one, I think it interesting. The real ones, man, I’ve held them and they’re tricky to create.

Ben Robinson:
I think you want it to light up as well, don’t you?

David Read:
That’s exactly right, and slightly oscillate. I’d love to end where we began with the pyramid. This is a beautiful model. I know that MGM has it in their archive. Did you guys go and get physical scans of it, or did you use a great deal…

Ben Robinson:
Photography.

David Read:
You did?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah. Photography. Ed was literally poring over every hieroglyph on it.

David Read:
I need to talk to this Ed.

Ben Robinson:
It took him a while. I have to admit, I took some of them on trust.

David Read:
He’s an artist.

Ben Robinson:
He cares. I think one of the things that is always a challenge for anything you sell online is communicating just how big this thing is.

David Read:
It’s a huge prop.

Ben Robinson:
It is really big, ours is about a foot across and it’s really difficult to communicate that online. A lot of people are looking and going, “Oh, it’s twice the cost of this.” It’s like, “Yeah, but it’s four times the size.”

David Read:
You need to scale it with a physical piece of money or something. It’s so hard to do that.

Ben Robinson:
It’s always difficult to know what to use to show scale. It always looks like there’s a giant tennis ball rolling around.

David Read:
I would love to have one for this set. Is there any way I could do an unboxing for Dial the Gate? Could you guys get me one?

Ben Robinson:
Certainly, yes, we will be able to do that. Yes, of course.

David Read:
I appreciate it. By the time this goes out, I will have unboxed the SG-1 and Atlantis gates on screen so they will have already seen that just before this interview airs. I am thrilled that you guys have this property because the pedigree of the Master Replicas brand is built into the quality of every single piece. You’re creating wonderful products for the Stargate community; a community that has been beaten left and right quite a bit with some mediocre stuff. It’s really important to me to have a conversation with you guys and to see your genuine commitment to this franchise.

Ben Robinson:
Thank you, that’s exactly what we hope for. That’s what we aspire to; to make stuff that people go, “Yeah, this is someone who gets it.” That’s the goal.

David Read:
That was Ben Robinson, creative director for Master Replicas. Really appreciate him coming on to share the details of so many beautiful pieces that are now available for our IKEA shelves. Really appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, please click the Like button. It does make a difference with the show and will help us grow our audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe. If you plan to watch live, I recommend giving the Bell icon a click so you’ll be the first to know of any schedule changes, which happen here and there. Bear in mind, clips from this episode will be re-released over the course of the next few weeks and months on the Dial the Gate YouTube channel. That’s mainly what I have for you here, as this is a recorded episode. My moderating team, thanks to you guys for making my front-end work here possible. Antony, Jeremy, Marcia, Sommer, Tracy, Raj, Lockwatcher; you guys are great. My producers, Antony and Linda, and big thanks to Frederick Marcoux over at ConceptsWeb. He’s a web developer for DialtheGate.com, keeps everything rolling here. We’ve got a number of live shows and pre-recorded shows coming at you and we’re gonna keep on working it. I’m David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side.