Ben Robinson of Master Replicas is back to give us an exclusive first look at their upcoming Serpent Guard helmet model!

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Timecodes

0:00 – Splash Screen
0:17 – Opening Credits
0:45 – Guest Introduction
2:44 – Master Replicas Updates
6:07 – Serpent Guard Helmet Replica
7:54 – Researching a New Replica
11:14 – Serpent Guard Replica Material
11:44 – Paintwork & Lighting
13:18 – The Importance of Detail
14:50 – Reasons for Buying Replicas
16:14 – It Looks So Real
17:27 – Replicas Licensing
19:07 – Fandom Feedback
21:40 – Star Trek Props & Replicas
23:10 – Stargate Illustrated Artwork Book
26:40 – There’s Still More to Do for Master Replicas
29:02 – Theoretical Helmet Designs
30:17 – Kino Replica Update
31:46 – Miniature Stargate Replicas
33:49 – Running Out of Ideas
36:49 – Possible Future Replicas (Naquadah Reactor & City of Atlantis)
37:49 – Ben’s Movie Replicas (Enterprise D, DeLorean, Aston Martin, Ectomobile)
40:42 – Designing Replicator Replicas
41:23 – Shipping Issues
42:36 – Viability of Large-scale Replicas
45:09 – Possibility of Staff Weapon Replica
45:45 – Apple TV Shows
47:11 – Rare Star Trek Props
49:49 – Possibility of Seed Ship Replica
51:21 – Getting Hands of Blueprints
53:29 – Possibility of DHD Replica
54:25 – Thoughts on the Current State of Stargate
56:14 – Star Trek: The Magazine
1:01:36 – Star Trek Replicas Companion Books
1:03:50 – Thank You, Ben
1:04:32 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:06:41 – End Credits

***
“Stargate,” “Stargate SG-1,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Stargate Universe,” and all related materials are owned by Amazon MGM Studios.

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TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
Greetings everyone and welcome to Episode 455 of Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. Thank you for joining me, my name is David Read. I am privileged to have back with me Ben Robinson of Master Replicas. What is wrong with me, Ben? I am stumbling all over myself. I don’t know what’s wrong. It’s a privilege to have you back.

Ben Robinson:
Graduating. It’s not a privilege. It’s just a pleasure, maybe. At best.

David Read:
Yes. OK. I will concede that point. It’s a treat to have you back. I am always delighted to see what it is that you have to share with us because you come with some great toys. You guys have been working on a couple of new Stargate pieces, but largely, first, before we get to that, how you doing? What’s been going on?

Ben Robinson:
I’m well. It’s been ridiculously hot in England. Football team’s been doing well, so the nation’s a bit happier. Bit of sunshine. But you see, Americans don’t have this. You do not play sport against other nations. Apart from a bit of hockey, the Canadians will kick your ass. But the English and the rest of the world, we all play sport against one another. So, think of it like System Lords all having some kind of sports tournament, and that gives you some idea of how people feel and how excited they get when their side’s doing well. It makes a big difference to people.

David Read:
Yeah, I think it’s one of the reasons we appreciate the Olympics as much as we do because it’s really our chance to get our feet wet with some of the other nations, the large majority of them, and see what we’re made of. You’re right, we’re pretty isolated that way, especially with the size of the nation that we have. How are things going at Master Replicas? What’s new and noteworthy? What’s going on?

Ben Robinson:
What’s new, what’s noteworthy? I’ve got a few little Stargate-y things to show you. What else has been going well? We’re doing Doctor Who cards. I’ve spent a lot of my day looking at Daleks. Do Doctor Who trading cards, which I started doing 20 years ago.

David Read:
Really?

Ben Robinson:
To my delight, I was gonna say amazement, but that’s unfair, they seem to be doing really well. They were my first really big hit as a creator. So, it’s really exciting.

David Read:
Collectable trading cards?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah. There’s a long, long story, but we basically printed a million packs and thought they would last a year, and they sold out in a week, 20 years ago. So, it’s not quite in that territory, not quite as insane as that, but they’re back and they’re doing really well. People seem to be very excited to have them back, so that’s good. We have to wait till we can announce it. There’s a very famous science fiction property that’s coming back, probably beginning of next year, that we might have the license for.

David Read:
Interesting.

Ben Robinson:
But I’m not allowed to… I can tell you that we signed Blade Runner. We do a beautiful little replica of Deckard’s car. Actually, from the Blade Runner 2049, rather than from the original film, because that’s where the rights were available. So, we’ve got that. We’ve got Blade Runner stuff coming, but can’t tell you what it is until it’s been cleared by the filmmakers. What else? More Star Trek always. Do these light-up panels, like the Okudagram LCARS Master Systems display. Got some more of those coming. Just done the original series, Constitution Class. It is the Enterprise, but I guess it was designed to be the…

David Read:
Do you have Mike and Denise consulting?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah. In this case, this particular bit of art, the one we’ve just done, Doug Drexler made. He’s just been emailing me saying, “How can I get one of these?” But also Jeff Mandel, who’s another member of the Star Trek art department. He and Doug go way back when. I’ll be out for the Star Trek convention. I hope I’m gonna see Mike and Denise when I’m out, but they’re getting on. I was realizing that Mike’s in his 80s. I’m guessing Denise must be too.

David Read:
Exactly.

Ben Robinson:
They are lovely people.

David Read:
Absolutely. Are you talking about the Vegas con?

Ben Robinson:
Yes.

David Read:
That’s coming up?

Ben Robinson:
The first week of August.

David Read:
Wow, it’s August. Very good. You think it’s hot there. Try 50 C

Ben Robinson:
I don’t mind it being hot in Vegas. It’s OK for it to be hot in Vegas ’cause everything’s geared up for it.

David Read:
That’s it.

Ben Robinson:
You go inside, there’s no light, there’s no heat. It can be freezing cold. It’s fine.

David Read:
That’s true. That’s true.

Ben Robinson:
Here you can’t. There’s no way of getting away from it. You’re in your house and there’s no air conditioning and it just gets hotter and hotter and hotter because there’s nowhere for the heat to go.

David Read:
OK, I concede that point. You guys are developing this guy right here. Thank you. I’m good.

Ben Robinson:
You mean this guy.

David Read:
“Join the newsletter.” Not the NX-01. Ah, dang it. When I click on it, OK, there we go. The Serpent Guard helmet.

Ben Robinson:
Yes.

David Read:
Do you have an example to show us? Oh, there it is.

Ben Robinson:
I do. You see, you were too busy looking at your screen.

David Read:
Wow. Look at that.

Ben Robinson:
That gives you an idea; gives you a sort of sense of scale. Designed to sort of sit on your desk is the idea.

David Read:
OK.

Ben Robinson:
We had a lot of debates about how big it should be. How big do you want your Serpent Guard helmet to be?

David Read:
So, you arrived at something that you wanted to be able to be a paperweight.

Ben Robinson:
Yes, the idea for me is that we see how people use these things. We’ve done a lot of research to show that people will put them on their desks, basically. A lot of people like to put them around the monitor.

David Read:
Does it come off of the stand or does it sit there?

Ben Robinson:
It’s huge. It will do. This one doesn’t.

David Read:
It will. OK.

Ben Robinson:
This is an early prototype.

David Read:
Look at that paint job.

Ben Robinson:
That’s the goal.

David Read:
Absolutely. Is this the one that was photographed on the screen here?

Ben Robinson:
Yes, it is. I’m just trying to keep it in focus. It’s like “you don’t want to look at me.”

David Read:
There you go. You want to put it in front of your face. There you go.

Ben Robinson:
If I could cover my face up, you’d be fine.

David Read:
Geez. Dude.

Ben Robinson:
As you can see, the idea is to be as desirable and as detailed and as accurate as possible. We spent a lot of time studying photographs from auctions. That’s the first in a new line.

David Read:
Wow. OK. So, when you’re creating a piece like this, did you have any kind of digital information to go with the photographs? Did you have any measurements of the molds that they used to create these in the show?

Ben Robinson:
Not in this case.

David Read:
OK.

Ben Robinson:
No.

David Read:
This is a lot of meticulous eyeballing.

Ben Robinson:
A lot of careful research. What you find with these things, you will know better than I do. You are the person we come to ask.

David Read:
The thing is I’ve got a helmet right there.

Ben Robinson:
The studio doesn’t keep this stuff, as you know.

David Read:
This is true.

Ben Robinson:
Even if they had it when they were filming…

David Read:
That’s right.

Ben Robinson:
…but even then, the licensing department wouldn’t have had it. It would’ve been there for the filming department, for the production team. No. When we do stuff like this, one of the things that’s different about a company like us… normally if you go to a company and they give you a license to do something, they also give you a style guide and they say, “Here is all the stuff that we have,” and “Go help yourselves.” The problem is that we said, “But we wanted to do this,” and they go, “We don’t have that.”

David Read:
So, it’s up to you to do what you have to do.

Ben Robinson:
What happens is what we have to do is we have to do our research. We have to find collectors like yourself. We have to find good references. Often auction houses will be really good reference and a lot of that’s very searchable online now. You get all that. Then, on top of that, it’s one thing knowing what the prop looks like. The prop doesn’t always look exactly the way you think it does. Sometimes it’s a bit rubbery. Sometimes it’s got little flaky bits on the corner or whatever. None of which used to show on TV before everything was in HD.

David Read:
It’s aged.

Ben Robinson:
We also go and make sure we look at the shows to see what it actually looks like on screen because it’s color graded and all of that. Someone once told me that NTSC stands for Never The Same Color. I think I might have said this last time I was on here.

David Read:
It tracks.

Ben Robinson:
You do your best to really be as accurate as you can to the prop, but also to make it look the way it’s supposed to look by looking at it on screen.

David Read:
OK. Have the pre-orders been healthy for it?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, they have. We’re very much carrying the flag for Stargate. We found the community to be very enthusiastic and very responsive and I think probably starved for product. Certainly, for product that is as deep, that is a proper deep dive and I guess, niche isn’t quite the right word, but it’s something that is for the discerning fan rather than just for someone who’s seen a couple of episodes. We find Stargate to be in a very healthy place and we’re very keen to support that.

David Read:
What are the materials for this particular piece?

Ben Robinson:
This one’s polyresin.

David Read:
OK.

Ben Robinson:
That’s because that’s really the best way to take the detail. If you want fine-line detail, polyresin is the best and it takes paint really well as well. It’s a scale thing as well. If you were going up something bigger, then maybe you wanna look at metal, but then that becomes very expensive, very heavy. Polyresin is, generally speaking, I would say, the best thing for this kind of product.

David Read:
Wow. In a situation where something like this is a completely different paint job compared to something like the Zero Point Module, which is designed to look like glass

Ben Robinson:
In fact, the ZPM isn’t painted at all. The color is injected into the material.

David Read:
It’s injection molding. OK. Very good.

Ben Robinson:
It’s a combination of two things. There’s a bit of paint involved. I have one that lights up.

David Read:
There you go. It looks better in person.

Ben Robinson:
It’s powerful. It’s too powerful. That’s actually, when I’m looking at that versus what I’m seeing on my screen, quite a different color. It’s much more orange.

David Read:
This doesn’t do it justice.

Ben Robinson:
It’s much more orange and amber. If I put my hand up, maybe I can start to…

David Read:
That helps a little bit.

Ben Robinson:
The camera is making all these decisions for you. The same thing happens on screen when someone’s filming. You see that those colors will change. I will turn it off because you can’t see me. They’re totally different techniques. What is similar is that they are very carefully digitally sculpted. You create your own digital version of it that you can then use to tool and create your replica.

David Read:
How long did this artist take to synthesize this particular helmet? Is this a month-long project? Is it a couple?

Ben Robinson:
It’s a couple of weeks and then a couple of rounds of corrections. You’ll have something respectable within a week. Then you’re going back and forth and picking up detail and saying, “I think you’ve missed this here,” or, “I think that curve is slightly sharp,” or the shadow or whatever.

David Read:
I’m just looking at the sheen on the paint. I guess probably a better comparison rather than the ZPM would be something like the Puddle Jumper, where that was layers and layers of getting the paint right. This is extraordinary. It is this big in reality.

Ben Robinson:
No, it’s bigger.

David Read:
It doesn’t look it.

Ben Robinson:
It’s bigger.

David Read:
It looks bigger than that.

Ben Robinson:
That’s one of the problems with photography, with any of these products, is trying to explain to people how big something is. Particularly when we try really hard to get as much detail in as possible. Given the level of detail, you think it might be full size. Lovely as it would be to have a full-size one, I’m not sure many people have somewhere to put a full size. Obviously, you do. For most of us, it’s about having a little shrine, I guess. You can put them on a shelf or put them all around your desk, as I say.

David Read:
It’s a conversation piece. It’s beautiful.

Ben Robinson:
I think it’s also about, I don’t know about other people, but for me, you watch the show and then it’s over and somehow you wanna bring it into your life, into your home. You wanna make it last a little bit longer, without having to sit down and pay attention for 44 minutes or whatever it is. Be able to have it there and to be part of your life. Someone once explained that to me about why people buy branded mugs. Why people would buy an SG-1 mug or whatever, that loads of us work in these little Dilbert cubicles and they’re completely anonymous. The one thing you can do is you can have your mug that says a little bit of who you are and what you’re passionate about.

David Read:
Something that sets you apart.

Ben Robinson:
Or something that’s you and it’s a real passion for you. Now, maybe it’s a little different; a lot more of us work from home since COVID. You can customize your space and fill it with the things you love. You can have your little corner of the den, whatever, that has shelves. Perhaps not quite as impressive as “your” shelves, but…

David Read:
Let’s set me aside, I am different. I’m very impressed with the price point for that. It’s not too large; it’s not insanely small either. Would you call it metal, or would you call it a… what was the word that you used for it?

Ben Robinson:
Polyresin.

David Read:
So, it’s not metal.

Ben Robinson:
It’s not metal.

David Read:
I’m staring at this thing and I’m convinced it’s metal.

Ben Robinson:
But that’s the paint.

David Read:
That’s wild.

Ben Robinson:
The actual prop isn’t metal, is it?

David Read:
Yeah, I don’t think so.

Ben Robinson:
It’s painted.

David Read:
Based on what you’ve said, it looks so… Let me pull this thing up again so everyone can see it. I’m just so impressed with this paint quality and the texture on it. Every time I look at it now, my brain is left with the impression that I’m going to touch it and it’s gonna be very, very cold because it’s metal.

Ben Robinson:
It is a little cold. There’s an interesting trick to the formulation of the resin to make it feel a little colder and a little more solid. I think it’s like a stone thing. But it’s painted to look metallic.

David Read:
Do you have the same license for the helmets from the films, or is that separate?

Ben Robinson:
You know what? I would have to double-check whether we have the helmets from the films in the license. I think we are allowed to do anything we want from the films, apart from possibly a couple of likenesses.

David Read:
Folks, if you have questions for Ben, if you’re joining us in the live chat right now, you can get those over to my moderators. They’re standing by to provide those details over to me. Ben, I have a question from IBREC. He wants to know: Has Amazon’s acquisition of MGM changed anything for them in the way they work, how the license is managed, or the approval process? Different people maybe?

Ben Robinson:
No, not really.

David Read:
How has the relationship been going?

Ben Robinson:
Not really. I haven’t checked in. We deal with a UK agent and they deal directly with the people at Amazon or MGM. The last time I had a conversation with anyone at MGM, it was actually the same people I’d dealt with on Stargate five years earlier, before it was bought by Amazon. One of the things for those companies is they get some expertise in-house and they need to hold onto some of that. They do appreciate that Stargate is not just a logo on a T-shirt. They understand that people are passionate about it and they have to have people who know. There are different people at Amazon as well, so the person you’re talking to at the top of the tree is a different person and they have other priorities as well. But there’s nothing sinister, if that’s where the concern is.

David Read:
I imagine you get feedback from the different fan bases in terms of people who are fastidious over quality. Like, “Well, this detail here, this detail here, you’re missing the inner coolers on the sides of the warp nacelles on the spaceship,” or anything like that. You have a number of different properties. Which ones are more virulent for that? I’m really curious if you’re willing to share. Or notorious, should I say.

Ben Robinson:
I would say that what happens is that when you first start doing something, everybody is very pleasantly surprised at the level of quality and the level of detail that we’ve been able to include. So, I remember a Star Trek thing. We did a freighter from Enterprise and it had a cargo freighter on it. It had the cargo pods on it and there were decals on the cargo pods that were on the CG model.

David Read:
Is this the Horizon?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, the ECS Horizon. You couldn’t see them on screen. I think it’s on ECS Fortunate, actually.

David Read:
The Fortunate. Season One.

Ben Robinson:
Yeah. You couldn’t read the labels on the cargo pods on screen, but you could on our model. They were there on screen, you just couldn’t read them, ’cause they just didn’t get close enough. I remember being blown away by that. People were like, “Oh my God, this is really picking the thing up and being able to see it in more detail than I actually could.” But after a while, people then start to hold you to the standard of the very best thing you’ve ever done. So, when you’ve done something that you’re really proud of and really great, everything after that just gets compared to it. So, it’s like, “Well, it’s not as good as the Reliant. It’s not as good as…” People are entitled. I think people tend to forget how much work goes in, how much care and research and how reasonably priced things are compared to the number of man-hours versus the number of units sold and all that kind of stuff.

David Read:
Exactly.

Ben Robinson:
So, you get a little bit hoist with your own petard, which means blown up with your own bomb, because people come to expect certain things of you. I think also what happens on Star Trek, more than on any of the other properties, is that the things have a life outside their life on the show. There’s a lot of beta canon stuff.

David Read:
Fan films.

Ben Robinson:
Fan films.

David Read:
All kinds of things.

Ben Robinson:
People have got hold of the CG assets. There’s the STO version of the assets. You can also get into people having different opinions about what is canon. Also I think, particularly on Star Trek, there’s a lot of stuff that people only really know about because I told them about it. We did 400 ships. There are definitely people who know about all of them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there isn’t anybody out there, but there are a lot of people who didn’t even know that this existed or that. We sadly don’t have it with Stargate, but we did with Star Trek; all that publishing. We were able to introduce people to the concept artists and to talk about the origins of things and the intentions of things and published a few books on the same subject. So all of that helps; you create the knowledge that is then used to nitpick against you.

David Read:
You brought up something interesting. I recently recovered through a friend a number of Stargate Universe artwork pieces that we thought had been destroyed. One of the things that I have always wanted is for James Robbins to come out with an illustrated book of all of his work. Is that something that you would be interested in pursuing?

Ben Robinson:
The problem always with that kind of thing is that, in order for a book to be available in Barnes & Noble and, to a lesser extent, on Amazon and those kinds of places, you have to persuade a publisher that there’s enough interest. The way it works is they need to sell a certain number. It has to be very close to the number that you can be confident of and it’s quite easy for something to dip below that number and sometimes it goes above it. Then again, the other thing we didn’t talk about is people don’t appreciate that things cost as much as they do to make. That sounds horrible. But people go, “Oh, well that’s expensive.” It’s not expensive for what it is. We all remember our childhoods. On the whole people don’t try to charge a lot of money for things. Even if you go and look at a beautiful sideshow piece, it’s not expensive for what it is. It’s expensive, it’s an expensive thing. But when you think how much work goes into it and all of that, it’s not expensive.

David Read:
I’ve got downstairs the Art of Ralph McQuarrie, the big one, and I forgot how much it was. In the scheme of things, there’s thousands and thousands of hours of work that were put into creating something like that. In the scheme of things, it’s a song. That’s something I would really be interested in seeing, because you’re talking about…the nice thing about the 400 ships that you did was that you had a lot of companion stuff that you could put out with them, like booklets and things like that. I would really love to see something like James’s art available.

Ben Robinson:
I think it would be a great book. There’s no question it would be a great book. It’s just finding a publisher who’s like, “OK. Well, when did anyone last publish a book on Stargate? How many copies did it sell?” That’s how it works. So, you have to convince somebody that there’s enough volume there to make something work. You have to pay for the license and you have to pay for this and that.

David Read:
Is that something I can approach you offline about?

Ben Robinson:
We can talk about it. There’s a possibility. There’s a maybe. This is why people get excited by Kickstarters and things like that.

David Read:
That’s the thing. I’m thinking about the role-playing game. It did insanely well to the point where… I’m gonna keep my mouth shut on that. You guys have been responsible for so much cool stuff. In terms of the merchandise for the Stargate arena, it’s begun to get a little bit better, but I’m gonna say that there are certain manufacturers and vendors who are creating less-than-quality product in my opinion. Present company excluded from that observation.

Ben Robinson:
If we don’t make something with that level of detail, people won’t buy it from us.

David Read:
That’s the thing. I think that there are still a few rocks to turn over in terms of the assets that are available, concept art being a big one that fans would like to have. Coffee-table book form.

Ben Robinson:
We’re very, very open to trying to make any of these things work and very open to people pitching ideas to us. The problem with all of these things is that you find “a” product that works. We’ve done the ships obviously; I should have got some out for this as well. We’re still doing ships. I know there’s been a bit of a gap, but there are ships on the way and we’ll have some news pretty soon. Stargate, you go through a Stargate. You don’t necessarily get on a ship. So it doesn’t have 400 ships, for sure. So, you know the ships work and then you think, “Well, there’s an appetite for Stargate.” If you make it right, people will want it. But you’ve gotta make it right. You’ve gotta find the right thing and you’ve gotta find the things that people want. Knowing where that line is is an experiment. You try each time. You say, “Oh, well I wonder if they’d like replica helmet.” You say, “Well, actually they do seem to want replica helmets. Well, we’ve done the Serpent Guard helmet. What other helmets could we do?”

David Read:
JediGreedo actually brought that up. Is Anubis’s Kull warrior a potential for the helmets?

Ben Robinson:
Yes. You can say ‘potential’ is a confident word.

David Read:
Martintaichl wants to know, “Do you plan to make any helmets that did not make it into the show, but had they had the production budget they would have? Like Bastet for a cat, crocodile Sobek. Is it an Ibis for Thoth? I-B-I-S. I’m not sure how to pronounce that.”

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, I guess that would be an Ibis.

David Read:
Like theoretical helmet designs?

Ben Robinson:
I think that very much depends. Look, we’ve just done one and it’s the one everybody knows and everybody loves. So, if it sells phenomenally well, as I hope it will, we might have another one already underway. But once that’s done, I think you then have to… Again, is there gonna be an appetite there for it? You have to persuade the bosses, the people with the money, that this is worth the risk, because this is not free. If it doesn’t work, people lose money. So, all of that. The more people petition us, the more people go onto our social media and say how much they want something, the easier it is to sell something to people.

David Read:
StargateSeed wants to know, any updates on a possible Kino replica?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, it’s underway. We’re looking at it. Again, that would probably be life-size, I guess. Makes sense. That’s pretty much the same size as the Serpent Guard helmet. So yes, that’s definitely on the list.

David Read:
Substantially heavier

Ben Robinson:
Definitely on the list.

David Read:
Perfect. This would be tricky to manufacture, but not impossible.

Ben Robinson:
As long as it doesn’t have voids. If the outer ring wasn’t in contact with the inner ring, that becomes a problem. But I believe the Kino is, so we’re okay with that. Used to have lots of problems with Borg stuff because it’s open.

David Read:
God.

Ben Robinson:
You’re meant to be able to see all the way through if you stand in the right place and that’s really difficult.

David Read:
It’s a fair point. Kino Music Radio, coincidentally enough. Question about the helmet. Wait a second here. Potential custom picks. We already answered this question. The helmet will, on the version that will be available, will be able to be removed.

Ben Robinson:
Yes.

David Read:
OK. Perfect. He’s thinking of doing a custom base for a full collection of them if you guys come out and do a series of them. I don’t know if I had this by the last time you were on, but I love the fact that the fan community and Master Replicas can come together-

Ben Robinson:
Cool. People have made…

David Read:
What a great idea to have… Would this technically be a diorama?

Ben Robinson:
I guess it is. It’s a bit of a diorama.

David Read:
This is Martin McClean, SGA Gate Builders. The craftsmanship is ridiculous and the fact that you can bring an officially licensed product together with something that a fan has made always blows my mind.

Ben Robinson:
It always makes me really happy to see it as well because we’re in the business… We make sets of things. We started with the SG-1 gate, the floor for the SG-1 gate is complicated. It’s not the easiest one. So, you do a stand and some people love the stand, some people hate the stand. Then you want the next one to look like it’s part of the same set and then the next one is that. The Universe gate’s not even really raised off the ground at all, is it? It just sits.

David Read:
It just sits on the ground. Have you seen the design that SGA Gate Builder has made for the Universe Stargate?

Ben Robinson:
I haven’t.

David Read:
I’ve actually got it. I don’t have a Universe gate. I forgot to buy one, but I’ve actually got it downstairs, if you wouldn’t mind me grabbing it. That’s actually available if people go ahead and get one for you.

Ben Robinson:
Why don’t we do it after this? There are other people watching this.

David Read:
That’s a good idea. Absolutely.

Ben Robinson:
You can watch me watching them.

David Read:
I was gonna tee you up with a question because I can listen to you downstairs while you answer. But anyway, are you concerned about running out of ideas for product, or is it really just, “OK, if this one goes good then I’ve got this next one on the lining pad.”

Ben Robinson:
You are always wondering, “what do we do next?” What’s the next thing? You always have a slight concern that maybe the next thing won’t sell enough and then you’ll have to stop. But there are definitely things that you think, “Well, that’d be cool.” We’re still at the point where it’s like, “Well, that would be cool.” After a few years, you maybe get to the point going, “Well, anyone really want that?” There’s always somebody who will. There’s always somebody online who will tell you they want the most obscure thing that makes sense to them but actually doesn’t make that much sense to other people.

David Read:
You could have made that argument about the 400 ships. Some of them that I’ve seen, “that’s right. That’s the Husnock Warship. That’s right. I remember ‘The Survivors.'”

Ben Robinson:
That’s an interesting one ’cause if you watch TNG as it came out, as I did, a new ship was a big thing to get excited about.

David Read:
Exactly. Those dang cargo ships that we saw forever that were the same models.

Ben Robinson:
Turned upside down, painted a different color with some wings stuck on it. The one that always blew my mind is the smuggler’s ship, the Jovis.

David Read:
Is it now?

Ben Robinson:
It is. It’s the same basic model.

David Read:
It’s the same ship? You mean Kivas Fajo’s Jovis?

Ben Robinson:
Yep.

David Read:
I’ll be darned. I did not know that.

Ben Robinson:
It’s got extra bits stuck on it. This top thing.

David Read:
The smuggler’s ship that was introduced in Search for Spock.

Ben Robinson:
No, in “Unification.” Sorry, don’t get me started on this. I can go for a long time. The merchant one is the ship you’re thinking of from Search for Spock. That also turns out as a lot of different ships. That got reused a lot ’cause they didn’t have that many models.

David Read:
Exactly. No. Or even thinking about Gomtuu, the fricking peach pit.

Ben Robinson:
Gomtuu doesn’t really get used as anything else. That’s a one-off.

David Read:
I’m using that as an example of someone who’s coming up with something creative, to create a design. Or the Echo Papa 607 is a shampoo bottle in a in an Easter egg, literally.

Ben Robinson:
That’s my friend Dan. Legs pantyhose holder. The original one they made looks quite different. They were like, “We can’t get this moved around. We can’t use it on the stage.” So Dan being Dan, went out and bought a few things in a 7-Eleven, pulled on a green suit green suit and did it with his tai chi movements. The rest of the effects team trying very hard to not fall off their chairs laughing. They were laughing so hard.

David Read:
God. Whatever it does to make it work. MasterOkojo, any chance of a Naquadah reactor replica? At what point does the complexity of the item break the bank?

Ben Robinson:
Every time I talk to you I seem to have to get a restraining order on you. I think it’s worth a think, a Naquadah generator. I think that and the Zat’nik’tel, the gun, some other helmets we might have seen. The other one that we keep thinking about, and again, I can see there is some kind of model of Atlantis itself.

David Read:
Oof. Man

Ben Robinson:
Exactly.

David Read:
That level of complexity!

Ben Robinson:
It’s gonna require a bit of careful thought. It’s not something that you can put into a workflow and expect to come out the other end working. I would love to do it. I’m very fond of Atlantis.

David Read:
This is going somewhere. I forget, you will know the answer to this. I’m not sure which company made it. The Build the Enterprise D project. That would be something that I would think would lend itself well for Atlantis, because you could do a whole series with that.

Ben Robinson:
The problem with that is it’s a numbers thing. That’s just a numbers thing. The other thing about those, I actually did build the Enterprise D myself. I’m responsible for it. It’s all my fault.

David Read:
That particular project?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah.

David Read:
There we go.

Ben Robinson:
But before that, the first one I did was James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5.

David Read:
So, that was not your first barbecue then, OK.

Ben Robinson:
That was not my first rodeo, for sure. That was a big success. But even bigger success, was the Back to the Future DeLorean. What you discover with that is that what makes those projects work is that you need people to buy it. Again, you’re getting people to buy something, which is expensive. It costs money.

David Read:
It adds up at the end of the day.

Ben Robinson:
It adds up at the end of the day, but you’re making it affordable to somebody. So, you’re taking something that would otherwise cost $2,000 or $3,000 and you’re making it available for $1,500 or $2,000, but you’ve gotta put it together yourself. In order to make it more democratic, to make it so that real people like you and me can buy it, you end up paying 50, 60 bucks a month for it.

David Read:
Exactly, and you work your way towards it over a period of time. I just think it’s a great idea. It’s something that would be really cool for Atlantis, ’cause that’s something that I would…

Ben Robinson:
You need a lot of people to buy something like that for one to work.

David Read:
‘Cause it has to be designed.

Ben Robinson:
You’d be amazed at how many people love Back to the Future and you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars up front.

David Read:
Wow. I’m curious, did you have to pay a license to DeLorean Motor Company for that? How does that work?

Ben Robinson:
In that particular case Universal bought the rights to that car from the DeLorean company.

David Read:
I did not know that. Wow, OK.

Ben Robinson:
But when we did the DB5, we had to have a joint license. We had a license with Eon, who are the filmmakers who made James Bond at the time, before Amazon MGM bought them, and Aston Martin, so we had a license from both of them. I also did the Ghostbusters Ectomobile. That is a converted Cadillac and we had to have the license from Cadillac, as well as from Sony and Ghost Corp, who were the rights holders on that one.

David Read:
Martintaichl has another question. Replicators. Is there any interest in creating them? Was that something that you would create at, say, half scale or something full scale?

Ben Robinson:
It’s a very dangerous thing to do. I’ve gotta be very careful about creating replicators. We’ll all be overrun.

David Read:
Don’t get two of them in the same place because that’s how you get replicators. So, if you have one, you’re good.

Ben Robinson:
Supply them with light and power. Replicators are also on my list. The thing that’s fascinating about replicators is you make a little replicator spider, I guess. That’s definitely on the list. That’s one of the things you think would be cool and I imagine people would want that.

David Read:
I would highly recommend that when you ship them, have it so that the legs attach after it arrives because every one of the replicators that my friends have sent me, at least one leg is broken. I super glue it back together and then it’s fine, but it’s really tricky in shipping. Is there any merchandise that you guys have had that proved to be tricky in shipping?

Ben Robinson:
Yes.

David Read:
Or notorious.

Ben Robinson:
Yes. We did a Bajoran solar sailor, very early on, vintage Deep Space Nine. Even though you did assemble bits of it yourself, the spritz and all of those bits are pretty fragile. I never was prepared to do the Narada from the 2009 movie, because again, it’s got, inside there, there’s nothing to hold those parts apart. What happens, it’s not just the thinness, it’s how well they resist pressure, sort of like that. That makes sense? If there’s nothing in there to hold them apart, they break.

David Read:
Wow, OK. I was gonna nerd out with you for a second on Star Trek, but I’m gonna ask that at the end. HereMy2Cents asks, “Are there any plans to make larger-scale replicas of some of the ships, or to add LED lighting with batteries for some of them?” ‘Cause you did different scales for Star Trek.

Ben Robinson:
It’s a good question. I think probably the goal is trying to keep the price point reasonable. It’s very easy to look at something and go, “Ah, people will pay $250.” Because ultimately that’s what something like that’s likely to end up costing. There are some people who will. But part of our sort of mission statement is to be affordable. I’m sure there are people there who think, “Oh, you should be cheaper.” It used to be. “It used to be 35 cents when I was a child.” So, it is something that comes up. The other one that comes up is a working Stargate. Obviously not an actual wormhole, but a spinning light-up Stargate with some kind of wormhole-type screen in the middle. That’s something that keeps coming up and we keep talking about. Could we do an expensive Stargate that did stuff?

David Read:
Or if they break. This thing behind me here spins and I almost never touch it because there’s always that last spin. It’s really tricky. I saw, when I was in France, about a month and a half ago, I saw a Stargate that was about yay tall and did spin. The chevron opened and closed and it was magnificent.

Ben Robinson:
I’m sure.

David Read:
But they were terrified that if they move it somewhere, it’s gonna break.

Ben Robinson:
It would not be cheap. That’s the thing. These things are not cheap and people have, I think, a slightly unrealistic idea of how… mass isn’t quite the right word, but how producible, how practical some of these things are. So, we’d love to do it. It’s on a list of things that we keep thinking about and looking at. But as you say, you’d be so annoyed if you got it and then after two spins it broke. So, we’d have to be confident that that wouldn’t happen.

David Read:
JediGreedo wanted to know about staff weapons.

Ben Robinson:
Yes. If you think about what are the iconic things, you can assume that we might have thought of them.

David Read:
Don’t send one to Christopher. I’m just saying. He might break it.

Ben Robinson:
We would make it [inaudible]. It would be a lot smaller than Christopher.

David Read:
He was not a fan. Outside of Stargate, Alex wants to know, have you guys ever considered making a Prime Radiant prop from Foundation? He says a lot of fans would buy it.

Ben Robinson:
Foundation is a great disappointment to me. Foundation stuff just doesn’t seem to sell in the kind of numbers that you’d hope. Foundation is one of the most beautifully designed shows ever.

David Read:
Apple’s where it’s at with TV. Just extraordinary. Pluribus. Severance.

Ben Robinson:
Science fiction at Apple…Silo.

David Read:
Silo, I haven’t seen it yet. I’m saving it.

Ben Robinson:
I haven’t watched the new season yet. Me either. I love Rebecca Ferguson. I think Silo’s amazing. Severance is the thing.

David Read:
Have you seen Pluribus yet?

Ben Robinson:
I haven’t seen Pluribus yet.

David Read:
I loved it. I loved it. Great sci-fi ideas in it.

Ben Robinson:
All could replace the X-Files. All the same people.

David Read:
Exactly right. You’re right, I think Foundation is one of the most beautiful TV shows out there. Just because something is beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean that an item for that is going to necessarily sell well.

Ben Robinson:
It’s a great channel. I really love Foundation and I loved working on it but it’s difficult to make it work financially.

David Read:
What’s your dream prop that you would love to own?

Ben Robinson:
Have I not already done it? I’m trying to think. I’m not even sure my dream prop would necessarily be… I’m too careless. I wouldn’t be a good custodian.

David Read:
I love my tricorders.

Ben Robinson:
If we’re talking about if I actually owned a real prop, a real thing that was used on screen, I would be so overjoyed to have, probably just because they’re so… the different props from “The Cage,” from the original Star Trek pilot.

David Read:
The original communicator?

Ben Robinson:
No, the original-run Star Trek type 2 phasers. There are hardly any of them in the world and they’re all authenticated and everyone knows where they are and all of that. They are incredibly desirable and they’re a very, very tempting thing, but I would not be a good custodian for it. I would not be the right person. My big thing… a bit like you were saying about Stargate’s concept art, I have, digitally I have probably one of the biggest collections of concept art in the world. It’s where my head’s at and I’m always intrigued by it. I love it. People don’t get enough credit as well.

David Read:
Wasn’t the Diamond Select Toys Mark 2 phaser used in Enterprise?

Ben Robinson:
I wouldn’t be surprised.

David Read:
I think that’s technically a screen-used prop.

Ben Robinson:
They used Hallmark Christmas ornament birds of prey in “Way of the Warrior.”

David Read:
I did not know that. That’s fantastic. I’ve gone through three of them because I keep on breaking off the guns.

Ben Robinson:
They were in the background. They’re only in the background.

David Read:
It’s fantastic. Geez, I did not know that. That’s wild.

Ben Robinson:
This is getting very Star Treky, another piece of silly Star Trek trivia, the gold ships are actually AMT model kits, mostly, that John Eaves had gold-plated in downtown L.A.

David Read:
Wow. There we go. The ones on the E?

Ben Robinson:
In the lounge and on the E. Gold-plating your little ships.

David Read:
Exactly. “Must be drawn here.” SonsandShadowCast, any chance for an SGU seed ship? Has that been given any consideration?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, it’s on the list.

David Read:
How have the Destiny sales been?

Ben Robinson:
Destiny’s been great. Destiny’s one of those ones where you draw a line. That’s one of those things where you might be a little anxious, where you’re like “OK, Universe got canceled after two seasons. Do people care?” It turns out they do. I think it turns out also that sometimes when there’s been nothing for a show, then people are really keen to get something. The seed ship is on the list. Wraith ships are on the list as well. They’re a bit blobby because they’re so organic.

David Read:
They’re not as elegant as some of the others.

Ben Robinson:
They’re really what people think of when they think of as a spaceship. You have a little caution about them. We tracked down the rest of the Goa’uld ships and they’re on the way.

David Read:
Fantastic.

Ben Robinson:
The Ori. Again, the Ori to people, you get that same sense of, it’s not quite the same as Universe, not exactly the same thing. I don’t think people loved the Ori as much as they loved the Goa’uld.

David Read:
How are you gonna do that light ball?

Ben Robinson:
Might have been discussing that. There might be a way.

David Read:
Interesting. All right. Very good. Philippe wants to know, any thoughts on the ancient life signs detector?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah. To be honest, we only ever think two or three things ahead. So, not quite that far down the list. What we’re thinking about at the moment… So, I told you we did these light-up panels for Star Trek, one of the things I wanted to talk to you about actually is we’re thinking about what kind of screen-used graphics we might be able to track down or create. Something that was like a blueprint schematic that was in a light-up panel, if that’s something that people would be interested in. That’s something. I think there’s a schematic of Atlantis that we might have to look into recreating.

David Read:
I have the original blueprints of the Dial Home Device from “The Fifth Race” and it’s not the blueprint that was used in the show. It is the concept art that was made to create the blueprint and it’s top five in my collection in terms of pieces.

Ben Robinson:
It’s easier that you can see.

David Read:
All the handwritten notes, you can sit there and read through A to F or G or whatever it is

Ben Robinson:
I love all that stuff.

David Read:
It’s exquisite.

Ben Robinson:
That’s definitely a possibility. What I was thinking of more specifically was something that looked like a computer screen from the show.

David Read:
I see what you’re saying.

Ben Robinson:
When they go into the lift in Atlantis, I think when Atlantis is under siege and they’re looking at the graphic showing which sections of Atlantis are still habitable, which ones have been taken over, ’cause those things look really cool. That one’s downstairs or I’d plug it in and show you. The Star Trek ones, it’s what we talked about at the beginning of the show.

David Read:
The LCARS?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, the LCARS. So, if we could find something equivalent to that for Atlantis, but it would have to be sexy enough. We don’t want plain.

David Read:
Understood. I’ll put my mind to work. EnricMartinezMoreno, thoughts on the dial home device?

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, we should do that. We should do a DHD. The only reason I hesitate slightly is the DHD, if it’s in scale with the gates, which is the first thought, it’s gonna be too small, I think. So, I think maybe if it’s the same size as the Serpent Guard helmet.

David Read:
Fudge it a little bit.

Ben Robinson:
Yeah, it’ll be half the size of the gate.

David Read:
Fudge it a lot of it.

Ben Robinson:
People will be like, “Well, I want a gate to go with it,” but actually the DHD is a pretty cool thing on its own. As you say, it’s got all that detail on it and you’d actually get all the glyphs.

David Read:
Talk about an interesting paint job, for sure. That’s a whole process in and of itself. Ben, this has been fantastic. I really appreciate you coming back on. It’s always a treat to nerd out with you as well as getting updates

Ben Robinson:
That’s easy. That part’s easy. I think the big thing to say is, obviously, Stargate’s been a weird time.

David Read:
Don’t get me started

Ben Robinson:
We’ve gone from such highs to such lows in the last six months. I’ve been there with other fandoms and I think the truth is it shows you there is an interest and that things do find a way back. In the meantime, we were here before there was talk of a new show. We’re still here. Stargate’s doing nicely for us. We’re very keen to do more. It’s always got to be something that is cool, desirable, has the opportunity for detail and that people really want.

David Read:
The quality. If the quality is there, the fans will come. There are plenty of completist Stargate fans out there. I’m sure you know a number of folks who have all 400 of the ships that you did. There is a collector card mentality to a lot of this stuff.

Ben Robinson:
Absolutely.

David Read:
“OK, I have to. I won’t feel complete until they are complete.” The nice thing is that they’re reasonably priced so that you can do that.

Ben Robinson:
That’s the goal.

David Read:
You can get one a month or whatever and work your way to complete it. I have over here Star Trek: The Magazine that ran for four years. Was it four years or eight? No, four.

Ben Robinson:
It was five and a half, six years of my life.

David Read:
You were involved in these?

Ben Robinson:
I was the editor of that. I wrote most of it. If you’re talking about the one from the turn of the century.

David Read:
Right here.

Ben Robinson:
That, the perfect-bound spine.

David Read:
Wait. These?

Ben Robinson:
Yep, that’s me.

David Read:
Seriously? Dude.

Ben Robinson:
Yeah.

David Read:
I worked for years to complete this collection. There are three others. I was so thankful that I got all the slip cases before they ran out. I’m not a big completist or a collector in terms of Trek, but this is the one complete thing that I have and they’re absolutely gorgeous.

Ben Robinson:
Thank you

David Read:
Thank you for them. They’re just beautiful.

Ben Robinson:
It’s been 25 years. That’s how I made friends with a lot of people.

David Read:
Man, I am so blown away with how you guys did the three-quarter illustrations of all of the sets. Absolutely mind-blowing how you recreated all those with the pullouts and everything.

Ben Robinson:
In different times or ways of doing… So, they come from an original UK publication called The Star Trek Fact Files, which I worked on. I did the first 50 or 60 issues of that and then I went off to do that magazine. That was when we started, so a lot of things have their origins there. That’s when I got to know John Eaves and Ira Behr and Ron Moore and the other Ron Moore and Dan Curry and those kind of people for the first time. I’m still friends with a lot of those people. I did amazing interviews. It was extraordinary.

David Read:
There’s some great stuff in there. I think I’m in there once or twice in the email section.

Ben Robinson:
Because you wrote in?

David Read:
I did, absolutely. I asked about the Excelsior and comparisons with the design of the Sovereign in the fifth or sixth issue that you guys did. They’re beautiful pieces and I was so disappointed, completely blindsided. I still remember reading the last one, I think, I don’t know who it was. I think it had something to do with Nana. It was DS9, is what it was, and it says at the end of it, “Sadly, this is our last issue.” I’m reading it in the back of my parents’ car. I’m like, “What? Why?” Did you just run out of material or…?

Ben Robinson:
No, it was sales. The problem with those things is that the number of returns that you have to cope with. We didn’t run out of material. I still haven’t run out of material. I’m still going back to some of those same pieces and talking to the same people. Sorry, this has become a Star Trek podcast.

David Read:
I apologize. I don’t apologize.

Ben Robinson:
I won’t apologize for it. I went out and saw Matt Jefferies. I spent the afternoon with Matt and Penny, who ran our office at Paramount, which adopted Matt and Marianne. I hadn’t really realized that no one else had sat down with him and asked him about that. So, I think I did “the” major interview with Matt Jefferies. I talked to Andrew Probert, Rick Sternbach, John Eaves, all those concept artist guys. Syd Mead. I went to Syd Mead’s house. That was a cool thing. I used to talk to Leonard Nimoy quite often. I always talk to Adam Nimoy about that. It was such a foundational time in my life and I learned how to do what I do, doing that magazine.

David Read:
Wow. Thank you for it.

Ben Robinson:
Thank you for buying it. It was very good for me. The other person, funny enough, who always talks about it is Ira Behr, who is one of my favorite people. We did a piece with Ira where we looked back at Sisko, the whole evolution of Sisko over seven years. I think it was the first time he’d done that. He’d done it day by day. He’d done it as he went.

David Read:
But from broken man to God.

Ben Robinson:
But to actually step back and look at it and say, “Oh, well, they wouldn’t let us do all this Bajoran politics stuff, so we did this instead,” and da, da. “Then we did this.” It was the first time he really saw it as an overview, if that makes sense. We’re still doing stuff. We do these little Star Trek ships now at Master Replicas and they come with quite substantial little books like this.

David Read:
Very cool.

Ben Robinson:
There’s loads of stuff about the early origins of Discovery that nobody’s ever published before in there. I’m just working on one that relates to Picard Season Three at the moment and lots of concept art that no one’s ever seen. I’m really proud of the one we did for Picard Season One. There’s a lot of stuff. I talked to Michael Chabon, who sent me a very nice email saying how much he appreciated it. That’s why I collect those kinds of emails.

David Read:
Your work is appreciated. I cannot wait to get my hands on Building the Bridge, or Rebuilding the Bridge, I guess I should say. I will read that cover to cover.

Ben Robinson:
You will. It is the most detailed book ever published about Star Trek. I think it’s fascinating ’cause it also talks about a load of people who don’t normally get talked about. It talks about the crafts people, it talks about the construction people, it talks about the upholsterer. It talks about Liz, who wrote the book. She was there, absolutely. She put her heart and soul into getting that bridge to look the way it should. They did a massive amount of research and it’s a real testimony to how much the people that work on those shows care. It’s got a lot of pictures in.

David Read:
I can’t wait to see it. Though that’s the nice thing about having, at this point in time, with as much research and as easy as it is to take photos and store them, you’re gonna have a lot of stuff to work with. Especially something as iconic as this. It only makes sense to see something like that. So, that’s really cool. Ben, thank you.

Ben Robinson:
Thank you

David Read:
I appreciate having you on. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got coming up next. I would love to sit down with you and see if maybe James would be interested in talking as well because it’s something that he has been wanting to do for a long time.

Ben Robinson:
Anything. Always interested in investigating.

David Read:
All righty, sir. I’m gonna wrap up the show on this side, you take care of yourself.

Ben Robinson:
Thank you. I’m gonna go and watch the rest of the football. Doesn’t look like anyone scored. It’s a very English story. Very English story.

David Read:
That’s it.

Ben Robinson:
We’re still there.

David Read:
Have a good time, sir.

Ben Robinson:
No one scored.

David Read:
Be well. Bye-bye.

Ben Robinson:
Talk to you soon. Thank you again. Bye.

David Read:
Absolutely. Thank you. That is Ben Robinson of Master Replicas. Their stuff is absolutely exquisite. I have always been blown away by this company. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve been a customer of theirs since the early 2000s: the amount of stuff that they’re able to create and the accuracy of things. So, really cool to have him on once again. My name is David Read. You’re watching the Stargate Oral History Project. If you enjoy the show and you wanna see more content like this continuing on YouTube, please do me a favor and click that Like button. It does help with the show and make a difference in our numbers and leave a comment if there was something that you enjoyed in this episode. My tremendous thanks to my Patreons. I cannot do this show without you guys. I’m so insanely grateful. So, especially now that we don’t have a new series coming out, how am I gonna move forward with this? You guys came and grabbed me at a time when I really needed the help. It’s just such a treat to be able to move forward with all of you backing me in this project and the fact of the matter is that my thanks are absolutely endless. We are going to be going on a bit of a break for a little bit here, but we’re gonna be back at San Diego Comic Con for a live event on Friday the 24th. We’re gonna have a few pre-recorded episodes sprinkled in and out of there so I’m gonna be a little bit spotty for the next month or so. So, appreciate you all being with me through this process. If you didn’t watch our episode earlier today, of the live auction of the location Stargate from SG-1, go and check that out because it sold for an interesting amount of money. I was surprised. That’s what we’ve got for you. My name is David Read, thanks so much for tuning in. Thank you to Antony, to Raj and to Lockwatcher for moderating, guys. You guys are the best. I’ll see you all on the other side. Bye-bye.