Steve Dymszo aims a Neuralyzer right between my eyes. The tiny device looks like a silver air pressure gauge, but its purpose is to erase memories. I wince as he fires. The Neuralyzer shoots a burst of white light, momentarily blinding me.
When my vision clears, I say my name and remind myself that my memory is intact. The Neuralyzer, of course, is not real; it's a fictional device from the Men in Black movies. But it is real in a different sense - it's an utterly authentic copy of the prop that appeared on the big screen. Dymszo replicated the Neuralyzer perfectly, mass-produced it, and sold a thousand at $200 a pop.
In the conference room of Master Replicas - Dymszo is cofounder and vice president of product design - the walls are lined with flawless facsimiles of movie and TV history. There's Han Solo's blaster, $500; a Klingon Disruptor pistol, $250; and the One Ring of Sauron, complete with glowing elvish runes, $200. There's also some leftover cake. It's Dymszo's birthday, and he interrupts the celebration to show me his handiwork. He fires up a lightsaber. A shaft of glowing red light shoots out, just like in the Star Wars films. He swings it back and forth, and it makes the appropriate whooshing sounds. "I'm 43 going on 12," Dymszo tells me. He looks his age - well-trimmed mustache, graying hair. But he's like a bug-eyed kid hopped up on sugar as he recounts his lifelong obsession with props.
Dymszo fashioned his first lightsaber in 1985 using chrome tubing from a plumbing store. He got so good at replicating props that he left his job as a civil engineer to pursue the craft. It was rough going at first. To get by, he had to sell some of his enormous collection of original movie memorabilia, including guns from the James Bond films. Then, in 2001, Master Replicas scored the biggest catch in prop emulation - the Star Wars license. The deal, which he negotiated over several months with Lucasfilm, put the Walnut Creek, California, outfit on the map.
In July, Luke's lightsaber from the initial 1977 film sold for $200,000 at a Beverly Hills auction. Master Replicas' imitation lightsabers are more reasonably priced - around $100 to $400, for sale on the company's Web site. "It's not just hardcore prop fans buying them," Dymszo explains. "These are a commodity. We just came out with the Luke ANH Elite, $525 retail. We sold out - 1,000 pieces in 14 minutes - and that afternoon it was on eBay for $1,000."
With a design process that can run 18 months per product, Master Replicas takes a meticulous approach to re-creating famous wares. Because many movie props are often cobbled together out of existing products, the hard part is figuring out exactly what those are. "The stormtrooper blaster is basically a Sterling L2A3 submachine gun with a scope stuck on," Dymszo says. "If you walked outside with it, you'd get shot by the police in 10 seconds … unless they were big Star Wars fans. There are five states we don't ship those to."
Dymszo's cell phone goes off, interrupting his faux-weapon reverie. The ring tone is the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark - Master Replicas is working to acquire the rights to the Indiana Jones franchise. He says that the company is doing so well with Star Wars merch that Lucasfilm has expanded its license to include costumes. Stormtrooper and Darth Vader helmets will be out by next year, and Dymszo won't rule out a knockoff of Princess Leia's metal bikini.
"We're finally turning a profit this year - a large profit," Dymszo says. He's looking forward to reclaiming the pieces of his collection that he had to sell off. Would he ever shell out $200,000 for Luke's original lightsaber? "It's not worth it," he says, shaking his head. "I can get two BMW M5s for that." Besides, he adds, the hilt is just a 1940s Graflex camera part with TI calculator LED lenses clamped on top.
- James Lee
POSTS
>
Props to the Jedi Master
