TTAG reader JP writes:
I saw this article on WIRED, breaking down the props of the new Star Wars movie. I was struck by how the various blasters pulled parts from recognizable guns. Of course, Han Solo’s blaster is famously based on the Mauser broomstick, but I was genuinely intrigued to see AR-style stocks, several Chiappa Rhino-esque blasters, at least one M&P grip, one that looks like maybe a Browning Hi-power, a backwards ACOG with a RMR in front of it, and many more. See how many inspirations the Armed Intelligentsia can pull from these slides! [Another image from the article and other sources after the jump]
This one is pretty simple — it’s an updated bastardization of the Sterling Sporter that was used in the original Star Wars movies. It looks like there’s an AR stock of some sort tacked onto the rear end, but otherwise just a bunch of rattlecan chrome and a cheap scope.
Up next: something that looks completely shop-made. What looks to be a CO2 cartridge tacked onto the side of the gun and some shiny “silencer” on the front. What’s really interesting is that there’s a Picatinny rail section on the top of the receiver, a nod to the current tactical chic of modern gun fashions.
While this one is mostly shop-made as well, it looks like there’s the frame of something close to a P226 being used for the grip and trigger assembly. Sad to see a P226 chopped up like this, but such is art.
In the style of the Arabian muskets of old and reminiscent of the original muskets from the first Star Wars movies, this shop-made rifle is a much better produced model that really looks nifty.
A bastardized 1911 with a beavertail grip, but I’ll allow it. The added stock makes this an SBR, but I doubt that the galactic empire’s gun laws are as draconian as they US’s.
I think that’s the pump section from a Remington 870. I think. Everything else looks to be cooked up by a prop shop.
This one actually looks like an off the shelf system. There are a couple companies that make the chassis surrounding that handgun, and the base for the handgun looks like ye olde GLOCK 17.
Almost identical to the previous gun, but apparently someone decided to slice off the front sight post from an AR-15 and slap it on top. An, uh, interesting choice.
Looks like it’s based on a gun.
Do I win?
You are correct sir! Now you can take your winnings, or . . .
Parlay them for what’s behind curtain number 3. . .
Nerftastic with a little Anchor Aluminum paint.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. . .,
people didn’t take sh_t from nobody and they put guns on their vehicles, and in their droids, and they had an a_ _load of open-carry. They made their guns with parts of guns we have now that they considered ‘cool’, kind of like a prescient-retro chic.
But we are still fighting their war against the empire.
Funny, I even see a little KRISS wanna be In there ? Or, the Corner Shot weapon system?
Glock already sells those attachments.
They used a Romanian AK wire folding stock on that 870 with the PPSH heat shield.
Those Glock 17 blasters are awful, not only did they take the front sight base, but the took the rear elevation drum and the charging handle and stuck them all together.
So, is TTAK doing anything on the light sabers?
I love star wars. Not only cause of the story and sci fi, but the whole thing is inherently pro gun and a thinly veiled metaphor for the American revolution.
That’s quite true; races other than white were an afterthought in both.
Awww Billy,
Such a good little social justice warrior. Make sure you give your land back to the indigenous people you stole it from.
For a movie with that kind of budget, I expected more than a train-wreck mishmash of discarded prop gun parts. (What does this little dingus do? I dunno, we just wanted something space-looking on top.) Seriously, do they have any kind of rationale for how those things are supposed to work?
I doubt 99% of the viewers care one way or the other. Like John Wayne riding thru Texas, while it was still a republic prior to 1845, with an 1873 Colt in his holster and a 1892 Winchester on his saddle.
Most folks just want to watch the movie.
The first movie due to limited budgets just slapped together and kit bashed odds and ends onto real guns loaded with blanks. JJ, despite to apease the angry internet crowd by going backwards to the 70s is trying to copy that look by also kitbashing crap together, except he isn’t doing it nearly as well.
Far cry from the C96 Mausers used in the original “Star Wars” from 1977…
Prop 21 is a Desert Eagle not a 1911, the slide stop, slide stop cut and 90 deg grip cut to the rear are a dead giveaway.
The Nerf Super Extra Ultra.
Sorry.
5th one in is not a 1911 with furniture.
Its a Desert Eagle with furniture.
The 6th one has a Bergmann 1896 as the base, sadly.
To anyone believing they cut-up real guns to make these props – they didn’t. They use resin copies, build upon those, then if it’s approved for use they cast more copies of that. Even “hero” props, which may feature electronics or moving parts will still be based on resin copies or airsoft guns.
Well the good thing is it looks like they are just cutting up the blue training pistols. If you look at any of the controls and triggers it makes that obvious. These don’t look near as creative as the original Star Wars blasters to me, it looks like a bunch of off the shelf stuff thrown together. But unfortunately that’s what Star Wars has come to, no longer the cult classic it once was, but a giant marketing ploy.