Secrets of the Aztec

My word, hasn't time flown since my last entry? The summer sun has packed its bags and fucked off south for the winter and SDCC is all but a distant memory. I'm sorry I've left it so long to update this blog but to be honest, I've had so much to do what with developing new products and my day job, something had to give and blogging was one of the things that has fallen by the wayside in favour of more prosaic pursuits such as family, job and finishing some of the products I've been promising you all. Truth be known, blogging is something I thoroughly enjoy but I'll only do it if I have something worthwhile to say. And boy, do I have something to say....

Some of you will have seen the new entries I have put on my site regarding three new sonics. You will note that the Matt Smith sonic isn't on there...yet. There is a perfectly good reason for this and it is something I have alluded to for some time. The design is flawed. Seriously flawed. Fatally flawed I would go so far to say. Getting a 100% accurate replica is not a massive issue. I have pretty much got that licked. The problem is that the prop breaks too damn easily. Flicking it open a few times is enough to generate enough shearing force to snap the internal metal guide tube and fracture the acrylic. Unless I sell it with a full time prop wrangler and ample spare parts, this is not a usable replica  and if it isn't, where's the fun? The other reason is it's not good PR to have 99%+ of your sales return, kaput, within a few days of delivery. No sir, I don't like it! So, I am redesigning it internally with the aim of engineering out this fatal flaw and as soon as it is done, you will get it. It will happen but just not this year. I see early next as the date when I finally get this thing out.

In the interim, we have 2 and a half new sonics to satisfy the sonic fix you may be craving. Today I'm going to talk about the first of these: The hero sonic used by Eccleston in Season 1 and on and off by Tennant until the Season 3 refit, 'The Aztec'.

Little is really known about the Aztec and there has been a lot of myth that surrounds the original Season 1 prop. I had the pleasure of measuring one of the Season 1 props: the 'wide slider' version that featured the 0.25mm step below the struts but this version, although able to extend, was not really considered a 'hero' prop as such as it was quite battered and had to be held in such a way as to hide the 8mm wide slot in the body. The honour of being main 'hero' prop fell to one of two props made by a British prop house called 'Aztec'. These are interesting props for a variety of reasons and I felt that that given the amount of screen time they had, they deserved to be considered the definitive Season 1 sonic. Some interesting facts about these sonics:

1) They were made from metal: despite popular myth perpetuating the fact they were made from resin, very few of the props with the exception of the 'burnt' sonics were. They were CNC machined out of aluminium and were built to a high standard. Such was the quality of these props that the heads were salvaged and used on subsequent refits including Tennant's sonic.

2) The paint was Plastikote Crackle Touch Colony Cream: Yes, you heard it correctly. This was something that I posted earlier this year but Plastikote Colony Cream crackle was the correct paint used on this sonic. Don't believe me? Check these pics out:

3) The prop was non-static: There is a misconception that the Aztec props were static which from the pics above, you can see is not true. The reason behind this commonly held notion is quite interesting. The Aztec sonics, whilst able to extend, did not extend in quite the same way as the other props as can be evidenced by the lack of a slider slot. You actually had to pull the head out by hand. Now here's where it get interesting. The head/battery tube assembly was never fixed inside the body and was joined to the fixed button on the side by the connecting wire and theoretically could be pulled straight out, hence the probable origin of this prop's mythical fragility. It was never designed to be a working slider prop but merely a prop that could be fixed at whatever point of extension the shot demanded at the time. This was achieved via a screw on the reverse that served to not only hold the upper collar in place, but also fixed the degree of extension that was required. A good shot of this screw can be seen here:

In order to create a working version of this prop, I've therefore had to compromise slightly and redesigned the prop to incorporate a working slider function by way of a slider slot. In time there will be a non-slider version, but that will be for my universal remote control version.

I'm only going to be producing a few dozen of these at most so if you want one, get in quick as I won't be making any more. I'm finishing the prototyping in the next week or two so as soon as pics go up, the order book will open. It will be highly doubtful they will be ready this side of Xmas but if you order, you'll get a gift certificate or something that will guarantee your sonic (I'm still working out how to do this, but don't worry, I'll figure it out soon).

Sorry this is so brief, but I promise the next blog will be a few hours away as I don't intend to leave it so long next time!