Take a look at this:

A few years ago, I was patrolling the vendor aisles at Chiller Theatre and came across a display of very cool items new to me.  They were an assortment of sci-fi and horror characters like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and Aliens made out of…well, spare parts.  Now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the little statues, cars and airplanes made from metal parts but they don’t come close to what this guy produces.  I wandered over to the small Predator display and moments later I owned these two beauties and had a much lighter wallet.  But, worth every penny, the detail is amazing.  Take a look at these close-ups:

An amazingly artistic combination of sheetrock screws, motorcycle chains, ball bearings, metal tubing, nails, bolts, gears and pounded metal all combined and expertly welded together.  Not little tiny guys either.  The Metal Pred (I like that) without the helmet (on the left) weighs in at 17 lbs (7.711 kg) and stands 22″ (55.9 cm) high.  He is holding a ball and chain – not really standard Predator gear – but the ball weighs about a pound and is covered with 25 one inch screws which would make one hell of a weapon.  He can be disassembled, he screws together at the waist with a heavy duty bolt.  His “dreds” are made of 16 lengths of motorcycle chain.  They are completely moveable.

His partner with the helmet (right) is 16 lbs (7.257 kg) and 19″ (48.3 cm) high.  An amazing collection of screws, nuts and bolts with a very cool shoulder cannon fashioned out of heavy duty metal tubing.  He also has heavy duty motorcycle chain for dreds and pounded metal armor.  And, yes, those are spark plugs acting as hydraulics on his arms and legs.

They were crafted by a guy from Thailand (is all the talent in Thailand?) who refers to himself as Metal Dude.  At the time I bought these two (as well as an amazing King Ghidorah) Metal Dude was making these types of statues available in the $500 range.  Since they are hand made out of “junk yard parts”, no two are the same – they are one-of-a-kind.  Since then, he has stopped making these statues and now only does commission work of larger pieces – check out the Alien Table on his web site.

So kids, am I willing to part with them?  Probably not. Of all the Predator items in my collection, these two are my favorite and since a) they are one of a kind and b) Metal Dude is no longer cranking them out, I would never be able to replace them.  Having said that, everything has a price.

Okay my friends, I have an interesting bit of trivia for you.  Came across this photo in an old magazine (old as in 1989).  The question I have for you is:

What is this?

If you are guessing a grasshopper sitting on a fence you would be incorrect.  If you guessed it is the first build-up of the original Predator creature, you would be correct.  Imagine if this was the design they had settled on!  Anyone think that this design woiuld have generated the same level of excitement as the final version of P1?  Backward and forward bending knees???  I would have loved to see Kevin Peter Hall wearing this deal.  Which brings me to….

I am putting together a library of behind-the-scenes photos and video of the making of the Predator movie series.  I have a ton of stuff so far but am looking for more.  This library will be available to anyone who comes to the site and wants to download it.  Anything you submit will be credited to you unless you ask to be anonymous.  So, look around and see what you have, anything from any of the movies.  Let’s make this happen and thanks in advance. Send your photos and other interesting stuff to me via email

Remember this creepy guy from the “Jeepers Creepers” flick starring the “I’m a Mac” kid?

Sure you do, he is that flesh-eating beast of old that returns every 23 years to feed, killing anyone and anything that is foolish enough to get in his way.  Well now you can have him in your own bedroom, just standing there staring at you.  Pleasant thought?

Actually this is a way cool, limited edition (only 150 worldwide) piece of art  constructed from heavyweight polystone and then hand painted to the finest detail.  This amazingly detailed piece captures perfectly this demonic monster, standing with his heavy axe in one hand – used to mercilessly decapitate or dismember his hapless victims, and a severed head in the other.  To pre-order (he’ll be available early next year) just click on the magic button below (yes, the one that says ‘Click Here to Order”)  and you will be whisked away to Order Land

Come on, you want one in your bedroom.  He is definitely one of those statues that you know comes alive at night!

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

As we are preparing to give away a beautiful Predator LSB (Legendary Scale Bust), Sideshow drops a very nice companion piece, the Predator 2 LSB.  Take a look at them side by side:

Tell me that they don’t make a handsome pair.  And for those of you that still have books (remember books?) go find a better set of book ends.  The P1 is 16.5″ (419.1mm) high and the P2 is 18″ (457.2mm) high owing to the more angled skull.  So don’t spend all your money at Comic-Con, check out these two very cool beasts, the Predator and Predator 2 Legendary Scale Busts.  Now, if I could only get Sideshow to give ups a free P2….

June 12, 1987, a day that will live in Predator infamy!  That’s the day that the Predator (the original and still the best) movie premiered in Hollywood.  I saw it a week later and that was it, I was hooked.  It is a testimony to director John McTiernan, writers Jim and John Thomas and of course Arnold and the rest of the cast that this movie has become an institution and in many ways an icon.

And you have to remember that this was a 1987 movie that grossed almost $100MM ($60MM domestic and $98MM worldwide) very nice numbers for the 80′s.  It ended up the number 12 movie for 1987 but for those of us who have developed a passion for this, the best of all sci-fi movies, it is now and will remain number one!  Happy 25th anniversary and here’s to 25 more!

Friends of PredatorStuff, I need your help.  A few months ago we changed over the newsletters to a new format.  The new format allows us to add pictures and more active links.  The response from you folks has been terrific so I’d like to proceed.  The problem is that we apparently have a bunch of dead email addresses and we are getting a fairly large ‘bounce’.  Bounces really piss off your internet providers so we have to weed out the list.  To that end, please use this link and send me your current email address so we can update.  If you don’t want the newsletter, do nothing, you will be eliminated.  But if you want to receive the newsletter please follow this link.  Sorry for the hemorrhoid but these things are necessary.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine shot me an email telling me he was thinning out his kit collection.  One of the jewels of his collection was an original Bad Blood kit by Narin.  I posted it in the newsletter and it was gone in about an hour.  I had about 15 folks who wanted it but a bit too late.  Well I may have the next best thing for you, Sideshow Collectibles just launched the Narin Predator Bad Blood statue due for a November delivery.  Now this is not a kit, it is a finished statue but nobody says you can’t re-paint a statue.  It’s a favorite pass time of mine.  Take a look:

I’m hoping that this paint job will remain faithful to the exquisite work on the original done by of Joe Dunaway but only time will tell when we finally see this impressive looking statue.  Runs almost 19 inches tall (450mm) and weighs in at about 12 pounds (5.44kg).

For those of you not familiar with the Bad Blood Predator (shame on you) he is a rogue warrior who has basically turned on his own people.  There are two Pred skulls adorning his shoulders and a (now lifeless) head impaled on his spear.  This is a bad boy and assuming that the details are going to be all there, will be a knock out piece for your collection.  And to all of you out there who are saying it is going to look crappy because Sideshow has lowered its standards, just remember that this is a Narin/Joe Dunaway piece and there worst efforts (of which there are none) are better than the best of others.  Good hunting – Rich

Since I have gotten a boat load of emails about this statue, I thought I had better respond before my IP throws me off.  A number of you have called into question a few things about the new Elder Predator from the Predator 2 movie that Sideshow launched a few weeks ago:

The major complaint was the lack of ring in the tooth, one of the true icons of the character.  I raised this issue with Sideshow and was told that the statue has already been updated and the final statue will correct oral-bling speaking.  Unfortunately, they have not updated the website photos yet so the “Inaccuracy Cloud” will linger.

Others felt that the head was too small and too high.  I have passed those comments on to Sideshow too and they have passed them to the production team.  The last one is something I don’t quite get, the Elder is wearing sandals while he doesn’t wear sandals in the movie.  So, I went back and watched the ending of P2 again and I’ll be damned if I can see his feet.  All of the characters in the ending are waist-deep in smoke/fog/whoknowswhat, no foot gear visible.  But, as I have certainly been wrong in the past, I let Sideshow know.

Rich