The Origin of Wah's Bucks

Late November 2008: Some dedicated and resourceful members of the Trek Prop Zone board made collectively an amazing discovery of historical significance - they have identified the found object Wah Chang used to create the bucks for shaping the communicator shells! Some conventional wisdom had maintained that the bucks were carved out of wood or perhaps clay. Not so. They were with absolute certainty cast in plaster directly off of a mold confirmed to be made from a plastic pencil case by the Sterling Manufacturing Company: Images above and below courtesy of Greg Schnitzer and the TPZ. This "Pencil Box" theory has been bandied about for many years, with some junior fans as far back as the 1970s keenly noting the uncanny resemblance between their dime store pencil box and the cool prop pictured in the TMOST ("The Making of Star Trek") book. Well, as it turns out, they were spot-on correct all along. How did this theory then move to confirmed certitude? The two key pieces of evidence at long last met; a vintage intact pencil box and a perfectly cast version of a genuine Wah comm. It all started publically when TPZ member Todd Mustachio launched a thread wondering if anyone remembered the kind of box so many of us had as kids. Fellow member Greg Schnitzer promptly posted pictured of one he had obtained in auction. Noting the modern bar code on the packaging and wondering if this model was also available in the mid 1960s, Keith Marshall found this U.S. patent record dated 1961. Milling marks on the back where the date was edited suggests this box came off of the original 60's metal tooling. Additional pictures showed matching profiles. So far, so good: What shifted gears into overdrive was when HMS, the manufacturer of communicator kits sold by Roddenberry.com, showed off their new bucks that utilized such a pencil box (seen below). Of monumental importance was the appearance in their bottom buck of four circles (pointed to by the arrows) indicating where the small circular domed "feet" on the bottom of the box (with a 5/16" diameter) had been sanded down. Soon after Mr. Schnitzer followed with pictures of the bottom of his box: Images above courtesy of HMS, Greg Schnitzer and the TPZ. It was Dennis Stines who immediately recognized that traces of identical 5/16" diameter circles in the exact same location could be found in Alpha's and Zeta's bottom shells too, validating the connection: The two bottom-right images above of a Kydex shell formed from a direct Alpha casting courtesy of Todd Mustachio. The back circles seem not to have left an imprint on the buck. They were located right where Wah recessed in the shells the screw dimples, so any remaining circular traces would have been mostly obliterated. As Mr. Stines had also previously cast Alpha and was able to make detailed vacuformed shell reproductions (which he was able to slice up without fear of destroying something priceless), Mr. Schnitzer kindly lent him the box for a physical testing. The results speak for themselves: Images above and below courtesy of Dennis Stines. The real proof, though, came from matching the box's front foot position with the circle remnants in a molded replica of Wah's shell: The rock-solid confirmation of the Pencil Box Theory also answers why there are curious full-length seam lines visible on the inside of the bottom buck. The box was wider and certainly much longer than what Wah intended, and so he sliced out excess and recombine the pieces, crudely smoothing over the edges with putty. Evidence of a small joint mismatch is consistently seen on the outside of the top buck as well: All that is left to debate is precisely how Wah used the pencil box to make his bucks. Option One had him cut and glue the actual plastic "quadrants" together, insert flat pieces into the rolling top's groove for the control panel and moiré surfaces, use modeling putty to smooth the seams and perhaps fill the gaps and sides in the control well, make a plaster mold of that shape (after covering it with a lubricant) and then plaster cast the bucks from that impression. Option Two is where he molded and cast the intact box and assembled instead the plaster chunks. The first option is currently favored by those most knowledgeable in the subject as it represents a shorter path to completion for the hurried artist and better explains some of the minute features seen in the shells. Either way, having the final bucks made from plaster certainly accounts for the countless pits, bumps and bubbles picked up in the Kydex. It also clarifies how a crack, initially identified by John Long, could have developed across the width of the top buck (at right >>). It seems that Wah broke and re-glued it. We don't know if all or just some of the ten comms ended up with this crack impression on the inside. This pencil box discovery will no doubt start, or in HMS' case further, a revolution in how hobbyists seek to make their own ever-more accurate replicas. A thorough investigation of the box is now complete at the page linked below, with details on how most of the small imperfections in the shell lines came about naturally:
	> > > > The Details - THE STERLING PENCIL BOX < < < <
And under the department of "What are we going to do next with this stuff?" we offer this page:
	> > > > The Details - COMMUNICATOR BUCK RESURRECTION < < < <
HeroComm thanks the many participants of this investigation for their insights, efforts and their allowing us to tell their stories.