OTHER ORIGINAL* PROPS

Being in a central position for people's inquiries on their hopefully-authentic communicators, it was inevitable that we would get shown other props as well.  While it is not at all our intention to expand our scope beyond the classic comm, we do like spreading good news around and supporting the honest efforts of hobbyists and collectors.  Nearly all of the previously known surviving props prior to 2006 came through only two sources; John Dwyer and Jim Rugg.  Their items could be thought of as low-lying fruit - easy to get at and long since harvested.  Fortunately at least a few other props made it into this century too, though their journeys to public awareness have been naturally more lengthy.  This section, displaying these "second harvest" objects not previously seen elsewhere, will continue for only as long as needed.  Once other comprehensive, evaluative free public websites similar to HeroComm - but focused on the other Trek props - come online, we will donate these pictures for display there.

* Be advised that while we have very high confidence in the authenticity of the below items owing to their known provenance AND their appropriate unique features, our opinion in this matter should not be considered as "firm" as with the communicators.  At such a time when these objects do enter the marketplace, their story and construction will no doubt be further studied in detail to the complete assurance of all agents and potential buyers.

18 photos courtesy of an anonymous West Coast collector

last updated 6/9/08

6 photos courtesy of an anonymous East Coast collector

last updated 6/9/08

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q1)  What is the most accurate replica or kit I could buy? (submitted by staff, 9/1/06)

A)  It will not be the policy of HeroComm to critique, good or bad, any replica (except those we consider forgeries).  All replicas for sale will tend to have their own set of merits and detractions.  As children, we might have been happy to role play with a communicator made of stacked cardboard colored by magic marker and crayons.  Today as adults, some of us will only settle for an authentic screen-used original.  Most of us are somewhere in between.  On these pages, you may now have enough information to decide for yourself what will fully satisfy your Communicator Jones; a ready-made replica, a pre-fabricated unassembled kit, or diving into your own creative juices to make your own (with HeroComm as your guide).  To quote Klaatu from the first 'Earth Stood Still' movie, "The decision rests with you."

Q2)  Have any authentic communicators been sold recently on eBay or through auction houses?  (submitted by staff, 9/1/06)

A)  No.  The last true original up for public sale was Delta, in late 2001 from Profiles in History.  It was purchased by Paul Allen.  We will post updates should any originals come up for sale.

Q3)  Will you ever show how to add electronics, like a sound board or lights?  (submitted by staff, 9/1/06)

A)  No.  Our focus has been limited to the props as originally made for the classic TV show.  Chat boards would be a more likely place to find write-ups from other hobbyists about such diverging topics.

Q4)  Are there plans in the future of doing similar work with the phaser and tricorder?  (submitted by contributor, 9/7/06)

A)  We have absolutely no plans for anything further beyond the communicator.  While we naturally love all the classic Trek props, it has required an inordinate amount of time, money and focus to get this one site created, and that was fueled by our unique passion for the comm.  We must leave remaining work for The Next Generation of prop geeks. 

Q5  Will you be redoing the Screen Cap Library with high definition images once Blu-Ray comes out?  (submitted for 1/17/09)

A)  No.  The library was intended as a tool mainly to locate where communicators make appearances in the show and to identify key details, especially of those actual props not yet rediscovered today.  This tool has served its purpose, as all ten of Wah's comms have been spotted and fully fleshed out on our pages.  For ongoing studies, individual frames may be retrieved from Blu-Ray discs but not necessarily posted in their entirety here.  The task of remaking the library is too large for too little gain at this point.

A)  You would be amazed at how quiet those cheap1 and 7 jewel stopwatches can be, even after decades of aging.  The very loudest from a large batch that has been tested could probably have been picked up by a sensitive microphone nearby, but the vast majority were the better part of whisper-quiet.  The best of the best were downright silent, especially once sealed in a black plastic box.  As it turns out, the one in Alpha is in that "silent" category; it is virtually inaudible when running now.  Certainly sound editors had to omit unwanted background noises all the time (i.e. the sliding doors), but it is likely they had no such problem with the hero communicators.

OUR BOARD POSTINGS

The below posts are edited from their original form to keep only information relevant to all.  Also, as time elapses and our knowledge evolves, older posts can start to contain details that we now know not to be accurate.  This text, while not altered, is shown in orange.

12)  POSTED 10/12/08 - on TPZ commenting on various general concerns regarding our research on Alpha's authenticity:

If you have passed through our Portal Page recently, you may have seen a new note saying that the HeroComm site is 100% complete.  This happens to be true both for our content and concurrently for the defense of our opinion that the found Alpha hero is genuine.  Our journey to this point has been filled with many joyous discoveries and fruitful partnerships, and we are thrilled that so very many of you have enjoyed that ride with us.

It has been our dominant intent to bring to the masses the very things we all like best about our favorite prop – photos, facts and details – that before had been the exclusive domain of a select few.  Plus we have uncovered all the features of all ten comms used on the show, a task not even considered possible prior.  We’ve made this entirely free and openly public with no strings attached.  In this process we have upended the apple cart, so to speak, and the repercussions of that shift of control within our little but energetic hobby is still settling out.  The Internet has caused throughout the world many such radical alterations in the way that things had always been done.  Ours is just one tiny example.  Those who remain alert to the full possibilities – and yes, the liabilities too – of the medium will surely continue to reap the greatest gains.  Others who keep rigid to the old ways will no doubt be relegated to the dust bin.  Thus is the nature of progress.

Our recent board posts wrapping up our investigation of the Alpha hero has spurred some lingering general questions that, while they may have been also partially discussed by us in the past, we will encapsulate once more as a final conclusion to the project:

Authentication vs. Opinion

We have been accused of late of violating our own pledge to only offer opinion and not to authenticate.  This perception is probably due to the firmness of our data presentation on the Alpha hero and the voracity with which we have been pushing back recently against the baseless accusations of a small group of naysayers.  We have in our minds offered uncontestable proof of authenticity, and then we have stood firm in its defense.  But just as we, as citizens, can’t formally arrest a criminal but only pin him down until the authorities arrive, we at HeroComm have in the end no legal say, which is what “authentication” really is.  The business world has established rules and procedures for such a thing, and thus when this prop looks to enter the arena of commerce, probably through an auction house like Profiles in History, their system engages well-established protocols to protect all interested parties.  As has been written by us, our only role in this has been to fastidiously offer advanced research to assist those who will be assuming the hefty responsibility of actually signing off on the thing.

However, just because the business world hasn’t officially declared yet the genuineness of Alpha (because it hasn’t needed to) doesn’t mean we as a hobby can’t.  Why remain in limbo for maybe years, held up until the current owner decides to sell, when the intense scrutiny that this communicator has been subjected to over the past 22 months undoubtedly exceeds all other examinations of all other TOS props combined – and then some.  And everything but everything points to a single happy conclusion.  We already know the answer.  So why not proceed forward in the full enjoyment of the fantastic discovery as ALL evidence dictates?

Here is an analogy that is currently relevant.  Some elections find a very popular incumbent up against a token unknown candidate, someone with barely a fraction of even his own party’s support.  All evidence, from polls, fundraising, etc. shows a total blow-out in process.  Not a hope or a prayer for the contender.  Fait accompli.  The media can report these facts, pundits can opine with solid confidence, and the incumbent can even renew his lease on his Washington apartment and continue with lawmaking.  Activities can proceed with foregone knowledge of the outcome, but it won’t be “legal” until the Board of Electors has stamped the results after the vote.  Waiting for that stamp doesn’t mean everything else has to stop.

On Being Anonymous

We have observed that when all else (such as reason, logic, or facts) fails, our opponents slide back to the default justification of their attacks that our member roster is not public knowledge. So many times we have written back, explaining the emptiness of their argument.  In a few month’s time they are back again, their message unaltered and unrepentant.  We’ve said truthfully that our focus is only on our hero Wah; that no one here seeks personal glory.  We’ve explained how being anonymous has helped to render opinion against forgeries while still maintaining the contacts and friendships that can still remain above that messy fray.  And so forth and so on.  But the real issue is… in the end, what does it matter?

Those who still choose to question our intent – even after two solid years of accurate free output (for us the entire endeavor is all about content) – think that having a name would help.  Would it?  Honestly?  Take a known crook in the biz, Mark English.  If it were he behind it all, do you think he would actually say so?  Or would he use an alias or borrow the names of some clean but supportive friends?  So then what would those names tell you?  Or maybe some members have written as individuals on boards posts you don’t necessarily like.  What would that tell you?  Chances are out of the dozens of people affiliated with the effort, most are mostly or entirely unknown to you. What then would that tell you?  What we’ve also written all along is that HeroComm is all about… ready for it… the information.  You can’t fake screen caps, you can’t alter props and photos held in other people’s possession, and now with everything we have discovered and subsequently turned around and told you, you all also know you can’t fake a fake.  It’s all out there.  100%.  Go ahead.  Rummage around.  Find an inconsistency.  Two years running and not a one.  Now what does THAT tell you?

We all know the Internet is a double-edge sword.  The ability to amass in one place an entire planet’s worth of information on any single topic is an amazing ability.  The flip side is with eight billion people on that planet of not being sure who is ever really who.  A name is nothing.  The deed is everything.  People change, some from good to bad and others the other way around.  How many of our moral leaders turn out to be leading wicked double lives?  How many ex-convicts reform and repay for their sins and then some?  Judge only the output.  That is what we do with everyone around us anyways.  Thus is our answer.

On HC Only Being a Site of Pictures

This is also becoming a popular theme, with our detractors attempting to diminish our member’s cumulative accomplishments by clumping it all as just some photos – with the subtext beyond that of course that you can’t trust pictures.  No one here is sure what they otherwise expect.  It would be quite a trick for you to go to our site, press a button on our homepage, and have, say, the actual prop materialize right on your desk.  Of course, if we could muster that technology, then we wouldn’t be doing this.  So until such a day, I guess all we’ve been able to do is:  exactly ID all ten comms from any angle top or bottom (with the antenna open OR closed); tell you exactly what they were made of, shown you precisely why we know that and how to get those parts today; compile almost a thousand screen caps of every appearance; bring to you countless ultra-high resolution photos of known originals (with no annoying watermarks); locate and study in exhaustive detail the only known surviving hero and facilitate its examination by Greg Jein and now by many other prop experts; plus offer several CAD-drawn blueprints.  All this at absolutely no cost to you.  And we monitor and comment on boards, always gladly encouraging honest efforts with replicas and always contesting misinformation.  Lastly, we have replied promptly and personally to each and every email and PM.

Before we came along, no one else out there was barely able to match up a single comm with the same unit in another episode.  Now its child's play.  Thinking that every feature of every model could be known with confidently was once beyond a pipe dream.  We've gone and made that everyday reality.  Heck, HeroComm rewrote the book!  Just pictures, you say?

Well, folks, that just about wraps it up.  There are some people who are not members here who would benefit from this read, so we extend full permission for anyone to capture and repost elsewhere.  Thank you for your readership and your support.
 

11)  POSTED 4/13/08 - on several boards exploring the current alternative theories regarding the authenticity of the Alpha hero:

The timing seems ripe for yet another thorough exploration of the authenticity of the found hero communicator we at HeroComm call Alpha; to metaphorically prune away the weeds of incoherence that have sprouted up since we did this last year.  It must first be observed that likely gone are the days when every original comm contender comes with a signed C.O.A. by the original owner who was also a distinguished employee of Desilu.  All that easy low-hanging fruit is plucked.  It is likely that everything else that shows up from here on end is going to take real work (like what we’ve done already), and what we do and how we do it here will to some extent dictate what happens with future finds by us or others.  Are we open to a bright, rich future of discovery, or will we close ourselves down and just keep rehashing past glories of old finds over and over because that’s all we allowed us to have?

We are still witness to tiny core group of prominent hobbyists who continue to steadfastly suggest the recently found comm we posted is possibly or, by some of their accounts, probably an imposter.  In our ongoing effort to discover truths and reveal falsehoods, let’s review what they’re saying, then go the extra step by applying actual critical reasoning to evaluate their suppositions.

The found Alpha shells have been compared side-by-side to two previously-known originals, Epsilon and Zeta, and what was seen was a spot-on perfect match down to the tiniest features.  So we know the shells are authentic off of Wah’s bucks.  How then could the whole prop not be the very hero communicator we see on the show in Leonard Nimoy’s hands?  The current crop of alternative theories has it that the shells came from left-over parts or from perhaps another dummy that was torn apart and remade - a “frankencomm” in their language.

Is this within the realm of possibilities?  Sure.  Wah got paid for ten comms; two practical and eight dummy models, but an earlier invoice mentioned a preliminary model as well.  No one has seen it.  We also know with relatively strong confidence that in the late 1990s Wah gave some comm parts, enough by one account to assemble an entire unit, to a distant relative, who then promptly sold them away for $100.  Through our close contacts within the Chang family, our team has managed to speak to this relative - and to his brother.  The prime fellow adamantly disavowed any knowledge of said parts, but the older brother vividly recalled the incident.  Bottom line:  that trail is a dead end.

Then there is always the long shot that we’ve secretly got our mitts on the actual bucks and are reusing them.  In truth, we do have our feelers out for the things, and if by the most wonderful of circumstances they turn up (we give it 5% odds) we hope to be in a position to study them.  But say for argument we do already have them... we need either some old 30 year-old virgin Kydex in the exact right texture, color and thickness (yeah, good luck) or $500,000 (according to Kleerdex) for new drums to roll it afresh.

Ok, so again for argument sake we're lying above about those lost parts, or that somehow a devious collector came into the possession of that preliminary or other real dummy.  Let’s have it that someone got true vintage parts and was willing to risk the guaranteed none-too-shabby value of them as they are and go for broke.  What then would it take to “upgrade” vintage dummy parts to convincingly match the famous Alpha hero, the most highly prized single prop in all of TV scifi-dom?  Well, forgetting all the other parts, you also need a matching antenna.  Could it have come from those existing parts?  No.  The side curvatures, hole locations, end-row cutoff (between the hinge wheels) and especially the solder markings make each assembly as unique as snowflakes, and yet what we easily see on screen caps matches perfectly what is in the found hero.  So two possibilities exist:  the old antenna was dismantled and remade, or a new one was created.

Assuming the fantastical luck that the hole placement on another authentic Wah antenna lined up with Alpha’s, you would need to replicate the soldering.  This requires heat, a process that will add some spot discoloration to an existing even delicate patina, and yet the found Alpha’s antenna easily withstood a blistering direct comparison with Greg’s two, all with their uniform gentle patina and oxidized silver solder.  So then maybe Alpha’s is an altogether new assembly.  Not too likely.  The perf brass has distinct marking around the holes not seen on new stock punched today.  And once again, accelerated tarnishing methods also exaggerate the aging effect.  None of that was seen on Alpha’s.

All right, then let’s slice it another way… maybe a piece of extra vintage perforated brass from Wah was used.  Heck, our site even pictures one - owned by a gentleman named William Krewson, who wrote a story about Wah for a fan magazine in the early 1990s.  So perhaps that very piece was cannibalized, or it started out larger and what we show now is what was left after enough extra was removed to make a fake Alpha.  Again, maybe, but why not ask the man.  Googling his name will easily track Mr. Krewson down.  However, what you would find is that he is now the Director of Jewish historical studies at a prominent Christian college in Philadelphia.  Yup!  Just the kind of dark shady character you would expect involved in such a massive conspiracy and fraud.  So when you call him up, go ahead.  Ask him.

Mention of Mr. Krewson brings us to the next piece: the wonderful autographed picture he has of Alpha, minus its midwheel midplate, being open held above a shimmery background.  It too was a gift from Wah, along with color copies of some other photos (the great shot of the tricorders held up in the back yard, first posted on TPZ a year or so ago, is from him though us) and newspaper clippings.  It has been suggested that forgers used this very detailed photo as a guide to fake the Alpha; this photo which seemingly oh-so conveniently showed up shortly after the prop’s discovery.  In actuality, Mr. Krewson found and sent us this photo in June 2007, half a year after he first lent us the brass perf to examine.  So again, if you don’t believe us, a simple single email to him is all you need to send.

Ah, but what if he actually is in on the take too?  How many co-conspirators would that make?  He, Alpha’s current owner, maybe an extra specialized craftsman/chemists or two who could realistically age rubber and other constituents, plus some of the multi-member staff of HeroComm makes that a lot of slices for that eventual pie to be cut into.  If Alpha some day sells for $100,000 that is only $25 grand when split only four ways.  Not a bad haul for a couple criminals for a couple weeks work, but if the entire HC project is one large scam built for the purpose, which some have supposed, that is three years (thousands of total man hours) and counting in the making.  What does that work out to be… $25 an hour or less?  Big deal!  For creative people of our caliber, that is easily topped by even a mediocre job - one with full benefits and no possibility of prison time.  And that payout might take years if ever; after all it is only when Alpha gets sold would even a single dollar be made.  Now really, does this sound like a viable criminal enterprise to you?

Plus the entirely of this masterminding, time, labor, expense, and risk would be jeopardized by the inevitable release of Season 2 in high definition.  HD screen caps from Friday’s Child and Patterns of Force could very likely show new ID detail, such as individual Kydex grain marks or exact solder shapes.  With such evil brilliance at hand needed to pull off such a massive ruse like this, wouldn’t it have made sense for us to have also waited for that final info to come out so we could match it?  Of course!  Unless we have a secret mole on our payroll at Paramount feeding us the high def images in advance.  Note how this fantasy can go on and on forever if you are inclined to never own up and simply say, “That Alpha most surely is real.”

Taking in the entirety of their alternative story lines, it can only make one feel sad at the depth of desperation some have plumbed in trying to save face.  But if you do the math, adding up in a single line the likelihood of each speculation, twist, and coincidence, even the most generous probability for all of them to have happened still lands you in the area of the absurd, akin to theories of fake moon landings.  And yet a one-hundredth-of-one-percent chance is enough for some misguided colleagues in our hobby to declare the found Alpha hero a “frankencomm.”  Surely we would expect better of people who grew up adoring a show whose characters solved problems with logic and science, or who could even out-reason a computer.  For those holdouts who are willing to turn a new leaf, the reality-based world is ready to welcome another convert.

Lastly, curiosity and doubt are the seeds of all investigation, knowledge and eventually wisdom.  And we never would think of diminishing anyone's right to it.  The exact opposite, in fact.  Go for it full gusto.  But if you're going to cast doubts, you had better be prepared to clearly say why, and then be prepared for others to hold up those thoughts to the light of day.  If those doubts turn out to be legitimate, you have just contributed to the greater good.  If they are not, then pipe down and go away.

We welcome all constructive replies that elucidate either side of the discussion, either via boards or via email.

10)  POSTED 11/18/07 - on the Trek Prop Zone board, as a follow-up to the one on 11/17 (further below).  The questions, all regarding the authenticity of the Alpha communicator, are summarized in bold before each answer:

1) Why are the edges of the aluminum midplate so smooth?  Does this not indicate it was milled instead of hand-cut?
Our pictures of Alpha do not show edges that are “very smooth” as if milled.  They are obviously hand-cut and filed, especially as you look at the choppiness of the tight inside curves.  Here is another tidbit from history… a famous astronomer Percival Lowell (the Carl Sagan of his day) and all his assistants dutifully mapped over several years the canals they saw of Mars (that later inspired The War of the Worlds).  You’ve seen those illustrations of great networks of dark lines chris-crossing the planet.  Problem was those canals were never there.  Not a hint.  The man was disgraced once others aimed their telescopes to see.  Studies have been made of the mass psychosis that happened in his lab when one man’s wrongful vision was transferred to others.  Just food for thought.

2. The one partial hole in Alpha's brass hinge wheel for the stop peg does not match those in both wheels that go all the way through in Zeta?  Weren't they made in assembly line fashion, thus sharing the same construction features?
The argument so often made to explain away differences between known comms is that they were all hand built.  Well, sure, and there is no difference here either.  Why is it that the thickness of the control panels in both Epsilon and Zeta are not the same?  It that evidence that one of them is a fake too?  Gosh!  If so, which one?  See, you can chase that kind of tail around and around until you get dizzy, which would explain a lot of what we read about this subject elsewhere.  Instead, try this one on for size:  they were individually hand built, no doubt in an extreme hurry, from bits and scraps Wah had around.  Run out of one source, grab the next.  Pick up one piece and do it one way; pick up another and do it same or another way.  Out the door.  Fast.  Done.

3. The two-ring moiré bezel on Alpha seems odd and complicated compared to the simple versions on the dummies.  Having Wah make it that way does not make sense.  And don't known forgeries use the same two-ring bezel?
The moiré bezel ring two-piece “ledge” style is to be sure odd when you’ve grown accustomed to the “lip” version, but besides applying the same reasoning as in our above reply, remember it is also doing something different, holding down a piece of plastic with an image that needed to be carefully positioned over another, and so he could have figured a different solution was in order.  In retrospect, we know either method could be made to work, but in the midst, he might have had one idea and then later another.  Might have been that Wah first made the two-piece style, then opted for a faster one-piece ring after a few?  So how does this “not make sense?” 

And yes, of all the fakes we’ve seen, one ME forgery owned by GJ seems to have this type too.  The Alpha is certainly not of ME production (WAY to good), and the guy never had a chance to see what is hidden in a distant shoebox, so it has led us to believe he had a chance to see the other hero.  Where?  We don’t know.  There are some real dangling mysteries; fun stuff to try to sort out.  Biologists still haven’t figured out precisely how eyeballs came into being, but that doesn’t make theory of evolution wrong, or even cast it into doubt.  Some things will always be unknown.  Question is, how small an item, how trivial or nonsensical a concern compared to the mass of evidence on the other side, must it be before you say “enough” it and move on?

4. Wouldn't Wah use a better stopwatch than the type without a side reset button?  The kind in Alpha is more prone to failure.
So you’re telling us that Wah, in his bountiful free time and with the enormous grant he was given by Desilu, completed a life-cycle analysis of all the stopwatches that were new and for sale in his day and naturally should have chosen a style we know today would be somewhat more durable.  Let’s just stop there.

5 and 6. Called into question the personal history and integrity of Alpha's current owner.
The person who posted these questions obviously passed over our paragraphs (below) on ownership.  Please reread.

7.  Weren't extra communicator parts left over?  Wasn't a cast made of an original during the Phase II production?
Yes there are strong hints that Wah made and kept extra parts that were given away before his passing.  We know where the path may have started but not where it ended.  So being ever-vigilant, we have indeed been on the alert for an “upgrade” comm; a conversion into what was technically was not a screen-used in the hopes of getting more money from it.  And sure, the natural target if you had those rare parts would be a hero. 

Here’s the rub… first of course you would need those parts and be willing to tamper with them, diminishing their not unsubstantial value.  That person (or persons) would have to be an absolute master, far in excess of anyone on Mark English’s pay roster, at observation, interpretation, and execution of forgery techniques.  Next you need every raw vintage image for reference, some of which have just been found in the past year.  You would have to pour over every screen cap and then duplicate, complete with perfect aging techniques, ALL the features that never showed up until DVDs.  Mic grill hole size, tarnished solder AND dirt globs, etc. and create reasonable elements that were too fuzzy to make out clearly - like the grooves in the moire ring.  You would do all this because you suspected, long before it was ever imagined by anyone else, that compulsive geeks like us would be pouring over individual pixels for the slightest hints of fakery.  And not miss a one.  Knowing that the release of a HD-DVD set would probably end it all and show you off as a fraud.  We ask you, the reader, at what point did you say “ok, I get it.”  Now if you didn’t reach that point yet, then why are you even bothering reading this?

So was an original communicator cast during Phase II?  No one here has heard that, so who knows?  Certainly the Phase II comms made were not Wah recastings.  But if the insinuation is that Alpha a fake that came about from that effort, let’s examine… 

First consider the initial premise.  Current casting for the '08 licensed kit was made possible by having Zeta broken apart in pieces, something Greg Jein did himself not too many years ago once he owned it.  Back in 1977, when Phase II was underway, the then-owner of an original to be casted would have to agree to have his taken apart.  Who and which one?  Once done, it would then have rendered copies, with a diminishment of inner surface details, again just like in shells pulled today from "authentic" castings.  However, there was absolutely no difference whatsoever in buck impressions between Alpha’s shell and Zeta’s.  No softening of lines and pits.  They were utterly interchangeable (you know, except for the hole cut in one for the rewind stem). 

That is also assuming that eleven years later the exact same Kydex texture/thickness was still in production and more of the same perforated brass (which has its own unique fingerprints too) for the antenna could be had too.  Now, back then DVDs did not exist so an effort to accurately copy Alpha could not have commenced.  The “new” shells from Phase II with vintage Kydex (being the only shells that were ever made from those recast bucks, since none others have ever surfaced) would have needed to sit around for decades until they fell into the hands of that team of master forgers mentioned before who would then take them and the still-flat perf brass and whip them up into a perfectly aged copy that looked exactly like the original.  Throw in Jack Ruby and Roswell and you’ve got the next show to pitch to the Sci Fi Channel.

8. What happened to rip the moiré pattern?  When did it happen?
Wah placed the bottom moire layer very close to the top one to eliminate the messy shadow that the transparent layer can otherwise cast below.  Over the decades, the two layers came in contact and ended up sticking in one spot.  Later, the bottom layer rotated a few degrees, tearing off that small spot which stayed behind on the underside of the transparency.  When?  Who knows?  It was not any time recent.

9. Aren't there different glues in Alpha than in the dummies?  Were repairs ever made on it?
All the glues look to be exactly the same.  The hot gun glue to fasten down the stopwatch is also seen inside Zeta’s moire ring.  The same opaque cream-colored glue on the inside around the slot car hubs matches that in Zeta’s middle hub. The yellowed clear Ambroid seen under Zeta’s control panel also attaches Alpha’s top shell to the midplate.  The mic grill does has two glues on it, the grey plumber’s epoxy as on the hinge axle and the cream-colored one.  Hint of a later repair?  Can’t tell but probably not.  And lastly the remnant of oozed-out contact cement for the Velcro was an perfect match between Zeta and Alpha.


9)  POSTED 11/17/07 - on the Trek Prop Zone board:

Distant rumblings elsewhere have come to our attention, so it seems an appropriate time to answer some of the questions that are being bantered around about us - but curiously never asked directly to us.  We've boiled down the essence of some of the more relevant and common ones here below, but be wary... to cover things in enough depth it turned out to be a long (but hopefully not too long-winded) read.  Our apologies in advance:

What makes HeroComm qualified to authenticate props anyways?
We would assume that anyone in any other field or profession would say the same thing:  in-depth experience with both originals and fakes, an exhaustive knowledge of the topic's history, an extreme attention to detail (including some that few are aware of), a pure devotion to the subject and those who are affected by it, and an utter lack of bias.  Any group of prop fans sharp enough to be the first to sort out the features of all ten comms (it's easy enough now to forget that little more than a year ago that huge challenge wasn't even on anyone else's radar), trace down the exact sources for all the moire patterns and other parts, plus assemble a full tell-all thousand-pic screen cap library has got some significant observational, deductive, and manpower resources in their favor.  We've done our homework and paid some dues.  And since sorting fact from fiction is what we're all about, that effort naturally extends to those props purported as originals.

The HeroComm project represents what could be seen as the next step forward in prop research.  Starting out decades ago were learned individuals, those lucky enough to have gotten rare experience or information became de facto experts over others.  Next with the Internet came chat boards, where everyone could throw their 2 cents into the pot.  But both of these have their problems.  Individual experts can too easily have their judgment and conduct clouded by ego or by personal gain.  And the withholding of information and the decrees without backing have frustrated us all.  With boards, the reasoned and the irrational get equal time and space, and so often nothing gets sorted in the end.  We saw the opportunity for something better; a system that combined the best of both while leaving out the worst.

A careful examining of various boards showed those who were bright cordial open team players.  Picking our early team was easy, and it has only grown since.  As a consequence what you now have at your disposal on our pages is not one expert's opinions but a great many, all sorted and supported by the best evidence that can be constructed - with the result being everything known about the communicator laid bare for your pleasure.  Our approach may strike some as impersonal (even though everyone who sends one gets a fast and personal email reply), but you already expect the same from any well-run business or organization.  You never read "I" in an annual financial report or corporate brochure.  If one of our members has a negative personal slant towards something, it is balanced or omitted by the rest.  This, plus being able to tap into a deeper pool of shared resources and skills is the strength of an organization.  Like we say on our Contact Us page, "everyone knows more than any one."  As we see it, the disgruntling we've heard no doubt has some of its roots in a simple chafing of old vs. new.  Naturally we think that new is better.  How about you?

There is certainly no more momentous or dare we say it sacred a task we can perform than opining on the authenticity of a prop.  We do not grant ourselves the luxury of EVER being wrong with an ID.  As a result, we have not nor ever would let personal feelings towards a prop's owner (or of its advocates) taint our posted opinions in any way.  That would be an egregious disservice to you and to Wah, something you should never forgive us or anyone else for were it ever to be done.

So, sure, it takes chutzpa, some cojones, to pony up to the bar and say, "yes, we're good enough to ID a comm prop with 100% certainty every time."  But we know as well that credentials will only get you so far; one also has to deliver.  And that we've done too with the material that has presented itself to date.  But with every month and year may come new challenges, and as with any expert, only time will tell if the temerity to stick our collective chin out is well enough deserved.

Is any current or former member of the Chang Gang going to make and sell props or kits?
No.  It has been said before but often ignored, so let it be said again.  No!  Having a completely non-commercial interest was a condition for acceptance into our fold.  If any member does, then you rightfully get to call HeroComm a bunch of liars.  Wouldn't that be fun?

A number of the Chang Gang have expressed a strong interest in making their own replicas for personal use, and in one instance, the online buying patterns of an alum has been amusingly scrutinized as proof of commercial intent.  Those assertions are unequivocally in error.

With that said, it also must be acknowledged that the future can be awfully long (hopefully for us all) and terribly unknown, and circumstances decades from now can change for our individual members, whose actual lives we do not control.  Should in some distant unforeseen day situations change for someone, it can be guaranteed that, given the high caliber of our members, the appropriate licensures would be obtained by that person in advance.  Our guys are the by-the-book sort.  If such a person fails to do so, then they should by all means be called upon by the proper authorities.

Come on, really, is Alpha genuine? Why don't we know more about it? And what kind of coincidence is it that HeroComm and it showed up at the same time?
It is amazing this still comes up at all, what with the cornucopia of mega-pixel pictures we've posted, rock-solid comparisons with vintage photos, and especially after the incontrovertible findings and definitive utterances of a certain expert who in July matched up shell-to-shell under bright sunlight and found nothing wanting - only to apparently disavow that memory since.  This to us is inexplicable but not wholly unexpected.  After all, if a vast number of otherwise smart Americans still believe that man and dinosaurs walked together 6000 years ago, then any belief contrary to all sound evidence is possible.  Funny that everyone has had on our pages more to see and learn about this one item than can be found on pretty much any other object from TV or movie history, and yet for some that still isn't enough.  Fine.  We have come to understand that some people won't ever be satisfied; that "proof" will not occur unless it's first anointed by a higher power.  But remember that early silicone chip makers did not wait for Albert Einstein to embrace quantum mechanics to launch the computer age.  Newer physics passed the brilliant but obstinate man by.  There were enough other researchers pointing the right way.  Not that anyone here is an Einstein, Heisenberg or an Intel.  It is just a bit of elucidating history.

Now if an owner of an original comm steps forward and says, "Sure, take all the pictures you like but keep my name out of it," are we to say, "No, we must reveal everything?"  Right!!  That would be crazy.  For us the owner is in charge and what he/she says goes.  Period!  No questions asked (or we ask but don't post the answer).  And that is precisely what happened with Alpha.  Maybe he doesn't want to get pestered by all of you, maybe he doesn't want his house burgled (it is not there anyways), or maybe his wife, who doesn't know he has it either, would force him to sell it to pay down the mortgage if she found out.  The point is... who cares?  Look, until we came along, only three comms (all dummies) were known, and because they've been close to the surface all this time we got to know their how's and whys.  Great, but that leaves (hopefully) seven that have been squirreled away who knows where for thirty eight years.  It is reasonable to guess that a few could by now be in the hands of a high-end buyer, and it comes as no news that many such collectors are ferociously private.  We want to encourage any of them with the real goods to come out - with the assurance that we will firmly guard that privacy, even if it hands to our detractors the ammo of doubt.  That's fine; we'll take those hits for the incredible rewards it grants everyone else.  Certainly in the case with Alpha, we proceed forward with the assurance that comes with having on our side the inexorable weight of fact.

There is though a still more basic notion to the effort of authenticating communicators today... as more and more years separate the show from the present, provenance on those that get found is invariably going to get ever thinner.  What if one that PERFECTLY matches other known originals down to the gnat's ass (like Alpha did) shows up with no story at all?  Zero.  Are we to waffle forever?  No, because originals bear a bounty of utterly distinctive tiny tells that cannot be convincingly replicated today without an investment more than what the comms are worth, and since those doing the authenticating won't share those bitty tells, any would-be forger is left knowing he couldn't possibly do a good enough job and still profit, so why bother.  What it comes down to is this... ownership means nothing!  After all, even Mark English once briefly owned an original comm.  That didn't make it a fake.  The prop is everything, no matter where it has been or is.  Authentic Wah comms fortunately have a substance to them that stands on its own, and those small handful of dedicated people truly in the know about these things; those also with no personal grudges to grind, are always at the ready to do their very best for you and the hobby.

As for the seemingly strange timing of it showing up, Alpha's owner, unlike other collectors we have come to learn of, is fluent enough with the Internet and the Trek community to have been alerted to our site's development, and upon our launch found the logic behind our request to hear from owners to be reasonable.  So we were contacted shortly after.  Nothing odder than that.  And lucky for us all he was perfectly willing to allow us to pour all over it and make our findings public.  Quite frankly, though, we have been disappointed that yet more originals haven't turned up by now, but we're working on it.

Isn't HeroComm just out to trash the upcoming '08 licensed communicator kit?
If you read our Mission Statement, you will see we have been working towards the day when replicas that wouldn't look out of place in Wah's shop are available to all.  Mr. Jein should be applauded for loaning his comms for molding, and the upcoming kit's manufacturer should be commended for the care of his work as seen in the photos he has posted.  While he and/or his associates have reflexively railed against any and all criticisms, real or imagined, he has to our perception clearly responded to them by making improvements in his shells.  To what level he tackles all the technical and sourcing challenges remains to be seen.  However, we are encouraged by what has been shown so far.  In the end we have done our mission if we simply hold a prop maker's feet to the fire to get it spot-on right.

Lastly be advised we will continue throughout the next several months and beyond to release information on communicators and its parts as it develops to fruition.  Knowing what is in the pipeline, some of it could be construed by some as intentionally aiding the upcoming kit and some of it could be construed as intentionally hurting.  Neither will be the case.  Our work is independent of anything happening in the commercial realm and will be posted immediately upon its ready for the benefit of all our readers.

Do you have other questions you would like answered by us directly?  Go ahead.  Lay it on.  Don't be shy now.
 

8) POSTED 6/22/07 - addressing two issues that had come up on a prop board:  1) the moderator criticizing our choice to be anonymous, and 2) a member questioning at length various comm identification details of ours:

 Firstly, in regards to keeping anonymous, we were once compared unfavorably by the moderator to a company whose very business is authenticating vintage comic books, where their experts’ names are publicly known.  Now, we don’t know how much those guys get paid to put their name on the line, but we know how much we earn.  How much trouble are you willing to expose yourself to for zero compensation at the other end?

We knew going in that our anonymity would cause some to question.  Ours is a different approach, and some people don’t handle different very well.  We compensate, though, by trading transparent personnel with transparent reasoning – which is what most prop fans want anyways (if you believe the overwhelming positive responses we’ve received since opening day).  Ours is a site for those who care about the big questions of “how” and “why."

Now, to the bigger issue at hand… for those wishing to see a point-by-point shoot-out of the member's myriad issues he raised, we must sadly disappoint.  When two peoples can’t even agree on what constitutes reasonable evidence and reasonable doubt, which is what we have here, what it the purpose of lobbing “facts” back and forth?  Rather than plow into a litany of debunking his debunking of our debunking, we like to peel back the onion layers to see where someone is coming from.  What makes their perspective so radically different from ours?  In the member’s case, we might suspect it is due in considerable part to his past or current ownership of a comm prop we actually illustrate on our “How to Spot a Forgery” page.  This fact does not implicitly negate any good points he may be making, but it might explain the tenacity and verbosity with which he makes poor ones, and informs us as to how far we should go with this.

It is our perception from what he has written that the member starts his argument on the presumption THAT Wah or the studio made extras or different models that matches the communicator prop he owns.  Is it any wonder then he was disappointed by what he sees as our omission and/or error?  However, we long ago started our research further upstream, looking to see IF Wah or the studio made extras or different models.  That wholly different question lends towards a completely different focus and a much higher bar of proof.  And our answer to that question is still a definitive no.

We know Wah sold ten comm props to the show; two heroes and eight dummies, not because we “believe” so but because we’ve seen his very own purchase order.  Did he make an eleventh?  Or twelfth?  Or why not even fifteen or twenty or fifty?  We can’t say he didn’t, only that we’ve found no evidence of such a thing in screen-caps.  We’ve found consistent and distinct features for ten, and they all share the exact same basic features in so much as the current resolution of every image we have at our disposal informs.

We began three years ago with only two basic assumptions regarding the search for authentic communicators – that they would all bear some basic similarities between themselves as available parts and money allowed; that what happened back there 40 years ago would make at least a modicum of sense.  Also that anything made for the show would at some point end up on film.  This was a work-a-day business for these guys; they didn’t have time or money to waste.  Ten comm mic grills all harvested from one Universal transistor radio – it can be done.  One buck for all the shells – very doable.  He needed 50 slot car wheel hubs, and 48 come in a bubble package (a plausible explanation for the two oddballs in Zeta).  Check!  Did he have enough antenna brass?  Heck – he had enough left over for still one more at least (surplus pictured here).  At no point really do these two basic assumption conflict, even once, in nearly 1,000 screen caps to reveal something conclusively inexplicable or decidedly out of the ordinary.  And haggling over the significance of pixel-sized features from 720x480 digitally-compressed images is not where we chose to expend our finite energy and resources.  That’s chasing Alice down the never-ending rabbit hole.

What the crux of the member’s challenge boils down to; what we see along the pike should we go back and forth some more, is that he is in essence asking us to prove Wah or the studio didn’t make the communicator prop he owns.  And that is a fool’s errand – as one can never prove a negative.  Our task is not to convince anyone of anything.  All we can ever do is inform to the best of our ability… to show what we actually have discovered about Wah’s known work, what is clearly illustrated in screen caps, what is actually written in records, etc.  We have found time and time again that truth, once it is teased out, has its own simple linearity.  It does not require massive assumptions and zig-zagging through a limited carefully-selected set of facts.  Most people do not have the vested interest in a specific outcome, freeing each to make up their own mind about what is real and what is fiction.  We knew with the launch of HeroComm that we would help end the musical chairs of re-traded MEs, and we knew a few unlucky people would get stuck between proverbial seats.  And no matter how reasoned or gentle we are at breaking the news, at some point the rubber must meet the road, and a few unwary toes could get caught under.  Sorry if one of them was yours (that directed to the person criticizing our research).


By all means, sir, continue to post on this thread or any others in your defense.  Or launch your own website.  The marketplace will decide in its own good time who has the more considered and accurate position, anonymity or not.  And who knows what hi-def screen caps will reveal.  We have no aversion to being corrected; we’ve already made major revisions based on outsider observations.  We love it!  One puzzle piece properly placed allows dozens more around it to also fall cleanly into position.  So as we stated months ago on an unrelated topic of similar flavor, if your claims show true validity, they will stick.  If not, the fraudulent charges will tend to cling to the author.

p.s. If you’re looking for the Number One easy ME tell, look at the back of the top shell, between the hinge wheels - our Item 2 on the illustrated guide to forgeries.  It is a detail large enough to be seen from screen caps in nine of the ten originals, establishing a clear consistent baseline.  In ME’s it is too short, making the wheels protrude much further into the control well than on any actual Wah comm.

7) POSTED 3/1/07 - regarding our revisions after finding out EPSILON and ETA are one and the same prop:

With the knowledge that GJ made alterations to his comms, other possible considerations open up.  In Zeta, its appearance on the barrel in Patterns of Force hints at not having any jewel hubs emerging through the shell.  Did Wah deliver this one incomplete?  Doubtful, so this possible disparity is inexplicable.  If, however, Zeta is also the comm later dropped by Shatner in Paradise Syndrome (the two outer jewels flash “white” on its way down to the floor), then that matches what we see now.

Consider this – an Aurora blister card contains 12 sets of 4 hubs… 48 total.  In ten comms, Wah needed 50.  He would have gone searching for TWO more.  Could those two thin-flange early Vibe hubs in Zeta be those he needed to scrounge for?  That of course does not account for the six hubs that also went into his two tricorders as knobs (though at a different time).  Since GJ also removed the Velcro from Zeta (he wrote this to us), it will be all the more difficult to locate Zeta from the back in screen caps.

We can look forward in the next year or so to a Hi-Def DVD release which breaks every one pixel we have now into 4.5.  This extra clarity will no doubt facilitate the answering of many questions still outstanding.
 

6)  POSTED 12/30/06 - in response to many postings on the Dewback Wing ASAP board regarding our new info on ALPHA:

We have seen five topics in the postings that proceeded this one that we feel are appropriate for our further comment:  the moiré bezel ring, the glue that fastens the stopwatch to the shell, the question of paint on the shell, Alpha’s provenance, and our anonymity.

1)  The moiré bezel ring does indeed have the tiniest of ledges for the top transparent #4 radial pattern to sit on top of; it is not tucked under a lip like what we’ve seen before with the others.  We’re planning to elaborate on it in later site update (with close-up pictures and a cutaway drawing).  The inside of the ring then drops down straight from there.  The transparency is cut to a remarkable level of precision – at no point can one see a significant gap between its edge and the inside of the bezel ring.  The transparency is tacked down with three small spots of Ambroid glue, located in a triangular arrangement (the top at the 12:30 position), that have oxidized brown.

2)  We have reversed our call that the stopwatch is held in by hot glue.  An adhesive expert strongly suggested it was rather 2-part epoxy.  It was hard to the touch, which we assumed was just stiffened from age.  As it turns out, probably not.

3)  There was no paint anywhere on the shells, inside or out.  Any apparent trace as you might see it in the photos would be from lighting effects off the bare Kydex.

4)  Many of your observations and speculations regard the authenticity of this hero prop we show on our site.  You are of course fully entitled to your skepticism, and we encourage ever-vigilance in the hobby to further weed out forger and their wares.  That is why we provided the unprecedented lengthy point-by-point list on our Identifying Alpha page.  Not surprisingly, there have also been calls to know more about Alpha’s provenance.  This typically takes two forms; one is the story of how it landed where it did, and second when a certified expert vouches for it.  To those of you in such dire need, we can regretfully offer you neither.

We can only reveal that which we have been granted permission to.  Fortunately, the owner has given us in essence carte blanche with the actual communicator, with only one condition – maintaining his privacy.  That is the small price we pay for getting full photographs, details, measurements, etc. of the single most famous sci fi prop in TV history.  The members of the Chang Gang are of course keenly aware of the significance of this find, and of the ramifications of making a correct call (and a wrong one).  Fortunately, there is no faking this one; the owner is highly credible and the pedigree of the prop is beyond impeccable.  This is no overstatement, which you too will come to know if-or-when it ever comes up for sale.  This we say with all confidence.  However, Alpha’s tale is very short, and even the most general overview could easily point too close to its home.  Therefore, we are not at liberty to say anything more.  Sorry, we wish we could but we can’t.  It is simply not our story to tell.  We trust you would strike, and uphold, the same bargain if you were in our shoes.

We are all curious and always wanting more information; it’s in our nature, and that’s fine.  But if 11 points of perfect matching are insufficient for you when the best forgeries ever seen barely demonstrates a one (including their shells, which are all wrong), and when modern materials cannot accurately replicate those from 40 years ago, then ask yourself honestly what more do you actually need?  If you are disinclined to believe your eyes so far, reason dictates you will probably continue to do so no matter what else we show or say.  We have not taken on the mission to convince, only to present the information we have to the best of our ability, and we know the tipping point when amassed evidence turns into proof is different for everyone.  One of the nice things we have come to expect in finding an authentic comm is that besides looking exactly like their Wah-built siblings and as they appear in screen caps, they also surprise by answer questions you never even though to ask (until you go back and stare again at the caps).  For us real comm lovers, it is a near magical experience.  Alpha did that for us in spades, while, yes, leaving for us a few new mysteries to ponder as well.  If you’re not there yet with what we’ve presented so far, we have no more means to assist you further.

4)  Lastly regarding our anonymity; we wish to remain nameless for mainly one reason – insulation… to buffer us from friends who would otherwise be asking for more, and to provide a second layer of distance between private comm owners and a demanding public.  HeroComm provides a safe place for otherwise-reluctant collectors to show off their prize without fear of bombardment… or worse.  And it is working.  Bringing Alpha to the site was a delicate 2-1/2 month process which could have been easily derailed by early indiscretions.  We’re glad that didn’t happen, and we trust you are too.  Our goal is to find all ten by the end of the decade.  We just got incredibly lucky Alpha was the first.  It will not be the last.  With good fortune, we can all meet up here and go through this again six more times before the Chang Gang retires.

Our culture has planted in us a suspicion towards that which is kept secret; we seem to fear an abuse of power.  Fair enough.  However, not everything secret is bad… consider that many philanthropic causes have anonymous donors.  In the world of Trek props, it seems that could basically be us.  We are a free source of data, entertainment and opinions, just as any other non-profit media outlet is.  No ulterior motives, no hidden agenda.  Yes, we know the hobby has seen its troubles, but if you cannot ever envision a group being that generous, that speaks more of you than of us.  Imagine if you will our efforts as being radio station HeroComm.  If you like our programming, then we are happy to have you in our audience.  If however you find us in abuse of our position or of the facts, then turn us off and disparage us on the boards.  If your accusations are true, they will stick.  If not, they will instead tend to cling to the author.  So do whatever your nature inclines you to do.  You may not have learned what you wanted to about Alpha or of us, but at least you now know why that is so.  We are moving on.

All the best,

-HC-

1st Postscript:  No time frame can in actuality be established for Alpha’s two vintage hand-held photos; one being seen in the Star Trek Sketchbook.  However, since the background fabric is the sparkly “high-tech” material used in costumes and set decorations, it would be reasonable to assume the photos could easily have been taken after Wah made delivery, not before.  Most certainly the hand it is being held by, with the muscular wrist and bountiful arm hair, is not Wah’s (slim, Chinese decent).  Whether they were from the first, second, or third season is again a guess, but with the midplate already missing, third season would be most likely.  Curiously, one author of a posting here suggests, as we read it, the comm in those two photos is not even the Alpha we see in screen caps.  With the rotating moiré (therefore a hero – so choose between only Alpha or Beta) and the before-mentioned 11 matching points all in perfect sync, we’ve done all we can possibly do to illustrate the lineage that all photos, both old and new, are clearly of Alpha.  He also wrote the dummy comms did not have mid-plates between the wheels.  We also have shown this not to be fully so (The Basics - Part 3).

2nd Postscript:  In reference to a posting by the same esteemed author described directly above… for the record, Greg Jein did indeed knowingly take photos and measurements of Epsilon and Zeta specifically for our site.  They were simply delivered via a mutual acquaintance.  Mr. Jein has since expressed familiarity with our Greek nomenclature (he is bemused with that), which would suggest he has also somehow seen the site, and has not asked for any withdrawal of his material.  For this wonderful act of kindness, Mr. Greg Jein is happily included in our roster of HeroComm heroes.

3rd Postscript:  Not revealing the stopwatch brand will help us to better authenticate Beta when it shows up.  We thought in our writing that point would be self-evident.  We apologize that it was not.
 

5)  POSTED 11/28/06 - in response to previous postings on the Dewback Wing ASAP board:

We consider the recent comments and questions posted by JLong, Phez, and Kirkfan above to easily merit further explanation and exploration, as they lie close to the core of our policies and practices.  The members of the Chang Gang have indeed debated such topics internally, and as we look to serve and benefit the Trek prop community, we remain sensitive to opinion and open to suggestions for improvement.

In our every action, we must weigh the likely benefits vs. the possible liabilities, and in some instances, the choice between action and inaction can be somewhat arbitrary.  So is the balance between the greater public good and benefits for the individual.  Such is the case here.  In the matter of privacy et al. inspired by our page on Mr. Makepiece’s hero, it should first be noted that that page has been up for two months.  Perhaps it is a simple testimony to the relative inconsequentiality of this matter that it has gone unnoticed for all this time.  Be that as it may, we regard the privacy of collectors who send us information on their props as sacrosanct.  As you know, we actively solicit photographs of communicators believed to be authentic, and we take our responsibility towards these collectors with all due gravity.  In fact, several have already availed themselves of our services, with very intriguing results.  You have not been informed of this prior, since we closely adhere to our policy on submittals that is clearly written in several appropriate pages on our site:

“By your action of sending us photos… you are giving us permission to both distribute them internally within our organization for review and to contact you privately with our thoughts and opinions...  If we think it to be authentic, we would like to make a few of your pictures public on our site to announce the good news, though we will dialog with you further to obtain your permission before proceeding.  However, if we decide we cannot add yours to our Master Tracking List, be assured that your name and photos will never be posted, allowing you to seek unfettered opinions elsewhere.”

Contrast the discrete private dialog between interested parties to the public posting of pictures in print or on the World Wide Web.  The Internet, especially, is designed for the rapid wide open public dissemination of knowledge, so once someone chooses to show the entire world what they’ve got, the world (be it as individuals or as groups) is fully entitled to comment on what they see.  A key part of our mission is to add clear commentary and documented opinion on what has come before, most especially with props of prominence placement.  Mr. Makepiece’s piece, still illustrated on Mr. Coyle’s well-known site for all to see as an “original” hero, certainly qualifies there.

In violation of copyright notices, we did briefly and accidentally post pictures of that hero from Mr. Coyle’s site onto ours.  That mistake was quickly rectified once we were notified.  The exact correspondence between us will always remain private, but rest assured that there are no innocent parties or victims here.  To this day they both staunchly maintain their position of the prop’s authenticity despite receiving our thoughts and prior those similar from Mr. Long.  All the while, they have never responded to our open invitation to critique our observations with counter information.  However, to his credit, Mr. Makepiece did tell us in reference to a link from our site to his comm page, “I don't care about ‘a descriptive link to your pages’ as long as they do not use any copyrighted material including names etc.”  So while we do not in fact use any of his material there, we do also adhere to our mission by providing our readers with the fullest and most accurate content as best we know for their reading and learning pleasure.  One could view it as a compromise of sorts based squarely on the letter of the law, where such disputes are often settled.

As for intent of the person posting pictures, be it honorable or mendacious – we deem it irrelevant.  Once in the public domain, all information is just that:  information, which can then be used by anyone else as they best see fit.  For instance, Greg Jein had no intent to deceive or to sell his fake comms when they were accidentally photographed for a prop book, and yet it is instructive to collectors everywhere to see that, and also how, even such a storied expert could at one time think an ME was real.  Likewise with the venerable Smithsonian Institution.  And so forth with all the pictures we have gleaned from public sources.  If we only posted those photos that were verified as being from someone intentionally passing a fake off as a genuine, then our pages on how to spot a fake would be blank.  And that would not serve the public interest well.

Moving on, Mr. Long expressed his opinion that our efforts would better enable forgers.  We respectfully suggest otherwise.  While we cannot step into the criminal mind, we can always examine their likely benefits vs. the possible liabilities.  The benefits are primarily one:  money, with easily several $K to the actual maker for every success (remembering it has to go through several hands before the auction house – where any real big money is).  Now the possible liabilities:  a high probable failure rate and a massive amount of time lost in the attempt.

HeroComm has hopefully made it far more expensive for purveyors of fakes to conduct business as usual.  True, we all (forgers included) now know better what a genuine looks like, but that only makes the job of forgery harder.  They are going to have to clear a substantially higher hurdle to continue to fool any expert, yet alone now a large percentage of their target audience, investing enormous amounts of time to replicate to absolute perfection each and every age-mellowed part.  This extreme level of craftsmanship has never been seen anywhere before in any fake Trek prop.  Add the complication that the texture of old Kydex cannot be duplicated with new.  All the while, such a person will never be sure if he has labored well enough, since those of us with hands-on experience with authentic Wah comms are all still holding back from full public disclosure certain key tells.  And since only seven of ten slot remain to be filled (with several of those so well illustrated as to make it foolish to attempt), the likely windfall from pursuing the exceedingly laborious faking of communicators is now minimal at best.  Just as drug dealers will relocate to more distant corners once patrols are stepped up, there is now more fertile ground for forgers elsewhere.

This is how we see things.  You may weight factors differently, but we trust the above will allow you to better understand our choices and actions.  As always, thank you for your readership.  We have some wonderful surprises baking in the oven, so check in often.

As a light footnote to Pielock from an earlier thread, the Chang Gang will not be conducting similar efforts for the phaser and tricorder.  However we invite you, or anyone else, to give it a go.  If you do not have enough time, expertise, and money, you are already following in our exact footsteps towards success, so long as you also have the passion.
 

4)  POSTED 10/19/06 - in response to new pictures from Greg Jein of his Epsilon and Zeta comms:

The moiré and jewel details visible in our new pictures make it obvious we made some significant errors in assessing the previous low-rez photos at our disposal.  The moiré pattern in Epsilon (and in Eta too) are not #4 transparencies from the Edmund Moiré Kit as we previously assumed - they are both cut from page 9 in Dr. Oster's book "The Science of Moiré Patterns" and simply covered with a clear transparency to mimic the kit’s two-layer appearance as seen in the heroes.

The concentric circle image in Zeta is from the same page 9 in Dr. Oster's book; it is called Pattern #5.  It to us seems like an odd choice for Wah since from any distance away, it just looks gray.  As to Theta’s moiré pattern; we now have no clue.  It could be just about anything.

The jewels are a huge surprise too.  In Epsilon, we see (L to R) Swarovski's 20ss Burgundy AB / 16ss Hyacinth / 20ss Blue Zircon AB.  The "AB" stands for Aurora Borealis, a special metallic coating they developed in 1956 that can alter the color reflected off the jewel’s surface depending on the viewing angle.  Think what an oil slick on top of water looks like and you get the idea.  This process can easily make a stone (darker ones especially) appear as a completely different color.  The discovery that Wah had available AB rhinestones calls into question nearly every color selection based off of screen caps.  That can especially be seen in Epsilon’s left jewel.  The glass color is reddish-purple, yet even in close-ups it frequently looks decidedly blue or even yellow.

The middle jewel of Hyacinth (an orange-red) instead of Light Siam (red) also throws further complexity into the equation.  The two colors are very close, and it actually takes hands-on to tell the difference for certain.  Kappa’s middle stone always had an orange-like glimmer to it in "The Omega Glory," and it too could very well be Hyacinth.

As for Zeta, its middle jewel is also Hyacinth, but a tiny 12cc!  It makes us guess Wah might have been scraping the bottom of his rhinestone supply barrel here.  The two outer jewel bezels, the ones with just a little bump around the shaft hole, are the oldest Vibrator hub style from 1961, and never ever had a jewel sitting on top of them.  Again, this fact calls into play the possibility that comms with “missing” jewels, like the right position on Beta, did not suffer from glue failure there after all.  They could have been built that way.   The underside of that center hub does exhibit both worn-off chrome (very possibly being a used hub) and a huge dollop of glue.  Reasoning unknown.  The possibility of lighting up a jewel has been suggested before, and it is an intriguing possibility, but the obstacles to doing so successfully back then were nearly insurmountable (described in The Basics – Part 3).  Given the short-changing Wah needed to give to so many other details, it is our current opinion that it was never even attempted.  It is probably just a dollop of glue.  And the "false" hole in the shell could have easily been Wah starting on the wrong side.  Or maybe this being his first shell, he changed his mind on which side the mic grill would go.  There is obviously not enough conclusive evidence yet either way, so let's have fun looking for more.

3)  POSTED 9/11/06 originally on TrekPropZone - in response to observations about the photo we used as Eta:

The comm in the picture referenced as Eta has indeed been frequently pegged as a fake, as most of us did early on as well.  Then, certain screen caps (from This Side of Paradise and Spock's Brain to name a few) showed very odd features that were perfectly represented in the "open" photo.  The shell also displays the proper light texture and semi-shine not available in modern Kydex.  For an ME to have picked up on these things (and others not mentioned) and flawlessly reproduce them would be unprecedented to say the least.  Certainly seeing more of the inconveniently cropped photo would help to lock that down. 

As for the look of the antenna, what is in focus does have a bland look more associated with an ME.  Our working theory is that this antenna was buffed to a shine prior to its probable appearance in Mudd's Women, and the heavy handling in that scene put greasy finger prints that eventually corroded into dark spots seen a year later in season 2 (in The Apple for one).  Those distracting smudges eventually disappear-ed as apparently someone took some steel wool or other buffing agent to it.  That could be the roughened surface we see today.  The other unusual feature of the antenna is the shallow curve at the edges rather than angles, which again seem to match hole for hole in rare screen caps.  We hope to confirm or refute once this comm can be located and inspected at greater detail.
 

2)  POSTED 9/9/06  originally on Dewback Wing ASAP - in response to a few specific critiques by one reader:

... We stand firm that the Eta photos are of a mislabeled original, as we count about a half-dozen miniscule tells that perfectly match remote screen caps that no other ME has ever come close to demonstrating – not to mention its complete absence of any usual ME tells.
 

1) POSTED 9/9/06 originally on Dewback Wing ASAP - in response to questions regarding John Long's involvement and some unsupported reports of factual errors:

We hope everyone has had a happy 40th Anniversary.  Now that we’ve all had an opportunity to peruse our website, this seems like an appropriate moment for some added clarity.  Firstly, thank you for visiting HeroComm and for the many kind and encouraging words.  Now, a few facts about us and our work:

HeroComm is undoubtedly chock full of errors.  It has to be, though we don’t know yet where.  Given the vast quantity of information and speculation, we are bound to get more than a few things wrong on the first pass.  Which leads us to…

We want to be proven wrong.  Correct us - please!  When an erroneous assumption gets overturned, we typically find a dozen more disconnected puzzle pieces happily fall into place.  The operative root word above, though, is “prove.”  Hopefully, through example we have once and for all elevated the bar on what passes for evidence and civil reasoned discourse to approach that seen in a courtroom conviction, where it should always be.  So at this point if you think you’ve found flaws, you have three options..., you can 1) put out, 2) pipe down, or 3) make your own website.  That seems fair enough, wouldn’t you agree?

HeroComm has been so far two years in the making, with probably that much still left to go before we can call it quits.  There is much we have not shown yet, simply because it has not yet all come together and been developed to pass our desired level of quality assurance.

Regarding John Long, his “involvement” has been strictly passive, meaning his earlier august body of work has inspired and enabled ours.

We apologize if any of our website’s wording has left room for confusion.  We’ll look to clean that up for round 2...  If you have information to share, the lights are always on and the welcome mat is out.  Thank you again.