wayouteast
Sr Member
I'm currently working on some new internal electronics for an old Playmates ST:TMP era phaser as a preliminary to making it slightly more accurate to the original prop. This involves adding additional LEDs along with two new circuit boards to give both the alternating white lights and sequencing coloured lights seen on the original. When the electronics are done it'll get a clean up, filling of screw holes and more accurate paint job.
I've been inspired by the modification of the Elfin Knights Blade Runner blaster water pistol to finally get around to something else I've wanted for ages, which is having a complete run of original cast ST phasers. I seem to be working backwards though!
Currently complete are the STV / VI heavy assault phaser and the ST III / ST IV phaser (both very old resin kits acquired 25 years or so ago which have been sitting in a cupboard all that time waiting for the right time to complete! Both have been modified to add basic lighting effects - quite an undertaking as both are solid resin. They're shown here with the BR blaster.
As you can see, particularly in the case of the ST III / IV phaser it's quite a challenge to fit the electronics into the phaser itself - this one has and array of steady and blinking red LEDs and a colour-changing status display in the 'fire button' (the original prop had 8 yellow and red LEDs that sequenced slowly through various colour combinations of solid yellow, red and orange. I couldn't quite replicate that so mine has 4 slow changing rainbow LEDs under the little square display that each sequence through a full range of colours; when they get out of sequence with each other you get a really nice complex range of shifting colours. The whole thing runs off a single 3v CR2032 cell. The phaser needed quite a lot of modification to get it even slightly accurate to the original prop as you can see from all the added plasticard! The small slide switch on the right of the phaser is the actual switch for the LEDs.
The assault phaser has a green illuminating push button on the top - which operates the lighting - as well as a red 'operational' LED on the side (which is inaccurate to the original props but which I liked!), run from a PP3 9v battery in the handle.
As mentioned the earlier Motion Picture / Wrath of Khan phaser is in progress, based on the old Playmates toy, and when that's done, I'll be moving on to the TOS phaser, as I managed to acquire one of the old 23rd-century pistol kits on eBay a few months back (I have a very old resin version of this phaser but it's very innaccurate both in size and shape).
I'd quite like to complete the range with one of the really early 'laser guns' from the 'The Cage' too but haven't yet tracked down a kit for this as a starting point. Perhaps a scratch-build might be the only way of getting this. I think I'll probably also extend the range into the future with at least one ST:TNG phaser too - I have an old Playmates 'cobra-head' that in my stash!
I've been inspired by the modification of the Elfin Knights Blade Runner blaster water pistol to finally get around to something else I've wanted for ages, which is having a complete run of original cast ST phasers. I seem to be working backwards though!
Currently complete are the STV / VI heavy assault phaser and the ST III / ST IV phaser (both very old resin kits acquired 25 years or so ago which have been sitting in a cupboard all that time waiting for the right time to complete! Both have been modified to add basic lighting effects - quite an undertaking as both are solid resin. They're shown here with the BR blaster.
As you can see, particularly in the case of the ST III / IV phaser it's quite a challenge to fit the electronics into the phaser itself - this one has and array of steady and blinking red LEDs and a colour-changing status display in the 'fire button' (the original prop had 8 yellow and red LEDs that sequenced slowly through various colour combinations of solid yellow, red and orange. I couldn't quite replicate that so mine has 4 slow changing rainbow LEDs under the little square display that each sequence through a full range of colours; when they get out of sequence with each other you get a really nice complex range of shifting colours. The whole thing runs off a single 3v CR2032 cell. The phaser needed quite a lot of modification to get it even slightly accurate to the original prop as you can see from all the added plasticard! The small slide switch on the right of the phaser is the actual switch for the LEDs.
The assault phaser has a green illuminating push button on the top - which operates the lighting - as well as a red 'operational' LED on the side (which is inaccurate to the original props but which I liked!), run from a PP3 9v battery in the handle.
As mentioned the earlier Motion Picture / Wrath of Khan phaser is in progress, based on the old Playmates toy, and when that's done, I'll be moving on to the TOS phaser, as I managed to acquire one of the old 23rd-century pistol kits on eBay a few months back (I have a very old resin version of this phaser but it's very innaccurate both in size and shape).
I'd quite like to complete the range with one of the really early 'laser guns' from the 'The Cage' too but haven't yet tracked down a kit for this as a starting point. Perhaps a scratch-build might be the only way of getting this. I think I'll probably also extend the range into the future with at least one ST:TNG phaser too - I have an old Playmates 'cobra-head' that in my stash!
Last edited by a moderator:
