Short of pulling a sword from a stone, going to eBay, flea markets,
and conventions are probably your best bet in acquiring one.
Recently a fabulous weapon of great age and glamour appeared
upon the dappled and misty shores of eBay:
A Winky’s halberd from the 1939 Wizard of Oz. A more beautiful vestige of sheet metal, gesso and peeling paint
I have never seen. Few items from the
movie have appeared such as some Ruby Slippers and a live Munchkin or two
attending a convention. But here was a
chance to get a great movie prop and it was only listed at only ninety-nine
cents with certificate of authenticity and FREE SHIPPING too! How could I lose?
Well the bidding jumped from .99 to $100, but I was still in
the running. Counting my pocket change
and coins from the penny jar, I still might swing it. All of a sudden it jumped to $3,512.26 and I was out of the
running. A few days later the auction
ended and it sold for $6,766.66. Ah,
well we all can dream, can’t we?
As long as we are talking about high dollar Wizard of Oz
film items, Dorothy’s dress sold at auction for $480,0000 in a 2011
auction. It may not be a weapon, but it
costs as much as a modern piece of military equipment. A complete Winkie halberd was up for auction previously back
in 2008 for $20,000 to $30,000.
This started me musing upon famous weapons in stories and
movies and I came up with six real quick.
Some famous fantasy/SF weapons that jumped to mind are: Excalibur, The Subtle Knife, Sting from
Lord of the Rings, light sabers from Star Wars, Thor’s hammer, and Elric of Melnibone's Stormbringer.
I have purposely left out projectile weapons such as
blasters, crossbows & etc and limited it to direct striking weapons. I also omit completely magical weapons with no intrinsic weapon ability like a wand, ring
or talisman, although I have seen a few talismans big (and gaudy) enough to hurt, if you wore them long enough at at convention.
What makes a good fantasy weapon? Good presentation (looks cool), great back story (some are really
old or made in a strange way), a curse or magic power (hey it lights up), easy
to use and deadly powerful. What didn’t
come to my mind immediately were such things as axes, flails, and spears,
although there are tons of them out there in stories and folklore. Then again I’m getting lazy. I could have wowed you with a cerebral
reference to weapons in Wagner’s Ring Cycle, but then I would get me thinking of
the Warner Brother’s cartoon What’s Opera, Doc? and start singing “Mit mine
shpeere und magic helllll-muuut”. So
much for culture. |
| Previously sold movie props from major movies |
The runners up for this list were the Red Ryder BB gun from
A Christmas Story movie, but I won’t list it because, “You’ll put your eye
out!” Also the gun from the Blade
Runner movie (book title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), but then again I
am cheating with projectile weapons.
Did mention that I cheat at lists?
Oh, yeah the last blog entry I said that.
CoastConFan
CoastConFan
A list of fictional swords conveniently on Wikipedia
After I wrote this article, I cast about for other people’s
list of fantasy weapons:
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