You say Gaderffii...I say Gaffi...

With the big news today that Disney will be adding Star-Wars lands to both of it's U.S. parks, it seems appropriate that, this week, we feature this hand-made prop replica.  But there is a story behind this weeks toy, so lets dig-in to it...

As the Halloween of 1998 approached, I was contemplating my costume options.  I had no major plans or special parties to attend, but sometimes inspiration can strike for no apparent reason.  Well, I suppose a few things could be credited for my costume inspiration that year.  Just one year prior, in 1997, George Lucas had released the Star Wars Special Edition films in theaters.  The CG-molested classics were supposedly the realization of his original vision, or something like that.  The fact that they foreshadowed the disastrous prequel trilogy didn't matter.  Or rather, I, along with most fans, didn't seem to care about some of the "issues" present in the re-workings.  I was desperate enough for anything Star Wars related at that time that I was willing to ride the wave of excitement without reservation.  

Around this time, we also got to enjoy the release of new Star Wars action figures.  The Power of the Force II figures, as they were known, represented the first significant toy release for the franchise in fifteen years.  The release of this toy line sparked a collecting frenzy.  Values spiked to absurd, and ultimately unsustainable, levels for "rare" variants with paint-scheme anomalies and the like.

What this boiled down to was that, by the Halloween of 1998, I was ready to take on the challenge of assembling a proper Star Wars costume.  I discovered there were many rules around Star Wars costumery.  If you wanted to be screen accurate, you had to do things a specific way.  There were all these rules around what Boba Fett's armor looked like and how details changed on Storm Troopers from one film to the next.  The fact was, I was not the sort that handled constraint like that very well, at least, not with my own projects.  So, it came to me like an epiphany one day: the Tusken Raider.

Tusken Raiders are mysterious.  They are the skittish, nomadic, and aloof scavengers of Tatooine.  You don't get a very good look at them in the first place, and each one that appears in the original movie is unique.  I figured this idea would give me the creative license I desired.  I was working as a fabricator at a model shop in a suburb of St. Paul, and I had access to a full workshop.  All the ingredients were there: the tools, the resources, the inspiration.  I mean, hell, in the creative biz, that was the hard part.  All that was left was to get to work.

I dug straight into the meat of the project by making a prop weapon: a blaster rifle.  Of course, I knew that Tusken Raiders were really known for their signature battle clubs called Gaderffii (gaffi sticks), but they did appear with rifles as well.  The rifles portrayed in the original film were quite spindly and sort of anemic looking.  Tusken lore described these rifles as "Cyclers," which would fire a slug encased in energy.  I decided to take full advantage of my creative freedom on this project; I fashioned a beaten and weathered weapon that more resembled the large blaster rifles that the Sand Troopers carried.  I'm a tall-ass dude, so I wanted a prop weapon with some real presence.

The rifle turned out pretty good.  It was over four feet long and made from steel with a wood stock.  The rest of the costume followed quickly.  The mask was made from a surplus Israeli gas mask.  The rest was fabric, leather, and metal parts.  The costume came together very well, and I was able to use it on a few occasions at various parties and clubs.  And that was it.  The costume was complete and the mission accomplished.  Off it went into a storage box in my parents' attic.

Years passed.  I moved to the Bay Area.  I worked at various model shops building props and sets.  The costume was always part of my portfolio.  I guess I felt it was good enough for that.  Eventually, I had my parents ship the costume out to California.  It actually almost got lost in the mail, but that's another story.  I never really did anything with it out here except to store it.

In the summer of 2013, my wife and I were about to attend our third Comic-Con in San Diego.  I had seen the craziness that is SDCC.  Perhaps it took three years of attendance for me to build the courage to wear it, but I decided that it was time to re-visit the Tusken Raider costume.  I got it out of storage and gave it a good inspection.

Let's face it.  I made this costume pretty early in my fabrication career.  If I had to do it over, I would've definitely handled some things differently.  Even still, the costume held up pretty well overall.  I decided to use it without modification.  However, for Comic-Con, and airline travel, the metal and wood blaster rifle posed a pretty obvious problem.  Luckily, prop making was my thing, so I looked at this as an opportunity.  It had been fifteen years since I created the original costume.  This was my chance to apply all the acquired refinement in my skills to a new prop that would give the costume a fresh edge.  I knew what I had to do.  I had to build...a gaffi stick.

The new gaffi stick prop had to meet certain criteria to be SDCC friendly.  I wanted it lightweight since it was exhausting walking around that huge-ass convention hall.  No sharp edges.  An accidental nerd stabbing was an all-too-real possibility given how crowded SDCC was and how the costume made me pretty much blind as a bat.  So yeah, like I said, no sharp edges.  The last parameter was the most challenging.  I needed it to break down into pieces to fit in my carry-on suitcase, AND it had to be easily reassembled.

I did a good couple hours of online research before settling on a design.  The fact was, there was very little information about the original movie props, which were made from wooden Fijian war clubs.  In the end, I sketched out my own design that had length and proportions that I liked.

The prop was fabricated largely from PVC plastic.  The large, Hershey-kiss shaped club-end was sculpted from urethane foam spun in a lathe.  The foam shape was made more durable with an epoxy hard-coat.  The shape was then refined with a sculpting epoxy.  I heat-bent PVC tube to create the curved end of the club staff.  Sculpting epoxy was also used to refine this curve.  The metal "axe" and "spear" was built up from PVC sheet stock.  Various slotted parts and tubes that sleeved inside one and other allowed the entire prop to break down into very compact components.  The assembly process took seconds, and no fasteners or tools were required.

When assembled, it looked impressive.  It measured almost four and a half feet long.  I used various faux finishing and weathering methods with enamel and acrylic paints to create the look of wood and metal.

The reception at 2013 SDCC was pretty overwhelming.  It was quite an experience walking the exhibit hall in a costume like that.  I couldn't walk two inches without being stopped for a photograph, and I couldn't walk four inches without some douche-bag doing their rendition of a Tusken Raider scream/grunt.  I also made it into a list of the "Best Costumes of Comic Con."  In a recent discovery, I learned that the official Star Wars twitter page tweeted a picture of my costume.  The cherry on top was that they simultaneously made a Big Lebowski reference in the same post.  

I know what you are thinking.  You are thinking: "what, for the love of all that is holy, does a prop gaffi stick have to do with The Toy of the Week?"  Well, I'm throwing it right back at you.  What does a prop gaffi stick NOT have to do with The Toy of the Week?  Let's be honest; prop replicas are an entire sub-genre of toys.  From replicas of Star Trek communicators to airsoft gun models of the Aliens Pulse Rifle, (both of which we will discuss in the future BTW) prop replicas are as much part of the toy ethos as action figures.  A big part of what I do here at The Toy of the Week is push the boundaries of what defines a toy.  I also like to occasionally share one-off shit that you can't simply walk into Toys"R"Us and buy (although I like that stuff too). So, THAT is why, this week, I am sharing this fine creation with you.  The 1:1 scale, gaffi stick prop replica is The Toy of the Week.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go because my Bantha is double parked...