Help me duplicate this unique trophy

September 28, 2008 9:48 AM

I am trying to duplicate a unique trophy any way possible.

I recently won this trophy.

I'd like to share it with some other people involved in my success by making as close a copy as possible -- multiple copies, in fact.

I'm asking Mefites for any method they can think of, from creating it myself to hiring a trophy manufacturer. Cheap, reasonable, or expensive; it doesn't matter. I'd like to hear all options.

Thanks.

posted by Flying Saucer to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 comments total)

That's a tough shape to cast. A multi-part plaster mold could be made, then a model cast that could be painted gold.

Are you sure you can't purchase it from the supplier? What would they do if you lost yours?
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:02 AM on September 28, 2008

You could cut it into simpler pieces and make latex molds from those, and then glue the pieces back together, and have gold lacquer applied.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:04 AM on September 28, 2008

Any reason not to purchase a few action figures, pose them appropriately, and have them plated? I am not clear on the details, but plastic can be chromed or plated with gold-tone stuff relatively easily. The kind of shop that bronzes baby shoes could tell you more.

After the action figures were plated you could just glue them to a generic base, that is not difficult at all.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:50 AM on September 28, 2008

I'd do my best to find the company that made that one and buy more from the source.

I used to work in a prototyping shop and had to regularly duplicate odd parts. Fixing imperfections in such a detailed part is especially difficult, and any shortcuts you take in making the parts will be obvious. You can make a nice mold from silicone rubber, if you have a vacuum chamber to degas the liquid rubber before pouring it over the parts. You can then use a two-part plastic resin to cast duplicate parts, so long as you have a pressurized chamber to force air bubbles out of the resin. There are convincing spray-on plating processes, which also require expensive special equipment. You'd really have to want this badly to get over the hurdles.
posted by jon1270 at 4:48 PM on September 28, 2008

I'd nth the notion that finding the original manufacturer might be the easiest thing to do, but in lieu of that 3D printing / rapid prototyping technology that could produce something like this from a digital model might be the way to go.

This company, for example, manufactures and constructs figurines based on World of Warcraft characters; why don't you try getting in touch with them? You might be able to get a 3D scan of the trophy you've got, or alternatively there must be tons of existing models of R2D2 and C3PO out there that a design from scratch could be based on.
posted by XMLicious at 7:01 PM on September 28, 2008

I guess I am the only one who wants to know what you won the trophy for.
posted by mikepop at 5:51 AM on September 29, 2008

I might have just been lucky but Googling for the items depicted on the trophy lead me to the associated competition pretty quickly.
posted by XMLicious at 1:28 PM on September 29, 2008

Still haven't been able to duplicate the trophy.

Any other thoughts, anybody?
posted by Flying Saucer at 4:20 PM on December 16, 2008

Perhaps I should elaborate on my most recent post.

Original company will not do it. Long story. But it's not an option.

Action figures won't work. Wrong size.

The World of Warcraft company runs on some kind of lottery system; they only cast a few figurines every few months. And they seem to handle only WoW characters.

Is latex molding the only alternative?
posted by Flying Saucer at 4:24 PM on December 16, 2008