Judge Dredd: Hero live-fire Lawgiver Prop Part 1

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this. And if it’s not Thanksgiving when you do read this it doesn’t matter as although I’m giving appreciative thoughts to this special day when amongst family snd friends I’d love to also thank this little piece of history coming into my collection too which surely like “judge Dredd” itself as a movie has followed me around for many years, always skipping my grasp due to a litany of reasons but of course expense being number one. Well finally one of the small handful of props that weren’t stunt and thus basically solid background pieces (been there done that), was offered to me for a fair price. From finding it to restoring it, that story is below.

A few months back I was offered a resin shell from the first Stallone film and spent about 15 minutes verifying it was as claimed and indeed quickly found out it was. There’s so few photos of these around out there so I used that bastion of Dredd photo history the Art and Making of Dredd one of which is by Charlie Lippincott whose many pictures will be used to illustrate this article. The shroud I purchased looked similar to the below which is another one that has been in Ian Seniors collection since 1999 and completely coincidentally chose to go public on Facebook this week with just a few days ago before my reveal and independent of my find.

This of course is quite some way away from THIS… but we will get there I promise.

After getting the shroud I discovered that the original handgrips for the pistol were stored in the pistol and hadn’t been lost. As was the small piece that surrounded the back of the pistol. It was then I turned to master prop maker Matt at Matsucorp on Facebook. It is he that assisted Propstore selling one of the original Livefire lawgivers many years ago and has made THE best copy of the gun for airsoft replicas over the last 20 years so since I’ve always admired his work I contacted him for help restoring this piece.

The only thing i wanted to do was the work myself. That was something I was very keen to push myself to do since I loved the original myself i wanted to not only know what I’d done but how I did it and Matt assisted me ably and most kindly during the process from the selection of a donor frame to mount the gun parts too, all the way thru making an identical small piece to finish the clip which was missing. Matt is a busy man and I still had that to contend with BUT he’s an exceptional builder and if you have course to use him He comes highly recommended from me.

Ian’s gun still had the original deactivated pistol

living in the U.K. but since I’m in the states this livefire was presumably still in the U.K. so we needed the following. A Barretta 92FS and I chose an airsoft based on Matt’s recommendation and after altering that to fit the Lawgiver shroud began that process.

So here you see the original screenused handles that have been screwed onto the donor metal replica gun and a piece of the fiberglass backslide I screwed into place after the donor had been drilled. This was then lowered into the pre checked casing with the electronic components cleaned after 25 years of neglect.

Again this is Ian’s UK gun interior below. It was deactivated for various press events at the time (Summer 95) but I’ve used it for illustrating the interior as it’s VERY similar to mine but also because my shroud has not had the grip removed as the tape is still in place and I felt it better to remain in its original condition. That small yellow screw head like spin disk with numbers is where with a flat head screwdriver each position means the lights on the outsider change or pulse. It’s actually horrible only in the design flaw you have to open the pistol and unscrew it to change the lighting pattern.

Once your here you can add the Barretta

And then seal the casing

And scratch your head as to why the lights are missing from your pistol. Well simply put there wasn’t enough room in these for lights on the left AND right so perhaps one of the great secrets of these is revealed. So basically when you see Dredd etc fire these you see the side of the gun that lights and never the other in the same camera shot. Ian’s pistol was a right facing pistol

And mines the same direction however the prop is finished below. One of the differences between his and mine is the black port on the silver 45 degrees upper right over the trigger.

That black port or a similar one can be seen when Rico and Dredd fight on the Statue of Liberty.

Which mysteriously disappears from shot to shot

So here are two of these and another of course I mentioned is the Propstore one. Let’s take a quick look at that livefire variant.

This one had the ill fitting replica hand grips but sold, I’m told for around the 13k mark many years ago.

Several of the stunts have gone through Propstores yearly auction and command around $6500 each but sadly the vulnerable spot on these has always been the sight.

Another particular thing to look for in these is all the hero guns have different handles vs the stunt. That’s because of the line for the handle where it meets the body of the gun, on the stunt wasn’t carried over from the original artwork or the hero prop due to a miscommunication during production.

This really is a grail find for me. Ever since visiting the set in 94 owning one of the original hero closeup Stallone props from JD has been one of the things I never thought possible so I’m giving thanks to 1994 me for keeping the faith and being able to accomplish this 25 years later.

Keep the faith everyone.

Judge Dredd: Rico’s Aspen guard hero rifle prop

So following up my last piece about why I love judge Dredd last week here is a hero piece from the film.

The Aspen guards patrolled the prison where Judge Rico (Armand Assante) got to hang out with Warden Miller.

I’ve seen several of these guns sold over the years but they were always the stunt or non firing beauty versions. Couple of these are posted below.

And this one also on yourprops.com

And finally this one sold at Profiles in September 2019.

As you can see all have a metal barrel and i presume light up with the four dots under the sight.

The last one was also special in that it had the original strap which the others did not. Like all the others it’s still missing a small detail piece right behind the metal barrel.

Do your probably wondering where I got a picture of that missing piece and the answer is it’s here on Rico’s live fire gun shroud currently in my collection.

It’s without a doubt the heaviest weapon I’ve ever held as a prop. It doesn’t have the Ak-47 inside and I’m now quite sure that Armand Assante could only pick it up with a lot of effort in the screencap where it fires from the very bottom of the barrel.

The other 3 were plugged to allow the muzzle flash to come out the sides and top.

The back is removable to allow the weapon to be inserted.

The clip is removable. The lights which I’m not sure where ever connected are inside. It’s a beast of a prop and beautifully made.

And yes it has the strap.

Why I love Judge Dredd: it’s beautifully designed props & wardrobe

Judge Dredd is about as divisive as they come. Some hate it…positively loathe it and some just love the world and imagery. Some hate Stallone as being too short, not long enough in the helmet or hate the story.

There’s very little that can thus be agreed on and yet in almost every respect the props have maintained there value over the years with Lawgiver pistols routinely hitting $6500 dollars for a stunt and complete Dredd outfits going for $35-45k. That’s a lot for something everybody seemingly dislikes.

I liken it to my love of cool gadgets in films that do things. Typically their cost is still way beyond what it’s worth on the open market (which is cool buying a $15k prop for $500) but also the care and attention going into a working prop can be weeks or months of work. Then the cool factor of when it does it’s thing (and if it’s broken making it “do its thing” again)

But my experience s with he above is cool things can also outstrip their source movie and that’s great. It shows that a film can’t always steal the great work from the artisans of the picture and that is always how it should be. Judge Dredd guilty as charged.

So why is “Dredd” so important to me. Well I grew up with the comic books. Not a weekly reader but his presence was everywhere. (Always wearing that helmet. More on that later). After that I think people always wondered if he was such a British staple would a carton be forthcoming. In 1994 we went one better a movie. Many people frowned when that news came attached to Stallone being the titular lead character. People of course forget that without him the film would probably never have have been made. It was his name and driving force that got the film over the finish line. It also caused most of the problems.

On my visit to the set of Megacity one in 1994 word on the street was the film had a lot of issues. A new and weak director. A star insisting on rewrites and a dumbing down to PG13. Behind the scenes drama. Late Lawmasters (the bike) barely finished on time. A co Star having a relationship with the creator. Basically quite a bit of drama.

But none of that mattered standing in the street sets of the city. I was genuinely floored at the creation around me towering up into the sky (in reality only two floors)

Photo courtesy of Charles Lippincott

That outside set and the hall of justice/lab set are still some of the most impressive that I have seen in any film. All credit to the English set designers and makers.

It’s on that hall of Justice set due to a late night visit and a handle that leapt to free itself off its bolt and locked me and 4 others inside that also caused many happy/unhappy flashbacks.

Hall of justice set courtesy Charles Lippincott

Just in front of that “frame” of the photo were the usual studio items including paint pots, tables, chairs, stands and when that door closed and locked the lights went out leaving our party trapped inside. A 15 minute “feel the walls in the pitch black” ensued to get to the other side of the room…an exit and freedom. Totally terrifying when a quick “pop in and look” turns into the equivalent of trapped in Aspen prison.

It was soon after this visit a really nice gesture by a very kind man (John G. thank you again Sir) resulted in a stunt resin Lawgiver being gifted to me.

Months later this trailer with the amazing jerry Goldsmith music hit. Still to this day one of my favorite previews. It promised glory. (This ones the USA version about a minute longer but will have to do)

https://youtu.be/9mqLsBaMzE8

Then on July 21 1995 the film hit. I saw it first and Power Rangers the movie second. I liked it more than almost anything I’d ever seen but then almost 15 minutes in off came the helmet and the film came off the rails for me. It never quite recovered. I wanted to see more crime being busted. More of the world. Just more. The cursed earth stuff just didn’t fly for me. I saw so much potential. Don’t get me wrong I loved the sets and acting and effects I just think I wanted more of those first minutes. I constantly say that the movie is brilliant until the helmet comes off. It’s almost a mantra. But I’ll take 15 perfect mins any day. And for that I love the film.

So my days with Dredd continued. A visit to “Weird and Wonderful”, the prop house where most of the stuff was stored in 95 after production gave me more time with some of the props. I sat on a lawmaster moped (actors weren’t allowed to drive the motorcycle versions) and saw statues from the hall of justice painted gold used for an awards ceremony. I saw the work put in on Herman Ferguson unicard, the beautiful computers you barely see. So much incredible stuff.

Then in 95 at Planet Hollywood London I saw my first full Stallone display. Made after the production suits this was my first clue that (A) Stallone wore lifts and (B) a full suit would be a grail of mine. It still continues to be.

So a few pieces came and went over the next 24 years. A Hershey helmet. A regular Judge but I still felt unfulfilled.

Thankfully recently I was able to scratch partially this itch and future articles will go into that. But i wanted to write why I liked the film enough to pursue them. It’s still one of my favorites and revisiting it on blu recently and here has really cemented that.

Oh. And one more thing. Charles Lippincott the producer has been really rough on himself all these decades and genuinely has had a rough ride with it. I’m lucky enough to have followed him on Facebook these last few years and although I understand his disappointment with the finished product but I wanted to say thank you for being one of the driving forces in getting the film done. There’s something kinda cool in being able to say that 15 minutes of film is some of my favorite committed to celluloid. Despite what any body else says I love it. I really do. You made that and whilst not for me I’ll always be grateful. Without you it would be something else…less worthy being written about here. That book too the “making of judge Dredd” is quite a few people’s favorite movie making book. Take that to the bank.

“Thanks Charles” from me to you.