This is a screen used Mark VII science tricorder that was used in the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I acquired this from a private collector who was getting out of collecting trek props.
The condition of the piece is quite fantastic. All of the electronics are functioning except for one green led on the top scanning array. It makes no sound. The paint has a few minor scrapes here and there, and there is some wear along the back side, probably where it was slid in and out of a holster. The paint job is Krylon Dove Grey with a misting of silver.
The prop appears to be made primarily of a clear vacuuformed shell. The graphics appear to be output by a photocopier, then sealed up with some kind of clear contact paper, maybe clear vinyl. The buttons appear to be light beige cut outs that were glued or taped on top of the main graphics before the clear coat was applied on top. Very interesting construction of the graphics. Considering the age of the piece, and the state of the art at the time, I think they look great.
The four main LEDs have comes slightly ajar from their original position, and do not fit perfectly behind the cut outs. I’m not too worried about this, thought I may correct it some day. The tricorder runs on one J type lithium battery.
Now gather the kiddies around, because Uncle Matty is going to tell a little story.
When I was a little kid growing up in Illinois, I was a giant Star Wars fan. It was at this ripe young age that my interest in props began, mainly out of my desire to be Luke Skywalker. I really identified with the character in the movie, despite the fact that he was many years older than I. The classic tale of alienated youth, combined with adventure, excitement, and getting the girl really got me all worked up. Most of all, I wanted a lightsaber. I thought that was just about the coolest thing in the world. Like many other kids of the time, my first lightsaber was a flashlight. This then evolved into a flashlight over a campfire, which helped make the blade appear real. By the time Empire rolled around, Kenner was producing a flashlight with an inflatable blade attached that was pretty darn close to a lightsaber. I was in heaven! Stores were selling “light up swords” and “laser swords” all over the place. I was hooked.
By the time Jedi came out, I made my own lightsaber. I thought that Luke’s saber in Jedi was the total bomb. Looked cool, and cleaved people in half. What kid would not want one? So I took a dowel rod I found in the garage and painted it green and silver using Testors paint. I had no idea what the hilt was supposed to look like, so I painted three square buttons over the silver handle I had painted and got to playing with it. I chopped down every imaginary bad guy in my back yard for weeks. My first prop replica! I later made another model by pulling apart an Atari joystick and pushing it onto another dowel rod, thereby giving me a nice handle to hold onto.
What’s the point of all this, you ask? Well, I’m glad you asked. The point is that I’ve been interested in props and prop replicas for a long time. I made my first prop replica in 1983.
Flash forward. The year is 1988, and I’m in my junior year of high school. Now that I think about it, maybe it was ’87. Who cares. I’m a prop collector, not a historian!! Anyhow, Star Trek: The Next generation had just started airing, and I immediately fell in love with the props used on the show. I liked the phasers, the cricket phasers, and most of all, the tricorders. I don’t know what it was, but something about all those blinking lights just drove me nuts! I had to have one!!!
There were now two props that were on my “must have” list; the Luke ROTJ saber, and a Star Trek tricorder. I had no idea where to begin, until I started digging through an issue of “Starlog”. In the back, there was an ad for an outfit named “Marco Ent.” That would send you a catalog for three bucks filled with all kinds of goodies. Like so many other prop enthusiasts at the time, I ordered a catalog and poured over it, making lists of things I wanted to order.
Bummer was, the stuff was NOT cheap. Nor were the pictures very clear. Keep in mind, I was in high school at the time, working at Burger King to get spending money. Marco offered a tricorder for something like $150.00. It might have been more, now that I think about it. So I saved and saved, and FINALLY mailed off a money order for this working tricorder. “Lights and sound” it said. I was pumped. In these pre-internet days, when stuff took four to six weeks to get to you, it was like pulling teeth! I patiently waited, checking the mail every day. Then one day, a package finally arrived. I ran into my bedroom and carefully opened the box using an exacto knife, being extra careful not to cut anything inside. I pulled out the wrapping, gingerly opened it up to find…
The biggest piece of crap on the planet.
I was utterly heart broken. This thing was total and utter trash. To call it a tricorder was generous. It was shaped sort of like a tricorder, and the maker had obviously attempted to copy one, but they missed the mark in a million ways. The graphics were not really graphics, but were construction paper with typewriter type on it for the text, and lines drawn in with a pen. The curves of the buttons were all done using architectural templates, and tended to not match the main lines. The construction paper was underneath a thin piece of clear styrene that was held in place by a large brass screw right in the middle of it. This technique was used on the top, and the bottom. The “lights and sound” consisted of a four LED chase circuit and a sound that resembled a tortured cat. These were all started when you flipped open the lid and pressed it down onto a giant radio shack on/off switch screwed into the body. The paint was the wrong color. It was beige, and smelled really bad. There was what looked like a dymo tape tab with the letters “ME” cast into the body, identifying it as a Marco piece. VERY strange.
I tried returning it to the maker, but he refused, saying all sales were final. I was totally stumped.
This tragedy began my quest for the ultimate tricorder. I went to conventions and purchased static tricorders. I would attempt to add electronics, but only ended up ruining the original piece. While in Hollywood, I wrangled a few friends into helping me make a body by using their woodshop. Lost steam. I tried to recruit a friends father who was an electrical engineer into helping me build guts, but it never seemed to work out. Eventually, Playmates put out a couple of tricorders. For under 20 bucks, they were pretty frickin’ nice, but they still fell short of being “perfect”. Like so many other jokers, I tried modifying one of the playmates tricorders to do my evil bidding, but only ended up destroying it. See the trend?
Life went on, and over the years, I ran into a few folks who had the skills, the drive, and the talent to produce some top notch tricorders. Though they started with the Mark X, the Mark VII was always on the horizon. The bummer was that they had slightly different ideas than I did, and wanted to idealize a few details that I would have preferred to leave as is.
The point of THIS turgid tale is to reveal that for the past fifteen or so years, I have been actively pursuing the acquisition of a nice Mark VII tricorder.
Finally, the day came when a friend of mine was brokering a few pieces for an overseas collector, and I jumped on it. Though I am unsure which episodes this particular tricorder was used in, I hope to track that information down shortly.
