Right about 60 years ago, a picture was taken of me in Fury Ackerman's old house holding the Kong armature when he had it. That picture was posted in Famous Monsterof Filmland mag. Several years later, i met and interviewed Marcel DelGado at his small, Hollyweird apt. He had the horses and cowboy miniatures from MJY, and the miniatures from It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Great, humble man. Soon after that, i met and interviewed Willis O'Brien's widow who allowed me to take his photo album and have it copied. Lots of Kong pics.......but no Spider Pit😢. Those pic, btw, went to the editor of Fantastic Monsters Of The Films who somehow infuriated Mrs. O'Brien and the pics were never published. Then Vietnam came around and i lost touch with everyone, and everything. Then i saw this utooby! Now, i'm curious, was the armature in Fury's house back then round face, or long face? Thanks for the vid.
I never knew that this Kong existed. Years ago I got my picture taken with Bob Burns and he let me hold his King Kong armature, which was also the armature for the son of Kong. I also saw movie "King Kong" in a vintage theater along with Ray Harryhausen and Bob Burns. Bob brought both Kong and as a tribute to Harryhausen his armature of Mighty Joe Young . It was such a thrilling time, I will never forget it.
The items on those shelves aren’t movie props, they’re holy relics! AND I noticed on the shelf above he has the Ymir from Ray Harryhausen’s “20 Million Miles to Earth”! Harryhausen is the other giant of fantastic film special effects. It warms my heart that they are treasured possessions of Peter Jackson.
Me: "So Peter, could you imagine running into the Terminator, I'd be scared". Peter: "Oh that's only 14 feet away, and has live ammunition in the gun". Me: "No no no no no! Don't let that thing have real ammo!" Peter: "Oh it's okay, it's not plugged in. Oh so it is plugged in. It's just a prop, it's harmless". *Terminators eyes turn on and you smell smoke, as it slowly starts to walk*. @_@
less than a second has gone by... and glancing at my RU-vid search bar "bob burns alien queen" is already there with my cursor over the search button. :-P
As a stop-motion animator myself looking at these makes me so proud to be continuing the art form, and I'm so happy that the history is being conserved and appreciated by someone like Peter Jackson. Unfortunately I've never animated with a rig nearly as complicated as those beauties, but hey! Someday.
This armature is an amazing piece of art, we still make the armatures today following this principles. Thanks for letting us know that Petter preserve that piece from being lost in time. From a stop motion armature puppet maker.
Wow! Great to finally see a video detailing this model! I'm also noticing the Two-Headed Giant from "Jack the Giant Killer" (which actually uses some of the Kong fingers missing from this Kong armature!) on the shelf as well as the T-Rex from "Dinosaurus!". Didn't know Jackson owned so many of these armatures. Thanks for the great video!
"and here is my armature from the test shots of Legolas in the hobbit, running up falling stone blocks like a staircase before performing a triple suplex on an orc"
Fantastic. I saw King Kong when I was about 8 and have remained completely and utterly thrilled by it ever since. The imagination and skill that went into bringing that wild fantasy to life.
In the making of King Kong 05 documentary, he said, "People always assume my life long ambition was LOTR, but it wan't. It was this movie (King Kong)>" and you can see it here. I've seen so many recent interviews with Jackson talking LOTR and he looks exhausted and bored. But here, talking monsters and Kong and stop motion, he seems alive and like a kid in a candy store! Love it. Mad respect for him.
Peter Hogg it's definitely from the series but i think it's from the late 60s because that's when they first got those vertical slats, and the silver-blue variant was replaced by the grey daleks in the 70s if i remember correctly. Also I think in the hal 9000 video you could see a 2005 dalek which is pretty fuckin cool
Peter Jackson should direct a "War Eagles" movie, I would watch that. Can you ask him if he has any of the puppets from "Meet the Feebles"? I love that movie.
Is that the monster from 20 Million Miles To Earth on the shelf above that? And he has both an original series Dalek, and the new series Dalek! I'd geek out so hard in that place you'd need to mop up afterwards.
Nice that Jackson gives credit to the unsung hero, Marcel Delgado, the man who built (and maintained throughout production!) King Kong. This guy was so humble, no one knows he was involved but uncredited on several great films - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, etc.!
Man the amount of just jaw dropping props and cool stuff between this shop and Adams shop is unbelievable. Wish I could get a tour of either of these shops one day. PS. On a side note, it's nice watching a video of Adam on HIS channel instead of the usual Norm video
I enjoy stop animation of armatures, but would also like to visit the studio of Aleksandr Petrov. He animates oil paintings that he creates on panes of glass.
Thank you so much for sharing this Adam, king kong was a start for me i think wondering "how do they do it? it looks so real" and your enthusiasm for film props is so so cool to follow. I grow up as a boy in the 70-s and 80-s watching these films fantasized... and to see you and Peter Jackson talking about this prop is epic. So how to sum up all this??? ...Tested rocks :)
One of my very earliest memories is of watching King Kong. Roughly 1973. I must've been four. I remember it terrified me so much I ran and hid behind our sofa. Subsequently every time it came on TV, my family would ask if they should pull the sofa out so I could hide behind it.
I'm just feeling satisfied that I guessed the second model was Mighty Joe Young before they said it was! Amazing history here, I'd love to see it in a public museum! thanks Tested.
This is Fantastic ! There was a fully functioning leather belted lathe in the machine shop where I worked in the 80s; it was said to have been used to make the armatures for King Kong. I have no way to substantiate this. The company was Leo Diner Films on Golden Gate Ave. in SF.
Guys? Why is this not 8 hours long? I can't find anything else on this? I see everything in the background and why the fuck am I not able to see everything? This collection is fucking insane.
If that really is the one thought to be lost after it was loaned out it was the one used to make an English fantasy movie Jack the giant killer in 1959 (Released in 1962) with Ray Harryhausen style effects to compete with the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies (they even hired the Sinbad director and three actors including the star hero and villain), they also took two fingers from the other armature. It was taken apart to make a two headed giant, another giant and other creatures. It may have been rebuilt with some replacement parts and have two fingers from the other armatures left hand
Breathtaking King Kong 1933 is my fav monster/adventure movie of all times and to see the original model , well one of the two that is..... wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
i remember in 90s PJ was one of my people. one of those guys only I knew about. Bad Taste on VHS. never thought he'd get so successful, but proud of his success. KONG 33 is also one of my faves. Just miss when he was this low budget unheard of director that only I knew about.
