Original creator of E-11?

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

This might be old news to some, but it was news to me.

The Original Stormtrooper on Facebook (Brian Muir): https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Original-Stormtrooper/308958205795601

just posted this information, and I thought it would be nice to share with you all.

 

Roger Christian - Set Decorator - Star Wars A New Hope

(responsible for sourcing, making and assembling the original E11 blaster)

 

Roger Christian says:

September 28, 2009 at 12:11 pm

As the Set Decorator on A New Hope, I had the responsibility of creating and preparing all the weapons and action props for the first Star Wars. I myself made the very first weapons and the first one I made was the Storm Troopers Blaster. It was made by me by hand with a Stirling sub machine gun and rubber weather stripping and super glue and actually used in the movie.

George Lucas and John Barry came to the gun hire facility in London where I spent a few days creating all the guns. George stayed with me as well for a few hours and we created some weapons together.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roger-Christian/104103006292151

 

Cheers!

[dashrazor]

very interesting indeed its news to me as well..

[matt black]

That is so cool. And he has awsome hair!

[Sonnenschein]

It was made by me by hand with a Stirling sub machine gun and rubber weather stripping and super

 

NOT the plastic T-track used on the sabers?

[matt black]

Was it ever established 100% that the sabers used plastic track?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Wow. Cool info and neat that uncle George helped at one point.

[Sonnenschein]

Was it ever established 100% that the sabers used plastic track?

 

According to Gino,it was

 

I was laughed at 2 years ago, when I want to make black latex t-tracks

Edited April 10, 2012 by Sonnenschein

[dashrazor]

well weather stripping comes in many flavors ive even seen metal weatherstripping so plastic may have been around then

 

just an example of modern ridged weather stripping (it comes in many shapes and colors)

 

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Edited September 29, 2021 by gmrhodes13
link not working removed

[matt black]

According to Gino,it was I was laughed at 2 years ago, when I want to make black latex t-tracks

 

Even after all the topics there have been about it, I still think the saber grips look more like rubber than plastic.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

This is the kind of meticulous information that I love!

More from the same source: a quote from Roger Christian in another interview "On Star Wars, I went off on my own to the gun-hire place and got a Sterling sub-machine gun ...and adapted it with super-glue and other bits, Babty's gave me the permission to do it because they knew me well, and I created the first storm-troopers' weapon out of those and showed them to George and said 'Look, they can fire on the stage so you get smoke and fire, and backfiring…I hated in previous films that they just gave you a little 'beep'; it didn't look menacing. And George just loved it."

[Stormy320]

Cool - I've never heard that info from Roger.

[ZeroRoom[TK]]

Great work digging that up Martin. I just never get bored with this stuff

[vecspeed12]

Thats pretty cool. I always wondered who came up with the ideas for the e-11

[matt black]

And now all these years later there are replicas of his creation all over the world. I bet he never imagined that would happen.

[Griffin-X[TK]]

Great post; the FB pages are pretty cool too. Many thanks for the info...!

[bjsavage7[TK]]

It's always so interesting to hear info like this straight from the horse's mouth! Very cool!