Sunday, November 7, 2010

Indiana Jones Grail Diary

I got in the mail just yesterday this really amazing replica of Henry Jones' Grail Diary, as seen in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

But first, to give credit where credit is due. This amazing piece was made by an ultra-talented gent who goes by the name of Sarednab. You can find his website here:

http://www.sarednabworldprops.com/

This is a prop I have wanted to add to my collection ever since I saw the movie, which if I recall correctly, was around my senior year in high school. So it's been a LONG time. I can say with certainty that it was worth the wait. This is one of those great replicas that out-lives the expectations.

When I opened the shipping envelope, I found this:



A very nice touch that the diary is shipped in the same manner that Indy recieves it in the movie. A great touch. It's stuff like this that makes prop purchases like this one all the more worthwhile. It's as if acquiring the piece is an experience, not just an acquisition.

Also very cool that the maker included a reproduction of a hand written note from Henry to Indy. Good stuff.



And once unwrapped, we see the diary in all its glory:



The purpose of this blog is not to document the details of the individual pages or inserts, as those can be found all over the web. Well, I mean, you can find documentation of Serednabs work all over the web. But I'll show a few detail pics of the stuff that is inside the pages, just so you can get an idea of the insane amount of detail that goes into each one of these.





I am thinking this will be one of my last prop purchases for the year. I was actually planning on making 2010 a VERY light year as far as acquisitions go, but so many neat pieces came up that I just had to get. This was one of them. I'm not a HUGE collector of Indy props, though I am of course a huge fan of the franchise. All three of the movies are just great. (Yup, that's right. I deny the existence of that Shia movie!!!) But for Indy, I have tried to really focus on truly iconic props from the movies. A few z-listers have fallen into my hands, by my collecting philosophy has sort of switched to the position of "If I need to explain to you where the prop came from, I don't want it in my collection". This diary will make a fine complement to my Holy Grail replica that I built up a number of years ago.

Thanks again Sarednab for making this happen!

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