Inconsistencies and vague item descriptions have negatively plagued Profiles in History over the last couple of weeks. From Eko’s Signature Staff with Bible Scripture to Claire’s Squirrel Baby, many questions have been raised regarding Lost: The Auction and whether or not the available props were, in fact, screen-used.
With very little clarification coming from Joe Maddalena & Co., it’s been left up to collectors to unearth as much factual information as possible when it comes to this auction. Unfortunately, that’s a relatively monumental task for people who have families and day jobs. It’s quite time consuming, and frankly, it’s not exactly something they should be doing in the first place…that’s the job of the auction house.
Regardless of my personal feelings, I do feel obligated to help spread the knowledge, whether it’s positive or negative, for the sake of the new collectors who are planning to place bids in this upcoming auction.
With that said, it’s very important that I share some of the newly uncovered information on the DHARMA Fish Biscuit Machine, courtesy of those over at the Movie Prop Forum.
Back in late July, the fish biscuit machine was one of the props examined (see: Additional ‘Lost: The Auction’ Inconsistencies Unearthed) by both members of the MPF and myself. At the time, many inconsistencies and differences had been pointed out. However, Jim M (aka Movie Prop Collector) was able to reach out to Joe Maddalena and actually get a legitimate explanation for the differences.
“Joe also reiterated the fish biscuit machine of which there was only one, was made of Styrofoam, and was repainted and worked for a flashback scene that might not have been used, but the machine in the auction is the one used in the show before it was repainted,” Jim wrote on the MPF.
As it turns out, Joe’s explanation was relatively accurate. The machine was painted and used in the filming of a DHARMA Initiative instructional video.
Fish Biscuit Machine seen in DHARMA instructional video
So there you have it. The machine was screen-used, but unfortunately will not appear as it did on screen.
While this may explain one of the inconsistencies, Joe Maddalena and Profiles in History still have a lot more explaining to do. And judging by a recent anonymous e-mail I received, that’s not likely to happen. According to the author of the e-mail, they’ve reached out to Profiles in History and were informed the company “cannot determine which [props] are screen-used.”
I would love nothing more than to hear from PiH regarding the other props and this recent e-mail, but they flat out refuse to communicate with me. Any and all attempted communications have been ignored, so all I can do is leave Joe an open invitation. I welcome him, or anyone else from the the PiH team to reach out to me publicly or privately to discuss the other inconsistencies that surround this auction.
About Dan Benton
They are notorious for their poor research skills and lack of respect for costumes (staff wearing Superman costumes springs to mind). Remember how convinced Joe M was regarding the Vader saber in Jason Debord’s video, only to see it pulled a short while later.
It would be great to see someone like Propstore or Screenused, who actually appreciate, collect and archive props, start regular prop auctions.
Thats REALLY eye opening and upsetting.
Now they know these facts and still have not posted this to
potential buyers stating they have no idea what is what.
Why would anyone bid then if the company selling
the items can’t say they are production used.
Everyone knows that what decides the value of a piece.
This can’t be good exposure for Profiles and Joe
with his new TV show coming up.
Maybe thats why Joe is lying low
Great reporting Dan.
Dan, you used a baseball example to show the value of on screen props- have you looked at Dogen’s baseball in the catalog? I compared it to those seen in What Kate Does, and Sundown, and did not see the very obvious line of (Japanese?) characters in the onscreen ones, or round stamp with English writing. The onscreen ones did seem to have a D 6 in one case and D ?? in another- seemed to me that might be for “Dogen + number of prop” Maybe someone with better eyes than mine can check it out.
There definitely was more than one ball existing, as Rob Kyker holds up two in the podcast video where he talks about props. There are also at least two of the wine bottles- he takes two from a box. Something like the wine bottles are so identical- would they even know which one was onscreen after it was used?
Dan any updates from Profiles at all??
Nothing as of yet.
Do you realise now that this repainted prop was used in “The New Man In Charge”?
heartlost – As I noted in the above article, the inconsistency on this piece was explain and even PiH could not verify if it was used on screen. Several different variations of each prop were made, so while one may have appeared on screen, unless ABC confirms this one was, there is no way of knowing. And since the piece was painted, it’s nearly impossible to screen-match. For that reason it can only be considered “production made.”