Fan-made Blade Runner chess-set

Andy sez,

Rick Ross, A long time fan who had made items in homage to Blade Runner before, has been working on a chess set and table in the style of the one that was owned by J.F Sebastian in the film for the past 2 years. Recently he completed a crate for the set that is also in the spirit of the film. One of Rick's prototype sets also was purchased by Adam Savage last spring.
It is an amazing work of art since all the chess pieces were sculpted from scratch by Rick based on HD screen captures of the film, and a poor copy of the set sold in the UK. Interestingly I later found an original copy of the chess set myself after years of searching, but not until after Rick had finished his sculpts. It amazes me how close he got to the original, and how much character he gave it himself. It shows what a true artist this guy really is.

Sebastian's Immortal Game (Thanks, Andy!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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TinSoldier

Well, technically the copyright is on the photographs and not on the work itself.

But other than that nitpick, I agree with you.
blitz

>to cast the honest working man as ‘good’, his opponent the multi-gazingalionnaire Tyrell as “bad”

No I disagree. The game is meant to illustrate the fundamental disconnect between the common mortal and the God creator. JF and Tyrell are both playing chess, and they’re both playing a game of chess. But they are not playing the same game of chess. JF does his best to win, but he has a fundamentally different view of the game to that of Tyrell.
Lobster

Could they have possibly made it a little bigger, and shrunk down the playing space a bit?
bardfinn

Yummy.

And the rooks are actually rooks.

——

For the critics:

The reason this chess board looks the way it does, and is built the way it is, is in order to illustrate the time and care Sebastian put into his passions (Chess, Synthetics), and to echo the game being played between Deckard and Batty on the rooftop / abandoned building later in the story, to foreshadow it – and to cast the honest working man as ‘good’, his opponent the multi-gazingalionnaire Tyrell as “bad”, to enumerate that near everyone in the story are pawns and none are heroes, and so that when Batty kills Sebastian and Tyrell, he is killing God, symbolically – before he battles his fellow man. The chessboard is an integral part of the story in explicating that it is a tale of postmodernism.
- TinSoldier
  
  Huh. I just thought that it was a good science fiction movie.
Anonymous

That is just absolutely beautiful. Even if I’d never seen the movie, I would still want it.
willy359

It’s an impressive piece of fabrication, but what strikes me hardest is, given the large size of the object, how little space is actually given over to the game of chess. Is the artist going to do Tyrell’s set next?
doingdoing

Rick Ross? Hustlin’ Hustlin’ Hustlin’
andy7

The history of the original chess set is a true mystery. The only clue is the set I have is marked R. Fisher. There are copies out there that lack any of the original’s, or Rick’s character, and detail. If anybody has a clue about it, it would be great to add to the final chapters of the most enigmatic and iconic chess sets. Check out more of Rick’s work at ricklross.com, including more Blade Runner fan prop stuff he did many years ago.
AirPillo

I like the big, obnoxious copyright watermark on a photograph of an unlicensed reproduction of someone else’s creation.

If you’re going to reproduce someone else’s work, that’s just fine, but don’t be a dick and try to assert copyright on it.
- TinSoldier
  
  Well, technically the copyright is on the photographs and not on the work itself.
  
  But other than that nitpick, I agree with you.
  
  (#13 was supposed to be a reply to you.)
Anonymous

100 yesses
Anonymous

FYI
Mr Ross is completely within his rights to put a Copyright on this work and here’s why: the chess pieces used in the film were not created exclusively for the production; they were an antique set already in existence. The design is old enough to fit into the public domain category. Mr Ross reproduced them with the reference available to him but they are still interpretations of the originals, not direct copies.
Also, the chess table you see in the above photo never appears in the film. It is entirely imagined by Mr.Ross in the style of the film. So, believe it or not, if someone decided to copy Mr.Ross’ chess set and table,and try to sell it, he could legally slap them with a cease and desist or take legal action against them.
Anonymous

Tremendous!
Michael Smith

Chess is heavily symbolic. Pawns are disposable and chess pieces have their own hierarchy . Pris (a basic pleasure model) and Batty (probably the leader). Granted intelligence the Leader mourned the murdered Pawn, even after winning the Game against both players. But winning the game effectively took the pieces out of play and ended their lives.
drikkes

Got the record?
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_laim1ranaZ1qzh56ro1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0RYTHV9YYQ4W5Q3HQMG2&Expires=1287575499&Signature=63tzao0LyKSqJknd5Rar7UQi99s%3D
Anonymous

Queen to Bishop 6 checkmate.
Master Pokes

As a maker and rabid fan of the film I am awed and impressed. As a maker I am also saddened as I just can’t see how to make the time required for myself to complete a project that involved unless I’m getting paid mass money for it.