I saw the new Apollo 18 movie and thought they did a good job at it. I'd love to get one of the patches they designed but nobody seems to be making any. Is there any interest in doing so? I've been over at a space collecting forum and I think several people there would want one for sure...

You get me some good photos and 25 patches for preorder we can do this for ya!

Still trying to get good look at the movie one, but looks like NASA made one before it was scrubbed... Did it look like this at all?

I would offer to do it for Dan, no pre-order or minimum required, but I'm swamped right now and don't have time for any patch projects. Anyone good w/Illustrator want to try tackling this for Dan os hould we just let Prim & Stitch take it?

We need to see what the used for the MOVE though? Can not find any decent screen caps at all yet! Did not see the movie have no idea what it even looks like?

Here are few pictures that I could find. Not sure how much use they'll be as they're not very clear.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1p39jlvrQzc/TmCd...en_ver3_xlg.jpg

http://www.moviesintro.com/wp-content/uplo...ie_stills_7.jpg

http://thefilmtalk.com/wp-content/uploads/...9/Apollo-18.jpg

http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/images/2010/11/a...-18-300x300.jpg

Nice find! We could do that!

But if you look at the movie poster, it looks like the patch is rotated 1/4 turn to the right. Which is wierd.

Did you sew it on for them?

That is NOT from this movie, that’s from a stage play called “Darkside,” which is about an equally lethal fictitious Apollo 18 mission where it can’t take off from the lunar surface (18 doesn’t fare well in fiction, the old TV series, “Space” had 18’s crew getting cooked with a solar flare and the LEM crashing right after liftoff).
The big problem with an accurate patch is that Apollo space suits didn’t use embroidered patches. They used a fire-resistant covering called “Beta cloth” and had the insignia screen-printed onto them. Embroidered patches were used on earthbound training flight suits and other things.
Frankly, I find it odd that a “secret” Apollo launch that the crew could never tell anyone they took part in would even have a patch design. But then again, the whole premise of the movie didn’t make a lot of sense to me anyway (even though I did like the movie, a lot).

Ah, didn't realise that. The downside of using Google Image search for 'Apollo 18'.

Very true... Its a aramid type cloth that chars at high temp like Nomex. More on Beta cloth and NASA patches here...

http://www.crewpatches.com/crewpatches_betacloth.shtml


This is best I can get out the poster... Rice can you find any good high res ones?

I'm not finding much better so far. Has anyone tried searching Yahoo movies or IMDB for good pics? Worse comes to worse there's always doing one's own screencaps if you know what I mean.

No. Did you?

This is the best that i could find, i think it's the right one ! ? !

I agree, I think it's the right one too. It has all of the right elements and the one thing that I can make out clearly from the posters is the name Anderson and your pic has Anderson so I think we have a match. It's a good size and clear enough to trace over fairly easily, the only problematic element is the lunar module, there's a lot that's not exactly clear so if I were to copy it I would have to fudge it a lot; that and the texture of the moon, I'm not sure how I could do that easily in Illustrator. If I were to tackle this patch based on the image posted I'd say that I could get it about 75% - 85% screen accurate.

Nice find!

Yeah, it's the same names that are in the movie, so I think you found it. Where you found it has me baffled, though.
This is one of those movies that would make for a great "making of" book. I sure hope the DVD has a lot of extras!

So do you think there be any or some interest in a replica patch if we did small run them?

I would say I think so, but I can’t really say for certain. There are space collectors out there as well and there has been some buzz about this movie on forums such as Collect Space Forum which of course has discussed the film. There was some discussion earlier about the “Darkside” play patches there and how people wished they’d gotten copies when they were still being made. I’d think a well-done patch would at least gather interest over there, but I’d think a recreation of Beta cloth would do better for pure space collectors.

Have to see if our patch guy can even get Beta cloth... I think the artwork for this would look pretty nice its a cool logo! Its just not shash hit film like Apollo 13 was so not sure how much interest it would pull?

If interest is questionable or possibly limited then it might be good to go with Dan since there wouldn't be a minimum or any costs to us. Of course, that's assuming that Dan's patchmaker's clients would have any interest in a patch that might not sell that well.

Hi I'm Carl, a cross-over from the CollectSpace group that P51 mentioned. The artwork identified by Space Marine above is correct, and the movie does have an excellent full frame view of the patch, almost as if they wanted it to be viewed closely!

Yes I'm interested in the Apollo 18 patch, but I'm also in this business so I'm a bit worried about copyright... how do you guys deal with this?

I have a contact in the movie that I'm trying to get permission for original artwork, so I'd like to do it openly and legal! I also have a pretty close repro of the 1979 movie Capricorn One patch, based on stills and an original, but am still waiting for a reply from the copyright owners before I distribute. My intentions here, and with Apollo 18, are to produce for friends and collectors with donations solely to cover cost of production/mailing, no commercial gain (makes it easier with the film companies).

I'd be interested in your advice/opinions.

cheers
Carl

Hello Carl,

It's been my experience that the studios don't seem to care too much about replica patches from movies & TV shows, they're all over eBay and the web from various companies and you see them being sold openly at cons too. I've never heard of anybody getting issued a C&D for selling/creating patches without permission or a license. I think that the profit margin on patches is too small for them to care about and not worth the effort to try and put a stop to.

While it's fine and dandy to try and get permission from the studios/copyright holders to reproduce their patches but I wouldn't get too hung up on not hearing back from them. For a property as old as Capricorn 1 you're not likely to hear anything from the copyright holders and for something newer/bigger you're more than likely to get them thinking about selling a really expensive license to produce replicas. Although a license sounds nice to have they are typically really expensive and for something as small and inexpensive as a patch the only thing a license will do is price you out of the market since you'd probably have to charge at least $20 - $30/patch to recoup the cost of the license, meanwhile somebody will simply copy the design based on screencaps, posters, or the real thing if they have access to one and charge half as much.

The legal aspects of reproducing the patch from a show has to do with "harm".

If the studio is either making the patch available to sale to the public or has sold the merchandising rights to someone else to make the patch for sale, then by making the patch without a licence or permission from the studios/producers then they could argue that you are doing "harm" by taking away profits that they would have made if you were not offering for sale those patches.

The other type of "harm" is if someone misuses/abuses an identifiable or iconic part of a "property" (tv, movie, play, theme park, etc) Such as a Fraternity making shirts that have Mickey Mouse "flipping the bird" with the text "This ain't no F*cking Mickey Mouse Club" well, then Disney would track you down and take legal action against them. That really happened and the idiot wore the shirt that also had his fraternity name on it as well as the name of the university they were attending on the shirt and wore it to Disneyland.

Now on the creative front, if the artwork was made by someone else (replicated) and is at least 20% different then the orginal, then it is considered legally as being different from the original.

Also patches cost a buyer typically under $10.00 per patch, so unless you sell a lot of patches, its really hard to create that much financial harm to the studio. Also if other patch makers start making them, then the studio would have to take legal action against all of them, if not then it could be argued that it is either selective enforcement or inconsistant enforcement, both of which typically kills any legal action.

Why aren't more patches licenced? Typically the studios want $10,000 down and 20% of anything you make selling the patches. So if you sold 1,200 patches at $10.00 each, you cover your $10,000 license fee and your 20% and you would make $0.00. Thats a lot of patches!

I've had friends approach some companies asking about prop licenses, and it's just as Dan said.
Very expensive for the license plus a percentage of sales, which for a small fan run shop, this is
beyond most of our means.

"Most" fan shops will not sell competing products that the studio already have licensed.

In the case of patches... studios "usually" don't bother with them because of the small market.
I can't see this film being a massive international hit along the lines of Star Wars or Transformers,
so official licensing will be minimal at best.

Horror films in general don't get into that much, with the exception of perhaps the Alien/Predator
films and smaller niche markets, such as Todd MacFarlane's movie monsters figures.

In short, I'd LOVE one of these... Apollo 18 was a great movie, no matter what anyone else says...

You have a watch to pay for before you need any patch!

has any progress been made in this? I'd love to have one of these...

It might be neat to have this to put on my apollo space suit....

Interest in this has been underwhelming. It’s odd because I know space collectors who’d surely buy one of these.
But still, an embroidered patch wouldn’t be correct for the space suit anyway (Beta cloth wouldn’t be too tough to make as a replica but you’d have to silkscreen it). I’d buy one anyway, though.
I was bidding on a production made embroidered patch from the Apollo 18 production, but someone from Europe had much deeper pockets, dang it. But it IS a fact that they did make patches for the crew.

We might have an update on this; I contacted the folks at ScifiPatch.com in regards to the Apollo 18 mission patch, and it seems they already have it in the que. Now, wether its the Suit-worn type or the documentary version (both are the same, save for the astronauts names rearranged) is another story. In any case, it's still a patch I'd buy.

Most thier stuff is crap too... LOL Good luck with that... im crushed you didn't come to me wow.

btw, your watch just went up in price, but its also BRAND NEW IN BOX TOO =)

Stitch, if you're offering or going to offer the Apollo 18 Patch, I'll give my cash to you then! I'd rather support someone I know as opposed to someone I don't know. And I'll be contacting you soon about the watch.

I just do not know if there is a demand, these small runs are a lot of work...
If you/we could get like 10-12 people commit to pre-order ya we would do the run!

Got two NICE Sheppard ones in stock right now! MINT condition!

If a small run doesn't seem likely to happen you could try talking to Dan and see if his patch maker would interested in carrying Apollo 18 patches, I don't know if it's his kind of thing but it's worth a shot if you can't make it happen with Stitch.