Quote from: galacticprobe on Feb 08, 2014, 05:47 pm

I'm not so sure that one actually is Bessie, the radiator grille and the windscreen aren't quite right.

Here's some pictures I took of the old girl (ina really sorry state...  ) back in 2000...









(Ignore the geeky looking 30 year old me in the last one...  )

And heres some not very good shots of Bessie at the Doctor Who Experience last September, as well as a shot of the old girl from The 50th Gig at the ExCel in November...

















I love this car, its an ambition to get hold of a body shell and chassis and restore one...

Great photos.  I always thought the wheels looked a little...odd.  These photos show that they are regular wheels with yellow custom "spoke" hubcaps on them. 

I'm going to suggest that this topic be moved from "off topic news" to "other prop reference".  Any objections?

Quote from: domvar on Feb 09, 2014, 08:45 am
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINGLE-PRE-73-BLACK-SILVER-PRESSED-ALUMINIUM-NUMBER-PLATE-FOR-CLASSIC-CAR-/321073702790

getting WHO 1 should be fine as long as you make it clear it is just for use at shows and will be removed or covered when driving in the uk

Thanks! (Though this shouldn't be a problem as I doubt I'll ever be in the UK long enough to own a car!) This would definitely be Stateside only, and just another version of a "bumper sticker".

Quote from: kiwidoc on Feb 09, 2014, 08:56 am
I have a fantasy of having Bessie one day but little hope of it...

Something we have in common!

Quote from: kiwidoc on Feb 09, 2014, 08:56 am
They sell on eBay every so often, around 4-5000 pounds for a good example is not unusual.

And too rich for my wallet (and will probably always will be unless I hit the lottery!).

Quote from: kiwidoc on Feb 09, 2014, 08:56 am
Not bad for a 1950 base car. It was reputedly unreliable, small, cold etc etc but somehow even knowing the faults there is some magic about that car...  

Funny... That letter I got from Jon Pertwee said that Bessie's gearbox "...was a right pain in the 'A'," he said. I don't know if this was inherent in just the show's Bessie, or if it was one of the design flaws in the Siva model itself, but apparently the gearbox was all wrong. According to Mr. Pertwee, the 1st gear was too low, and 2nd was too high, which yielded something that only he could make sound so humorous. (Give me a few and I'll let everyone read it for themselves.) Third gear, I guess, was fine... you just had to convince Bessie to get there!

Quote from: silverfox on Feb 09, 2014, 08:34 am
Here's a bigger screen shot of the remote control from the Deamons DVD.
I planned on modelling it in 3D

Nice big photo of that, silverfox! After getting a better look at that remote control, it looks like that meter is labeled "MODULATION", has a tiny needle in it (in your grab stemming from the bottom as we're looking at it), and has a graticule numbered from "1" to "9" - that we can see; and though there is room for a "0" before the 1, and a "10" after the 9, they're not visible.

The little wheel is clearly labeled "STEER". The buttons, starting at the meter, are HORN, LIGHTS, and what looks like HOOD (with either an A or a /\ centered above each word, which are in turn centered with the buttons). Odd thing, that "HOOD" label. I know in the States (and probably other countries) the "hood" refers to the covering over the engine - which in the UK is called a "bonnet". And with 'Who' being done when most of its viewers were in the UK, what would the "hood" be? (I wouldn't think it to be the bonnet. The "convertible top" that was mostly left folded back, perhaps?)

Quote from: Theta Sigma on Feb 09, 2014, 07:48 pm
I'm going to suggest that this topic be moved from "off topic news" to "other prop reference".  Any objections?

No objections from this end. (But then, I'm a bit prejudiced; I did start this thread. ) In all seriousness, though, I think this thread has enough interest (and reference photos and info) in it to warrant its own "Other Props Reference" thread.

Dino.

Whoa! Okay... that was fast! Bessie got her own thread while I was typing away! So now that she's gotten her own thread, and I did mention the letter (and thanks to military moves the only letter to survive) that I received from Jon Pertwee regarding my defunct Bessie Replica project is shared below. I had posted it a while back, just to share it with everyone, but it was in the Off-topic section and has since gone away.

My wife and I corresponded with Mr. Pertwee (through his agent, of course) quite often after we'd gotten to meet him at one of the Doctor Who Cons in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania back in 1985. I was stationed on Governors Island, New York at that time and it was easy to attend that Con using my mother's house (in Henryville, PA) as a jumping-off point. Then I was transferred to Virginia in 1989 and that's when most of the letters were lost. Well, actually all of the letters were lost with many other items (fracking military movers!). As my wife reminds me, between her new job and me being on a Coast Guard Cutter and in the middle of the pond so much, the last letter we wrote to Mr. Pertwee was to ask him about Bessie, and this was the last letter we got from him (which we treasure). In all of the letters we always addressed him as "Mr. Pertwee", and though we always told him otherwise, he always addressed us as "Mr." or "Mrs." (you'll see the last name - and then know why for most of my military career I was known as "G").

But here it is, complete with typos (including the misspelling of our last name... that last "a" should be an "o"), scanned in for everyone's enjoyment. (The blacked out part is the name and address of someone Mr. Pertwee referred us to for more info on Bessie as he was the main mechanic that put her together. Unfortunately when we wrote to him we received a letter back saying that he'd moved on leaving no forwarding address. So once I scanned in the letter I blocked out that info to prevent anyone from bothering the new people living there. Not that any of us would do that, but in 24 hours anyone out there will see this. So, better to err on the side of caution, and the value of privacy.) It was typed on A4 paper, so I cropped off a good part of the blan bottom of the page so it wouldn't be so big with empty space.



Dino.

Quote from: domvar on Feb 09, 2014, 08:45 am
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SINGLE-PRE-73-BLACK-SILVER-PRESSED-ALUMINIUM-NUMBER-PLATE-FOR-CLASSIC-CAR-/321073702790

getting WHO 1 should be fine as long as you make it clear it is just for use at shows and will be removed or covered when driving in the uk

AND, the saga continues...

There was nothing in this listing for shipping to the US, so I contacted the seller to ask him about that. Rather than responding to my message (like just about every other eBay seller has done when I've sent them a message), this SOB changed his listing to include big bold red letters that reads "This item doesn't post to United States". I only saw this when I went back to the listing to send another message to see if he'd gotten my first one after receiving no response. (I have had eBay lose messages on me before). He changed the listing because he didn't have the common courtesy to answer my message? And I think I would have noticed those big bold red letters if they were there the first time I went there, when domvar posted that link.

I may be a dunce at times - what electronics tech who's spent 29 years in the military isn't? - but I'm not blind. (I may need trifocals, but even without them - and I checked - I would have seen that if it was there the first time.)

And to think, I had just about had the wife talked into splurging on both the front and rear WHO 1 number plates: the front one to mount on our car, below our legal plate, like many drivers in our area have done; the rear one to hang on the wall in the SF-themed entertainment room; and then mount both to our car when she parks at a convention hotel and doesn't move from her parking spot for the whole weekend.

I guess my quest will have to continue, and if this is the sort of business practice this bozo uses, I'm not sure I want to give him any of my money; he's just lost a sale and a costumer because I'll never be back to his eBay store (or any of his other stores) again. Out of courtesy I won't post his eBay handle here, but others can visit that listing and see it for themselves.

It usually takes quite a bit to get me spun up like this, but that frackwad managed it!

Dino.

Maybe some kind soul in the UK can get it for you and post it over?

Yeah... that thought did occur to me, but like I said, if that nimrod would rather change his listing than have the decency to respond to my message - at least saying something like "Sorry, but I only ship these plates within the UK", and then change the listing - then I would have considered asking one of our UK members to be my "mediator" as a viable option. But as of now, I don't want to give that #@*^ing jerk a farthing of my money.

I'll just keep looking. Maybe I'll just find a scrap of thin aluminum and paint my own. It won't be "stamped", but it will have the look.

Dino.

Don't worry Dino there are loads of suppliers in the UK just because this one is an a hole don't be disheartened.

I'm more than happy to try and sort something out for you let me see what I can come up with.

Thanks, dom!

Dino.

Well, with all the discussion of Bessie's number plates, and with all of the different-looking ones in the images posted in this thread, I did some searching and found a really good image of her front plate here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/galleries/p016219j (Official BBC Web Site). And just in case that link ever changes, here's the image:

Silver lettering and border on a black background, as opposed to some of the posted images that have white lettering and border.

The only photo I could find of the rear plate was this small one, which is from the "Bessie" web site link in my first post:

It's one of the montage sets under the "The Silurians" link (http://freespace.virgin.net/dr.dean/who1/3b.htm) on the main page. Both images are from Bessie's first appearance in Jon Pertwee's second story, "Doctor Who and the Silurians" (the only time "Doctor Who" was actually used in any of the title sequences).

Dino.

For any one wanting their own bessie

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-POPULAR-SIVA-EDWARDIAN-TOURER-REPLICA-/351000671227?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item51b94533fb

I like how the listing says "...the car was originally painted in yellow like the "Dr Who" version but the previous owner wanted to change the colour." Oh, foolish previous owner!

So far, current bid is £2,272.00, and it says "Reserve not met". Plus there is a bidding war between two bidders (total of 32 bids so far) and there are still nine days to go on the auction. (Way out of my price range already, not to mention what the shipping costs would be! Unless... Anyone got the winning numbers to Saturday night's Power Ball drawing? Jackpot is over $230 mil! ).

It's strange that you posted this, Dom. Earlier today my wife and I were discussing whether or not Sivas could be had on eBay. (Dude, just how good is your hearing?!)

Dino.

Oh cr! I want tat so bad... Problem is I've recently finished restoring an MG Midget, I've got an MGB GT restoration on the go at the moment (not to mention a radio controlled K9 im in the middle of building)

If I come home with a Siva the Girlfriend will throw me out...

She's very understanding, but she has her limits...





I want it so bad though...

Sell the midget buy the siva