The Fake Explosive Props Used in Movies!

Adam spends some extended time in the back stacks of The Earl Hays Press exploring their incredible catalog of designed labels and packaging for ammunition and explosives props used in television and film! From boxes of rifle cartridges that you would see in a western to the paper used to wrap sticks of prop dynamite, the veracity and variety of these paper props make Adam very very happy!
Support Earl Hays by checking out their props: www.theearlhayspress.com/memo...
Follow Props to History ‪@PropsToHistory‬ at / propstohistory
Shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Music by Jinglepunks
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Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman
Thanks for watching!
#adamsavage #props

[@tested]

Support The Earl Hays Press by checking out their props: www.theearlhayspress.com/memorabilia-prop-shop Follow Props to History at: kzbin.info

[@just_saw_dust]

If Adam loves dynamite boxes he should go visit Brent at Cerro Gordo Mines, Ghost Town Living.

[@MageMelonVT]

I could watch an unlimited number of hours of Adam just digging through this place, and never get bored.

[@ChefSarah4104]

Same here

[@mrscb5303]

💯 agree!!!

[@SaltNBattery]

100%. More of this please. To be blunt, I wish Norm would just make his own channel. It's so clear that most of us are watching Adam Savage's Tested to watch Adam Savage. That's why any video with Norm get's 1/10th the views.

[@aaronwarrior]

Yep

[@keios]

Only Adam could exclaim "Ooh, plastic explosives!" and make it sound wholesome.

[@michaelripley4528]

There is nothing like the sweet smell of dynamite in the morning💯

[@rambysophistry1220]

So, that Hercules powder box, it actually has an interesting side history. It is based on Hercules Powder Company. It, among many other explosives, also developed solid rocket motors for the US military's nuclear missiles.

[@stephenrosenthal5337]

Bay Area trivia: The East Bay city of Hercules was a company town of the Hercules powder company.

[@robertlinke2666]

didnt cgpgray do a video on them, and the missiles and the takoma test range?

[@rambysophistry1220]

@@robertlinke2666 Yes, CGPgray did do a video on coy Tikoi and Hercules Powder Co. Which is where I got the information to make this comment. Hexagons are the bestagons after all.

[@aureaphilos]

I think Brent Underwood at Cerro Gordo (KZbin: Ghost Town Living) has found Hercules Dynamite boxes down in the Union Mine at Cerro Gordo! It would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison between the movie prop and the real item.

[@CitizenKang]

The Earl Hayes Press needs its own youtube channel just going through all of their archives.

[@KnightsWithoutATable]

That would be an awesome and chill channel to watch.

[@shubinternet]

I think that's called "Props to History", right?

[@stobe187]

That exact dirty pea soup color C4 label is in Die Hard, recognized it immediately :)

[@toyfreaks]

I mean, at this point, you might as well start a separate Earl Hayes channel. I will watch these over and over!

[@tested]

Ha! More to come, too!

[@toyfreaks]

@@tested They could make a business just out of hosting themed scavenger hunts. I would pay $100 a crack to look for items I don't even get to keep! First 5 things off the top of my head: 1. Saturday Night Fever: Carnival paint can label 2. Taxi Driver: We Are The People swag 3. Groundhog Day: Wrestlemania Tickets 4. Last Action Hero: Sylvester Stallone T2 standee 5. 2001: A Space Odyssey: Zero G toilet instructions

[@dsolosan]

11:06 -- the theatre I work for had copies of that exact newspaper that Mike is holding, but I never knew they came from Earl Hays. Some had blank pages inside to help fill them out, which was useful. I could cut those sheets down to 8.5x11 and run them through my printer to make great play-specific newspaper clippings to use on stage.

[@MiguelPiro]

I'm not from the U.S.A. and I didn't grew up with these labels/boxes/brands, but even I feel nostalgic and could spend hours and hours between those shelves. Awesome video and I wouldn't mind spending a (full) day between all those labels/boxes myself! Greetings from the Netherlands!

[@nathanhiggins860]

I imagine the back stacks like the endless warehouse at the end of Indiana Jones. Adam just wandering around finding lost treasures. Actually Michael Corrie from the other videos says that's exactly what has happened he has found things they didn't even know they had. Valuable one of a kind items just sitting on a self collecting dust.

[@CCW-lz6oh]

warehouse 13

[@tomhorsley6566]

Speaking of boxes of shells, do people really load revolvers by dumping the entire box of shells out and scrabbling to pick up individual bullets rolling around for the camera? That seems to happen in almost every movie (Shawshank Redemption comes to mind).

[@steveschritz1823]

Probably depends on how the box is packed. Most have a nice little rack that slides out with individual cartridges, but some are packed solid and sideways and you do have to dump them out.

[@jfbeam]

Bulk .22... yeap. I've done exactly that. ('tho not the whole box, there's 5000 rounds in that box. the clips only held ten.)

[@Blazer02LS]

Depends on the ammo. When metallic rounds first appeared it was common to re-use the pouches that had peen used for earlier ammunition types, so you would dump a box of ammo into the pouch and load the rifle/pistol by grabbing individual rounds. Once you are used to it you can load surprisingly fast just by feel. In the time period those movies represent most cartridges did come loose pack and most of the characters would have been involved in some way with the Civil war where they loaded the same way.

[@manojavsridhar8656]

Will be cool if we match back some of the stuff Adam finds with actual movies that we might know!

[@stephenlequier9663]

Adam, I watched you for a long time and not only are you entertaining but educational. I love who you are don’t ever change. I get excited every time a new episode on KZbin pops up. Thank you.

[@BlakeHelms]

I could watch an entire multi-season series of Adam browsing the aisles! This is so cool! Although, the water heater next to all these valuable paper artifacts would keep me up at night.

[@erinfinn2273]

Wonder how much they spend yearly in desiccant packs. Sure, water heater leakage or explosion is something to worry about, but I'd be more worried about overall humidity.

[@BlakeHelms]

That’s an excellent point. Presumably they’d want to control humidity to protect them. They must have a monster of an HVAC.

[@unklejohn7381]

I love creating paper props! I've reproduced most of the bottle labels from Star Trek all the way to Lucy's Vitameatavegamin bottle label (which can be seen on the RPF). I would LOVE to work for this company!

[@JudgeRightly]

"Kid-in-a-candy-store"-Adam is best Adam.

[@RealAndySkibba]

Worked at an ammunition plant for a while. The inert C4 block (M112) for display was a piece of wood painted to match an actual block. At a distance it was pretty convincing. Everything else used real metal parts (marked intert and color coded blue) but matched otherwise.

[@SystemX1983]

😮 Imagine the shocked faces, if that wooden C4 has a hole drilled with an igniter sticking out ... Even those people who don't know about the inert marking ... for those who know, just remove it 😂

[@ibanezleftyclub]

It’s like watching a puppy in a dog park, in all the best ways. I really hope they let Adam take a few of these home, they would look great in a framed collage, it’s not like they have enough lol

[@PlutoniumBoss]

The fact that the PRIMARY SOURCE is making these prints available to the public is insane. I bet producers of reproductions everywhere are simultaneously celebrating and lamenting, because they can finally see exactly what was on the original object but no one is going to be able to sell something as accurate and genuine as this. You just can't compete.

[@romanglinnik8073]

Nothing more captivating than seeing Adam get obsessed over unique collections.

[@patrickdiehl6813]

An absolute joy to see and have Adam as our host.👍

[@mateuszcielas3362]

3:43 why you can't return the heater?

[@michaelholmstrom7677]

The irony of Adam talking about explosives/guns next to a water heater is amazing.

[@Guardian_Arias]

My favorite part is adam opening random boxes, looking inside, and softly speaking "oohh yeahhh"

[@MikeKobb]

In addition to producing fantastic results, offset presses are just super fun to operate. I'm glad to have had that experience in college, where we used one to print posters and flyers to advertise campus events and movie nights. When I visited London a few years ago, I went out to the Harry Potter exhibition in Leavsden, where they have a display of some of the thousands of "graphics" objects created for the film, like letters, posters, flyers, even Cheeri-Owls cereal boxes. I was captivated. Earl Hays looks like it's like that times 100,000. If I ever got to visit that place, I'm not sure how I'd ever manage to leave.

[@pixiniarts]

Thanks Adam & The Earl Hays Press, love every video in their stacks, their work is gorgeous. 🙏

[@teddyjones8027]

Well done, I absolutely love this video because it's those semi deep dives into art props that I have always been fascinated with and very very rarely get to see. Thank you for sharing, everyone keep yourselves and love ones safe and healthy and remember to SMILE 😊

[@Exaltedone87]

I'm convinced that Adam hasn't actually left Earl Hays since the first video popped up.

[@vokin]

I love Adam, but I find it hilarious that he says that he's "being very careful to put things back where I found them" and seems to be taking it seriously when it does occur to him. But then he also goes to the explosives section, gets so excited by it all, and he immediately puts the dynamite wrapper box back with the label not facing out and then puts the C3/C4 box back in a different place from where he took it out.

[@denvan3143]

This is really fascinating. Thanks for these Earl Hayes videos.

[@karim6651]

this series of vids might be my favourite this channel has ever done! dont stop lol

[@tested]

More to come!

[@Ivanovitch2885]

I'd love to rifle through there and get some of those labels for goofy chochkies to put on my desk or work bench. A brick of inert modeling clay wrapped with the C4 labels, a piece of broomhandle wrapped with a dynamite wrapper and a fake fuse, etc.

[@shanejayell]

I LOVE watching Adam geek out over this stuff. *lol*

[@hisownsidekick]

More of these videos forever, please. Thank you.

[@Bobert-Rob]

Aw man, Winchester bullet prints? Man, I feel called out, haha. And of course food and dynamite labels are right next to each other there. Explosive flavor!

[@grendelum]

genuinely curious how accurate those hercules powder labels were to the real thing…

[@sugoi4983]

Adam: I'm making sure it all goes back in order of which i exactly removed them Proceeds to put items back on the next shelf in totally random order lol

[@tracyf.1148]

Is it wrong that my brain went straight to the water heater and the many hours of anxiety and joy those brought to the Mythbusters 😂🚀

[@tested]

Not wrong at all!

[@ericvicaria8648]

The opening shot of the water heater behind Adam gives me anxiety, not just because the Mythbusters exploded many water heaters, but also because I have seen an old water heater corrode and dump gallons of steaming, rusty water all over a floor and ruin everything around it.

[@Cristopher.C]

the way he's rummaging around and whispering to the camera it feels like they just broke in there without any permission from anyone or something xd "and now look at this interesting paper.. oh yes.. we can look at a couple more boxes before the police arrives.. oh my gosh yes look at this stuff.."

[@contrapezist]

Years ago I wrapped a fake label around a road flare and gave it some sweat stain. An incoming boss (with great pride, I'm on my third) saw it sitting on my shelf of shame, he about had a heart attack on the spot. Apparently years ago he was working in tunnels at NASA and came upon some very old liquified Hercules product in an out building, it was concluded by people in the know that rather than try to dispose of properly to just let it go building and all.

[@ARDIZsq]

I imagine this place has to be one of THE coolest places to just walk around and look at stuff.

[@ChefHazmat]

😂The random Dude Where’s My Car reference at roughly 8:55 with the “No and then.”

[@ashhawk2346]

My leg twitched in attempt to catch that box Adam nearly dropped.. It's almost like my brain thought i was in his body 😂

[@Games_and_Music]

9:13 Geez, that gave me a right scare! I felt my legs tense up as i instinctively wanted to support the box before it tips over. When looking at all the labels and prints, i kept thinking like "ah just sneak one into your pocket", but i think after 5 minutes of snooping around, my pockets would've been stuffed already. There's just something about browsing through the physical history of "mundane" movie props that we all take for granted, love to see it.

[@patrickerwin4922]

I’d watch a 36 hour series just looking through every single box

[@williammitchell4417]

Man alive!! Talk about the kid in the candy store... Adam's shown some before but hey!! We love this kind of stuff!!!

[@Nexfero]

The pastel choice of colour pallets really make it stand out.

[@popebinga]

What a glorious place to explore, and I bet with so much old paper it smelled amazing!

[@valentine_puppy]

Well that's sad. I would very much like to see them preserve their history. I am writing a show that needs retro materials and it would be a very bad shame if Earl Hays shuts down. I really need them to stay open. I will definitely need their help should my show get made.

[@archivist17]

And Adam was never seen again. It's said that, to this day, sounds of ghostly giggling can be heard emanating from the archive stacks...

[@katkaat]

Oh man this video was fun. I love old graphics and print like this~

[@kiomansu]

Adam, team; I would be happy to watch you just look, talking out loud to yourself. You don't even have to present as much. It's ASMR-city. An hour of this would be my Christmas.

[@noflooddamage154]

Please make this into a series!

[@DigitalOrigami]

My life would be so much better if I was surrounded by these almost real labels on everything.

[@SaltNBattery]

Way more of these, please.

[@SaltNBattery]

With all due respect, Norm really should just make his own channel. There's a reason his videos can barely get 1/10th the views that a good Adam video does. Most of us are subscribed to Adam Savage's Tested to watch Adam Savage, not Norm Literally Who droning on in monotone about some boring thing.

[@Leafsdude]

Watching Adam organize everything as he's going through it is such a mood.

[@tekvax01]

Yes! Adam is in label HEAVEN! :)

[@johnabbottphotography]

I think Adam is one of the few people who could go through that aisle and legitimately say: "Yeah, these look like real explosives"

[@benjaminpetersen1952]

Yeah..ya know..except for the people that made the model, since they obviously used a real world reference and got it close enough for someone to comment on its accuracy to begin with.

[@scottpaddock6685]

I hope that they have a top shelf fire suppression system there. I see paper stacked by a water heater and am immediately concerned. Also, they have hopefully digitized all of these cinematic artifacts just in case.

[@joshuaschisser2967]

Hercules Powder was a local San Francisco powder company. Hercules, CA in the North East Bay was a company town. There is a great little restaurant called Powder Keg that has an original Hercules Powder crate on the wall. I actually recognised the typeset before Adam pulled down the box. So cool to see local history on the shelf in Hollywood.

[@marvindebot3264]

Earl Hays Press is one of the most amazing places on earth

[@coltenh581]

Understanding stuff like this better leads directly into a better understanding of our actual world. Things like marketing and so on

[@holemajora598]

“Great font” 😂

[@ericcarabetta1161]

Oh man, I could spend hours looking through all that cool stuff.

[@Thepuffingyank]

that was bang on

[@filanfyretracker]

so odds are the C4 wrappers that went around I am assuming blocks of lay in Die Hard probably came from this shop. or are blocks of clay only for star interaction and the rest just around something like a wood block.

[@jmalmsten]

6:00 - "When in doubt... C4!" Sorry, couldn't resist

[@OpusCulo13666]

Is there a video somewhere on what this process is and how it works etc?

[@Demetriusninja]

Holding a box of C4 wrappers from Diehard, and CliffHanger? Man, I would love to have those.

[@ChoralPleasure]

New unedited oddly meditative videos of Adam searching through these boxes, please

[@Bad_Wolf_Media]

That paper bag with the "Bang!" (9:28) would be a perfect gag for a Joker scene. Someone finds it, sees the silly sticker, and then the explosive inside goes off.

[@michaelripley4528]

There is nothing like the sweet smell of dynamite in the morning💯

[@celticarchie]

Adam Savage was last seen entering a prop storage facility... I think we gonna need a search party! ;:P

[@RodCornholio]

Tremendous amount of Americana-style graphic design.

[@PropsToHistory]

The "Meightry" name (pronounced Mee-Tree) is the name of a former pressman. Its used on beer, wine, shotgun shells, bullets, cigarettes, etc.

[@CarboniteDreamer]

oh man i was hoping he would fine some of the cartridge boxes for bladerunner! man i would be like a kid in a candy store in there.

[@TheAquabears]

Oh man, Hamburger Haven. That is one of three (that I know of) links between Greatest American Hero and The A-Team. It's a fast food franchise that shows up in both series.

[@SaturnCanuck]

My Dad was a printer, both offset and letter press, and he would have a field day there. Some of the labels were "crack-and-peel". Those who know, know.

[@nathkrupa3463]

Great video sir you are 😊

[@dcallan812]

we need some of the labels on tee-shirts. 👍👍

[@xpyr]

Ooh I want the sports almanac 1950-2000 :)

[@romanglinnik8073]

"Thank you very much in the back of Earl Hays... HAMBURGERS"

[@uriituw]

I think my inbox is full of Smeat.

[@patricksanders858]

I want to see the printing processes!

[@WonkoTheSaneUK]

As Jamie always said - "When in doubt, C4!"

[@rileydumouchelle681]

"no and then" 😂

[@Capt.Marco-Hawk-L.L.A.P]

i could spend hours at that place, but I would need to know what movies they were in

[@beau-urns]

Adam: can I walk around un-accompanied, exploring things to my hearts content Them: we’d love nothing better

[@jedifyfe]

Those tan C4 labels were the ones used in Die Hard.

[@TheOpticalFreak]

The Dynamite labels are between aisle C3 and C4! 😄👍

[@TheOpticalFreak]

Did you really say: and then, and then, No and then!.... And then! 🤣🤣 Dude Awesome!! 😂👍

[@jackseney571]

I wanted to comment on the beautiful water heater co-starring with Adam in the first portion of this video!😮😅😊

[@johnderoy916]

Find the Stargate franchise C4 labels - that would be cool - they talked about and used C4 more on that show than any other that I can remember.

[@jefft7085]

Is there any order to that madness?

[@AnnaAnna-uc2ff]

Thanks.

[@byronservies4043]

That is the greatest candy store of them all.

[@vampire_vandal]

I would love to see if there are any Hercules UNIGEL Dynamite sticks from The Thing

[@DecanFrost]

and, with the water heater in the background, now, Adam is borderline a water heater serial killer at this point 😂 awesome raw reaction video, 12 year old Adam in a candy store, LOVE IT.

[@DrRusty5]

A few years ago I had to make a prop "b**b" for a pantomime. I was very happy with my effort even using some hemp-type rope for the "fuse". However, I only wish I had some of those wrappers and labels, even if on a stage the detail is less necessary.