Thor’s hammer, Captain America’s shield, Iron Man’s ARC reactor—all rank as some the most iconic movie props of our time, and all were designed by the same man, Marvel’s prop master extraordinaire Russell Bobbitt.
“My job is to acquire, design, engineer, and manufacture everything that the actor touches in the film,” Bobbit, who has been in the prop business since the mid-1980s, told Entertainment Weekly. “The weapons, the guns, that’s all me. If there’s a food scene, I gotta design the food, or if you’re wearing a watch or eyeglasses, that’s me too, basically.”
With the help of a 120-person staff, Bobbitt supplies thousands of props per movie. For Captain America: Winter Soldier, for instance, he had to build 46 different versions of Captain America’s shield (all of varying degrees of softness) as well as supply props for background extras who are only seen for a few brief seconds (such as baby strollers with fake babies inside).
In the below two videos, Bobbitt takes EW“s Anthony Breznican on a tour of the Marvel prop factory. For Marvel fans, this is the equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci taking you on a tour of the Louvre.
