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THE SPINNER: YESTERDAY & TODAY
Written By: Gary Willoughby
The Spinner in Japan today.
(Photo courtesy of Mr. Hiroyuki Hukushima.)
from CUSTOM RODDER magazine, November 1998
Gene Winfield in the customized Sedan at the 1998 West Coast Kustom Cruisin' Nationals in Paso Robles, California.
(Photo from CUSTOM RODDER magazine, November 1998)
These shots below are of the ground Spinner in the Miami Police Museum courtesy of Paul Sher Jr.
With cables showing, this was the light weight mock-up
With cables showing, this was
the light weight mock-up

I set out to locate all the remaining Blade Runner Vehicles that were built by the famous custom car builder, Gene Winfield. Many were destroyed after the movie, Paul Sammon touching on this in his book Future Noir. But some of the vehicles remained. I checked the reports that the Disney/MGM spinner had been destroyed, and found it to be true.

Spinner at Disney/MGM Florida
Spinner at Disney/MGM Florida
Spinner at Disney/MGM Florida

On or about December the 8th of last year I called the Disney/MGM park (located in Orlando, Florida) and located the supervisor in charge of "guest relations" he confirmed that the spinner that they had on the tour was indeed dismantled in January 1999. I asked about the location of the dismantled parts and was told "No one knows where the parts are! And we have no further comment!" That would only leave the spinner that is privately owned and located some where in Japan.

Syd with Spinner circa 1982
Syd with Spinner circa 1982

So I now concentrated my efforts on finding my second favorite vehicle, the Deckard Sedan. After several months of researching every movie car site I found Terry Tweedy's website.

Terry remembered the spinner and it going to Japan, but did not know where the sedan was located now. He was kind enough to give me the email address of a friend Paul Sher Jr. who knew the spinner and the Deckard sedan. After some thought he gave me the location, and some great photographs. I want to thank those two for their help.

I can now say that I know where the Deckard Sedan is, and it's safe and sound in Miami. Please drop by the Miami Police Museum at 3801 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, Florida 33137 telephone(305) 573-0070 for their hours.

Ridley with spinner on the Blade Runner set Syd Mead along side full size version of his creation in 1982 spinner film model on exhibition in Paris 1997 MGM backlot spinner in disrepair MGM backlot spinner

Thanks goes to James Ebenhoch for his shots of the Disney/MGM Police Spinner, Mr. Hiroyuki Hukushima for the Japan photo and Paul Sher Jr. for the Miami Police Museum shots. All photos are the property of each photographer and not the property of BladeZone. We also want to thank Mike Fritz, Matt Lord and Brian Bolin.

Gary Willoughby

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