Breakaway Wine Bottles

[2mojo2]

We are running Guys and Dolls this Spring and will need a breakaway wine bottle for the brawl scene in Havana.
I assured the students that it would be no problem, I would just order prop bottles.
We will need 4 for performance plus at LEAST 2 for rehearsal.

I am a little shocked to see that they run $20 apiece, sold in packs of 6.
One source suggests that I buy three times as many as I will need because they are so fragile.
I would hate to have only one left for the last performance (Murphy's Law, you know).
That gets us up to about $400 for a one-second effect.

I looked into the process for making the mold and sugarglass.
It looks do-able enough but fairly labor intensive.
The district safety office would go ballistic if I had the students do it, but they (the students) might enjoy the challenge.

What is your experience?
Has anyone gone to the length of making the mold and the bottles?
Is there a less expensive source?
Do you really need so many spares?

 

[josh88]

$20 is about the best price I've ever found. If you wanted to tackle it this instructable covers it all pretty well for doing it on your own

http://www.instructables.com/id/Break-away-beer-bottles!/


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[MarshallPope]

How convincing/close/realistic does the effect need to be? Could you get away with just using a plastic wine bottle cut into "broken" pieces and temporarily affixed to each other? Maybe with small tabs of tape or hot glue dots or something? You would have to be careful how you staged it, but it may be doable. Also, you may want to look into staging it so that the audience's view is blocked at the moment of impact, while the complete bottle is switched out for a pre-broken bottle, if possible. I'm not too familiar with the show, though, so these may be out of the question, but it could be something to keep in mind.

 

[derekleffew]

... I am a little shocked to see that they run $20 apiece, sold in packs of 6.
One source suggests that I buy three times as many as I will need because they are so fragile. ...

When I worked for a theatrical supplier years ago, every shipment that came in (I believe they were Rosco brand) would arrive with at least some casualties. Of course we couldn't sell these; I don't know if we just ate it or filed a claim against the shipping company. I hope the manufacturers have improved their packaging by now.

If they get to your site intact, they're not terribly fragile as long as not subject to unnecessary rough treatment. I'd be comfortable with only 10% spares.

 

[2mojo2]

Just finished Guys and Dolls with the breakaway bottles.
I bought 12, all arrived intact.
The packaging was pretty thorough.

12 allowed for 3 practice runs x two casts
plus 4 performances
plus two in reserve.

It was very effective.