A Brief History of The Falcon Studios Crystal Head Logo
Earlier today, I was in the Falcon Studios office, when a shimmer of light caught the corner of my eye. I looked down and there she was: That familiar crystal Falcon head sitting on the Vice President of Production’s desk, strewn about with various workplace desk ephemera. I got that feeling you get when you run into a celebrity on the street: I was literally star-struck by paperweight. I snapped a picture and posted it to Instagram:
I examined it closely as I ever-so carefully picked it up: It was larger than I had imagined it and easily weighted 10 pounds. But something seemed off: the proportions of it … the color of the eyes … I’ve watched that head spin around during the opening credits sequence of too many Falcon movies from a certain era that we’ve all seen too many times not to notice.
I pulled up FVP068: Private Workout, directed by Steven Scarborough in 1990. The movie opened and — like clockwork — the hypnotizing crystal skull spun on to the monitor, I had to pause and rewind a few times to compare the features of the one I was holding to the one I was watching:
They were definitely similar but also definitely not an exact match. The head I as holding had yellow and black eyes, and more facets on its head. A maker’s mark on the underside confirmed it was, in fact, made by Swarovski so after some googling I discovered that the high-end Austrian producer of cut leaded glass collectables had done an entire series of falcon heads, starting in 1984:
Being the obsessive collector I am, I learned that Swarovski produced the line from 1984 – 1991 (which makes perfect sense, time-wise). There were two versions of the large head (which was the one I was holding ), and two versions of the small heads, which I’m certain are the ones used in the Falcon intro loop. Favorites among collectors, the big Falcon heads are worth between $1,600-$1,800 (Adam, you shouldn’t be leaving valuable like that lying around the office!). There are quite a few on eBay, too, — the perfect gift for the diehard Falcon Studios fan or recovering crystal meth addict, or both.
— Jack
Tags: crystal, falcon head, Falcon Studios, gay porn history, logo, swarovski
Seaguy March 9th, 2015 at 9:22 PM
Thanks for the detective work. Nancy Drew has nothing on you!
Max Phillips March 12th, 2015 at 9:28 AM
When I was working at Falcon 1997-2005, the Crystal Head was in a velvet bag, placed in what looked like a paint can with a lid and locked in a big safe. When I first saw the can, I have no idea what was inside. Of course I had to look.