X-men Visor and X2 Penny props
I love when my hobbies crossover with each other. I’ve loved X-men since the late ‘80s/early ‘90s and I’ve always liked movies. When pics appeared in late 1999 of James Marsden wearing the visor (or “blast shield” as Oakley called it back then) and Juliet developed specifically for the movie, it was a fan’s dream come true for me.
I wasn’t able to buy any of the official studio visor and eyewear props from the 20th Century Fox/eBay auction in August 2000, but I was was lucky enough to pick up the Oakley-developed ones many years later.
Obviously they are not screen-used versions, since there are several differences. I once asked Jason Spencer why the X2 Penny that came from Oakley had copper FMJ rather than the grey colour that appeared in the movie. He seemed perplexed by this question and said that is exactly what he provided to production (I get the feeling he hasn’t watched the movie). What complicated things further is Oakley.com featured the copper FMJ X-men Penny prop on their website during its promotion of X-men: Days of Future Past, which fully supports that’s what they provided for the movie’s development.
The story speculated is Oakley provided certain props to the movie production but the props department modifies them as they see fit. That would explain why all the pictured props from Oakley differ from the end product in the movies.
At any rate, the above props are a couple of my favourite Oakley-made things ever.
Some pics of the Penny as it appeared on Oakley.com, Marsden wearing the Visor in 1999, and the X-men display in the Irvine O-Store in March 2000: