Note- this page was first posted on 9/7/2007

One year ago, on September 7, 2006, HeroComm first opened its doors.  It has been a fantastic year filled with tremendous growth - both planned and unexpected - and we can only thank you for it.

The Chang Gang got its start with a simple premise... if you want other people to join in and donate what they know and have, you've got to give just as good as you receive.  It worked amongst ourselves when starting the site, and it has continued as well with you, our readers.  These pages are filled with your contributions, from small (like the correct kind of Velcro) to major (a long-lost hero communicator).  We've also been sent photos galore and actual parts, helping to fill in many of the missing blanks.  As our Contact Page once said, "Everyone knows more than any one," and you have proved that.  Thanks!!

We believe our success comes from using three methodologies that had been seen too rarely in the hobby before: 1) fact-based analysis with full supporting documentation, 2) a wide-open no-strings sharing of data, and 3) acknowledging error when found in our content and making immediate corrections.  This last item is perhaps the most vital to healthy growth; the welcome shedding of old ideas that don't work in favor of newer ones that do.  Of all the words first appearing on our site last September, an estimated one-half are gone - having been replaced or deleted, many because we were simply shown to be wrong.  That has made room for more pieces of the puzzle to cleanly fit in.

It is hoped our most substantial achievement is not in revealing the details of a single prop but in providing an example of how others too can come together to collect, analyze and present information that benefits everyone.  We have written prior... if you want to start your own site but find yourself short on time, expertise and financing, you're already following in our early footsteps towards success.  And if there is one thing we can promise you, there are plenty of great people; friends you haven't even met yet, who will be happy to help.  You just have to ask.

Truly, all the best,
The Chang Gang

Some Highlights from the Past Year

HeroComm launches (original home page), having on its pages all information that had been culled from public sources spanning the past four decades.  At this point, only Season One is completed in our screen cap library.

The only new photographs we had of a known original were a few of Delta housed in the Science Fiction Museum.

We gratefully receive from Greg Jein photographs and measurements of his Epsilon and Zeta comms, which had been requested months prior.  The pics go up on the site right away, along with major updates from the data.  This is the first time ever clear multi-angle high-resolution images, inside and out, of an original communicator are seen anywhere.

During this time, a well-known prop expert tried to intervene and block the transfer of Mr. Jein's information to us.  He failed.  This person then asked Paramount's legal department to shut us down.  They declined.

The owner of a possible authentic hero communicator first contacts us.  We easily deem it genuine.  It was hard to keep our glee under wraps for the time being.

The hero is discretely photographed and measured.

We are loaned the remaining piece of Wah's antenna material, along with other little treasures to publicly show.

For the first time, the world sees up close and in detail a genuine hero communicator... Alpha.

Much of the next few weeks is spent responding to questions and critical commentary on the boards.

Season Two screen caps are complete.

Our accounting of Wah's life got a big boost when UCLA archives fulfilled our request for documentation.

Season Three screen caps are complete.

A major identification error of ours was identified.  Unbeknownst to us, Epsilon's appearance had been altered during a recent refurbishment, and so we missed the fact that some old pictures we labeled as one authentic comm were actually of another.  Oops.  Within a day of notification, the site was fully revised.  Three weeks of intense searching through the screen cap library had us then fill the resulting blank spot with the best pictures of what is now called Eta.

"The Parts" section is complete with the addition of the Hero Components page.  Every piece of the communicator, inside and out, is now completely described.

The first-ever blueprints from a actual original comm (Alpha) are released.

Three communicators meet in Burbank for a historic photo shoot.

Alpha revisits the very spot at Vasquez Rocks that it rested on in its famous Friday's Child close-up.

From the wealth of data accumulated a prior month, many of The Parts pages, plus The Details of Alpha, Epsilon, and Zeta are fully overhauled.