Replica MacGyver Passport

Created by long time MacGyver fan and prop replicator, Anthony “Indy”  Magnoli, this passport is a carefully copied replica of the passport we see in the season 1 episode ‘Every Time She Smiles’ and contains over four dozen different visa stamps covering MacGyver’s travels throughout the 7 year run of the show.

The original prototype was, according to Indy, “incorrectly based on a 1990’s passport with a few changes for legal reasons.” This was revised to the more accurate version we see now.

This passport is part of a very impressive collection of hand made props and replicas which started back in 1994 while he was studying Archaeology at the University of New Mexico. Making movie props was a hobby back then, but as Indy started showing them on the internet interest grew from around the world with followers wanting to see more replicas, and by the time his studies were finished he was making props full time.

“I’ve been making passport replicas for a few years. It all started with a highly inaccurate US passport for Indiana Jones,” he recalls. “I quickly revised it after finding some period-accurate images. Since then I’ve done passports for James Bond, Rick Blaine (Bogey in Casablanca), Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan, and even produced some for Micronations. So when I started re-watching Season 1 of MacGyver… it was a no brainer!”

The passports are hand-made using various techniques and equipment.

“Basically, each passport is made differently, but for Mac’s, I scanned an actual passport for the microprint (background), then laid out all the text in a word processor. After printing, the pages are hand-sewn and glued to the cardstock cover. The cover image is made with a gold foil system I use.

As for the stamps, they are all digitally printed. I make the images from actual stamps, modifications of stamps, while a few are purely invented. The dates I gathered from the original air dates of each episode (but played around with in some cases to give Mac time to get from one place to another).

The passport proved to be quite challenging because Mac often went in and out of countries by going AROUND places you’d be getting stamps in. So usually, I stamped his entry but often not his exit… or perhaps his “exit” is marked by his legal entry into a bordering country.”

This passport is part of Indy’s original hobby collection of props and replicas which eventually became a business of making high-quality props and reproductions for use in film, television, and theatre, as well as for private and public collections. The business has since branched into the reproduction of vintage clothing, historic garments, and popular film and game costumes which Magnoli stresses are not costume pieces, but rather tailor-made, high-quality clothing.

Visit Magnoli Props and Magnoli Clothiers for more details on Indy’s work.