Staff photo / Andy Gray Forklift operator Kaleb Stroud unloads one of the machines Modern Props used to create pieces for films, television series and commercials. Those machines arrived Friday on the last of about 15 semitrailer-sized truck loads of items Warren native and Modern Props founder John Zabruckhy donated to the Trumbull County Historical Society for the creation of the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts in Warren.

WARREN — The first truck loaded with the iconic creations of John Zabrucky’s Modern Props arrived in his hometown in August 2023.

More than two years later, what is expected to be the last truck from Modern Props arrived from southern California on Friday.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Meghan Reed, executive director of the Trumbull County Historical Society. “It’s nice to know and have a really good sense of exactly the types of objects we’re working with in terms of exhibit development. Now we have a full comprehensive picture of what the exhibit design firm has to work with.

“At the same time, it’s always really fun to hear from John Zabrucky and his team that they found new things. I’ll miss getting those calls from John and his crew that they found something else that’s really cool that they’re sending to us, but at the same time, it’s good that we have a clear sense of everything that’s coming so that we can start the museum.”

Zabrucky, a 1965 Warren G. Harding High School graduate, contacted TCHS in early 2023 about donating the work he created for Modern Props. Since that initial call, TCHS has purchased a building at 410 Main Ave. SW that will be the home of the Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts with Zabrucky’s donation as its foundational collection. The organization hired an architect and exhibit design firm for the project, and this week TCHS received a $2.3 million grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to help fund the project.

Ryan MacLennan, TCHS director of operations and outreach, was at the warehouse early Friday morning to supervise the unloading, just as he has with every other shipment from Modern Props.

“It’s a sense of relief, and it’s also an immense sense of excitement,” MacLennan said. “We’ve gotten 14 or 15 53-foot trailers worth of stuff shipped from California here, safely unloaded, safely in a secure warehouse. It feels good to be a part of that. To see what we started two years ago come to fruition is a really, really amazing feeling.”

Many of those shipments featured props that have been seen in hundreds of films, television series and commercials. While many shaped the look of the futuristic worlds in science fiction favorites such as “Blade Runner,” “Men in Black,” “Robocop,” “Total Recall” and the various film and television incarnations of “Star Trek,” Zabrucky’s props also can be seen on medical dramas such as “Grey’s Anatomy” and the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.”

Instead of props, Friday’s delivery included the equipment used to fabricate those pieces. The flatbed truck with a Conestoga retractable cover included lathes and mills, some of which weighed as much as 7,000 pounds.

Zabrucky said the shipment included a smaller lathe that was the first one Modern Props purchased in the early days of the company as well as a much larger and heavier lathe acquired as the company became more successful.

“You’re getting the main machines that we used for doing any metal work, which is primarily what we did on the props,” Zabrucky said.

Depending upon the available space, Reed said they would like to use the equipment to give museum visitors a sense of what the Modern Props workshop was like.

“We’re really excited to be able to show people, as part of the museum, not just the finished product of what John was creating and designing, but also the actual ways that he was doing that.”

MacLennan added that the equipment shows just how much skill and difficulty was involved in manufacturing those props.

“I think they ultimately help show at least a part of the whole story of the making of these props,” MacLennan said. “They show the craftsmanship, artistry and the mechanical wherewithal necessary to make these props that were meant to last 50 or 60 years. That’s what these machines represent, which I think is cool.”