Balok Puppet voiced by Ted Cassidy

"You now have two minutes!" - Balok Puppet, voiced by Ted Cassidy

The famous Balok puppet was designed and sculpted by the inimitable Wah Ming Chang and voiced onscreen by Ted Cassidy for The Corbomite Maneuver (S01E10, first filmed after the pilots). The puppet's head prop was auctioned off at Hollywood Auction 40 in June 2010. Though its estimated value was set at $20-30K, it garnered a whopping highest bid of $70K.

The puppet was created to appear scary or threatening in character, but it enjoyed a little fun in real life. It appears in the end credits of second season episodes as the last freeze frame shot with the credit "Executive in Charge of Production: Herbert F. Solow.” This was an inside joke played on Solow by Robert Justman who selected the still images for the credits. Like other monsters and creatures created for the show (especially tribbles), the Balok puppet randomly wound up in various places around the Desilu offices for months, just for fun. Gene Roddenberry, playing a practical joke on Justman, placed the puppet in the seat next to his on an airplane when Justman went on a vacation. The pilot and crew asked them to remove it before the flight took off.

X-Men #141 Copycat Covers

Updated - 11/6/26: I'm beginning to suspect X-Men #141 has the most recreations of any comic cover. This is one of those posts that will forever get updates! Let me know if you learn of any others in the comments section and I will add 'em!

Cover of The Uncanny X-Men 141 (Jan, 1981). Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

I think this one counts...

Dork Note: I have always wondered how John Byrne came up with the idea. Now I don't have any insight beyond speculation. However, seeing the splash page from Iron Fist #10 done by John Byrne in 1979 the root of his idea is apparent.

Rob's Room Note: I also found this What If? cover from 1978...

Ferran Delgado said on-line, "Just a reminder that Byrne drew the iconic X-Men #141 cover from a layout by Hannigan (Byrne admitted it). Hannigan told me that editor Salicrup asked him to use as reference the Wings cover. Jim Salicrup was the editor of X-Men till he resigned when the end of #137 was changed. This is another evidence that "Days of Future Past" was pitched as a Graphic Novel before #137. Other evidence supports this, including Byrne's comments in an interview conducted when the new ending of #137 was drawn or the silly ad laid out by Salicrup.