The catastrophe was that they discovered an actual electronic device within their inventory. As a result they had to shut down everything and check all items in storage to determine the level of contamination. If ignored, they risked the reality spreading throughout their entire warehouse. Needless to say this would have driven them from the "fake consumer electronics" market and forced them to open a Radio Shack.

aren't you guys noticing all the zero comments? something is wrong, i can't sign in with my account to comment and i guess other people are having trouble to. might want to put a notice up by the sign in button that there's currently a technical problem.

lol, this is awesome. boingboing really is a place of kindred hearts. I've always loved those fake electronics props in furniture stores too, and it has been interesting to notice how they have kept up with changing times, and evolved their props away from CRT monitors for their fake computers and TVs into flat panels. Same goes for fake telephones, vcrs etc.

Nice. I lived in Japan for a year in a small apartment which I never saw the point in furnishing. These would have been perfect.

"Boy Story" doesn't really sound like the kind of movie that should be left on the coffee table.

I like the way photographer Philip Kwame Apagya uses fake electronics (among other things) in his work...

http://www.designboom.com/portrait/apagya.html

Lol it would be interesting to fully decorate a room with lots of fake stuff and then invite people over for hilarity.

Whatever the reason for their closure, while IDM is shut down, Homefill must be raking it in.

Commenting has been down half a dozen times over the last few days. We're working on it.

The fake electronic items are very useful for furnishing model homes. I have seen so many flat panel tvs and notebooks all over these posh homes and they look so real.
The plus point for builders is that they don't have to buy these expensive items or even bother to haul them around and install. Theft of stuff is also not a worry.

Has anyone else used their graphic design services? Or better yet - friended them on Myspace?

http://www.myspace.com/propsbyidm

I love how under "Specialty Items" it says:
"From Video Game Players to Washer and Dryers. You cant find such a wide selection of items from any other Prop maker."
and there is a game-console and a washer/dryer-set.
And nothing else.

I wonder how much more the "Pro" plasma TV is than the "Regular" TV.

Saving up my money for the 60" Pro TV: the colour is 'obviously' better!

/I keed!

I noticed once that Ikea uses (used?) fake PCs on their office furniture displays with decals that were obviously screen shots from the Mac version of Safari. Always made me laff a little geek laff.

Hellosluggo: There's nothing odd about PCs running OS X -- haven't you heard of "hackintoshes"? I've built one myself.

But more on topic, I'm glad of this article. I've always been fascinated by those props in stores and how they seemed to be far more detailed than was really necessary to convey the information that this desk was meant for a computer and that stand for a TV.

I'm surprised and a little disappointed that you didn't mock and chastise me for complaining about not being able to comment with a... comment.

Do they sell fake plastic trees?

Reminds me of the vapor boxes at tech trade shows. Front panels but no guts. Companies out fishing to see if there's any interest. There were a number of S-100 vapor boards advertised to see if there was a market.

"We have experienced a major catastrophe at our Crystal Lake manufacturing facility..."

Crystal Lake? Clearly the "catastrophe" was a fake murder spree perpetrated by a fake Jason Vorhees.

@19 I'm thinking "giant plastic meteorite" struck their facility.

Well over 20 years ago, in a SCAN furniture store in the Washington DC area, I was fascinated by some fake electronics equipment with the brand name "PropTronics". To this day that's what I call these wonderful items.