Hello Everybody….Now I know what you’re thinking, that little voice in my head has been telling me I haven’t done any TV show related sabers recently. Well unfortunately recent events have made me realise this big time with the sad news of the passing of a gentle giant of 80’s television, Roger E. Mosley. Unfortunately Roger was involved in a motor vehicle accident and died from his injuries on 7th August. And the reason this news hit me so hard is that Roger was a big part of a TV show I loved as a Youngling, Magnum P.I. – where Roger played the part of Theodore T.C. Calvin. TC was a Vietnam veteran chopper pilot who set up an Island Hopping helicopter charter company in the show. TC was a member of the same platoon as Tom Selleck’s Magnum character and after the war became Magnum’s “unofficial chauffeur” flying Thomas to the various islands during cases. It was because of watching Roger “flying” the now famous little helicopter that I got interested in flying myself.


Seeing the little Hughes MD500 helicopter swoop down over the water of Honolulu’s Waikiki beachfront past the Rainbow Hilton hotel was amazing and I wanted to do the same. I couldn’t in real life but I did in Flight Simulator – I found an addon of the helicopter and repainted the texture graphics to look like TC’s helicopter and I then flew many hours of simulated action in Microsoft Flight Sim (even recreating scenes from the show using scenery I made). Sadly when Roger was TC on the TV way back in the 80’s it was difficult for a kid to find out much about actors and characters due to there being no internet to access so I didn’t know much about him. I am now looking back on his life and finding stuff out I couldn’t discover back then. I also wanted to pay tribute to Roger so I quickly designed a saber that might look familiar….this is for you Roger…



This is the MAGNUM TC saber, based on the iconic helicopter Roger flew in the show. It has the same curvy sleek shape and I managed to recreate the same colour scheme. Surprisingly this colour scheme was not specially commissioned for the show, it was a factory regular paintjob, but boy did it become famous. The helicopter in real life was a Hughes 500 , which a military version saw service in Vietnam and was nicknamed “The Flying Egg”. But it was a tough little bird and because of it’s Egg shape, it saved many flyers’ lives as during crashes it “rolled” and absorbed impacts that would have killed occupants of other helicopters. In the show Magnum called upon T.C. to fly him to the outlying islands of Hawaii during cases and he always promised to buy T.C. a beer or pay for fuel…but rarely did! So basically the helicopter and Roger became iconic and was an obvious choice to replicate as my tribute. Here is gallery two with a few close up details….





I made the emitter to be as curvy as I could reasonably to replicate the forward fuselage and cockpit area of the chopper…I even added small landing gear skids on the bottom to act as a a built in display stand! The sweeping handgrip represents the tailboom whilst the pommel area features a “tail rotor” in the endcap as a pommel insert. The saber also features “aircraft registration” numbers – in this case N1095A, which is the number seen on the helicopter in the show intro. Then to top the design off, and to just reinforce what this saber represented I added the iconic “Island Hoppers” charter company logo on the activation switch.
As I mentioned above, while I was a kid I never got to really “know” Roger or learn of his other works because the Internet of things hadn’t took off but I have since learned he starred in “Roots”, a biopic film about Sonny Liston the world famous boxer and countless supporting roles in other US dramas and action shows like Starsky and Hutch. Roger loved Magnum so much that he even took a role in the recent 2019 Magnum reboot playing the part of the “new” TC’s barber named “Booky”.
Roger was and still is THE original TC and played the part from 1980 through to 1988. He insisted that the character of TC was “straight-edged” as Roger himself never smoked, drank or took drugs. In the show a stunt double was brought in to replace Roger during flying/stunt scenes with the stunt pilot wearing a padded bodysuit to mimic Roger’s massive physique but…during the show’s time on air Roger actually acquired a real world helicopter pilot’s license but was prevented from doing dangerous scenes by the studios, however in some shots you may see Roger at the controls! (And this is no small feat, I know flying a simulated helicopter is difficult enough!). And Roger seems to have been a great family man as he was married to his wife Antoinette Laudermilk for nearly six decades. My thoughts and prayers go out to all his surviving relatives and friends. I am just sorry it took me so long to really get to “know” him.




Now I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the sad passing of Nichelle Nichols who played Lt Uhura in the original Star Trek shows and movies. I chatted with my friend Resa about Uhura and said I’d do a saber inspired by Miss Nichols too but I ashamedly got side-tracked but I will complete that design too. I am slow sometimes but I usually finish what I start!
So with that I am at the end of this post of remembrance, again my condolences go out to Roger’s family and friends. My thanks go out to you, my readers/viewers for checking this tribute out. I hope it was fitting and that you will call back to see the Lt Uhura/Nichelle Nichols tribute when I complete it. Till next time…..soar high in Hawaiian skies….

“Magnum TC Saber” is a For Tyeth Editions design built as tribute to Roger E. Mosley aka “Theodore T.C. Calvin”. “TC” and “Thoedore Calvin” are creations of Belisarius Productions and Glen A, Larson Productions and all names, images , logos and related material are Trademark/©Copyright of Belisarius and Glen A. Larson Productions. For Tyeth’s tribute designs (including the 3D model and renderings) are ©Copyright of For Tyeth/FTSabersite 2016-2022.