All your favorite sci-fi, including 'Stranger Things,' is connected by one LA shop

When he was looking for ‘80s tech inspiration and equipment for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, special effects designer Shane Dzicek knew exactly where to go: Apex Surplus, a scrap metal recycling and industrial surplus business in Sun Valley.

“They're well known in the industry for being a place to rent a lot of hard-to-find electronics,” Dzicek said. “Imagine walking into a shop that would be in the world of Harry Potter, and there's just racks that go to the ceiling with everything that you can think of … military and airplane supplies to electronics … vintage microphones and knife switches.”

In addition to various knobs that he repurposed for the show, Dzicek also found an FM signal generator from the ‘80s, which served as a model for a decibel-reading device used by the character Steve Harrington, as seen in the teaser trailer:

Dzicek isn’t the only special effects designer who’s walked the halls of Apex Surplus. The shop’s co-owner, Adam Isaacs, estimates their credits span 5,000 different productions, including sci-fi classics like Back to the Future, Mad Max, Star Wars, Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

A hallway at Apex Surplus.

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Courtesy Apex Surplus

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So how did a nearly 70-year-old recycling business become a go-to destination for Hollywood designers?

The origins: A Holocaust survivor meets the SoCal aerospace industry 

Apex Surplus is a third-generation family-owned business, first opened in 1958 by husband and wife Bill and Charlotte Slater.

Bill Slater was a Holocaust survivor who fled Austria in the 1940s and served in the U.S. army during World War II. After the war, he moved to Southern California, which was at the height of the aerospace industry boom.

With the space race raging, aerospace companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Bendix Company were building at a rapid rate, with lots of materials left over. Slater decided to leverage his military connections and open an aerospace liquidation business and surplus front.

Bill Slater standing in Apex Surplus in the 1960s.

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Courtesy Apex Surplus

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“ My grandpa would drive around with a semi-truck in the ‘60s and ‘70s and essentially recycle all of their old scrap metal,” according to Isaacs, who said subsidiaries of the aerospace hub in San Fernando Valley would then come to Apex to shop for secondary parts.

As Apex’s inventory grew in the 1960s, Isaacs said the business expanded and started catching the eye of set decorators and production designers in the TV and film industry.

Apex today: From oddball artist haven to film prop shop

After Bill and Charlotte Slater’s death, Apex was passed down to their children, Melissa and Don Slater.

Melissa now co-owns Apex Surplus with her son, Adam Isaacs, who said customers today range from folks outside the film industry, like electricians, plumbers, sculptors and artists, to set and production designers who work on films — anyone with a practical, aesthetic or historical interest in vintage or obsolete electronics.

Outdoor yard of Apex Surplus.

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Courtesy Apex Surplus

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Isaacs said, at heart, Apex still is a scrap metal, electronics and aerospace recycling and surplus business, though its also has embraced its role as a film prop and rental house.

More recently, its products have been featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., 13 Reasons Why, A.P. Bio and Avatar. 

“Our close proximity to Hollywood has allowed us to open up this prop division and work with a lot of talented people,” Isaacs said. “There's so much creativity and artistry being produced in L.A. … We're very fortunate that we were able to reinvent ourselves as a production hub.”

Check out LAist host Julia Paskin's interview with Stranger Things special effects designer Shane Dzicek here: