What are the Oscar statues actually made of?

Despite what some people think and I’m sure the winners wish, the Oscars are not solid gold.

In the beginning, the statuettes giving out at the Academy Awards were made of solid bronze with gold plating.

Nowadays the awards are made of a metal alloy called Britannia which first gets plated with copper, then nickel and of course to top it off 24 karat gold.

The figure stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs around 8.5 pounds.

An interesting fact about the Oscar statuettes is that during the Second World War the materials usually used to produce them were in short supply, this led to them being made from plaster instead.

This went on for three years but after the war was over the winners were given the opportunity to exchange them for the real thing. No doubt those plaster versions make extremely rare collectors items now.