The Goonies Treasure Map

Hey you guys! Are you fans of the Goonies? Of course you are! So let's make the map.

First I must give credit to Muggle Magic for his excellent Goonies map instructable here: https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Goonies-One-...

I made Muggle Magic's version of the map and then became obsessed with improving it. I scrutinised the movie, frame by frame, and looked at every other replica map I could find on the internet. In case you hadn't noticed, more than one version of the map was used in the movie. When we first see it in the Walsh's attic it is very stained with red ink splatter and spilled wax, and it bears lots of indecipherable text. But when we see it again in the kitchen a few minutes later it looks much cleaner, without the ink splatters and extra text; even the tears in the middle are in different positions.

Most people prefer the dirty version, which is the one I have reproduced. I came up with plausible Spanish sentences for the indecipherable text, and tweaked the riddles so they reflect what the characters actually say in the movie. For example, the original prop shows "Cince veces seis" (five times six) but Mouth says "Diez veces diez; ten times ten". At the bone organ he pauses for dramatic effect on the word "muerto" which wasn't on the original prop at all, but is on my version.

I sketched out the map in Inkscape first, then printed it very faint. I used this to trace over with a proper dip pen, then scanned my hand-drawn elements. From here I was able to digitally tweak all the elements until they were as close to screen-accurate as I could make them, and put them back into Inkscape. I'm very happy with the result, I think it is the most plausible and screen-accurate version of the map I have seen anywhere! Even if I do say so myself...

• Printer
• Instant coffee
• Hot air gun

Making the map is easy - just print out the Goonies Map PDF file. The map works best on an A3 print. Print double-sided if you want the musical notes on the back, and select 'flip along short edge' in your printer settings.

Since you're going to age the paper with coffee you may want to do a test print and throw some water on it to see if the ink runs. If it does run then you'll have to try a different printer. Laser prints should be fine with water, but inkjet may not be.

Carefully tear the edges of the map by following the faint outline provided on the print. Tearing looks better than cutting with scissors.

You can also add the tears in the centre of the map if you want to -just slice them out with a craft knife. I have included a reference image from the movie if you want to do that. I actually prefer the map without these holes, however.

To age the paper I recommend staining it with instant coffee. I used about a tablespoonfull in a cup of water. Spray or daub it on, then gently dab all over with a sponge to get some natural looking mottling. When the paper is wet it will be super fragile so handle with care! Now let it dry out.

Now it's time to char the edges of the map. If you're anything like me you made pirate maps as a kid and probably just held the edges over a flame. And you probably discovered that this is hard to control as half your map burned away before you could stop it! I recommend using a hot air gun (you know, for paint stripping). With a hot air gun you can control the browning of the edges to a fine degree without making them unrealistically black. You can even make brown patches in the middle of the paper. A good tip is to put down some kitchen foil under the map -this speeds up the process and gives even even more control with the reflected heat.

Depending on how dark you want the map to look you can now stain again with more coffee if you want to.

All that's left is to fold the map so the two halves of the doubloon meet in the middle. Plus you can add any further distressing with paint or wax or whatever you like. Now you have the key to One-Eyed Willy!