The insides of the bubble were made from sheets of thick white plastic, wood and stiff plastic rods. I found lights that fit perfectly into the rods and used several flashing bulbs inside the triangular portion. The flexible "neck" is simply the bottom shaft of an office chair fit into what actually was a margarine container. The rest of the head was made from the same stiff plastic which was then coated with fiberglass. The ribbed portion that the "neck" fit into was molded from fiberglass also. I used coffee can lids for the molds, stacked them up and molded the dividers that attached vertically. The colllar pieces are made from clear flat plastic strips. I made a mold out of wood that would shape each piece after it was heated in the oven. It was very tricky to get the shape of the collar exactly right. All of the pieces were then screwed to a thick piece of rubber. When the ends were attached, it became solid and the head portion fits on top.

The body dimensions were also very difficult. None of the blueprints available seemed to coincide. I got most of my ideas just from watching clips of the show. The body skeleton was made from 4 circular rings of wood and some 2x2's for the vertical supports. On top of this I layered pieces of thick plastic with cutouts for the arms and voicebox. For the contoured sections I used triangular pieces of thinner plastic until the desired shape was achieved. For all the ridges on the body I used several sizes of door insulation (the spongy strips used around doors). All of this was coated with fiberglass to make it rock hard and heavy. The voicebox was made from clear plastic rods with a voice activated red bulb behind it. The large white lights were actually halves of a ping pong ball. The twelve flashing lights are probably from the same company as the original. They are quite expensive. The arms are actually 8 inch aluminum air ducts which have been coated with latex. They simply screw right into the body. The claws were molded from fiberglass. The collar that the claws fit into is made up of a series of odd things I found around the house (mostly containers) that I fit together and then covered with fiberglass.

If you are inside the costume, the claws actually do work. The ring that the body sits in was made from pipe insulation that was covered with fiberglass. The odd shaped plate that this sits on is made from wood, again covered with fiberglass. Inside of it is a circular track with about 30 1 inch wooden balls that the body sits on so it can freely swivel. This could have been done more easily with a simple turntable but I made mine so a person could actually fit inside of it. The legs are made of sections of pipe insulation compressed together with long threaded rods. These were coated with layers of latex (the same stuff used to make masks and also very expensive). The pedestal is also made of wood as are the wheels. This was a very tedious portion of the project. It was very difficult to get all the angles and dimensions to look right. I originally designed it to be able to roll, but it became too heavy (about 150 pounds) so the wheels are locked. The treads are made from strips of neoprene rubber that I cut and glued to a thin strip of neoprene.

When turned on, the lights flash and you hear the background robot noises. Every 10 seconds he says a line from the show in sync with the voicebox light. I put a tape recorder and speaker inside. The recording is a continuous loop. This also was not easy to do. It was very hard to find the robot speaking without any background music or sound effects at the same time. The costume is capable of holding a person inside although I have yet to try this. There is a large power supply inside that would have to come out for safety reasons before I'd let anyone inside. It is quite cramped inside and you would need two people to lift you down into it. I also think you would need to be a contortionist to get inside the body portion. It looks big enough but it's really a tight fit!

If anyone has any questions about building their own robot or if you would like to contact me, please feel free to email me at dfhoward@ix.netcom.com.