NOTE

After the mech's debut performance at Anthrocon 2002, I donated the mech costume to the charity auction benefiting Canine Partners For Life. It fetched $850 from a very kind soul, though I wish it had gone higher; I have quite a lot more in it than that. Thanks to everybody who bid!

NOTE 2 -- Feb 26, 2003

This page is being innundated from every corner of the web right now, so be patient if it's slow. Hi to all the visitors!

THE VIDEO IS DONE! -- Mar 4, 2003

Thanks so much to Bennie for assembling the footage and to Kagemushi for releasing it
Here's the video of my performance at Anthrocon 2002!

The concept design (it actually turned out to be 9'4"):

Finished the lower legs and one hand. "Tendon" cables move the fingers. Thighs built, but not shown here:

(not wearing lower leg segments, obviously)

50% work done on the undersuit (note the cables/conduits at the elbows and knees), suited up to take measurements to finish the undersuit's faux cable/conduits where ever joints are visible.

Thighs finished, waist segment ready for latexing, first layer of torso ready for latexing (only the bottommost portion of it will show beneath the shoulder/chest segment. The chest will be much broader to bring it somewhat more in proportion with the rest of the outfit).

Note the cute little "Hello Kitty" backpack melded to the torso vest to contain the electronics/power pack. Who would expect such wholesome cuteness inside such an evil stomping death-mech? :)

Wow, progress!

Legs done
undersuit done (except for functional wiring harness for electronics systems)
pelvis done (though it's a little "flat"...thinking about adding a tail or something)
chest completely done.

The image shown here also shows a rough projection of what the painting pattern will be like.

CAD layout of head.

Head finished! (Foam done, latex done, waiting for painting and subsequent electronics installation)

Working on the control panels in the cockpit (inside the mouth). I draw the consoles in Photoshop, print them, hotmelt glue them to pre-cut plexiglass pieces (heating them after glueing with a flat iron to even out the glue distribution), and then use a dremel to very carefully etch the patterns. Then I dremel down some high-brightness LEDs and hook them into the edge of the plexiglass (with an inline resistor) and hotmelt the whole mess solid for durability, and add aluminum foil reflectors to avoid wasting light. The electronics/foil go up into the foam mounting. The net effect is that all the dremeled areas glow nicely in low-light conditions.... like control panels :)

Update: Consoles done.

Finally got the electronics pack done! The two layers sandwich on top of each other, batteries on top.

EEEK! Chaos ensues. I can't get some of the electronics to work right; the collateral body servo sounds don't cue, and the gun sound doesnt work. The gun barrel strobe circuit seems to have cooked itself inside the gun's body too, so...feh. no gun. :-P

Also, because of the way the voice modulator circuit works, I can't turn the whole system on (with a switch inside the left arm) and have the modulator come up in the right mode. Alas, I wanted something DEEP BOOMING AND MENACING...and I get something warbly and alien. Ah well.

Work on the cockpit is complete! Here's the pilot's chair... a small 10->6VDC power supply drives the servo, which connects to two mechanical linkages to the pilot's "walking" levers. The chair is made out of hotmelt-glued ABS sheet pieces.

Here's the pilot himself! He's a happy little vengence-minded cockroach. He appears to "pull" the levers in sync with my footsteps. :)

The pilot is sculpted out of a paper-based sculpting compound that is very very light when it dries.

A view of the whole head, powered up:

IT WOOOOORKS!

Mostly. Seems to be a problem where the sensor fails to go off with each footstep. Hm.

Suited up completely for the FIRST time!

TERRORIZING THE NEIGHBORHOOD! RAAR! VENGENCE! DESTRUCTION! CHAOS! RAAAAAAR!

Happy happy happy happy inventor. Five SOLID months in the making, FAR too much money expended in research and construction.

The performance:

UPDATE: People have asked me to explain the technique I used to get the surface "skin" of the robot. To my knowledge, nobody else does this, but what do I know? The key to it is that it's very solid looking (with appropriate structural backing), but is actually quite lightweight (though the whole mech costume came in somewhere around 50-60 pounds). Here's a short redux of the technique so you can build your own monstrous creations:

Look for 1" thick high density, open-cell foam.

Look for "slush casting" or "slip casting" liquid latex. (Get it at special effects supply-- they're great folks and I've worked with them for years).

Cut the foam to the desired shape. Some experience with fabrics might be useful here, in figuring out how/where to cut notches in the foam to bend it to 3D shapes. Use hotmelt glue to bind the edges together, and do it thoroughly and well, with no visible outside seams (I mildly burned my fingers over and over and over doing this). Be patient-- this takes a lot of careful effort; it's not hard, it's just exacting.

Once you have the shape you want, literally paint a coat of the latex onto it. It will suck it up greedily, so just make sure you get a good coat. When that's dry, apply another to smooth it out some.

Paint it with Krylon paints (or better yet, do your own tests with different kinds-- you want a kind that will flex when the surface does, without cracking.

That's all there is to it!