"Roger roger"....... stupid droids!!!

The Phantom Menace, what a retarded movie. Luckily for you & I this post has very little to do with the movie that won't be mentioned by name again. It has to do with a toy that I picked up late last year, for a couple of dollars. It was a kids camera, made to look like a set of binoculars used by the droid's in the movie. I thought it had the potential to be turned into some sort of vehicle & being the sort of "frugal" person that I am I grabbed it.

The pictures you can take with it are quite craptacular actually. Unfortunately I didn't keep the box to show you how bad it was, but if your interested to see this cameras' "performance" for yourself, then I suggest you have as look at Jakes' flickr account. He went to the trouble of doing a sort of review of it.

I originally bought it for it's kitbashing potential, but after opening the packaging & looking at the example photo's of what the camera could do, I was almost tempted to keep it & use it for its intended purpose. But alas, the film with the character's on it had fused together, rending the camera inoperative :(



Ok, enough about the camera, onto the fun bit, kitbashing!!!!

First I completely stripped every last bit of camera out of the case & chucked all the parts into my bits box. Then the case was placed in my draw for a year (to mature) & then I pulled it out last week to play with it :)

So, here's a lot of photo's to excite and/or puzzle you, enjoy;

Strip down to it's underpants.

The "periscope image thingy" rotated into the up position, where it will stay.

With all the bells & whistles added on,

All pimped out.

More pimp.

One side off of a set of head phones & an aerial from a modem.

A pair of dials off of an old radio, internals from a soap dispenser,
 a wooden ball, Xmas tree light wires & a toy gun.

Winglets from an old toy plane (my son will never know),
beads & label stickers.

Never throw out PC heat sinks.

Cockpit components: a pin for a joystick, a keyboard sticker
for a control panel & plastic grating for the floor.

Clock dial replacement numbers & copper wire for a ladder.

Credit cards (the wife won't miss them, much), CD cases & the aforementioned heat sink.

I wanted her to sit as low as possible, without touching the floor. I might lift it up a bit as it does "look" like it's dragging it's arse.

The ugliest part of any model, underneath. I used an IKEA wall mounting
bracket for the base. It's balanced perfectly & is nigh impossible to see
when it's on the table.

This thing is the battery for the cannon, cabling is wire &
brackets are made from bent copper wire.

I've tried to list all the things I've used to build this vehicle with, but it's mainly just household detritus, beads, stickers & stuff from my bits box.

I hope to have it done before I head home at the end of the month. I'd like to get a few games in with it.

Cheers.