An Oznium-Assisted Halloween :D

So I got my robot head finished at the last minute . Although I'd been planning and testing out certain things for a couple weeks the last day was quite a crunch and I was running around like a madman frantically hot-gluing things into place at the last moment and just trying to slap everything together to get something that would be wearable . I did the last dab of glue and a paint touch-up at about 7pm and I was supposed to meet up with friends to go down to the party at 7:20 .
Note to self: Budget more time .



So the idea started out with sketching up a couple pages of these robot heads while I was on break at work .




Then I brought it into Illustrator to make up a face that could be printed at actual size and used as a template . Since the features were cut out I tried to measure it as accurately as I could to make sure the LEDs would be as close as possible to the edge of the face for brightness but none of them would actually be showing .



Then several nights were spent dorking around in the garage with my friends Red Bull and vodka, trying to figure out how to actually make it happen . I experimented with around ten different finishes/paints on 1/4" acrylic . In the end I used three coats of Rustoleum's "frosted glass" in a rattle can and then a couple coats of candy apple gloss on top of that . This is on the back (inside) portion of the glass, so the frost diffuses and refracts the light toward the front of the mask to give it a nice even glow and the red behind that keeps the light from leaking out the back of the plexi and smooths out the differences in brightness from the edge to the inside of the face .



Hot glue panic ! On the morning of Halloween I'm burning through half a dozen glue sticks gooping everything into place . Wire control is pretty poor since I was guestimating on all the wire lengths, no time to measure things out and make them pretty . Two 4-AA ratpacks deliver the 12 volts . The board on the left is the controller for the voice modulator (the battery and microphone aren't mounted yet in the pic) . The speaker is right about where the nose on the face would be . It had a bunch of selectable features and I eventually got them dialed in and found a cool robot voice . The buttons for the effects were all momentary push switches so I soldered some bridges into place to lock in the voice I wanted . It was sort of hard to understand if you spoke quickly so I . Had . To . Speak . Like . This . to be understood . Turned out pretty slick since it makes you stay in character .
Also not pictured is an adult bicycle helmet which is how the whole thing actually stays on the head . It was the cheapest helmet in the store; I shaved the top dome off so it was flat on top, then just zip tied it to the inside layer of cardboard so I had something that fit my head and came with a chin strap . None of the zip ties are visible from outside, only the 'bolts', which are brads from the office store sprayed black; they hold the inner flaps of the cardboard up inside the box .



There are three 4.7" strips and five 1.2" strips, all the old school first-generation Oznium flexi strips . Strips are mounted to the glass on the back using little pieces of scrap plastic that I saved from the trash at work as mounting 'bridges' . The edges of the acrylic were sanded down progressively to a 2000 grit finish to make sure as much light as possible would be going into the glass and not bouncing back out . Edges with no lights mounted on them were given two coats of white primer to help reflect more light back in . I screwed up a couple pieces trying to make the cuts with a 20 year old hacksaw so I used this as an excuse to splurge on a bandsaw at Home Depot . Never used one before but it made the cutting a piece of cake .



It fits ! Putting the face overlay into place . The overlay is a thin plastic placemat from Target that had a godawful 70's pastel design on it . The slot to see out of I just cut out frantically at the last minute without measuring when I realized I'd never included that in the plan . A strip of speaker grill cloth was pretty effective for seeing out of without letting anyone see your face . It definitely wasn't perfect though.. visibility was passable at best; I almost ate **** walking around outside a couple times .



I . Am . A . Very . Sophisticated . Robot . Being a sophisticated robot means I get to wear a suit so I look like I planned a whole costume but I don't actually have to make a robot body . My monocle is the same size and shape as my eye (although when you're wearing the head its hard to tell if you're holding it right over the eye or not) . I masked it off and shot it with a couple coats of gold to give it the frame and drilled out a hole for the 'gold' chain that I bought at TJ Maxx for ten bucks .



With the flash on its more color-accurate as far as how it looks in person . The red is a smooth even color; it doesn't have the weird orange/red gradients that it appears to in the pictures without the flash . Still the no-flash pictures are cool since the flash washes out the LEDs and keeps the brightness from showing on the picture . Picture is a friend doing the robot .



Another friend with the head on, shot with no flash . Cool picture to show the brightness even in a well-lit room .


I wish I hadn't been so rushed in the end so I could've been a little more polished in the construction but everyone got a laugh and seemed to really dig it . Also I got to buy rum at a liquor store as a robot, which is something I guess I didn't think I'd ever do in my life . The cashier carded me and asked how she was supposed to tell if that was really my ID, but she gave a pass because Robots . Are . Incredibly . Honest .
Would . This . Face . Lie ?

yay for IRC

and great idea i love it

Fan-frickin-tastic.

Great job! I give you extra points for being creative. You should make a video so we can hear the Robot voice.

That's awesome.

Wow... I'm very impressed. Great job!

amazing man. good work.

Well done sir, well done. x2 on the request for a video!

Wow man that things looks great!

Dude.

That.

Was.

Awesome!

Thanks guys ! I don't have a video yet but I thought maybe after the shirt is cleaned I might shoot a quick video or at least take one good solo picture before I retire the robohead for good .

Now what to do with all the scraps of acrylic and the new band saw ? The mind boggles .

Bad ass Coop

Badass. You win sir