QUESTOR THE ROBOT

Meet Questor. His name comes from the word I remember seeing stamped onto Tinkertoys when I was a kid. I never knew what it meant but it sounded robotic. My original plan was to make a robot I could use as a character in a movie. It's still the plan but so far no movie.

He's about 40" tall, made from stuff I found at the dollar store or in my junk drawer, all held together with screws and super-glue. I think the hummingbird feeder head is the most important part. If you wanna be inspired to make a robot, go to Lowes or Home Depot or Walmart and look at the hummingbird feeders. They have all kinds of shapes and sizes, and every single one of them looks like a robot head. Some have flowers around the bases; those would be good for girl robots.

If you look at Questor's back (2 images up) you can see a top-hinged trap door disguised as a rocket pack. When you reach inside the trap door, you can control his mouth, turn his head, and move his arms up and down, like a ventriloquist dummy. I figured that was would be enough live control I needed, and the rest, like laserblasts and flying could be edited in with the computer.

His shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles all move too, but to control those I'd need to use strings, or make sure my hands are out of frame when I move him.

To make his brain, i got a styrofoam ball and mounted it onto a stick. I spray-painted it black so it wouldn't be as noticeable, and then I stuck about a pound of radio parts into the styrofoam ball until every inch of it was covered.

Phony movie poster, starring my niece and nephew.