So we are looking around for an inexpensive used power chair, I have decided to make a benefit out of an infirmity. Since I love both SF and fantasy, I have decided rather than make a power chair look like a medieval carry chair, making either a Dalek or a Vorkosigan Haut woman’sBubble Chair. I think since they actually do use power chairs in some of the Daleks, that might be the way to go, though I have no objection to a Haut Bubble Chair.
I have actually seen a sort of Instructible for a Dalek ‘costume’ and it doesn’t look that impossible. Though instead of plywood, perhaps vacuum molded hemispheres on similar plastic sheet as the body panels, some sort of metal or plastic mesh for the funny neck part, and so forth. Some small cooling fan for ventilation so I don’t roast, and a small tablet as an MP3 player for stock phrases [exterminate exterminate … =) ] Just sort of need to look at the various generations of Daleks to decide which one we want to do. I have to admit, I sort of liked Churchill’s WW2 Dalek, it would be neat to use some vintage/vintage repro web gear in a sort of WW2-punk [is it still steampunk?]
I wish mrAru looked like Captain Jack Harkness … sigh though maybe if there are attendees from the series they would graciously concede to a few selfies with Dalek Aruvqan =)
About a decade ago I built a “practical” Dalek costume for our daughter to use at Arisia. It had to be easily and quickly disassembled and assembled, so it could be stored, fit into elevators, and the like.
I built the frame out of slotted angle iron. The top was a giant metal bowl that my wife found at a thrift store. I used a paint roller and a toilet plunger for the “arms”, very obviously and deliberately.
a couple of years later, someone with access to a real effects shop brought a Dalek. It looked much better, but it had to be smaller to be transportable. And I’ll bet mine was cheaper to build.
Incidentally, I read recently that the original BBC Daleks were built around tricycles, which gave the poor schmucks inside the chance to sit down during the long taping sessions.
yes, just building his “Travel Machine” (lower half of the Dalek with the “Dalek Bumps”, err…Etheric Beam Locators) would probably be easier, after all, Capaldi does “borrow” it for a while, so any humanoid should be able to operate it
I would like to have it ‘professional’ not costumey … and transportable isn’t going to be a problem, we have a momvan and at need a 15 foot box truck =) I would like it light, so I was thinking about vacuum formed plastic panels and other lightweight components, and we need to get the power chair before we really get heavily into the design aspect.
