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A while back my neighbor Walt
stopped over today to have some counter-sunk holes drilled for a project he's
working on. He didn't know anything about my B9 project, but, since the
drill press was in my shop in the basement, he would soon find out.
The whole story really started a few days earlier when he
walked into my garage and caught me with one of my
Twilight Zone Mystic Seer devil heads in my hand. I was at my
workbench painting the horns or something. He gave me a look of
bewilderment and a cockeyed smirk. I tried to explain, the whole
ebay-devil-head-mold-making story. Not sure if any of it made
sense to him. He mentioned he needed some holes drilled and I told him
come over anytime and we can do it.
So, today he shows up with his parts to be drilled. I
meet him in the garage and he starts asking me about the devil heads he saw
the other day. We chat for a few minutes and I give him a little more
detail about how I stumbled into making them and about the Swami Machines you
can buy on ebay. Then, as we head down stairs, I ask him if he remembers
the Lost in Space TV show. He responds, "Sure, with the Robot and
Jimmy". "Jimmy?" I say. "No, it was Will, Will Robinson".
Then Walt says "That's right, 'Danger Will Robinson', Remember that?" I
say something like "Ah, yeah, I think I remember that"
(chuckle-chuckle)!
Right at this point we are at the bottom of the stairs and we turn the corner.
As I flick on the light he sees my B9 and starts laughing. Well, after a
few minutes of laughing and chuckling (not sure if it was at me or B9) I threw
on the power switch and my B9 gave him a little show. I answered several
questions and explained how it was not a "kit", and that I had built it
myself. He was quite impressed. I gave him one of my business
cards with my web site address on it. So he'll be checking out this site
from his computer at work. So, Hey Walt! Quite wasting time and
the bandwidth that your employer is paying for and get back to work!
5/31/04 -
Bubble Bubble - Toil and
Trouble - Finally drilled my bubble and mounting plate.
Check out the problems I ran into (crack!)
6/26/04 - My brother and his family
stopped by on their way to Niagara Falls. They had only heard about the
B9 project and have not seen it in person. This gave me an excuse to
stack the robot once again.
I'm getting ever so close to saying that it's done. Although
there will be always something more I will want to do or upgrade. That's
Lauren and Ben in the photo along with my B9.
They got a real kick out of seeing it up close. This was the
first time my bubble was put on. It fits pretty good.
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 4/5/04
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Fright Vision 2004 - Recently, my
son and I attended Fright Vision in Cleveland.
The B9
Robot Builders Club had on display 5 full size B9's. We had a great
time and I was able to meet many of my fellow B9 builders that I have only
previously chatted with online. If you missed the show, plan on
attending next year as I'm sure we'll be there. I asked a lot of
questions of the other builders and I took many pictures.
Both Bob May and Mark Goddard (seen above) were
there. I was even able to have my picture (lower left column)
autographed by Mark. That was neat.
 At
FV2004, they also have a model contest. There are several categories
including Horror, Sci-Fi, Diorama and Comic Character. I had
brought along my scratch built Twilight Zone
Mystic Seer to see if I could enter it into the
contest.
I was not sure if it was appropriate, so I left it
in the van and showed a picture of it to the contest organizer Terry Webb of
Amazing Figure Modeler Magazine.
He said it was fine and I was entered into the Horror category. I was up
against many awesome models including Frankenstein, Creature from the
Black Lagoon and The Thing (from the original movie).
It was so cool to watch people react after seeing
the Mystic Seer and remembering the TZ episode. Terry tracked me down at
one point and told me a few people were looking for me. I guess they
were really interested in it. I gave Terry a few of my pictures which
had my web site address on them. I also placed one next to the Mystic
Seer. Later a fellow B9'r handed me a note from one of them which
included their email address. So I'll be contacting him directly. Hopefully
others will find their way here and be able to build their own.
When the awards were presented they announced the top three
prizes for each category. I was disappointed when I didn't place in the
Horror category. But then they presented the "Best of Show" award and
that it went to my Mystic Seer. That surprised the heck out of me.
They said that it was the model that got the most comments. I won a $100
model from Amazing Figure Modeler as the prize. It was a great weekend
(except for the snowstorm I had to drive home in). So, I think I may
retire from Model Building Contests. I'm 1 for 1. Unless the
opportunity presents itself again.
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The Devil Made Me Do It. -
Last year I was surfing ebay and came upon one of those fortune telling swami
machine/napkin holders, similar to the one seen in the Twilight Zone Episode
"Nick of Time". One thing led to another and now I'm making
Devil Heads in my basement. That has taken some time away from my
B9, but at the same time has contributed to my B9 project fund.
Build your own
Twilight Zone
Mystic Seer Machine!
Lost In Space Word Search, Find all the Lost In Space
related words. Can you find the mystery word? You will need Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view the word search.
 12/21/03 - I've
decided to redesign and reprogram my Soil Sampler. It now has a faster motor
and new motor controller. All controller by a Basic Stamp micro-controller. It's also remote controlled.
Check it out.
 I'm
in PRINT!
A new book came out about Robot Building and where to get information if you
want to building your own. It's called the
Robot Builder's Sourcebook. My web page is featured on page 205.
I got the home page pictured and everything. How cool is that?
If you want to order the book you can click on the link to take you directly
to Amazon. It lists for $25 but they sell it for much less (about
$16.50). |
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Success at Wonderfest 2005
 It was a long drive, but well worth the trip.
I may go back next year because it was so much fun.
I met many wonderful people and enjoyed talking with
them all. I hope I was able to encourage a few folks to take up the
challenge of building their own Lost in Space B9 robot.
Above is a picture of Bob May with my robot and a remote
controlled R2D2.
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Last Summer - My brother and his family
stopped by on their way to Niagara Falls. They had only heard about my
B9 Robot project and have not seen it in person. This gave me an excuse to
stack the robot once again. It getting ever so close to saying that
it was done. Although there will be always something more I will want to
do or upgrade. That's Lauren and Ben in the photo above along with my
B9. They got a real kick out of seeing it up close. This was the
first time my bubble was put on. It fit pretty good.
 9/14/03 - I finished attaching my Knees to the tread section. Check out my
Knee page for details.
 9/19/04
- I finished the wrist inserts which contain the spring
loaded mechanism for the claws. More details
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The rush was on.
I'd been working all week to have my robot completed (or darn close to
complete)
for Halloween. I was glad that I had almost all weekend to finish him
(it?).
I was not exactly sure how I'm going to display it. The front
door opens against a wall so that limits the options there, as he would be off
to the side and not directly visible, unless you were right up to the door.
I wanted to open my garage door and set him up at the front of the garage, but
the weather in upstate NY does not always cooperate, this time of the year.
Last year would have been perfect as it was 74 deg on Halloween. This
year they're saying upper 40's.
So I displayed it in the front picture window. I
needed to trim a few branches from the tree out front to give a good view from
the street. I also found a good spot from my mystic seer and my Dr.
Smith head. (Oh the pain!)
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