FINISHED - Dr. Theopolis

This is one of those projects I've always wanted to do, and after building the Quantum Leap Gummy Handlink, realized I now had a way to do it.

The main body of Dr. Theopolis will be made just like the original with a piece of tubing capped by vac formed ends. The insides will be CNC pieces of plastic with the graphics as some sort of sticker. Electronics will probably have to be custom made, but that's a fer piece down the road.

Anyhow, here is what I got done yesterday while at a friends house. The thickness of the sidewalls of the caps need to be trimmed down about 1/2" inch on each cap, but otherwise I'm pretty tickled how it came out so far.









I hope to have the majority of the guts to it all made by the end of the week and now I just have to get someone to help me with the graphics and I'll be good to go. Also have to either find someone to machine the brackets for the necklace or find someone to cast them out of some sort of metal.

Gregg

Re: WIP - Dr. Theopolis

I love Dr. Theopolis :thumbsup

There is a Twiki costume at the Seattle Sci-Fi museum who is missing the Dr.

Re: WIP - Dr. Theopolis

WOW... I've seen a lot of "starts" on this project but yours looks spot on already! Looking forward to seeing further progress.

Re: WIP - Dr. Theopolis

darth_myeek said:

I love Dr. Theopolis :thumbsup

There is a Twiki costume at the Seattle Sci-Fi museum who is missing the Dr.

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Thanks Surfergeek!

DM....My goal when I am done is to contact the museum and see if I can donate one to them to complete the costume. That was a big part of wanting to do this after my last trip there.

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BEEDI, BEEDI, BEEDI, That's cool!

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Very cool. Are you confident on your sizing?

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Nicksdad said:

Very cool. Are you confident on your sizing?

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Very!

It's based off a screen used piece. I did have to make about an 1/8" or so adjustment to find a standard size on the tubing, but I can live with that.

Gregg

Re: WIP - Dr. Theopolis

Droidboy said:

Very!

It's based off a screen used piece. I did have to make about an 1/8" or so adjustment to find a standard size on the tubing, but I can live with that.

Gregg

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Awesome.
If you are laser cutting the acrylic inerds make a few extra, I would love one.

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Nicksdad said:

Awesome.
If you are laser cutting the acrylic inerds make a few extra, I would love one.

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I think there will be a few extras made

Gregg

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That's pretty dang cool! I hate Twiki but love the Doc.

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And so it has begun...

Looking good my friend. :thumbsup

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After playing with an original Theo years ago, I can tell you that anything you make - anything at all - will be of a higher quality than the original thing. Seriously, make the thing out of foamcore and string cheese and you'll have something pretty close........

I got roped into making a replica of one of these for a 25th anniversary screening of BUCK ROGERS here in LA. They got the one of the actors who did the voice to sit with a microphone and I operated his lights -



The original had two vacformed end plates with a beveled edge. One was solid (that was the back), one had a large circle cut (poorly) out of the middle (that was the front). The middle section (that makes up the thickness) was nothing more than some sheet styrene rolled into a cylinder and sandwiched between the front and back. There's been a lot of speculation that the Theos were made out of cake tins or other found items. In reality it was just a crappy pile of thin plastic. Because they used styrene, the ensuing years were not kind. Lots of hairline cracks. I've seen some pictures of the other ones - the square ones - and they seem to be holding up better. Perhaps they were made of plexi instead of thin styrene.

I decided to use a piece of acrylic tubing for the body. I was able to build up the outside dimension to the proper specs, but the inside diameter was off by 1/4" - 1/2" (I think). It looks like you are using a piee of thinner aluminum tubing? I think that's good and the one thing I wanted was some structural integrity (that the originals didn't have.) I used a set of battery operated mini-Christmas lights for most of the lighting, since they were already wired up. I've forgotten most of the circuitry - there was a set of lights ringing the thing that stayed on. Then there was another switch that toggled between two separate sets of lights for the talking. We never did ID what the hanger pieces are on his sides. They were missing from the hero one and mine are just made out of plastic. I suspect it's some sort of fitting from a hardware store - but we've never found it.





Eric Server, the voice of Theo for part of the series, is on the left. The control box/battery pack I made for the thing is on the right. As tempting as it may be to use LEDs, I still like the look if incandescents on a project like this. If you want to have any sort of length to the umbilical, you'll need a decent amount of power. I think I wound up overvolting the lights by 20% or so to make up for the 8' length of the umbilical + the multiple circuits.

Gads, I'm getting a twitch just thinking about this again....... :confused

Good luck.

Gene

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Thanks for the tips! I hope to have the guts done this weekend, and then just have to figure out the best way to create the graphics.

For the side hangers I was wanting to have them machined and then cast out of metal or something. I am sure resin would work, but I want it to be a durable bit.

Gregg

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Looks fantstic Gregg!!!

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SurferGeek said:

WOW... I've seen a lot of "starts" on this project but yours looks spot on already! Looking forward to seeing further progress.

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Ditto

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So as far as the electronics question goes, if I go with the battery powered Christmas tree lights, does anyone have any thoughts on the red "voice" lights?

My gut tells me that the "perfect" option would be ridiculously expensive, designing a circuit which was hooked up to a mic so that it would flash as you talk and to be honest, not very practical.

Or I could install a set of lights that could either be manually turned on and off like how Gene and the original builders did it. I'm ok with this option, but I'd like some input from you guys. I find we normally build things better around here when we all contribute.

The white always on lights will in fact be the battery powered christmas lights. It's just the red lights that have me a bit confounded.

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One other thing, and you've probably already figured this out - the power source for Theo is going to have to be located outside the body shell. I can't remember how much room there is behind the back plate and the rear wall, but it wasn't enough to hold a battery. On the original, I suspect that the umbilical (which someone cut off years ago) supplied power and controlled the lights.

Personally, I'm for incandescents all the way. LED's give off a different 'look' than incandescents, so try and match the vintage look, I say. That way you get a little hot core at the center of the lightbulb that gives it a glow. Also, and I didn't notice it till I was putting the finishing touches on it, you get a slight fade out instead of an instant on/instant off effect.

My two cents.

Gene

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Thanks Gene. Your help has been invaluable!

Gregg

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Agreed on the incandescent vs. LED. That has been my biggest pet peeve about the MR Enterprise. All the lighting is done with cool white (bluish) LEDs, just doesn't match the original look.

That said, you can now easily find warm white LEDs and even circuits that give the "ramp up/down" that makes them appear more like incandescent bulbs.

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Yes incandescents would give it "the look" for sure. Can't wait to see what your next step is!