You're correct, that's my only real flourish to the original design other than adding those egg dividers. I thought it was rather appropriate as it's from a WW2 short. In retrospect, I should have made them nine instead of five... with cats having nine lives and all.
And I couldn't find the...
Sure! It's mainly made of styrene reinforced with epoxy clay. The crank handles are dollhouse doorknobs.
For reference, here are photos of my steps prior to painting/wiring (I hope Twitter links are OK here).
My order of Smooth-On Rebound 25 is still late... so I finished another master of a toy. I think Fred Fredburger came out even better than Winston. Yes.