Jabba's Door Droid - TT-8L/Y7 Gatekeeper Droid

Howlrunner

Sr Member
I've had a bunch of different sized acrylic baubles sitting in my box-o-bits for years so while between projects I decided to take a look at this guy. Looks like it's only been attempted twice that I've seen, so not a particularly popular guy!

I started with screencaps and the DVD, and by using them and holding up different sizes of spheres the correct(ish) distance from my C-3PO head for scale, I guestimated that the "eyelid sphere" appears to be approx. 12cm diameter, with the inner eyeball at approx. 10cm diameter.

Of course, I don't have any 12cm baubles, so I had to order them, and am waiting on them arriving.....

So, in the meantime, on to the eyeball.... From studying the screencaps I would say that the white section has probably been created by layering on thin strips of white vinyl (it appears that some of the individual strips overlap others very slightly. I considered that. Also considered masking a clear hemisphere, marking out the right shape and spraying. In the end, I decided on something that may not be 100% accurate methodologically speaking, but will give a nice looking result.

So.... 10cm bauble hemisphere, pair of compasses, pencil, ruler, strip of cereal box card (for drawing straight curved lines), dremel, needle files, steady hands and nerves of steel got me this:

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And then with another section of hemisphere that will be inserted for the lens:

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Now, I would LOVE to make him so that he is actually movable (eye opens), but I just can't quite figure that one out.

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From watching the DVD (frame by frame) it appears that the lower "eyelid" is locked in place - when the eye opens it is only the upper lid that moves. Now, looking at screencaps and thinking about it, I can only think that this will be possible if I use my 12cm diameter sphere for the lower lid, but then us a VERY slightly larger diameter sphere for the upper lid, so that it can slide over and around the lower section. Trouble is, finding a slightly larger sphere (or hemisphere) is proving very difficult. Only thing I can really think of is vac-forming one over the top of the 12cm hemisphere, but I don't have a vac-former. I may just have to cheat with a static open eye (which can be done with two halves the same size, one slightly overlapping the other, as long as they're at an angle to each other - which they would be anyway). Unless anyone has any other bright ideas?

Oh, and before I get there, anyone got any Blu-Ray images of that spikey side linkage on the "arm" to try to identify parts (or at least shapes)?
 
Can't wait to see what you do with this. I'm a fan of all of your projects that I've seen so far.
 
Cool project. Here's an idea that popped into my head. Maybe you could incorporate one of these grabber tools into the build to make the eye open and close. Maybe remove the pinchers and attach the spheres somehow. It would kind of be like a puppet.

image.jpg
 
I don't think the bottom eyelid goes up as far in the back as you're thinking. So I think you're okay having them be the same size. There's a step down where the top eyelid meets the bottom in the back that to me looks like it's part of the "clear sphere". I'm seeing both lids as being the same diameter, but the bottom lid is just attached to the clear sphere that is painted in the back to match. The top lid attaches to the clear sphere on the sides via an axle.
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Here's what I'm seeing.
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For the mechanism, something as simple as a trigger at the end of the stick with a line (green) going up through the inner sphere, wrapping around the axle and fixed (maybe threaded through). If the axle and top lid are fixed together and you have springs on the axle (black circle) for tension between the top lid/axle and the inner sphere/bottom lid, it will return when you let go of the trigger.
 
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Great project. Everyone needs a gatekeeper (or doorkeeper, if you don't have a palace) droid, not only Jabba! :)
 
Thanks Trooper-Trent! You know, I had studied the shapes of the top and bottom lid, and had even spotted and thought about the "step" at the back of the eyelids, but I was stuck on the track that the top lid would have to overlap the bottom lid.... Your suggestion would work and looks good with all available reference. Though it does mean that I'm gonna have my work cut out for me ensuring that those two eyelids interlock exactly (can't cheat it a little with the overlap)...

In the mean time, I painted the eyeball (painted inside black as well to build up paint thickness to stop light leaking through any thin spots) and hot-glued in the lens.

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I was at HobbyCraft yesterday and bought a load of teardrop beads (they were identified/suggested in a previous builder's thread) and a cheap battery operated LED string. Here's the test:

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Obviously the LED colour is not right... I have identified some orange LED string lights and ordered them. Until they, or my 12cm diameter spheres, show up there's not a whole lot more I can do on this just now other than research.
 
EXCELLENT START! Love it! I think Trooper-Trent is right on the mechanism. You can also see a "rod" or something going through the center acting as the pivot point.

Looking forward to more!
 
Though it does mean that I'm gonna have my work cut out for me ensuring that those two eyelids interlock exactly (can't cheat it a little with the overlap)...

Hey that's looking great so far!
as far as making sure the eyelids interlock....Why not start with a single sphere, draw the outline of the interlocking pieces and just slowly cut dead center on the draw lines with a really thin blade? Cut the remaining portions to get your separated halves. once you smooth out and sand the edges, you're ensured that the pieces match exactly.

Please excuse my crude sketches. But I'm thinking something like this.
cuts.jpg
start with a full sphere.
Cut one is the blue squiggly line to get the shape of the interlocking "eyelashes".
Cut two (green) is to separate the bottom lid at the right angle so that when they rotate, the backs of the top and bottom lids line up.
The part marked "X" is scrap.
Remember there is NO overlap. the bottom lid is merely glued to the inner sphere and the top lid is fixed to an axle running through the inner sphere.

Now if I take this same picture and rotate it, remove the scrap (X) portion, and overlay it over the inner sphere, you can see what I'm talking about.
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That's a very cool project. I was actually just working on a 3D model of this droid last week and was thinking "huh, it's strange that I haven't seen many people making a prop of this". :p

I'm totally jealous, though. This would be a fun project to work on but I'm not brave enough to try to cut out that sphere!

Are you going to be making the door version of this droid or the version that actually has a body? (I gotta say, the version with a body would be uber impressive.)
 
Trooper-trent, it's a good idea, but I don't think I could cut out the shape with a thin blade like that - I'm gonna have to use a dremel. The other problem is that the 12cm diameter sphere comes as two hemispheres that snap together, so for strength, I don't think I can do it like that - I'm going to have to do each "eyelid" from a separate hemisphere. I'm pretty sure that I can do it though - I'm going to draw out the shape on other hemisphere and dremel it out, then use that to overlap half of the other hemisphere (they will fit inside each other if you don't overlap past the half way mark) and then use that shape as a stencil to draw the corresponding shape onto the other half, then dremel that out. The tricky part is in getting the "eyelash" lines perfectly parallel in the first place, otherwise they won't slide into the interlocking position.

Blue Leader, no I'm not doing the full droid (from The Essential Guide to Droids) as most people have never seen it, and I simply don't have space. I'm going to do the eye, spiky extension section and a bit of piping (not as long as is seen in the movie as I want it displayable), with some kind of circular hatched wall mount.
 
This build looks so cool, looking forward to seeing it progress.

Wanted to add my thoughts on the mechanism although it looks like you've got it well under control - I wondered if it was similar in any way to those mechanical ice cream scoops you get, you know the ones where you pull a trigger and a curved arm sweeps through the bowl?

http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-mechanical-ice-cream-scoop/p783228

Anyway, just a thought - might be useful to see a similar mechanism in the flesh?
 
The build is looking great so far, everybody needs one of these droids for their front door as far as i'm concerned!

Don't know if it is of any help to you but I 3D modelled the Gatekeeper Droid for fun a while back. I know the eye on mine doesn't close and it isn't the most accurate, but I had fun making it (the big bronze rear portion was completely made up by me as I wanted some way of attaching it to a wall if ever a made it, so just ignore that part).
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