Monkey Island - Rubber chicken...

[Risu]

...with a pulley in the middle. Probably the most famous prop from the whole series. I'm putting together a Guybrush Threepwood costume from MI2 for DCon this year and I plan to have a collection of props on my person. This is the most important one, so I've started on it early. I got a rubber chicken on ebay for about $10. It unfortunately arrived crushed, but after filling it with skalding hot water and hanging it on a hook overnight, it reinflated. I then filled it with Great Stuff expanding foam. That was when it got interesting. I only filled maybe 1/4 of the chicken's total mass, but as per the label, it expanded. My rubber chicken spent the next 2 hours vomiting into my trash can.

Now that I have a solid rubber chicken, the next step is to find a wooden pulley wheel the right dimensions, which would be approximately 5.5" in diameter and 1.25" wide, based on the size of the chicken. It could go as high as 6.5" in diameter, but any wider than that and I'll compromise the structural integrity of the chicken. Problem is, most of the wheels I found on Etsy measure in at around 1.75" wide. Anybody have any idea where to find wooden pulley wheels? I don't want to pay a fortune, but for the perfect wheel I could shell out some cash.

 

[nick daring]

 

[Kerr Avon]

BWAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!! I LOVED that game!!!! Can't wait to see this done!!!

For a pulley, you could probably cut three disks of wood, two with the same diameter and one with a slightly smaller diameter, then just glue it together to make your own pulley. Drill a hole through the center and done!

 

[NormanF]

It's not a party until you puke foam.

Sent from my Etch-A-Sketch

 

[Risu]

For a pulley, you could probably cut three disks of wood, two with the same diameter and one with a slightly smaller diameter, then just glue it together to make your own pulley. Drill a hole through the center and done!

I'm considering it. I don't have any woodworking tools, so I'd have to find the disks in the right sizes to make it worthwhile.

 

[Onkelpsycho]

Yes... Monkey Island is a genre, that need props... Love the games, would be cool to have a small display with some nice stuff from the 5 games...

 

[Risu]

I'm also planning on making the key to the monkey head, LeChuck's still living beard, I'd love to have a melted grog mug, and at some point I will be making the skin map from MI3, although I don't think I'll be able to carry that one around.

 

[Onkelpsycho]

Good ideas...

Would love to see the 4 map pieces from MI2... Stans napskin, ashes-2-life, the idol, the MI2 books, receipt to monkey island, capt. kate flyer, root beer, navigators head, the drinks from scabb island or guybrushs wanted poster, hell there is so many cool stuff...

Maybe I will try some pieces, if I have time in close future... But I remember no-one could help out with a nice MI2 map, thats a central prop for me, so I never thought about any other stuff...

How about.... "dance steps"!?!? :lol

 

[Risu]

The paper props are cool, but I don't have anywhere to display them. I might do some work on the MI2 maps at some point though. I also want to make the navigator's necklace, but glass eyes are super expensive and I haven't found any of the cheaper gooey ones that won't leak if you run a string through them.

A long time ago I made my sister the t-shirts from the first game, but they were just iron on transfers. I would actually love to do a run of both shirts actually silk screened, but I don't know if there would be enough interest.

 

[Risu]

So I didn't realize that this would happen, but expanding foam expands first, then it contracts. A lot. And when it's in an airtight rubber chicken, that causes the chicken to implode. I've now got a very heavily dented chicken. Looks like I might have to find an alternative way of doing this. Maybe fill it up with fiberglass resin. That is assuming I can get all the foam back out of it.

 

[NormanF]

It depends on the foam. Halloween of 2011 my team at work was doing an Angry Birds theme for a contest. One guy put foam into a beach ball as a way to make the birds and it never expanded. Turned out it needed air because after a few days he gave up, cut the ball open and then it expanded. The really good stuff like Smooth-On FoamIt is expensive.

Sent from my Etch-A-Sketch

 

[DocNewborn]

I had a similar experience back in October while making set dressings for a production of Little Shop that I directed. Down in the basement of the theatre, I found an old lamp-post but the top was not right for the period. I just wanted a spherical lamp, telling my crew "like on the Sesame Street sign".

I got a good-sized rubber ball that I thought would work, cut a tiny hole in it to thread some wire, and it deflated. A real smh moment. So then I grabbed a nearby can of Great Stuff and fillled it, but it never hardened due to lack of air.

In the end, we went with a glass dome that someone scrounged. It was not as large as I'd have liked, but it worked.

~~~

You may not be able to get the foam out of the chicken, so be prepared to buy another one. (I was a bit surprised it cost you $10, though.)

I'm trying to think of other materials you could use to make it solid but lightweight on the inside. If you go ahead and cut the hole where the wooden pulley will eventually go, you could try inserting a single piece of styrofoam cut to the general shape, or several smaller pieces.

I also had the thought that maybe green florist's foam might work, but you'd need to pre-compress it or you'd have a dentable chicken again.

Alex

 

[Risu]

I plan to cut a narrow slot for the pulley and try to dig the foam out from there. It actually did all harden, it just shrank after hardening. I was surprised because I didn't intend to put it all in in one go, I was going to do a couple inches at a time to make sure each layer air dried properly.

 

[Risu]

Took a long break from this as I considered my options, and tonight I picked it back up. I had about a quart of really old resin, probably would have turned out some really crappy casts, so I poured it into the chicken. The prep for that was even more disturbing than the first attempt.



But it worked perfectly, and now the chicken is totally solid. A little heavier than I would have liked, but not too bad. My next task is to cut some wooden disks and assemble the pulley.

 

[Gombabomb]

Oh wow. That first picture!... I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Have you figured out how you're going to attach the pulley yet?

 

[Risu]

Well I'm going to cut the slot into the chicken with a band saw, then I'll probably cut and peel back a small part of the skin on one side and drill a hole through, then put a pin in through the chicken and pulley and glue the skin back down.

 

[davidnagel]

Risu, did you ever finish this?

 

[Risu]

The resin filled chicken ended up being kind of dangerously heavy. Kind of club-like. I'm going to pick up another one, leave it hollow, and put a wooden pulley wheel between its legs, through the knees. That will keep it simple, light, and safe. As for the pulley wheel, I just need to get some wood working bits and a large block of wood that I can put on the lathe.

 

[davidnagel]

The resin filled chicken ended up being kind of dangerously heavy. Kind of club-like. I'm going to pick up another one, leave it hollow, and put a wooden pulley wheel between its legs, through the knees. That will keep it simple, light, and safe. As for the pulley wheel, I just need to get some wood working bits and a large block of wood that I can put on the lathe.

As exciting as using a lathe will be, why just buy some reasonably sized wooden discs? I'm sure you can find some that'll be right for you. Though you could always find some EMA discs in plastic and paint em up. After all, you won't be using it on your zip wire at home will you!


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[Risu]

I might be able to find some wood discs and glue them together, but I haven't had any luck yet. As for plastic, I doubt I would be able to paint it to look real enough.