River Song future sonic screwdriver dimensions please?

Birdie said:
Unfortunateley those pics were stored on my now deceased laptop, but I pulled these low-res images from my Yourprops account:

i3b03q.jpg


35i61rm.jpg


I built mine quite a while before the toy version was released, using screencaps and a few BBC website pics, so it's not very accurate. Pretty sure I got the right power-meter, but that's probably the only thing that's more accurate to the original prop over the toy :)

It's a really cool toy, btw, probably the closest thing CO have released to an accurate prop replica, albeit in plastic.
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So am I understanding that River sonic in this picture is scratch built? If so where did you source the lens?

I'd like to build a few custom sonics but lens are hard to figure out where they are gotten and I didn't want to just by one of those half sphere cabochons. I'm also interested in sourcing whatever the sound chip is used in the CO toy rather than have to buy and cannibalize CO toys for them.

I emailed the guys building those custom Baker era sonics in an adjacent thread but so far haven't heard back.
 
The CO sound chips are custom made for the toy, they aren't something that can be bought in a large bag or anything. Cannibalizing CO toys is really the only reasonable way to get the sonic sound in that size.

I think there's a good chance it is the cream plastikote, but they drybrushed some other colors over it to distress it. Some black or gray for burns and grime, etc. My CO toy I repainted before I had the heritage gold stuff looked a lot like that with the black base coat and cream top coat.
 
Risu said:
The CO sound chips are custom made for the toy, they aren't something that can be bought in a large bag or anything. Cannibalizing CO toys is really the only reasonable way to get the sonic sound in that size..
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I've gotten suggestions to cannibalize one of those greeting cards sound chips but if you actually look at it they tend to be way to large even to cram into the larger 11th Doctor sonic custom I'm making and I can't find any instructions on how to hack one. I figure there must be some sort of chip made for toys that would be cheaper than destroying a CO sonic to get it. I guess I'll keep looking.
 
The problem isn't getting a sound chip, it's getting a sound chip with THAT sound on it. It has to be programmed that way. There may be a way to do that yourself with the right software/hardware. As for price, my guess is that the CO toys had the smallest sound chip that was affordable at the time. Anything cheaper would have been way too big for the toy. If they could have gone smaller and made the thing the right size, why wouldn't they?
 
Risu said:
The problem isn't getting a sound chip, it's getting a sound chip with THAT sound on it. It has to be programmed that way. There may be a way to do that yourself with the right software/hardware. As for price, my guess is that the CO toys had the smallest sound chip that was affordable at the time. Anything cheaper would have been way too big for the toy. If they could have gone smaller and made the thing the right size, why wouldn't they?
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Well, I haven't cut one open but I've seen mods where the 'emitter' head is cutaway and open and the sound chip is on the lower part of head in the part below the four posts and the two slots that allow the sound to escape.

I assumed since this is a prop forum someone must know something about making sound chips for other props. I can use a slightly larger diameter chip in the 11th Doctor sonic because I have more room to play with in the larger upper part to hide it. I figure there must be way to input a sound loop someplace, I've been looking through stuff on instructables.com but not finding much helpful. A lot bits on programming seem to assume prior knowledge of either a chip or programmer bit.

I didn't realize it was going to be a black art thing to make one's own sound chip.
 
For the sound chips... there was a member selling custom sound modules in the Junkyard a while back, can't remember the name.

Another option might be to contact gmros and find out if he can reprogram a sound chip used for the hand scanner from the mark x tricorder in star trek. That would definitely fit in your sonic... not sure if he could reprogram them for you though.

Hope that helps.
 
elvisgump said:
....where did you source the lens?

I'd like to build a few custom sonics but lens are hard to figure out where they are gotten and I didn't want to just by one of those half sphere cabochons.
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Only trouble with that is that the one from the show had a red lens right? While Birdie's is VERY cool, isn't the lens the wrong color?
 
The one from the show had interchangeable lenses. It was usually blue like the normal sonic but they swapped it out and put on a red lens for the red settings.

I didn't means to dissuade you from looking for a custom sound chip, just trying to warn you it won't be cheaper than taking apart a toy. There are definitely some people on here who could make you a custom sound chip, but it would be more expensive than the 20 pounds shipped for a toy from England.
 
The lens on my relica isn't a lens at all :lol

I couldn't find anything even close to the 'stepped' lens on the original prop, so I just sculpted it then painted it with blue translucent glass paint. Far from ideal, but at least the shae is accurate.
 
so... on the show, did they show the actors swapping lenses or it was just done off camera? sorry, i havent seen that episode.
 
Risu said:
The one from the show had interchangeable lenses. It was usually blue like the normal sonic but they swapped it out and put on a red lens for the red settings.

I didn't means to dissuade you from looking for a custom sound chip, just trying to warn you it won't be cheaper than taking apart a toy. There are definitely some people on here who could make you a custom sound chip, but it would be more expensive than the 20 pounds shipped for a toy from England.
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Firstly, THANK YOU for ANY input from everyone. I'm not discouraged. I'm just in America, and the American South at that - so the closet thing for arty supplies is a chain called Hobby Lobby. I found some acrylic casting stuff there that I thought about trying to make molds and cast some lens with. I have the clear acrylic stuff with dye that goes in it for that but it's project for a day off.

I have some hollow acrylic tubing close to the CO toy size that I thought I'd use to make some custom 10th-ish sonic variations. I cannibalized colored wiring from old tape deck to go twisty in the center of the tubing and plan to fill the tubes with acrylic to make them solid. Again, first time mold making and casting. I anticipate a few horrible failures and false starts before I get something usable.

I have more room in the 11th-ish sonic variations and I've thought about going 9-volt for the light, though I'm thinking of staying with a three way adapter for AAA rechargeable for the light and run sound chips off button batteries if I have to.

It's all just something to amuse myself on my days off. I assumed there must be several places at this point in history where I might be able to buy some micro-sound chip that I could plug a USB cord in and load any sound effect I wanted in it, but apparently that's not the case.

I had my work-in-progress 11th sonic at work sans-emitter head and was sketching ideas for the emitter since I've yet to see a real usable picture of what the screen prop really looks like so I'm taking a 'WTF do something crazy' approach. As people pass by my cubicle I get "WTF is THAT?" and guess that I'm either building a bizarre sex toy or I must be a secret bomb maker or something.

It's funny what some plastic and paint inspires in people imagination.
 
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Does anybody know if the fluid link on the screen used sonic was glass or plastic?
I was just thinking glass since it looks to be about the same length and width as the little glass bar that they put in the "pull in case of fire" fire alarm panels.
 
I don't know, but I'd think acrylic would be safer, right? Could be glass though.
 
birdie... I'm digging your custom future sonic, but didn't you do a refit of the toy too? Any pics of that or did they go the way of the dodo with your old computer?
 
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