Star Wars VII Soccer Ball Droid

I love that you all are trying to figure out how to make an actual R/C controllable version of this little fella (which I think is do-able) but I think most of you are WAY over-thinking it.
Inquisitor P. and Formori look to have the most reasonable design. Levitating magnets and that sort of stuff is needlessly complicated. That may be how BB-8 "works" in the Star Wars universe, but magnets and bearings are going to be much more reliable in the real world.
 
As for how the practical puppet was used on set; the Mark Hamill interview only says he "ran it around the shop", which doesn't say anything about having r/c controls for the thing.
More likely BB-8 is a ball on a stick with the axle entering the ball on the off-camera side and a rod coming up the far-side to support and puppeteer the head. That way a puppeteer could just run it along the ground wherever they want it to go, and then production erases the rods in post. That would be considered a practical puppet by movie making definitions.

We prefer to keep it simple and low-tech when we make props and puppets for movies and TV. It's cheaper, quicker to make and more reliable on set. The last thing an operator wants to have happen is the Director and crew all waiting around for him to sort out some glitchy, complex unit while the money meter is running. We only use fancier things when there is no other way. It's hard for a ball-on-a-stick to go wrong.
 
What about having two seperate halves which rotate independently, allowing you to steer. With a gap large enough for the mast to hold the dome, but something like painted brush or rubber gasket that closes the gap but is flexible enough to move around the mast?
 
Ball on a stick sounds the most plausible. You could move it around like a wheelbarrow. You would have to build a lockable hinge for the pole if you want to change direction.

Mclabop said:
What about having two seperate halves which rotate independently, allowing you to steer. With a gap large enough for the mast to hold the dome, but something like painted brush or rubber gasket that closes the gap but is flexible enough to move around the mast?
Click to expand...
We concluded earlier that that would be too unstable because the two "wheels" (where the halves touch the ground) would be very very close together.
 
Last edited:
Sidewinder said:
Elf hat.
Click to expand...

Elf hat it will be.

Working on the outer triangular plates at the moment-

IMG_20141218_221714761_zps7e2bc44a.jpg
 
I started doing my own version of BB-8. Gonna start in Lego Digital Designer, then actually build it once I like the results. Here's a little preview!BB-8 Progress.png
 
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