Portal Turret Plushie Is Cute And Harmless

turret_plushie

As many of you are probably aware, Portal 2 was released last week, and gamers have been going crazy over it. Over the years, people have constructed replicas of their favorite in-game items and “characters”, including portal guns, companion cubes, and turrets.

After playing Portal 2 for a bit, [Jonathan] wanted a turret of his own quite badly. Rather than construct it from hard plastics and resins however, he decided he wanted to construct a cuddly turret that talked.

With the assistance of his friend [Leigh Nunan], he is now the proud owner of a plushie turret. It’s a bit smaller than you might expect, but it is packed full of turret personality. The plushie plays audio from the game, can sense motion near its face, detect if it has been tipped over, and also knows when it has been picked up. [Jonathan] added all of these features by stuffing an Arduino inside the turret, along with a wave shield for playing sounds. Proximity and motion sensing are provided via a trio of different sensors, enabling the turret to behave in the same way its in-game brethren do (minus the machine guns).

It really is a neat little toy, one we would no doubt be glad to have around. Keep reading to see a short video of his plushie turret in action.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/22804972 w=470]

16 thoughts on “Portal Turret Plushie Is Cute And Harmless

  1. Something about that soft pink hole in the middle reminds me a bit too much of an artificial vagina. And it’s slightly creeping me out.

    And it also can’t be unseen.

  2. They should take an example from this guy and start selling turrets like this.

    But I would add a shooting sound when detecting motion, and market it as “the perfect cubicle/bedroom defender” ;)

  3. I know what a vagina looks like. I have seen artifical vaginas before. How do you not know what an artifical vagina looks like is, I think, the better question ;)

  4. Interesting, I got Portal 2 last Thursday and having been addicted to the first one I’ve completed the 2nd one 3 times now, the 3rd time with the commentary bubbles in the game, my brother found time to finish it too so we’re going to do some co-op playing soon.

    Anyway the sheer lack of merchandise from Valve over Portal (1 & 2) is quite frustrating, t-shirts & printed merchandise don’t cut it – we want some companion cubes and turret sentrys for our desks!

    With that in mind over the weekend I whipped up a test circuit on single breadboard for the innards of a turret sentry consisting of:

    Picaxe 18m2
    miniature PIR sensor module
    diode from a cheap laser pointer
    red LEDs
    2 axis accelerometer
    high quality SD card stereo mp3 playback module
    3+3 watt stereo audio amplifier
    small speakers

    Perhaps adding a 38khz IR sensor for remote control of it instead adding extra buttons.

    My only real problem is fabricating a turret to put the electronics into, I’m better with a soldering iron than a saw…

  5. This would make the ultimate desk toy. A small one would look great next to my coffee mug… lift the mug and “Target lost”. Replace the mug and “there you are!”.

    Genius, utter and absolute genius.

  6. @CutThroughStuffGuy: No problem bro. You stick with your artificial one while I go with the real thing. I was just wondering how you made that bit-of-a-stretch connection ;) No offense my friend, each to their own.

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