Here’s a tip for any readers who may be expecting a child in the near future: there’s about a two year period where you can basically use your child as a Halloween prop. They’re too young to express any serious interest in what they want to dress up as, and as an added bonus, they generally spend most of their time being rolled around in a wheeled contraption anyway. As long as you can keep the little one warm and securely seated in the thing, you’ve essentially got free reign to put them into all sorts of elaborate vehicles.
Case in point, the awesome build that [shnatko] has dubbed the “Millennium Flyer”. Built atop his daughter’s plastic Radio Flyer wagon, the Millennium Flyer is constructed out of wood and foam board. By using the mounting holes in the wagon originally intended for an optional canopy, the ship itself can be removed to fly again next year.
[shnatko] notes that he possess no particular talent for the fine arts, so he decided to skin his build by printing out a high resolution image of the Millennium Falcon he found online. The amount of patience (not to mention printer ink) that this method took is considerable, but we think the final results speak for themselves.
To finish off his build [shnatko] found a blue cold cathode light from his PC modding days and rigged it up with a laptop battery he had laying around. Some foam ribs and wax paper to diffuse the light give it that iconic look from the “real” Falcon.
Between this build and the AT-AT rocking horse from a few weeks back, it seems we are in the golden age of childhood Star Wars conveyances. Though we wouldn’t mind seeing this get mounted to a racing Power Wheels either.
You bastards, that sweet zone is something I have learned to miss now they are something teen!
I think the racing power wheels are necessary to have any hope of making the Kessel run in 11 parsecs…. unless you find a really steep hill.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeK10F6iA8E&w=854&h=480%5D
When they grow up they’re going to want the real thing.
I knew it. Tribbles are the larval stage of Wookiees!
Please don’t tell Lucasfilm. They are still slowly recovering from the bottom they hit with Jar Jar Binks:)
Waiting for Disney to squash this article for infringing on anything THEY WILL MAKE SOMETHING UP, brb popcorn.
Probably not. They seem to like all the free advertising that cosplayers give them. It’s only when you are making money from an infringing product (selling replicas, charging appearance fees, painting Mickey Mouse on a child care wall etc) that they come down on you.
It is cute and stuff but does this count as a serious hack?
Yes, he decorated a little red wagon to look like the Millennium Falcon.
But there are no arduinos
At least it has leds, nowadays that qualifies ;)
All kidding aside, its a pretty nice result & fun idea, so well done shnatko :D
There are no LEDs unfortunately. Back is a neon lamp running off a laptop batter.
You tell us how he used a laptop battery to power those LEDs, then rethink your question. Side note, I have no idea how he did, but I’m pretty sure those batteries only have contact connections for a specific laptop. Not a plug for a random set of lights.
Hey, there are additional model-specific connectors on the battery for the charging circuit etc.. but the batter does have simple +/- connector pins as well.
Conveniently for this project the battery I used supplied 12v which is what the lamp needed to run. It was just a simple matter of hooking up a switch inline. I tested it for a few hours while working on the back end to ensure at least a small measure of safety before putting a child in the seat :)
“does this count as a serious hack?” Nope. It’s a Halloween hack. More light-hearted than serious, but hopefully with enough clever little workarounds that you’ll nonetheless enjoy.
So … I recognize Spock in the backseat (with the woolen ear warmers) and obviously, that’s Twiki in orange next to him. But who’s the plush girl in the front seat? He looks scary – maybe it’s Brown from the M&Ms backlog.
OK, but how fast can it do the Kessel run?
Wish they were in my neighborhood so I could say “You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought!”