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Senor Hugo wrote:

So all in all, it's workable, will be tough as hell, but workable.

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Gutter Monkey wrote:

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Senor Hugo wrote:

So all in all, it's workable, will be tough as hell, but workable.

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The tougher it is, the sweeter the reward when you get it done.

If you stick with Soundwave I recommend keeping all the plans you've outlaid, except the webcams. If you fiddle with the transparecy of his chest plate then you should be able to see fine out of that without anyone outside seeing you. You'll avoid the technical difficulties that the webcams will bring (if the system goes down then you'll be blind on stilts in a 9' tall robot with your arms in a useless position - trust me, that just plain sucks) and the head movement won't suffer at all since it's mounted onto your helmet. I found that the hardest part about this arrangement is adjusting to the fact that everyone will talk to the costume's face and not your human one.

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The trickiest part of your design will be the shoulders and elbows. If you just have the shoulders in a fixed position then you'll be trading in some character movement for a heck of a lot of personal comfort, but if you want to be able to raise the arms and turn them side to side then you're going to have to mount the handle & triggers for the hands inside the upper arms. Your arms movements control the arm movements of the costume, your hands control the lower arm & hand movements.
The big problem with this is that you'll have your human arms in a really uncomfortable position for the whole time you're in the costume, and this design really doesn't help your balance if you're not very experienced with stilts. But it's certainly not impossible, and if you've got the determination to grit your teeth and go through with it then you'll knock the sox off anyone who sees the costume.

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My biggest recommendation for a 8-10' tall costume: spend a LOT of time and energy thinking about your stilt design. You really, really need to be on some sort of stilts to give a costume of that size the correct proportions, even if it's just built up boots. (Unless you're going for a squatter design, like the Alternators toys.) You really need stilts which allow you to stand still in them and not topple over, so they'll need wide, flat feet. But wide, flat feet on stilts make them quite hard to walk naturally in, unless you can figure out some ankle design that won't end up tearing your hamstrings to shreds.

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As for the articulated hands - I half built a set for my Optimus Prime suit but never ended up finishing them. I decided to have them wired up so that the tension kept them closed into a fist and the triggers caused the fingers to open when I pulled on them, but that was just an aesthetic thing. The biggest problem I encountered with them was getting the tension right - I'd get the springs tight enough so that they kept the hand snuggly closed into a fist, but then I'd find that it took a LOT of pressure to pull on the triggers and open the fingers out again. Those Terminator hands are tiny compared to what you'll need for a costume this size - something the size of those toy Hulk hands will be about right. It'll be a matter of experimentation to get them wired just right.

Take a look at the hands on this Gundam, I'm fairly sure they're articulated in a similar manner to what we're both talking about:
http://www.ops.dti.ne.jp/~darkk/7/gogan1.jpg

Boy, I could go on for ages ... keep us updated, Senor H!

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Senor Hugo wrote:
not only to let me look through a 10' robots eyes, but to also get the feeling that people are actually looking up to me, no idea if I explained that as best I could, but you get the idea.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
Well the whole idea I had with the arms, was to have the connection with the shoulders and the upperbody large enough so I could pull my arms inside the chest and let them sit after being in the costume for too long.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
it will be hot as crap in the finished product.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
For the stilts, I planned on having them as 2 feet tall blocks of wood, hollowed out in the middle to lighten the weight atleast a little bit

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Senor Hugo wrote:
As for the ankle system, I actually had some ideas on the feet design {snip}I was thinking on a sort of "shock absorber" system, nothing complicated, just have the "toe" and the "heel" of Soundwave's feet as a slightly free-moving pieces, where when I step forward the toe will bend, like a real foot, then when I put my foot down, a small bit of the heel will press in and depress allowing for a somewhat natural movement, have a couple car -like shocks so the toe and heel doesn't stay in and has some resistance, that way I'm not walking like that moron using oil drums for stilts in the DOlby Digital theatre advertisement. This idea may not take off, but it's an idea and thats good enough for me at the moment.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
I won't be having any hand held weapons, just his shoulder cannon, so I wouldn't have to worry about hanging on to anything.

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Gutter Monkey wrote:

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Senor Hugo wrote:
Well the whole idea I had with the arms, was to have the connection with the shoulders and the upperbody large enough so I could pull my arms inside the chest and let them sit after being in the costume for too long.

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Hmmm. The hinge design for the shoulder will be interesting, especially if you want it to rotate up in a sideways arc as well as rotating up & down.

The problem I came up with here is that having the costume's head sitting on top of your own head means that the costume's shoulders will be dragged higher by about the same distance. I ended up cutting holes into the side of the chest below the shoudler for my arms to go out into the costume arms. It sounds awkward but it allows a surprising amount of movement.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
it will be hot as crap in the finished product.

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Senor Hugo wrote:
Well depending on the space inside the chest I was gonna try to fit a small portable fan somewhere to help keep the heat down

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Senor Hugo wrote:
I was planning on using stripped snowboard shoes to bolt the stuff down, inline skates sound good, I'd have to compare prices to see which would be eaiser to get.

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derepentignymarc wrote:

hey hi senor hugo !!!

all i can say is wow !! if you manage to pull this throught it will be a hell of a masterpiece.....

that being said ...what kind of budget will you have ?
also what will be the primary utility of this costume ? to go in costumes contests ?,clubs ? also if you have allot of electronics you might consider a cooling system for yourself.....

if you are buiding a costume for a club i highly recommend the following... try not to be more then 7 feet tall, DO,NT use cameras to see where your going.... the reason is the darkness of course.... just build small holes that you can see directly through them.... make your feets large so if you get bumped you,ll have a better chance of staying up (that saved me more then once) also if you can make your hands, the robot,s hands ...that also is for security...

i like allot of your ideas but with the 12 years i,ve done this i,ve found that the more something is complex ,there more chance it has to fail... badly sometimes....

but i admire your creativity and i hope to see your designs soon....


mark

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