Well, my buddy and I spent the last 3 weeks putting together a couple of packs. Amazing how $20 here and $40 there adds up to a ton of money in short order. Anyway check out the vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoD2A4V7ymM.
I realize it is totally not screen accurate etc. but it did get us first prize at a costume contest! I also have some more stills of it here: porkbun.com | parked domain. You can also see my ugly mug in my flightsuit with patches applied.
-Lyle
Oh, and lest I forget HUGE HUGE PROPS to this site and all involved in donating plans, etc. etc. here!!
I agree… I dig the scroller! I also had an idea to have it display different system data… thought that might be cool. You know, stuff like “cooling system: active”… “injectors online”… stuff like that.
It’s a scroller that I got from Target or one of those stores. The name on it is “Body Billboards”. Think it was $10 or something. Pain to program but it turned out pretty cool on the pack.
Ok here is a couple shots of the proton thrower. I have an led alternating red blue toy light thing in the end to light up when you hit the “activate” button. It also has an “intensify” switch that turns the side led’s on and off. They used to flash, but now are on steady. It is from a battery powered small christmas light set from Hobby Lobby.
Also, the stickers are very faded all over the pack and gun due to the fact that it sat outside in the back of a pickup on Saturday night. I need to get some photo paper, or real vinyl stickers done to make it look right again.
The thrower is made out of electrical boxes and a chopped up window scraper from Walmart. I then solder leads to the toy flasher in the barrel and the Christmas light set to a pushbutton and toggle switch on the gun. We mounted them to the packs with another part of the “adjustable head” scraper part and just cut a hole in the base of the gun. Fit pretty well really, just dam tough to hang up by yourself. I’m betting a lot of others here have the same issue with “re-mounting” your throwers on the pack.
Bunch more shots of the thrower here: porkbun.com | parked domain. Also, the screen that will come up is more or less thumb nails, you can click them for a larger image and then click them again for full size (3 MP camera size). Again, far from screen accurate - but gets the job done and looks pretty good to the average joe on the street!
Note: The url thingy wouldn’t work right with the ’ in the url so you’ll have to cut and paste it…
Pic 47 shows us with our $100 prize money for the contest. (private party so no free airfare, cruise, dinner with Donald Trump, trip to the playboy mansion, etc.)
-Lyle
And be sure to checkout the trap in those photos as well - we again used more ice scraper parts for that! Best $9 spent on the costume!
Sweet pack man! I noticed your thrower casing looks like electrical wiring boxes? I made a pretty close to accurate pack with a long box for the Booster housing and a smaller one for the crank case. They worked great and gave my pack a custom look which I liked.
The LED marquee scroller is very cool, wish I had a spot on my pack for one now As far as mounting the gun, yes it’s a pain, and mine is even a magnet mount. sure as hell beats rigid mounting though for parties/conventions since it can move a bit. Keep up the good work, and good luck to you on future projects!
