Robot Claw

Here’s something else I got for Christmas:

A mechanical marvel in natural wood! Here’s what it looked like when opened:

One thing is missing from the above photo – the glue! Although the kit claimed to include wood glue, no such glue was found inside. Luckily – and not so wisely – I had some superglue handy…

The instructions to make the thing were all like this:

Which is to say they made great sense to someone who already knew how to make it!

Yes I know it doesn’t seem difficult, but reconsider your impression based on the knowledge that parts were mislabeled, miscut or (in case) had the holes misdrilled. Now add to the mix the fact that the person putting it together is (unwisely) using super glue, which it turns out bonds made-in-Chinese wooden dino kit parts together in femtoseconds.

That’s the base. The idea (I think!) is that the dino reproduces a walking motion when the crank is turned…

Forming the head! It looks a bit cute even in the instructions doesn’t it?

Connecting the crankshaft to the inner leg. I did this step incorrectly at first, and removing the piece was like trying to untie the Gordian knot. This would be, of course, because I was using super glue and the incorrectly placed pieces had bonded together in less than a single yoctosecond!

But eventually, after some cursing of myself, Yossie and even God, I managed to complete the wooden robot dino-beast. Let’s even call it a BioZoid! Here he stands in all his glory:

Despite my comments this was an enjoyable build. It probably would have been more fun (albeit much slower) had I used wood glue and not super glue though. That was unwise…

What the photo doesn’t exactly show is that it didn’t work! If you turned the crank it spastically flopped a bit, but the head and arms moved not at all and the whole thing just looked uncomfortable. KLS had a great idea though – set it on fire! I had dreams of a future blog post showing my new BioZoid! resplendent in flames! A PyroZoid! perhaps?

Alas this was not to be, because while inspecting the arm/head mechanism the next day I broke it. I blame the superglue 🙂

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2012 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Family, Miscellaneous, Pets, Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.