May 22, 2013

STRANDBEEST!!

The unusual plastic kit I mentioned in my last post was a mechanical kit of a Strandbeest.... what in hell is a Strandbeest you will likely be asking yourself. Let Adam Savage explain in the video that made me go searching eBay for a kit



Strandbeests are the creation of artist Theo Jansen, they're very weird but also quite cool. The fact I really like multi legged walkers made me want to build one so I found one kit at around the $20 mark amongst the the $80-90 ones. Turns out it didn't have the magazine with it but did have instructions in engrish which at least made life easier to make sense of it.

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At this point you may well be thinking OMG WTH etc. I took my time clipping off all the parts and cleaning of the snip bits while watching Game of Thrones.

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All the parts neatly layed out of "knolled" as Adam Savage says.

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After about a half hour or so construction after some confusion at the construction of the 1st pair of legs it went together incredibly fast. It's a really idiot proof kit in that the joints can only be built the correct way. It's just at the bit where they connect to the crank shaft that gets a bit confusing if you don't reread the instructions for that one stage.

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IT'S ALIVE!!!!

It walks very well as it strides sideways across your desk.

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It's just such a bizarre complicated looking thing but it walks so gracefully that it doesn't look mechanical as it does it. I'll shoot some video later.

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