| THE TYPEWRITER
GUY
PROJECT #216
CLASSIFICATION: KITBASH/SCULPTURE
PARTS USED: OPTIMUS PRIME ("ROLLER" COMPONENT), FINISHING NAILS, PAPER
CLIPS
MATERIALS USED: MODELING COMPOUND, PRINTER PAPER, ACRYLIC PAINTS
FIRST APPEARANCE: SESAME STREET
"Noony noony noo..."
Preamble: Either you recognize him immediately,
or you have no idea what I'm talking about. One of the running animated
segments from the early days of Sesame Street featured a talking
typewriter with arms and wheels, who operated his own keys while teaching
us letters of the alphabet. The character (who was performed by Andrew
Duncan) evidently had no official name and only appeared in 30-second spots,
but as with all mechanical-type characters, I was extremely fond of him as
a youngster. I'd more or less forgotten about him until I happened
to catch an old episode on the Noggin cable network, and it wasn't too long
after that I was determined to create a three-dimensional likeness of
him.
Construction: The easiest way to create
this guy was out of Sculpey modeling compound. I knew that the wheel
base had to be strong enough to support a comparatively heavy body, so I
took an oversized 4" paper clip and built a wire framework that would fit
inside the body. This way, the two sets of wheels would be stable with
respect to each other, and they wouldn't have to rely on the strength of
the clay for support. To create the illusion of each leg splitting
into two wheels, I took two sections of paper clip, sanded the sides down,
and glued them together. (This was the most time-consuming part of
the project, particularly since I kept having to stop. Metal conducts
heat very well, and the friction from the sanding was making the paper clips
too hot to hold.) The wheels themselves were made from the Roller module
that came with an Optimus Prime toy; I sliced off the original wheel mounts
and drilled holes that the paper clip ends could fit inside of. (What's
really great is that the wheels make that characteristic squeaking noise
when you roll them.)
I sculpted the main body around the wire frame;
I was a little worried how the Sculpey would react to having a chunk of metal
inside of it, but it baked without a hitch. The arms and typewriter
carriage are modeling compound as well. The typewriter keys are actually
the heads from a bunch of construction nails that I cut off with a pair of
wire cutters (taking care to bend in half that little sticky-out key he's
got near the bottom right). The typewriter paper is an actual sheet
of paper that I cut down to the right size. (I would have typed the
letters out on the computer, but I couldn't find a sans serif font with a
serif for the letter "q." I can't imagine why.)
Comments: My son and daughter, who were
ages six and four when I made this project, think this guy is positively
a laugh riot (I laughed out loud myself after seeing the "Z is for Zoo" skit
for the first time in 20 years), but it's a testament to the anachronistic
nature of the character in today's world that they have no clue what a typewriter
actually is. My daughter's firmly convinced this guy is actually a
cash register.
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