{"id":763,"date":"2007-11-05T17:49:55","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T17:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/763"},"modified":"2007-11-05T17:49:55","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T17:49:55","slug":"steampunk-chicken-walker-mech-costume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/archives\/763","title":{"rendered":"Steampunk Chicken-Walker Mech Costume"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a long history of biting off more than I can chew when it comes to Halloween costumes. It&#8217;s in that tradition that, when my friends suggested Star Wars as a theme for costumes this year, my first idea was to go as an AT-ST, the 2-man <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chicken_walker\">chicken-walker<\/a> mech that the Ewoks beat up on in Return of the Jedi. After several design iterations I had left the Star Wars Universe behind in favor of a steampunk flavor, and thus was born the Steam Walker.<\/p>\n<p>  <object width=\"425\" height=\"366\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/CIQuXk8wQOA&#038;rel=1&#038;border=0\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/CIQuXk8wQOA&#038;rel=1&#038;border=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"366\"><\/embed><\/object>  <\/p>\n<p>The idea is to make it looks like I&#8217;m sitting in a chair riding atop a steam-powered mech that walks on two robotic legs. In reality my seated legs are false, and my real legs power the robot&#8217;s legs. This is basically a variant on the age-old circus-clown costume where someone looks like they&#8217;re riding a horse, and is also inspired by <a href=\"http:\/\/hallert.net\/apucostume\/apucostume.htm\">Ben Hallert&#8217;s APU costume<\/a> and the paintball mech costume called <a href=\"http:\/\/carmellascommandos.com\/Picspics\/SteelDawn\/index.htm\">Steel Dawn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While not fast enough to keep up with 6-year-old trick-or-treaters as they went from house to house, I was still able to walk down the street and show off to passers by. The most common reaction was along the lines of &#8220;Wow! That&#8217;s the coolest costume I&#8217;ve ever seen \u2014 what the heck are you?!? (Best answer so far: <em>Luke Skywalker: The Later Years<\/em>.) I also got little kids (and some older kids, who really should know better) asking me how the thing was powered, several adults admitting they couldn&#8217;t figure out how the thing worked, and at least one little girl bursting into tears as she saw me ambling towards her. All in all, I&#8217;d say it was a big success :).<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how I actually built the thing, take a look at my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Build-your-own-steampunk-chicken-walker-mech\/\">Instructable<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/steam-walker-front.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/steam-walker-front-small.jpg\" alt=\"steam-walker-front-small.jpg\" border=\"1\" align=\"left\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a>  <a href=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/steam-walker-left-side.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/steam-walker-left-side-smal.jpg\" alt=\"steam-walker-left-side-smal.jpg\" border=\"1\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a long history of biting off more than I can chew when it comes to Halloween costumes. It&#8217;s in that tradition that, when my friends suggested Star Wars as a theme for costumes this year, my first idea was to go as an AT-ST, the 2-man <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chicken_walker\">chicken-walker<\/a> mech that the Ewoks beat up on in Return of the Jedi. After several design iterations I had left the Star Wars Universe behind in favor of a steampunk flavor, and thus was born the Steam Walker.<\/p>\n<p>  <object width=\"425\" height=\"366\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/CIQuXk8wQOA&#038;rel=1&#038;border=0\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/CIQuXk8wQOA&#038;rel=1&#038;border=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"366\"><\/embed><\/object>  <\/p>\n<p>The idea is to make it looks like I&#8217;m sitting in a chair riding atop a steam-powered mech that walks on two robotic legs. In reality my seated legs are false, and my real legs power the robot&#8217;s legs. This is basically a variant on the age-old circus-clown costume where someone looks like they&#8217;re riding a horse, and is also inspired by <a href=\"http:\/\/hallert.net\/apucostume\/apucostume.htm\">Ben Hallert&#8217;s APU costume<\/a> and the paintball mech costume called <a href=\"http:\/\/carmellascommandos.com\/Picspics\/SteelDawn\/index.htm\">Steel Dawn<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While not fast enough to keep up with 6-year-old trick-or-treaters as they went from house to house, I was still able to walk down the street and show off to passers by. The most common reaction was along the lines of &#8220;Wow! That&#8217;s the coolest costume I&#8217;ve ever seen \u2014 what the heck are you?!? (Best answer so far: <em>Luke Skywalker: The Later Years<\/em>.) I also got little kids (and some older kids, who really should know better) asking me how the thing was powered, several adults admitting they couldn&#8217;t figure out how the thing worked, and at least one little girl bursting into tears as she saw me ambling towards her. All in all, I&#8217;d say it was a big success :).<\/p>\n<p>For more information on how I actually built the thing, take a look at my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Build-your-own-steampunk-chicken-walker-mech\/\">Instructable<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/steam-walker-front.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/steam-walker-front-small.jpg\" alt=\"steam-walker-front-small.jpg\" border=\"1\" align=\"left\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a>  <a href=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/steam-walker-left-side.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/docbug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/legacy\/steam-walker-left-side-smal.jpg\" alt=\"steam-walker-left-side-smal.jpg\" border=\"1\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.docbug.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}