Does anyone have any resources to build a MSE-6 droid?

I was just wondering if you guys know of any sites that might help me build one, I looked myself but I couldn't find anything.

 

To the layperson, this is a Mouse Droid.

I know that someone from Artoo Builders club made a nice one which was on display at their room at SWC2. You might want to contact them.

 

Ok, thanks I'll try and get in contact with them.

 

Max Cervantes was the one with the Mouse at Celebration II. He was playing Battlebot with it against an R2.

StudioCreations has one also. You see it in the Trooper Clerks live action trailer.

 

im about to make 2 of them.while ive found many pics of them i havent seen many replicas done.im going to be basing them on 2 inexpensive rc cars that can be run at the same time. my wife works for the cable co. and they have these cool plastic "cable" boxes that the closest thing ive ever seen to a mousebot.seeing these boxes actually made me want to do the project.they are not available at homedepot/lowes so this isnt something people can point at and say they know what its made from.

i read that the top parts were made from pcs of "tractor tread" i may try to recreate them using plastic and wooden dowels.also the side has alot of small squares.these ill cut out of plastic and glue them to the side.its not that hard of a project and i saw a picture in my research that had a bunch of mousebots and they werent all exactly the same.
plus with any of these projects theres always room for your own artistic expression.

 

Just a quick question (ot)

What are those little mouse droids supposed to do anyway?

 

i fully intend to run them around and annoy people.im thinking of ways they can make the noises also.i think they would be fun to have running around cons and appearances.

real star wars fans would really get a kick out of them.

Actually i read that they had numerous jobs on the death star.one was to lead troops around the maze of corridors. the other was to take important data from place to place.too bad the internet and networking wasnt available on the deathstar.haha

 

Don't be fooled poeple, that Mouse Droid is HUGE. 51cm from front to back, over 1.5 feet high. The best inexpensive RC car in the stores these days to base this medium sized droid on is the big 1/6 scale PT Cruiser and VW Beetle that are in Toy's-R-US these days.

Building the body from sheet plastic, or a lightweight wood paneling is probably your best bet.

Good luck.

 

wow jeff,i didnt realize they were that big.

the ones im going to make will be just over a foot long i think.so they will be a little smaller versions i guess.
ive got a bunch of rc cars around that the kids dont play with.i was going to use one of those but i wanted to get 2 that are on different frequencies.so i can run 2 at a time.
how did you find those dimensions?i have looked around and hadnt been able to find squat on these things.

what did you build those top pcs from.i have an idea on what im going to do but would like to see yours.

plus when you search yahoo for it there is a link to your site.but it wont work.

skip

 

I heard somewhere that the shell was made from a toaster. it might be a good idea to go to a second hand store and dig an old one up, as a metalic one would make an exellent base for it.



oh yea, i know someone who has already made one, on the Wales forum (in the British Isles Section)

 

A toaster....I dunno...

 

That's a pretty big toaster.

 

That's no toatser... It's a... *Cough*

 

Skip,

Yeah, I know of the 1 foot RC cars that you speak of. MY first droid was made that way. I thought it was the right size when I built it, but when I saw the video tape of it running around the floor amongst some Troopers (in my Trooper Clerks Movie Trailer) I realised just how tiny I had made it.

Upon additional research and going to the Majic of the Myth exhibit, I found out just how big the MSE-Droid really is.

Don't worry about your Droid size though. The fans do like the small 1 foot droids. Everyone was mesmerized with my Mini-MSE when I showed up to DragonCon '98 with it.

-sc

 

i have been looking at the pics this past week and starting to gather parts and ideas.i believe i can recreate the top pcs using wooden dowels and cutting out the straight pcs of plastic then painting everything to look like metal.
im confused on what exactly those top pcs are?jeff ,got any idea.

i read somewhere that a pc of tractor/tank tread was used and after looking at the sides i have no idea what is what.i can cut lots of little squares and glue them to the side,which would work for my purposes, but i would like to know what the heck all those pcs were.is that the tread pcs?
im going to go to the hardware store and search for sometype of little square pcs i could use.anytime you can use "pre made" pcs it looks better.

anyone else working on this?

 

i have been looking at the pics this past week and starting to gather parts and ideas.i believe i can recreate the top pcs using wooden dowels and cutting out the straight pcs of plastic then painting everything to look like metal.
im confused on what exactly those top pcs are?jeff ,got any idea.

i read somewhere that a pc of tractor/tank tread was used and after looking at the sides i have no idea what is what.i can cut lots of little squares and glue them to the side,which would work for my purposes, but i would like to know what the heck all those pcs were.is that the tread pcs?
im going to go to the hardware store and search for sometype of little square pcs i could use.anytime you can use "pre made" pcs it looks better.

anyone else working on this?

 

Well, I myself have heard that they're AA batteries with some sort of screws on top.

 

I'm getting an RC car for Christmas that I'm going to convert. It's a cheap plastic Humvee, but it goes right and left and forward and back which was basically all I figured. Plus it has lights on it so I figure I can hook up something else by playing around with the wiring. I ran a seach for "Mouse Droid" on Yahoo a week or so ago and found a site where some college guy had made a Mouse Droid (fully function, complete with Wookiee Alarm) for his Elec.Engineering project in robotics at his college. It looked pretty good... slightly different from pics I've seen, but hey, it also FUNCTIONED like a Mouse Droid is supposed to...

Also... what about just building a bigger body around a smaller car out of styrofoam or plastic or something? If you make the mouse droid the real size, I don't think it would look right to most people, but you definately don't want it to be TOO small... i.e those mini RC cars they're trying to sell at every mall these days (at least in Cali and Washington, I know... heh) .

 

The side borads of the Mouse droid are some reistor capacitor circuit board from something. I have some detailed close up shots of these boards, but there are nomarkings or serial numbers any where. Basically I just took some sheet metal melded the side bar strips to the plate, then soldered 60+ microchips that i bought at bulk at a local electronics shop.

for the upper parts of the droid. it is speculated that the main bodies are some carriage housing for telecommunications equipment that was used in the 60's or 70's. Supposedly Elstree studios had a huge junk pile of surplus telecom equipment out back when star wars was being made, and the propmen scavanged this stuff daily for pieces and parts. I have yet to have the parts identified by any Old Timers that I've meet in the telecom industry.

The Battery looking things have been identified, they are capacitors to something . Garrr.. i can't find the archived info right now, but they are definitely real world items. I think they are used in Ham radio operation, but I could be wrong.

 

I work in a computer lab that goes through a lot of computers all the time and they have a bunch of crappy parts they're always trying to get rid of so I'm sure I'll pick up some circuit boards somewhere... or get them from my cousin. Maybe a couple of old modems or something. *L*

 

hey everybody,
i finally got back to work on my mouse droid.i had some computers i was throwing away and i stole the heat sinks and simm chips out of them first.i got a "cable" box from someone at the cable co.you cant buy these so its not something everyone will recognize.i then drilled holes in the heat sinks and mounted those on the top.i riveted the chips to the sides.i then painted the whole thing silver.i then topped that off with some black.i left alot of silver showing through to replicate that metal/worn look.
i next will paint the bottom part and the wheels to match the top.
heres a picture of it so far.ive been driving it around the house.its kinda funny looking but its got a great similarity to the one in the movie.I thought this might help some one.I know most cities have computer surplus stores so these computer parts should be cheaply found.


[image=http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_8052677/mousebot+project/mousebot9.jpg?bc3.ML.AdYVH7qqP]

 

That's a great replica. Kudos. I know how it feels to have one running around the house, it's like being on the deathstar! YAHHH!!!

Say, do think you might be able to cut out some wheel wells from the bottom pan, thereby exposing the wheel rims a little more?

-sc

 

Nice work, SKip!

 

so how big are they?

[image=http://www.artoosnews.com/artooscustoms/imagearchive/images/characters/droids/mse-6_mouse_droid.jpg]

 

i had thought about having the wheels showing more.in order to securely mount the bottom part i needed it to be flush with the rc car.had i mounted it up higher it would have been kinda top heavy and leaned really bad around turns.this has a nice low center of gravity and handles turns nicely.i really like the chrome wheels(what guy doesnt) but i plan on painting them black as well.

if i was to cut out the sides of that box then it would no longer be one pc.i had to trim out the bottom of the box i used alot to make the car fit under it.

for my purposes this will work great.i only need it a few times a year for cons,events and stuff.