Davros Baby Walker project
For a laugh, I decided to construct a Davros baby walker for our baby for Halloween 2016.
It's built to 50% scale, which worked out perfectly for little one's size, who at the time was about 9 months old.
Halloween 2016
I finished the build off a couple of hours before the 2016 kids Halloween party. Our little one went trick or treating, surprising our neighbours, and generally had everyone cooing over her!
This image was taken in our local pub as she was scooting around the place!
Science Of The Timelords 2017
Luckily she was still (only just) small enough to use it for the event "Science Of The Timelords" at Leicester Space Centre, 1st January 2017, where she absolutely stole the show! Everyone we met wanted to take photos of her, and thought she was the cutest thing!
Budget and Materials
I spent about £10 on polystyrene hemispheres and wheels, ALL other materials are re-used or recycled stuff I had laying around.
It is mainly made from 3mm and 12mm plywood, with some 20mm pine for the fender. Aircraft "Speed Tape" has been used to give aluminium effects to the console and fender, while kitchen aluminium foil covers the hemispheres.
The seat is borrowed from a plastic baby-bouncer thing, and loosely covered in old fleece material.
Design
A few people have stuck panels and hemispheres to the sides of normal baby walkers, but I intended to make a fairly accurate replaica of the famous Davros chair from Genesis of the Daleks (1975), but as a baby-walker. This of course meant trying to make it as safe as possible.
Based on the original Davros from Doctor Who - Genesis Of the Daleks played by Michael Wisher, I used dimensions available from the great www.projectdalek.co.uk website.
On the whole, it is true to the original Davros in terms of skirt and fender shape / dimensions / size, but to get it done in time, I had to simplify the console at the top, which was finished the night before Halloween! The elements that are accurate, are accurate to 1 to 2mm tollerance.
Un-Realistic Timescale
This project took me a few evenings scattered over a 3 week period. Time was saved by omitting certain details (that could be added later), but without distracting from the overall effect, especially when viewed from a distance!
A better finish could have been achieved if I'd planned a bit more time, for example the polystyrene hemispheres ended up being wrapped in kitchen foil as I'd not yet found a way to successfully paint them silver without them melting!
How it was made / build diary
Build diary with photos of the project here with enough information to help someone else build one too!
Click image.
Comparison to the original
In June 2017 we visited the fantastic Doctor Who Experiance in Cardiff.
The original Davros skirt was on display there, as restored by The Model Unit.
The skirt seen here is the original from the Genesis Of The Daleks (played by Michael Wisher). It was modified over the years, mainly by the change of console, as seen here in it's Terry Malloy look.
Amazingly, my wife, who is usually quite opposed to my geeky antics, had to admit that my baby walker did look better than the original!
Thanks
Massive thanks to my wife for agreeing to trust me with the safety of our little one! - It's quite a big ask really. Also thanks for the time off the house restoration to achieve this project.
Big thanks to the efforts of www.projectdalek.co.uk for making sets of plans & dimensions available to download.
New Home
In October 2017 we put the Davros baby walker up for sale. I'm really pleased to say it's been aquired by someone we had met before, who will give it a good home. The new custodian is Davros from the Hyde Fundraisers! We couldn't have wished for a better home for it!
Please do see the Hyde Fundraisers website!