The droid that Matthew built
Take the globe from a street lamp, a 3D printer, a handful of motors, magnets, computers and ‘‘years of tinkering’’, and you too could have your own working droid.
Matthew Reading, a police officer turned public servant, had no electronics education but turned his hand to recreating a robot from a galaxy far, far away in his own garage, complete with soundeffects, flashing lights and a swivelling head.
His finished BB-8 – the loyal droid featured in two Star Wars films – is one of several replicas in the world but the only one here.
‘‘I don’t watch much TV and instead I like to tinker, so this is the result of years of tinkering.’’
Reading, who lives in Whitby, north of Wellington, spent a year making the BB-8 for charity events. This weekend, he will be raising money for the Child Cancer Foundation at Wellington’s Armageddon pop culture expo.
He’ll dress as Private Hudson from the 1986 movie, Aliens, for the event at Westpac Stadium.
The BB-8 has six motors and two computers, and it can move and talk when operated by a PlayStation controller. ‘‘I saw someone else who’d done it, and I thought it didn’t look too hard.’’
The head of the BB-8 was made by a 3D printer and then painted to look more authentic. The body was harder to make, Reading said.
Reading had to find a supplier of street-lamp globes of the right size, and eventually found one in Whangarei. Luckily, they had one globe to spare. The person Reading dealt with was able to deliver it to Wellington himself the next day.
Inside the street-lamp globe is a large pendulum, six electric motors, eight magnets and two computers, allowing the BB-8 to move, spin and steer himself.
The internal mechanics of the droid are the product of hours of research and built by Reading from scratch to his own designs.
‘‘A lot of people ask what my background is and do I have anything in the movie industry or electronics. The honest thing is I don’t. I was a police officer for five years, then I moved to New Zealand and I’ve been working in the superannuation business.’’
Reading said he learnt everything from the internet or the global BB-8 Builders Club. ‘‘It was just something I felt passionate and enthusiastic about. You can do anything in your garage.’’
The reactions of adults and children were what drove him to continue, he said.
Reading’s first project was an Iron Man costume. He made it in 2013 for the Wellington Sevens.
Then he was invited to wear the costume to a birthday party. Soon other invitations began to arrive. ‘‘People wanted to pay me for it but I ended up donating it to the children’s hospital.’’
He and his Batman sidekick, Kevin, still visit the hospital’s children’s ward in their costumes.
Reading’s BB-8 will be part of the Star Wars costume group, Outpost 42, at Wellington’s 2018 Armageddon today. Spectators will be asked to donate to the Child Cancer Foundation.