![]() It could “see” me walk by in the hall, and would respond to other motions. Cool! The new one arrived a few days later, and low and behold, it worked great. At that point, I contacted them again, and they promptly shipped out a replacement, and rather than having me ship the old one back, just asked me to toss it. Rather than ship the old one back for a refund, I decided to wait until they had them back in stock, which was about 2 weeks later. A quick email to ThinkGeek resulted in a prompt response of “seems defective”, but alas, they were out of stock. The motion part worked great, and knocking it over resulted in various sayings from the game.Ī quick examination of the “eye” found a stray piece of plastic in the opening, but still lousy performance. It basically required shining a flashlight into the “eye” (which is actually a small black tube opening below the glowing eye). Upon receiving it, I thought it looked extremely cool, but was a bit disappointed with the performance of the motion sensor. I waited patiently for them to come into stock, and promptly ordered one for early December. When I finally got around to playing Portal, I was a bit surprised at how much the Internet loved the companion cube.When I first saw ThinkGeek advertising the Plush Portal 2 Turret, I thought it sounded extremely cool. In fact, they inspired a Veruca Salt-esque covetousness in me.Īnd, of course, it just wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t talk… Sure, the cube is pretty great, but in my mind it pales in comparison to the turrets, the real scene-stealers of the game. With the excitement of Portal 2 coming out, and in collaboration with Leigh Nunan, I finally was able to get my turret. Exaggerated features for extra adorableness.Tilt sensor, so it knows when you’ve knocked it over.Pressure sensor, so it knows when you’ve picked it up.Motion detector, so it knows when you’re there and when you’ve left.Judging by her head-to-body ratio, Trudi’s a baby turret. I can barely hem a pair of pants, so I’m certainly not skilled enough to design and make a plush toy. Fortunately, I was introduced to Leigh Nunan amongst other things, Leigh has created an incredible giant squid plushie that’s about twice as large as I am. Leigh both designed the turret pattern and sewed it together (which, to me, is essentially magic). ![]() Here’s the Terminator-esque skeleton of the electronics and supporting framework. ![]() The structure is made from heavy-gauge copper wire, a laser-cut platform, and hot glue. It may not be pretty, but it gets the job done. Internally, the electronics are housed in a plastic cup to keep them separate from the stuffing (thanks for the suggestion, Adam Smith!).Īs much as we’d love to make you one or sell you a kit, the last time I suggested doing something like that I was very quickly disuaded. So, if anyone from Valve sees this and wants to talk about giving us permission, or at least turning a blind eye, please get in touch! Otherwise, sorry: you’ll have to make your own. Information about the electronics are provided below. Tiny tact switch to detect if it’s lifted.Passive Infrared sensor to detect motion.Adafruit Wave Shield to play the sounds.The pattern is still a work-in-progress, but once Leigh’s ready I’ll post that here, too. ![]()
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