You could have observed a sudden explosion within the variety of films—horror movies, particularly — that characteristic Mickey Mouse, however which aren’t made by Disney. For those who look intently, you’ll see that all of them include the model of Mickey from the unique Steamboat Willie cartoon. That’s as a result of the copyright for Steamboat Willie expired and in order that model of Mickey is now within the public area. In honor of the event, Jaimie and Jay of Depraved Makers constructed this terrifying Mickey Mouse animatronic head styled after the characters from the 5 Nights at Freddy’s franchise.
Depraved Makers have expertise on this enviornment, as a result of they constructed a Springtrap animatronic just a few months in the past. Like that venture, this can be a life-sized animatronic robotic. However in contrast to Springtrap, that is only a head. Nevertheless, that definitely doesn’t make it any much less creepy. It nonetheless retains the unsettling actions and decrepit styling that makes it seem like a forgotten theme park attraction left in storage for many years.
To start out the venture, they commissioned BeardlessProps to create a 3D mannequin of the Steamboat Willie model of Mickey. That mannequin incorporates a number of damaged and battered items in line with the theme. After 3D-printing the pinnacle elements, Depraved Makers set to work bringing it to life.
An enormous quantity of that work went into giving Mickey the proper look. Plain 3D-printed plastic wouldn’t lower it. One cool trick they got here up with was to stay shredded black fibers to the plastic utilizing Mod Podge. That gave it the looks of felt and didn’t require any sanding or smoothing of the prints. Different areas acquired a coat of Bondo physique filler to cowl the layer traces and create texture. With some paint and weathering, the outcome was phenomenal. We don’t suppose that Hollywood prop makers may do any higher.
Mickey’s head and jaw motion comes from a number of small servo motors. An Arduino UNO board controls these. It receives instructions from a Sony PlayStation 4 controller related via a USB host defend. That was a intelligent thought, as a result of it lets Depraved Makers carry out the puppeteering work with a well-recognized, intuitive interface.
Sadly, the animatronic failed whereas Depraved Makers was filming it in motion. They’ve some restore work to do earlier than it’s again in service and we’re wanting ahead to seeing that in one other video. However what we did get to see earlier than the failure was unbelievable. This seems to be precisely like what we’d count on to see if Mickey Mouse existed within the 5 Nights at Freddy’s universe.
