Dad-of-the-year builds daughter a ‘Star Wars’ speeder bike rocker
Who says Jedis have to be old enough to take their first step? Thanks to one awesome dad, there’s a one-year-old Jedi princess ROCKING a speeder bike (literally). Instead of a rocking horse, Instructables user Taz_Gilmer, from Australia, has his built his daughter the raddest Star Wars-inspired rocker EVER. ROCK OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY.
The rocker, based on the 74-Z Speeder Bike, which appeared in Episode IV: Return of the Jedi, “in which Imperial Scout Troopers, on the forest moon of Endor, engage in a vicious chase with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa after the Rebels commandeered the speeder bikes to pursue their foes,” Taz explains on the Instructables design page. And it’s totally a must-have for any parent who wants their tot to grow into the ultimate Star Wars fan.
“I have built my son lots of projects,” Taz continued, “but with my daughter’s first birthday coming up I felt it was her turn to get some project love. . . what better way than with her own Speeder Bike?”
Taz found the original concept drawing for the prop on the Internet and based his design mostly around that. “I have to say though, when the design first came to mind, I had no idea the time and thought that would be involved,” he explained on the design page. He built it mostly out of plywood, PVC, and 3D-printed parts. “The need to be strong enough to handle a beating led me to the first part of my design, a rigid backbone with a solid plywood top for the seat platform,” he wrote.
The rocker not only sways back and forth, but has some seriously fancy gadgetry going on; it has a light-up blaster cannon that glows red and makes sound effects when you press a button, making you feel like you’re zooming through the forests of Endor. “My initial idea was to use the guts from a toy blaster,” he explained, “but it turned out the circuitry in the toy blasters were very fragile and I managed to damage the sound chip while assembling. So I ended up using a simple 555 timer flashing LED for the blaster and a sound recording/playback module I had laying around from another project.”
And though his little Jedi princess may not comprehend the amount of effort her daddy put into the rocker just yet, it’s clear that she absolutely loves it. In the YouTube video Taz posted explaining the Rocking Speeder Bike, he shows clips of his daughter using the rocker, adorned like Princess Leia, of course. And the big giant grin on her face makes it pretty clear that it’s a huge hit.
May the force be with this family. Check out the video below and be prepared to be totally charmed by baby Princess Leia!
(Image via YouTube, Lucasfilm)
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