Giant cardboard robot arms (for giant cardboard robot hugs)

"Perfect for giant robot hugs, super high high-fives, and terrorizing small children." $85 plus shipping. Etsy link. (thanks, Erin)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

“The plans are on-line. :)”

Can you link to the plans please? Your work is VERY impressive!
Griffin

And also, clearly, many hours worth of work. You’re not paying for the material, you’re paying for the work that went into it. (and for objects this large, I imagine you’re also paying a decent chunk for shipping)

If you think you can do it yourself, go ahead. It’s not for you. But realize there are plenty of people who might want this but end up with it being more time/money efficient to buy them than to make them.

Not that I have any interest in buying them, but they are pretty cool looking :P
Griffin

Also, these would be absolutely awesome for Cardboard Wars events… though in that case, they’d definitely not be worth this much since they’d end up trashed…
Deidzoeb

I made this comment out of cardboard. $17.50 please.
dreamparacite

Very cool, but I couldn’t pay $85 PLUS shipping for cardboard. Heck, the thing will ship in cardboard. I’d rather make my own and learn something while I’m at it. :D
JamesMason

15 hours?
Anonymous

I agree with dreamparacite. You should post the instructions and templates up on instructables.com
Anonymous

Thank you wrybread, limepies, and Griffin, Swizzlebat for your comments and understanding.

This is the creator of the giant cardboard robot arms, and for clarification, each set of arms is hand made, and cutting out that much cardboard takes me a good 15 hours and that much cardboard, velcro, x-acto blades, and glue is not as cheap as you might think. So if you think you can figure out how to cut it all out and put it together any faster, than by all means, go for it. The plans are on-line. :)

I am not making my living through selling these. If I priced them lower, I fear I’d find myself with carpal tunnel and fired from my day job with not enough income to afford rent.

All that said, I am looking into finding cheaper ways of making the arms (and the rest of the suit). For more about the suits you can sign up on the fan page here:
http://www.facebook.com/giantcardboardrobots
and find additional pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karmaadjuster/collections/72157622704510164/
- Anonymous
  
  Very Cool!
  Know where we might find those plans?
Anonymous

make it by myself would not be that expensive. $85 is really expensive but considering it has a ‘creative added value’ I will buy it for $100. surely i will buy if i had money. ^_^
by the way, can i use it to lift car. :-P
nanuq

Because giant, cardboard robots need love too (sniffling).
Anonymous

$85? Where’s the circuit stickers? And how about some slots, with light sticks to go in them, and a different tone squeaky bulb for each arm? The arms are really cool, but for $85, they need all the accessories. How about if the terrorized small child busted your arm open with a broom handle, and candy fell out, that would be cool, and still come in under budget.
jonw

christ, what an asshole
Anonymous

As a fellow maker of robot costumes (I play Max in the robot band “The Killer Robots!” http://www.killerrobots.tv), it’s likely these arms cost around $50 to make. What you don’t see is the purchase of tubes and tubes of Goop, rolls of Velcro, packs of X-acto knives, gas money to get said items, trips to get the big sheets of clean and undamaged cardboard, and the time needed to make it (it always takes 10x longer than you anticipate). Plus you have to ship it. So $85 doesn’t seem to steep.
jungletek

Eighty-five bucks is a fucking piss-take, bro.
jungletek

Not to mention with that photo alone, it should be easy for anyone with some spatial awareness to mock up similar, if not superior versions for the cost of materials (<$5, easy)
Anonymous

nice..but what about the thing by the fence?.is that a lettuce patch with a heat sensitive,auto open lid, or a very narrow compose heap?
wrybread

I think the people complaining about the price and features don’t understand Etsy. These are handmade, not factory produced. As such, its just not worth it for someone to sell it for the $12.99 everyone expects after years of Walmart shopping.

If you think its too expensive, no biggie, don’t buy it.

If you like it and have the money and want to support an independent artist/craftsperson/whatever, then awesome, there’s your link.
- limepies
  
  “I think the people complaining about the price and features don’t understand Etsy. These are handmade, not factory produced. As such, its just not worth it for someone to sell it for the $12.99 everyone expects after years of Walmart shopping.”
  
  but, dude, they’re cardboard.
  - Anonymous
    
    So your time is free? It’s art and craftsmanship. It’s unique and took effort. This world is going to hell if all we value is better living through low prices.
Swizzlebat

If I’m not mistaken, this guy was at Maker Faire this year in a full-on cardboard robot get-up (including massive legs with boosters in them, which made him about 8′ tall) and a tall cardboard top hat that made him look like a jaunty, recyclable gundam.
It was very, very cool, and while there’s no way I (or from the looks of it, most other commenters) would pay $85 for the arms, that’s not the point; it’s the inspiration that’s valuable. I’ma make my own!