An Australian dad just gave his one-year-old daughter the greatest homemade birthday present any father has ever given their child. With some hardcore Star Wars fandom and construction know-how, he built an amazing speeder bike replica that also happens to be a rocking horse.
The dad in question is known only by his online handle, "Tez Gelmir"; there's no way of knowing if that's his actual name or not. Regardless, his rocking speeder bike has secured him a level of geekdom reserved for the truest of believers.
The Star Wars universe is populated with many a speeder bike. This one is the 74-Z bike that was first seen in 1983's Return of the Jedi. Everyone remembers the great chase scene involving Luke and Leia going after a pair of Stormtroopers on Endor, weaving between enormous trees at insane speeds.
Sow do you translate that crazy cool hovering vehicle into a rocking horse that's safe for small children? Tez' solution was to use sturdy, kid-friendly parts that he tailored to look like the dangerous, metallic vehicle in the movie. So instead of sharp metal edges, he used plywood and 3D printed plastic. PVC pipe was also used extensively, along with various nuts and bolts and a padded seat.
The reason it looks so authentic to the real thing is that Tez based his design entirely on the schematics from the actual movie props. He toyed with the scale of course, and said on his Instructables page that the biggest challenge was working out how to affix the speeder bike so that its center of gravity wouldn't change when a toddler hopped on board. Based on the video below of the rocker in action (with Tez' adorable little girl dressed in a full Princess Leia costume), it appears to have worked brilliantly.
Anybody got the number for Disney's licensing department? We've found their next high-end specialty product.
The video shows that there are also electronics built into the rocker, which you get just a glimpse of in the video. An LED blaster on the underside lights up and even makes the proper sound effect when it does.
Be sure to check out Tez Gelmir's Instructables page if you'd like to build a speeder bike rocker of your own.
h/t Gizmodo
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
