Seventeen-year-old Filipino Angelo Casimiro is a maker. From the looks of his full-sized and functioning replica of BB-8, the adorable roly-poly droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he’s a damned good maker at that. And the most amazing part is he made his version for a mere $120.
If it isn’t obvious after watching the video, Angelo has the whole “genius” thing going for him, as he essentially uses easily acquired, store-bought parts including a beach ball, paper mache, and an Arduino Uno micro-controller to build a perfectly authentic-looking BB-8.
It doesn’t just sit around and beep-boop or swivel its head, either. Angelo tricked out his droid to move authentically, tooling through doorways smoothly, head erect, all under control from his iPhone.
Check it out and consider whether or not you could pull it off—it might be worth it for a snowed-in weekend project. Just remember it didn’t all go smoothly for Angelo Casimiro at first, plus, he’s got a bit of a Mozart meets engineering thing going for him.
h/t The Verge