Baby Bender Container

I love futurama! My favorite episode is Lethal Inspection, where bender appears in the final scene as a baby. I liked the idea of baby bender so much that I decided to create a life sized version. As well as looking awesome as an ornament it is also a functional biscuit container.

Step 1: Research

Baby Bender only appears once in Futurama in the episode Lethal Inspection. But I still wanted to create my own version of him. It is quite challenging to make a 2D character in 3D however it makes it a lot easier if you get lots of reference images and keep on referring back to them.

Step 2: Go Big or Go Home

My original plan to make the baby bender was to make a miniature model. I would have made this out of different sized tubes. But after a short while I didn't think it would look very good. I decided that it would be better to create a life sized baby bender.

Step 3: Finding the Right Materials

I found a cylindrical container which was the perfect size and shape for benders body. This was already in my house but im sure if you looked around a few shops you could pick one up quite similar. I could not find anything the correct size for the head apart from a glass vase. This meant I had to make the head out of card. I started by wrapping the varse very tightly with cardboard then holding it together with tape.

Step 4: Paper Mache

To paper mache the whole head lots of times took a while so I highly recommend putting on your favorite radio program whiles doing this. To paper mache you need lots of newspaper and some wallpaper paste. Alternatively you can use white glue but I used wallpaper paste as it is what I had to hand. I left the cardboard on the glass and aplied a few layers of paper mache.

Step 5: Cardboard Layer 2

To give baby Bender a 3D mouth I made another layer of cardboard with a mouth shape cut out. After the first layer was dry I taped the second layer on. Again you will have to spend lots of time doing the paper mache. But in the end it will be worth it. Once you have applied a few more layers and it is completely dry you can take it off the glass vase.

Step 6: Round Top

To create benders signature round top I blew up a balloon and put it at the end of the tube. You can then look forward to a lot more paper mache!

Step 7: Eyes

Ping pong balls would have been ideal for the eyes however I did not have any and sometimes you have to use what you have. I made the eyes out of two slightly soft balls. I covered them in some paper mache also to make them a tiny bit larger. If I was making this project again I would defiantly use larger eyes as baby bender has larger eyes then ordinary bender. You also need to make the eye sockets. You can easily do this by rolling up some more cardboard and cutting it so that it fits snugly against the head. Then I covered it all with paper mache so that it appeared to be apart of the head.

Step 8: Neck

I tried lots of different methods of creating his neck area. The best method however was to use lots of duct tape and then put some more newspaper mache over it. Paper mache over!!

Step 9: Antenna

Baby bender had a different antenna to regular bender. Baby benders antenna was really easy to make by using a washer and a ball bearing. I then stuck them together using contact adhesive. If you wanted to make ordinary bender then his antenna is slightly different you would probably need to use a small stick or dowel as the antenna.

Step 10: Paint It White

First I applied one coat of white paint and I realized that you could still see the newspaper where it overlapped. I then put on some car body filler onto the dome of the head. After this I finished all the white paint off by putting some gesso paint all over the head. Gesso is slightly thicker than ordinary paint, this makes it very good for getting rid of any marks from the newspaper.

Step 11: Bite My Shiny Metal Body

You should then tape over the mouth so this will stay white. You can then proceed to paint the whole body with metallic effect spray paint. Make sure to do it in a well vented area or outside. It will probably need a few layers, I gave mine 3 coats. Then you can take the tape off the mouth once it is all dry.

Step 12: Detail

I used a black permanent maker to draw all the detail. I made sure to refer back to an image of baby bender very carefully. You could also use a sharpie and it would work equally as well.

Step 13: Arms

For this you need to drill four holes into the side of the container, two holes for each arm. Make sure they are not to far apart so can't see the elastic string. Post the elastic string through the two holes and then through the middle of the arms. I found the arms in B and Q, they are made from pipe that is slightly corrugated to make them look like benders arms. I used as small metal bar to block the elastic from passing through. Then you should tie the elastic onto the bar. You can then glue the arms down if you feel it is necessary but i didn't think it was.

Step 14: Legs

I used the corrugated pipe again for the legs. You should start by marking out the area to to cut, then you should cut it out with a craft knife or some small scissors. next you need to glue them to the shiny metal ass. I did this with contact adhesive. You could do the legs in the same as the arms however I wanted them to come out of the bottom. and if i attached the legs to the bottom in the same way I attached the arms then bender wouldn't sit strait.

Step 15: Hands and Feet

The hands and feet were primarily made out of EVA foam. This is the same foam that camping mats are made of and are perfect material for lots of different crafts.

For the hands I made two circles out of thick EVA foam that were large enough to slot into the the arms. Once the circles were the correct size I poked three holes into the EVA foam where the fingers would fit into. The fingers are made from old thick wire which have been cut down to the correct finger length. Then you simply slot fingers into the holes.

For the feat I cut out two more circular shapes from the thick EVA foam. Then sanded it down so it was slightly curved to the top. Then on the top I added some thin EVA foam and glued it all together using UHU glue. Then I had to cut out a small section of the center of the feet. This is so that the feet will slot onto the pipe used for the legs. Again I did this with a craft knife.

Then you need to spray them all with metallic spray paint again. Making sure to spray both the top and the bottom of the feat.

Step 16: Beer Baby Bottle (optional)

In the short time that baby bender appears on your screen you can see him with a beer bottle that has the top of a baby bottle.

First you will need to drink a beer! This is a good excuse to have a beer, It doesn't matter what beer as long as it has a brown tint to it. Then I made the logo on the computer and printed it off. You can stick it on using double sided tape. After this you need a ball some pink tissue paper and a pink rubber band. You simply stretch the tissue paper over the ball attaching it with the rubber band.

Step 17: Bender Is Great!

Overall I am very pleased with this build, It looks to more like regular bender than I would have hoped. However It is still an excellent container. In the end it was awesome that he was a life sized baby bender and would be roughly the same size as baby bender in Futurama. I hope you enjoyed reading. :)