Last week I got my old PS2 from the attic and put it up again... since I hadn't played the Ratchet & Clank series for about seven years (my old savegames told me that) , I knew what to do. Nostalgia started to come up and I decided to get my own Protopet!

First way to get it:

Go to a Megacorp store around Bogon Galaxy and buy one.

Second way to get your own Protopet:

Fly to Damosel, Grelbin or Yeedil and catch one (armor and weaponry recommended).

Third (and easiest) way:

Make your own! You don' need to know anything about recombinant genes, helix-o-morphs or galactic maps! So let's start!

Step 1: What We Need...

We will need:

blue wool
pink wool
black fabric or leather
white fabric
light blue fabric
black pipe cleaner (or simply a black wire)
cardboard
pen
scissors
hot glue
crat glue (not on the picture)

Step 2: A Fluffy Body

To make it's body we need the blue wool.... LOADS of it!

First, draw two circles in the size your protopet should be on cardboard. I made mine about 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) big. The inner circle is about 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) big. Cut off a very long piece of blue wool and halve it. Stuck the ends between the two rings, pull the loop-side through the middle hole. Now start wrapping consistently and evenly the bue wool around the ring. If you get out of wool, cut the loop open. Cut off a new string, halve it again and start just like in the beginning - the ends of the string should be tied down with the rest of the string. Continue until you can't wrap through the small hole in the middle anymore - this is important, otherwise your protopet will look very frowsy and trashy.

Step 3: Cuttin' It Open

Take a sharp pair of scissors and carefully cut between the two cardboard rings. This may take a while, but if you make it patiently and slowly, the result will be much better. As soon as you cut the furball open, take a piece of string and fasten the fur ball with knots - exactly between the two cardboard rings. Make sure it is really tight. Then cut out the rings, give it a little haircut, and you have the body of your protopet!

Step 4: Antenna

For the antenna, make another fur ball just like the first, but much smaller and in pink. I made it only about 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) big. Take the wire or the pipe cleaner and hot glue it to the pink fur ball.

Step 5: Eyes

The eyes are made of three parts, the white background, the blue iris and the black pupils. Make stencils for each to make sure they are sized correctly, then cut them out and glue them together. Always compare them to the body - normal proportions are everything!

Step 6: (Happy) Feet

Just like for the eyes, draw a template on cardboard for the feet - make sure they are very big. Cut them out, glue them to your black fabric or leather - cut them out again. I also glued some leather on the backsde, so it looks cleaner and nicer.

Step 7: Assembly

Hot glue is the friend of the protopet. With it, you can attach everything - simply hide it with the fuzzy fur of your friend. Position everything first before you glue it, just in case you want make any changes. For the antenna, make a small pool of hot glue on its head, put in and press from all sides against it - you don't want your protopet to lose its antenna! :-)

Step 8: Cuddle!

Enjoy your new friend! You can play with it, cuddle it, dance with it, shoot it to the moon.... It will endure anything, since the helix-o-morph transformed every single protopet, you should be safer than safe! (At least that's what Captain Quark said... ;-) )