Last time we checked in on Harrison Krix of Volpin Props, he was making a portal gun for the Child’s Play charity auction and Skyrim-inspired Boba Fett helmet for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.Now he’s made a one-of-a-kind replica of Fry’s Holophonor from Futurama.
And you can’t play a Holophonor like an expert without the Robot Devil’s hands, so check out that custom display stand. It’s . . . beautiful.
A full build diary is available at Volpin Props, but we’ll attempt a quick summary.
Since Futurama is hand drawn, the Holophonor varies wildly from shot to shot. Sometimes whole sets of keys are missing, sometimes it looks about a foot shorter then normal, and the lower bell seems to be anywhere from 6″ around to over 18″ depending on which frame you’re looking at. I fired up Netflix and grabbed a ton of reference. The keys in some of the more detailed shots reminded me of a clarinet, and the more I checked, the more that I was certain the Holophonor was inspired by one – the grouping of the 4 long keys at the bottom, the same number of front facing valves, even the very long upper hinged keys. [Volpin Props via Nerd Approved]
He popped some tags at the thrift shop with $70 in his pocket and left with a clarinet in serious need of cleaning. After loosening the pegs from ABS plastic with a blowtorch, he painted individual parts with Testor’s spray lacquer and added several custom parts and electronics. There are 54 LEDs of three different colors in the lower bell alone. The lights don’t make holograms, but they do make cool patterns on a wall from up to 15 feet away. We reiterate, SHUT UP AND TAKE OUR MONEY.
Krix says, “this is definitely one of the stranger things I’ve ever built, and I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to build it. I just never want to take apart and clean a thrift-store-purchased clarinet again for the rest of my life.”
Pictures by Harrison Krix via Creative Commons license. More pictures of the build available here.
