A Special Present for My Son...

[MirrorSpock]

Wanted to share with everyone a little(!) project that I have been working on for my son. It started off as a Christmas present for him seven months ago, but I quickly realized that it was going to take way more time than I thought. I just finished it this week.

My son has become a huge fan of "Doctor Who" at the tender age of two-and-a-half. (He's actually liked it since he was at least six months old--he used to become absolutely mesmerized by the opening credits of the new series!) He loves all of the machines on the show--namely the TARDIS, Daleks, and Cybermen. My wife and I felt that he could use a playhouse, so I set out to build him one. We discussed it, and there was no question what form his playhouse should take...


It's 95% wood and 5% other materials (plastic, foam board, paper plates). I used the TARDIS blueprints found in The Doctor Who Technical Manual and adapted them slightly to accomodate my finances, taste, skill, and materials on-hand. The entire project was built at one-half scale.


It has interior lights (four push-button mounted LED lights, which give the interior sort of a muted blue glow), and a flashing light on top (the black toggle switch which operates it can be seen mounted in the ceiling behind the far right cabin light).


I love the "window glow" that the interior lights provide.


Here's a good shot of the roof lamp in action.

I took some liberties with the design of the TARDIS, melding several different aesthetics seen over the course of the old and new series. The blueprints used represent the TARDIS as seen during the 'Eighties (Davison-C. Baker-McCoy), but the overall color scheme and exterior decor was gleaned from the new series. The TARDIS is a much darker blue (the same color as the Eccleston-Tennant era), and I've raised the "roof stack" a couple of inches to better reflect the higher roof of the new series. The roof also has no pitch to it, which reflects the design of much of the Tom Baker years (also, I have NO skill whatsoever when it comes to cutting wood at angles).

And here are some shots of my son mugging for the camera while at play in his TARDIS...


Here he is holding his Character Options TARDIS Talking Money Bank, and wearing the scarf I made him some months back (he was always wanting to wear my eighteen-foot monster, so I made him one better suited to his stature).


Here he is fondling his TARDIS key. (He is fascinated with mechanical things, particularly locks and keys. The lock in his TARDIS doesn't actually lock anything (purely cosmetic), but that doesn't stop him from turning the key in the lock about a hundred times a day.


Here's my little guy brandishing his Sonic Screwdriver (take THAT, Master!). And yes, those are paper plates set into foamboard...but they work perfectly for interior TARDIS walls.


Here, Dalek Sec is poking out of the phone compartment. (Like the phone? It's a half-scale pencil sharpener of all things!)


He can usually be found hiding in here, saving the universe before nap time...

I hope our next son likes "Doctor Who" as much as this one, if only to get more mileage out of the playhouse. (It took me so long to cobble this thing together, he almost outgrew it by the time I finished it!)

Maybe I'll build a half-scale console for the next child...hmmm...

[phil]

That is freakin' awesome!!!!!

[toys2cool]

that's really cool man,you look like a great dad wish i had one of those as a kid

[megoscott]

Father of the YEAR. Awesome.

[palitoy]

Man, that is beyond the call of duty, truly incredible.

[YANOULI]

I want one!!

[txteach]

All I can say is WOW!

[kingdom warrior]

Unbelievable!!Beautiful work man...What a Great Dad you are please please adopt me! lol! That's a great family heirloom

[MirrorSpock]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. It was a labor of love (and a chance for me to work out the kinks for the full-size replica I intend to build for myself sometime before I die!).

If you'll indulge me for a moment, I'll share with you a few Who-related anecdotes...

...We keep it in the living room (because it's the only room in the house with any real, uh, room), and when people come over, my son is squealing and dragging them to see the TARDIS before they can even get both feet in the door.

...Several times a day, he will run into the TARDIS, and wave his hand out of the the open door exclaiming "I going!" He will then close the doors and flip on the roof lamp. After about two or three minutes, he will come out and yell excitedly, "I back!" We always ask him where he went, and most of the time he responds, "Grammy's" (my mother-in-law's). Once, he responded, "The hospital!" It took us a moment to figure out that he was making a connection between THE Doctor and A doctor (with our second child due any day now, doctors and hospitals have been the topic of much discussion, and he apparently absorbed it. I hope he doesn't think David Tennant is going to deliver his baby brother!)

...I knew I had to make him a scarf when he kept wrapping my tube socks around his neck and coming to me and saying, "Daddy--I the Doctor!"

...When he first started forming words, he surprised us by pointing at the screen one night (Who was on, of course), and pointing at the Doctor and saying, "Dah-doh!" (The interesting thing is that WE hadn't taught him that--he picked it up from the show from all the characters referring to the Doctor!) We then decided to further test his comprehension, and pointed at the TARDIS on the screen and asked, "What's that?" He replied, "Dah-doh house" ("The Doctor's house").

SPOILER BELOW if you haven't seen the entire third season of Who...

...We were watching "Utopia," and I was explaining to him who the Master was ("He's a really mean man"), and at the end of the show, when the Master steals the TARDIS, my son watched the Doctor being left behind and yelling at the Master. Just as the credits began to roll, I looked over at him, and he was starting to tear up, and he said to me (almost questioningly), "The Master take the TARDIS?" I realized that he was heartbroken, and was empathizing with the Doctor's loss. He then went over to his TARDIS, sat inside and closed the door. I think he was secretly afraid that it might go away!

Thanks for your indulgence. I hate to be the kind of dad who gushes about his son to everyone he runs into, but I am constantly amazed by his progress and growth. The first time he said "Dah-doh," I kind of teared up a little. I had always dreamed that I would have a child that would love Who as much as I.

Later,

Kevin

[Dave Mc]

That is amazing! It would be way cool if you built it for yourself as a fan, but even cooler to build it for your son to play with. He has to be pretty geeked up.

[Blackkryptonite]

You, my good man are the world's best father!

[EMCE Hammer]

That's incredible. You did a really clean job on that. I know my dad loved me when I was a kid, but he didn't love me that much. I would have been lucky to get an old refrigerator box and a marker Well done!

[The Toyroom]

What a freakin' cool dad you are! This is something that your son will treasure as one of his earliest memories years from now! Awesome job!

[VintageMike]

Unreal, what a cool thing to do and awesome work. It's great your son enjoys it so much.

[HardyGirl]

As I've said, I don't know Boo about Doctor Who, but man what an awesome dad you are! It's great that you share something you're into w/ your kid. The fact that he's just a mere lad of 2 is doubly awesome! He looks like he loves it!