One of the most fun parts of cosplay is making large ridiculous props, and that's exactly what the transistor is. For those of you who stumbled upon this post without knowing what Transistor is, stop reading and go play the game (https://www.supergiantgames.com). Now that you are better acquainted, we can talk about how we made the prop for our Red cosplay.
We used the game art, shown above, as the primary basis for many of the decisions regarding the transistor. The primary differences between our transistor and those made by other cosplayers is the fact that the eye is concave and glassy, and the body is hollow box made of multiple separate pieces.
We initially thought we could do the eye using clear worbla, but we quickly found that worbla was not the best medium for that piece. We knew nothing about resin casting, but after failing with the worbla we decided to learn. After picking up all the pieces for a makeshift mold, we jumped in.
Aside from the surprise bubbles we are quite happy with how the eye turned out. Next we moved on to the plexiglass.
The designs for all the pieces were meticulously drawn out on large drafting paper and cut to be used as templates for the plexiglass. The tape helped keep the brittle plexiglass from shattering as we cut, but we still ended up with cracks here and there. No big deal. Actually fit nicely with the bubbles in the eye.
After doing the plexiglass, we needed to work on the structure for the prop. This was achieved using PVC pipe, two sizes of wooden dowels, and lots of glue. The structure poles ran from the handle to the eye, and then on the other side of the eye. This helped us achieve the "floating eye" look in the middle of the transistor.
From there we made the triangle box to house all the electronics and worked on other details, such as the handle and internal circuits.
With all the parts made, it was just a matter of running the lights and glueing everything together. It was all sandwiched onto the center pole and left for a couple days to dry. Then it finally came to life...
Overall, it was incredibly fun to make and turned out great. Now we are onto refining the design and building pieces for anyone making a transistor of their own!
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