Toy Olaf

I was part of a team creating an animatronic prop of Toy Olaf for a production of Frozen at the Children’s Museum of Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina.  A key feature of this project was that it appeared on stage first as separate toys and was assembled by actors during the scene.  This meant all mechanical and electrical components needed to be contained entirely within the individual pieces and operate as one once built.  Functions include a head tilt, a torso twist, and waving arms.  We saw the project through from start to finish, including brainstorming and planning, CAD modeling, prototyping, final fabrication and finishing work, and delivery to the client.  I was responsible for designing the internal mechanisms of the upper (teapot) and lower (pillow) body, helping with the molding and casting of the buck for the vacuum-formed head, and painting the faux basket finish on the vacuum-formed piece.