Prototyping the Dogma Disruptor

A while ago, the Skepchick store introduced a t-shirt with a drawing of a CS-9000 Dogma Disruptor. And of course my first thought was “wouldn’t it be cool to have one for real?”

Here’s what the t-shirt design looks like…

With that in hand, I went shopping. Hardware store, dollar store, craft shop. Here’s what I came home with…

I started pulling things apart and arranging them into a roughly disruptor-shaped configuration. I ended up using an LED lightbulb instead of the rubber ball, though.

Lots of hacking and gluing and painting. Ripped the pew-pew thingy out of the clone trooper blaster and wired it up to a microswitch I had lying around (as one does), crammed in a battery pack and a lightbulb. Tried it out to make sure it worked…

Added the pinball launcher thing and something that looks passably like a light bulb in a socket. Tried a test-fit…

And here’s the thing all slapped together. Yes, it’s a serious bodge. Yes, it’s just barely held together. It’s a prototype after all. On the other hand… It does light up and go “pew” when you pull the trigger and the knob twiddles and the pinball thing goes boink. So, as a proof of concept, I’d say it’s a win.

Here’s a video clip of me doing a quick “systems check”…