A prop I've been intrigued by for a while and often contemplated making. I've previously drawn out a plan of how to do it, what materials and tools to use etc but never got around to doing so as I thought it would be too difficult. And although it doesn't look so difficult, depending on how you work everything out, it really is. So, as a suggestion to make this prop I have done so without giving up despite the times I really wanted to.
What I feared most with this piece was the sphere at the end which would open up like the claws on the original sonic. It turned out this would actually be the main problem that I got frustrated over many a' time as I couldn't figure out how to make it work. First of all I couldn't think of a spherical object to use that was hollow inside and a thin enough material I could cut through. Then I didn't know how I'd get it attached to the sonic and if I did, how would I be sure it wouldn't fall off once extended or form the spherical shape once retracted. I eventually came around to a solution that worked well and even though there may be a better way around it (which is invisible to me) I still think it works.
What I needed:
1. Mop handle (75cm length, 2cm width. I had to saw mine down slightly)
2. Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver toy
3. Christmas bauble
4. Black and Silver acrylic paint
5. Hacksaw
6. Superglue
7. Patience.
How I did it:
I took a mop and removed the head of it so I was left with the handle. I sawed it down so that I was left with 75cm length left (I kept the other half incase it comes in useful for future projects) I painted the whole thing acrylic black (about 2-3 coats) and let it dry (which took about 20 minutes or so). Then, I took an Eleventh Doctor sonic screwdriver toy, removed the bottom half so that I was left with the top. I managed to fit the top half into one end of the handle (Don't use the end that was sawed as it would be crooked) and it fitted in nice and tight. All of the gold paint on it (except for the small ring inside that goes around the green wire casing and the small strip by the battery compartment. See below images for a better understanding). For the sphere at the end, I took a golden Christmas tree bauble and used a hacksaw to cut it into four quarters. After doing so, I cut about 1cm off of the bottom of each quarter. Then, I measured the size of the claws on the sonic screwdriver toy and drew a small square onto the bottom of the quarters the same size as the claws. After that, I cut the small squares out so that each quarter had a small gap at the bottom that would fit over each claw on the toy. Paint each quarter acrylic silver. Make sure each quarter is as accurate to each other as possible and fit them together (using sellotape) just to test to see if they will fit together to make the original sphere shape. Once they're all together, they should have a hole at the bottom where the sonic will fit into. I untapped them and used blu-tack to attach them onto the claws to see if they'd fit properly and looked accurate enough to the prop. I closed them to find they came together to make the sphere shape [almost] perfectly and extended the toy to see them open up perfectly. I drew (in pencil) a small line on each claw to mark where the quarters would be placed. I superglued them on and they're solid as a rock (for now...). I haven't yet worked out how to get the toy to stay closed unless you hold it closed or how to have it extended fully whilst holding it upright but I have magnets in mind... that's all I really need to do as well as make a taper for the bottom of the cane.