Meet JJ and CC – The First Tylerbots!

This is CC (below left) and JJ (below right), the new mascots for ChristineTyler.com.

I’ve actually wanted some robot mascots for several years now, and started collecting materials when I was in Japan. CC’s music box, for instance, plays Always With You from Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. I knew I wanted a robot theme for my blog images when I rebooted the site, but since I hadn’t made the robots yet I had to settle for stock images. Apparently taking pictures of adorable little robots doing daily tasks is already a thing! Now that I have my own robots though, I can take much more specific pictures +  I don’t have to pay royalties to use someone else’s work.

The figures’ heads, hands, feet, and JJ’s torso are made out of spray-painted wood blocks that I found at a thrift store. Their arms are plastic tubing I ordered online, and have pipe cleaners in them so they’re posable. JJ’s hardware came from my husband’s real robot supplies. It was Nathan’s idea to have the wires coming out of JJ’s head and I kind of love it. 

As soon as I started taking pictures I realized JJ was going to be our wild card. His extra long legs make him extra fun to play with. 

Don’t be fooled by CC’s demure expression. She totally digs it.

Of course, no robot-making session would be complete without my kids getting in on the action. Here are Bubs and Rosebud with their own projects. Rosebud is particularly proud of the pink hair she drew on her robot and has informed me that next time I make a robot it needs to have pink hair like hers. 

Bubs brought his robot to school for show-and-tell today. His has wheels. Pretty boss idea. Both kids were really excited to give their robots “gear hearts.” I found those at Joanne’s at the last minute and I agree they make a perfect addition. 

They’ve been having a lot of fun with them.

I have plans to make more robots soon — as soon as I can get my hands on some silver spray paint, because I’d like to build an entire robot army. But in the meantime, JJ and CC are my first two, and I’m really really happy with how they turned out. I’m also excited to be able to bring them on some future adventures…which I’ll have more details about as soon as I get some details nailed down.

In other news, I’ve submitted a poem to a science-fiction and fantasy magazine. Yes, a poem! I attend a local writing group that meets once a week and gives everyone a prompt. Our prompt a few weeks ago was a “word soup.” That meant we had five random words to do whatever we wanted with. The words were CLOCKS, ADVANTAGE, TOURNAMENT, CUNNING, and PLANT.

I ended up writing a poem about a woman who runs the Olympic 100-meter dash against six robots. Why are there robots in the Olympics? Why does she run against them? Does she win? Well, those are questions the poem will answer. Cross your fingers and hope it gets published.

In the meantime, please enjoy this robot selfie:

Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
Christine