VST – Gosstavo Robot Classic

I started collecting robots and spacetoys in 2006, to be exact on the 14th of May 2006. I was on a local fleamarket that day and i spotted a blue plastic robot in a box. I bought the robot for my son, repaired it and found out later on the internet that it was a Horikawa Piston Robot.

At that very moment  I was really NOT aware of the fact that a great artist and robot collector, who lived in Leiden, passed away on that very same day. Henk Gosses died on the 14th of May 2006 and left a big gap behind in the robot collecting community.

Henk had a big collection of robots and spacetoys but even more interesting.. he was an artist and made a lot of very interesting custom made robots…. One of these robots he made, in a limited series of I believe 25 pieces, was GUSTAV robot.

I dont believe Henk made many robots in a series of more than just ONE but Gustav was an exception and he made more of them.

Now in 2016, it has been 10 years that Henk passed away and as strange it may sound… I never met Henk in Person, it feels like a connection.. maybe because of the many parts he left behind and that are in my workshop, the dutch caves, now… maybe its because I was told a LOT of stories about him by his best friend Xris… or maybe because he was crazy about robots and creating them, just like I do these days…

A couple of years ago, I was given a box by Xris that says: GUSTAV, handwritten on it. At that moment i NEVER had heard about that robot. Xris told me the box had the remains of a robot his friend Henk made some years ago and that he would love me to do a second run of that robot.

For a couple of years the box was in my workshop. I went through the parts with Martijn and we thought about how to make a second run of Gustav Robot… the plan never reached the “final stage”…and i think mainly because i did not like to reproduce somebody else creation.. Gustav is a rare and scarce robot AND i believe that should stay like this.

Than, out of the blue, i came up with a plan when i saw Gustav standing on my shelves in the caves … ” WHAT if I can make a new Gustav creation, made by ME, as a tribute to Henk because it has been almost 10 years that he passed away….

In the summer of 2015 I worked out a plan again i had 2 years ago… …. 3D scanning and printing of rare robots and parts of them…
I worked my ass out for months and after several months I was able to make perfect copies of robots and bring them back to life with a 3D printer on a scale and precision that was never seen before so far.

This technique gave me new instruments to think about Gustav Robot again and now the puzzle pieces fell together… Combining old and new technology… combining Gustav with a new robot named: Gosstavo and combining my skills and creativity with that from Henk…

The result is not ONE but TWO Gosstavo robots. WHY !??  because I made some samples and prototypes and found out i created two totally different robots with just some different paint… I could not choose.. so i decided to make 2 Gosstavo Robots… a classic one and a grining one, the harlequin version.

My goal was simple… i did NOT want to make an other Gustav copy… it had to be something special and new..I talked about the project with many other collectors who knew Henk personally and knew about his work..

My original idea was to make a 3D printed body with the use of a reproduction sparky robot ( just like Henk did ) special made arms, ears i found in Henks Gustav box and… using his black and white logo somewhere in the robot… to be more exact.. on the robots face …

The body is printed as a complete part to keep it strong and precise. I tried to do left and right and a separate faceshield but because of the ultra thin TIN used by the chinese…its not possible to capture the thin TIN walls of the robot… so i had to scan and print it as one complete part.  The total printing time of the body is almost 9 hours in high resolution ( .10 micron ). the body comes perfect from the printer and is hollow.. Only the bottom has to be cut out to install the windup mechanism.  The arms are reduced in size and come from the Daiya Ranger robot and i think they fit the robot perfectly.

Gosstavo is powered by a Clockwork mechanism. The robot is a classic designed robot and that needs a classic solution to get it going.

Painting of the robot has been done by Hand and is tricky because one single error makes the body useless and cost me an other 9 hours printingtime.. I have to use several layers to complete the hand painted parts, done by precise pencils and special glasses i bought for this painting job.

The key is special designed for this robot and made by KLAUS in Germany, special thanks to him for working and thinking with me in this project… really great input and help, Vieles Dank !! The box was designed by Marcy, she did a fantastic job on the artwork.

Both will be made in a limited run of 25 pieces each. all individually numbered, with a certificate and original box.

Contact me on:    boogo.nl@gmail.com
Facebook:  vintagespacetoys

Marco