R/C Mouse

So, if you didn't know yet we are doing CATS at the theater. I'm in it as Carbuckety (they call me Bucket). It's normally a man's role, but I'm awesome enough to play a male role feminine. I'm also Assistant Choreographer so I've been up to my eyeballs in dancing kitties for the last month or so - hence the lack of crafting and blogging.  But I can't escape my crafty-ass nature for too long, so this is a project from CATS.

In CATS, the end of intermission is "Kitty Playtime." Some of the cats come out and play with the audience, or some kitty toys onstage.  One of the toys is a wind-up mouse.

Last year when we did The Wizard of Oz ballet I made Toto (he was a big version of Pete the Sheep). There was a Toto that Dorothy carried in her basket, and a Toto that was built over a Remote control car so it could run across the stage at one point.  So taking my knowledge of softie making, and softie making with R/C cars I volunteered to make the wind-up mouse.

The first step was finding the car.  When I made Toto we had an R/C motocross guy that one of the boys in the show had, and it proved to be odd to work with.  I went to Walmart to find a car and got a lifted truck for about $10. I figured the lifted-ness of the truck would make it easy to hide. However, the $10 truck proved to be worth the cheap price. It didn't work. It'd go forward a couple inches and stop. Grrr.

So I went to Amazon to find something better and found this:

 

It's a Morphibian and it's recommended ages are 5-9 so I figured it would be nice and easy to use. I picked because it's meant to run in water and on different types of surfaces.  While obviously I don't intend to put it in the water, the stage is going to have an odd texture because of the dancing and sliding in the show.  Also, the colors aren't too bright so if some of it shows it won't be a problem.

Also, when I got it and read the instructions, it turns out that the top comes off to access the batteries.  Since there's an extra cover I can just leave the top off and it will make a nicer base for the mouse.

My softie pattern making skills aren't too fabulous so after failing at making a pattern I decided to scour the internet for something.  I found a pattern for a real cat toy and decided to enlarge it. A lot.

So here's the mouse body. It's about 4-5 times bigger than the pattern:

Next I added felt ears, button eyes and pipe-cleaner whiskers.

 

Isn't he a cutie? I will love him and squeeze him and call him George.

The tail is also made from pipe-cleaners, but I wrapped them around the little tube that's supposed to support the antenna for the car.  That way the antenna will be out of the way and not just shoved under the mouse.

Antenna tube and tail (doesn't he look kinda like a toaster from the back?)

Antenna tube and tail with antenna inserted

To attach him to the car I've sewed on an elastic band along his tummy.  He needs to be easily removable so that the batteries can be replaced.

And here he is, George the R/C Mouse:

Yay Kitty Playtime!!  Watch out George, we're coming for you.