Do you think you’re a Doctor Who fan? Hey, I thought I was one… that is, until I read about this guy, who took two years to built a Dalek out of matchsticks.
Wow. But I can’t help wondering: 480,000 matchsticks plus 3 coats of varnish? I don’t remember Daleks being particularly flammable, but if an open flame gets near that one it’ll make the Purge of Skaro look like a walk down the Grand Park on Raxacoricofallapatorius.
Tip o’ the sonic screwdriver to IVAN3MAN.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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October 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am
That is awesome.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Don’t sell yourself short, Phil. Maybe if you get started now, you can make your own Doctor Who Cyberman out of paper mache within the next two years?
October 11th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Wow, fans of this Doctor Who person are jobless.
*Runs away*
October 11th, 2009 at 8:50 am
I miss the old days when people were just spending thousands of dollars to put nacelles on their VW vans.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Hey Phil,
Did you get the link I sent you a while back of the TARDIS cake? It was pretty spectacular. That Dalek is pretty awesome, too.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:44 am
It’s ok to be a fan of a TV series, but with respect to this guy, I can only quote William Shatner’s immortal words:
October 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Interestingly enough, the guy says in the article “”I have to admit though I’m not a Doctor Who fan myself, I did have a careful look at the more recent episodes of the Time Lord’s adventures to ensure that the continuity of every detail was just right.” He just likes making things with matchsticks!
October 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am
To pre-cut and unprepared “matchsticks” we can add pre-cut but unprepared jokes.
Dalek, schmalek. What I really want to know is where I can see a bang up [or is that bang down?] matchstick model of a “Death From The Skies!” asteroid. Um, not to scale, please.
October 11th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Why am I not surprised about the one who sent this information to Phil?
October 11th, 2009 at 10:22 am
If I didn’t know that IVAN3MAN was actually younger, I’d suspect that this was actually an article about him!
October 11th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Needs more cake.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:10 am
@ DrFlimmer and @ Larian LeQuella,
You’re both just jealous because I got a “Tip o’ the sonic screwdriver”!
October 11th, 2009 at 11:17 am
“I don’t remember Daleks being particularly flammable, but if an open flame gets near that one it’ll make the Purge of Skaros look like a walk down the Grand Park on Raxacoricofallapatorius.”
Wow… the geek shall inherit the Earth? Mind you, on my website (plug!), I have an entire section devoted to tearing apart the word “Doctor Who” episodes, so yeah.
BTW: Phil, you going to be at the Gallifrey convention in LA next year? Sounds like it should be oodles of fun! Which is different from Oods of fun, cause it’s actually fun.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:22 am
@IVAN3MAN
You’re happy with just a tip? I would want the whole thing.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:38 am
@ TS,
I think that if Phil ever got his hands on a sonic screwdriver, he would never part with it!
P.S. Neither would I!
October 11th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Surely, Dr. Plait, you meant Skaro, one “s”?
October 11th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
@IVAN3MAN
Last night I was at Royal Albert Hall to see and hear The Cult. In the foyer they had a special exhibition of portraits of notable people in UK astronomy and one of them was none other than Maggie Aderin-Pocock.
Click my name to see the portraits, they are fantastic.
October 11th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
@ TS,
You’re right! Thanks for that link!
October 11th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Great link. I think the pic of Dr. Viti was a great composition, particularly relating to her field, and her state of being.
And, Dr. May is probably more recognizable than even Dr. Plait, but not for astronomy (yet?).
October 11th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Not so much a fan as someone who chooses his project projects carefully so that he can recoup and have somebody finance his hobby. That’s £240 of die cut wood.
October 11th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
@ Markle,
Maybe Brian will… E-BAY-IT! E-BAY-IT!
October 11th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Everyone should have at least one large triumph in their life, and this is his. Bravo.
October 13th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I want one…
There’s a museum in Glasgow, Scotland that has a Doctor Who exhibit. I flew over from my station in Germany just to see it (Ryanair = dirt cheap). There’s even a dalek diorama with a button that says “DO NOT PUSH!” So yea, I pushed it and the daleks came after me with a vengeance… “Human presence detected! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” I cried like a little girl.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:29 am
TS – Great link! Well worth clicking on it. BTW, in case anyone misses it, there are 4 pages of photos, click the little vertical bars at the lower left to change pages.
The pictures are really well done and most of them have some sort of visual pun pertaining to the subject matter. (Or maybe they all do, and I just missed some of the jokes.)
I usually don’t click on tangential links, but this time, I’m really glad I did.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:24 am
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