 The
robot's tape bay, or programming unit, is hard to see clearly in
most photos. Michael Davis has an excellent diagram on his site,
and Craig Reinbrecht has documented the bay’s layout pretty
thouroughly on the B9 Club’s
construction pages. I used his metal bay and finished it as shown
below.
Is the panel face white
or silver? Nothing on the robot
is white, so I didn't like the idea of painting it white, so I compromised
and painted it a very bright silver. The top and sides got a coat
of dark gunmetal. The really funny thing is, the panel face looks
white when it's photographed, even with a bounce flash (see photo
at right). So I’d say that no matter
what color you paint it, it’ll look white in pictures.
Also, I think it’s fair to say we’ll never know for
sure what color the original one was.
The light is the same Sylvania fixture
used for the belly, but the color of the lens is difficult to pin
down. I went with amber because it seemed
to photograph correctly and because it fit with the rest of the
robot’s look.
As for the switches, I’ve found
that by using combinations of DPDT switches, some with center-off
positions, it’s fun to use them to control the motors, neon,
voice track and main power to the robot. They’re great for
those souvenir photos everyone wants to take.
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