It's a beautiful day if you love space and space things because we have a
show-and-tell here in the cave! I am with my friend and fellow space nut Ryan
Nagata. Hello, sir! Hi, Adam. We are actually making some space parts
in the cave today in addition to also shooting an episode of Ariel's Offworld.
And this show and tell, because among many things
you brought something really special to show here today and I wanted
to walk through it. Yeah. This is the first space suit that you ever made.
Yeah this is the suit that I made after I saw the movie Apollo 13 back in
1995 so I was 14 years old when I made this suit. You were 14!
So you started way earlier than I did. Yeah. And frankly ... Can I pull?
That's fine. It's already falling apart.Oh my god. Look at this! You madman.
It's interesting to look at this suit now and the thought process that went on. Oh your gloves
actually connect! I'm having the sense memory now putting the suit on as a 14
year old because they just screw on so I had to move my in my hand like this
stick it on and then like screw it on this yet all these wonderful details are
here this this front strap which you I can see you used a bit of a floppy disk
there actually we know your your connectors are plumbing parts no it's
the bottom of soda cans mixed with plumbing parts where I see bottle caps
this is looks like a sink aerator something like a faucet you got a label
maker to do open and lock yeah that actual
hardware that was our first p-touch labeler that we had
what what do what is your takeaway looking at this now as a maker of
magnificent spacesuit replicas well clearly the passion for making these
suits has never left me clearly I made this then and I did a lot of other
things between then and now when I started making suits professionally I am
really entertained I just dug this out of my parents attic last weekend yeah
this was the first newbie cab I did and I saw I pulled this out and I saw this
little cap here I was like why did I stick that on there because this is a
replica I did a few months ago so this is like the most accurate yeah this is
to be kept possible this is almost exactly what the real ones look like but
it doesn't have that it doesn't have so where did you come up you know I was
wondering about this zipper here I don't this isn't well that was on the the
command module pilot zipper has a suit had a zipper on it like that
so I must have this was pre yeah it was pretty research days where I was just
looking at different pictures and kind of combining oh right Michael colored
suit had many less connectors yeah but but it had a zipper on it so I think I
stuck that on the commander's suit but I'm looking at now this is the the life
preserver strap oh right there's no life preserver but I just I just must have
thought that that the suit had a strap on it like that but but this cap I was
just looking at it when I got here and I realized I must have seen a photograph
of this Snoopy cap inside this bubble helmet and I saw the feed port in the
picture and I didn't realize that it was on the bubble and not on the cap so
that's probably say having having purchased several replicas of the Snoopy
cap before I met you this one you made it 14 is more accurate than any anybody
thank you mate you had this wonderful kidney shape whereas most people think
it's kind of pretty slay around yeah most of the replicas you can buy on eBay
or you are black yeah and you understood really early that they were brown even
though they photographed real dark yeah full marks to you at
thank you for an incredible and now the helmet this was the hottest item for you
yeah there used to be a store in LA called the plastic part and they had all
of these different sized acrylic domes and I didn't have a driver's license
back then I had to have my mom driving me everywhere and we got two of these
acrylic domes and I glued them together and I think this is a bucket top city
and there you haven't looked at this in a long time
no I haven't just pulled it it was it's probably been in storage for 20 years I
highly recommend that you that you build a display for this it's an incredible
artifact No thank you I mean the amount of
passion and time that your 14 year old self like it's hard to make a 14 year
old concentrate yeah it's nothing but like myelinating neural connections and
hormones and the fact that you turn out something so incredibly and you did all
the sewing no no this is it's mostly glue oh so this is a painters coveralls
and I think I cut I cut it up and then probably glue them yeah it's amazing
these kind of evidentiary things and the thing I'm saving the best for last
because among the things that you did you also did a set of gloves but not the
Evo gloves Interiors yeah these were the
intravascular gloves that they wore in this in the space I get a fairly deep
cut for for a space enthusiasts to make yeah well I wanted to duplicate the one
they're wearing in the launch scene of all 13 that's specifically right and
here I can see some of your glueing work right yeah they can what's it looks like
a sleeve end of the coverall and glued it to fit around this glove and you got
that little tight nurse oh yeah here is your recent replica with a lute with an
aluminum locking ring it's like crazy crazy accurate ocular glove yeah and
it's got the the accurate pressure bladder in there too with the convolute
you know you haven't come very far being super complementary like that is a
really respectable attempt for a first attempt
anyone let alone a fourteen-year-old getting their mom to drive them to the
plastics store yeah I just it thrills me so much to see this in you know I think
that if you display it you know how NASA doesn't put the gloves on the suit yes
way yeah I think you should do the same thing should have the gloves in those
little like hat around like next to the student yeah I did display this in my
room for several years after I made it I remember I built like a stand for it and
it was standing up in my room for a couple of years before it went into
storage I never thought I would take it out again Wow
and I mean I wasn't really thinking that far because I've done a lot of different
things between this and what I do now so it was really interesting to take it out
and and to and to kind of tap into that I remember how excited I was to come
home from school to work on this how long take you over all was it I mean
it it felt like it felt like months but I don't actually know how much time I
put into it but it's interesting every once in a while when I'm making the
replicas that I do today I can tap into that joy right just a little bit but I
mean you do lose some of it those moments are fewer and farther between
for me but there's still justice transformative those moments were I'm
I'm connected to kind of that universal drive of invention and thrill and
excitement and again yeah they get farther in between but they still yeah
feel justice as deep yeah I love that you've got these little brass things
which are the exam you lating the little yeah yeah don't have any pieces like
that here but you even went so far as to oh no I guess you found these now those
are ski gloves that I cut up a little elastic for the ordinary just webbing
yeah 14:00 I would have hired
fourteen-year-old view oh and I'd appreciate it you've got the that you
use the duct tape to match to make the chroman yeah yeah so I think you should
do a little bit of restoration but not okay that's okay do anything but I love
the idea of just being displayed in your shop yeah credible origin story thank
you very much you know I'm such a fan of your work it's really delightful to see
that you've started out of the gate with a very impressive effort oh thank you
very much yeah you mentioned about the brown on the cap i I I realize you know
there's the skills that you kind of are you know you're you're you're good at
and the things that you have to learn and maybe if I was to say the one skill
that I was have just always had was a really good ability to recognize color
and size of things just from photographs I've noticed some people that can
replicate things really well but they just don't have that innate sense of
being able to like judge sighs yeah yeah so that's for some reason I've always
been good at because I'll oh actually like the first Snoopy cap year thing I
made professionally was I I eventually got a real one and I was able to hold
him up close and it was almost exactly the same size you said yeah you got the
new kidneys and you sent me a set of the foam kidneys and I swapped them out in
my Snoopy cap they were super close yeah so that's like I would say maybe the one
skill that I am most that's with I don't know what the one of the words I'm
searching for but that might be my gift you say but every other thing machining
and all these things has definitely been a lot of practice and and learning but
well again to me like I don't ever care what gets someone interested in making
an often the intersection is a moment of of inspiration beget by obsession yeah
and it's it's delightful to see the beginning of your obsession rendered
extinct magnificent piece and I can't wait to visit your shop next time and
see it up on a little okay and mannequin I will do that thank you so much sir
what a thank you is an object