The Comet - a space age retro rocket spaceship inspired TV

I have been making a lot of custom TVs lately. There are more pics of the Comet on the Gallery page.

I am going to update this site with more blogs soon showcasing some of the others… so stay tuned!

This build took a good while longer than I thought it would. It’s one thing to sketch something out and then build a foam board model… but another animal entirely when you start to play with real world materials and try to make them conform to strange shapes. So I definitely had some challenges along the way. Luckily, I was able to connect with some really talented folks who helped me out along the way.

The steel legs light up in the centers and the oval bezel on the chest plate lights up and can be set with a remote to different colors and different pulse effects. This gives it a sci-fi Outer Limits sort of vibe. Eventually I might install an LED sound activated receiver so that it pulses based on what the speakers are playing.

The screen is a 32" Samsung curved flatscreen gaming monitor and the custom pivoting surround is also lit inside so it has a nice glow.

The bezel trim for the screen surround was 3-d printed. I guess I could have 3-d printed the lower speaker grill as well - but instead I painstakingly built it out of wood and then capped each slat with U channel brass.

The emblem is of course from an early 60’s Mercury Comet. The Channel knob is from a 60’s Zenith TV and the other 3 are repros of radio knobs from a 50's VW radio. The knobs are just for looks as everything works off a remote control.

Today, everyone has giant screen TVs hanging on their wall so watching TV on a 32" screen is probably not a desirable option for most. But proportion was important with this build. If it was scaled too much larger, it just would not look right. Think of it more as a lighted sculpture which happens to function as a TV.