Johnny 5

A cardboard Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit

How did we come up with the idea to make Johnny 5?

…Let us start from the beginning.

WALL- E and Johnny 5

After finishing some home learning, my son wanted to watch a movie. He chose WALL-E, which he has probably seen fifteen times or so.

He commented that WALL- E looked similar to Johnny 5. As soon as the movie finished, he wanted to watch Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 (of course)

I love that my son enjoys watching films from the eighties (he also likes Willow and The Goonies).

Short Circuit

While watching Short Circuit, I randomly blurted out that it would be cool to recreate Johnny 5 out of cardboard. At the time, my son thought that this would be a good idea, so we left the conversation at that.

Cardboard Craft

The following day as I was getting the cardboard out of the cupboard, our team project turned into a solo project. However, my son decided that he no longer wanted to make the robot as he was doing his own thing (creating a fidget toy). So, I started painting some of the cardboard silver and left it to dry.

silver paint on cardboard
silver paint on cardboard

I kind of left this project as I thought that my son was no longer interested in creating Johnny 5. Oh no, he was adamant that I still created it for him.

Designing Johnny 5

My son kindly watched me closely as I began drawing out and constructing the separate parts for the robot. He guided me when he felt like my design was nothing like the image in the video.

  • robot
  • johnny 5

Robot Parts

The mistake I made was that I freestyled designed oppose to accurately measuring out each cardboard section of the robot. Why was this a mistake? Because, when assembling the cardboard parts, it made it difficult to distribute the weight.

  • making johnny 5
  • robot design

In the end, my crafty mind figured out how I could support the weight for the longest part of the robot so that it would stand upright.

The Final Design

Somehow, I managed to create something which kind of resembles Johnny 5.

johnny five
Cardboard Johnny 5

Was cardboard Johnny five harder to make than I had first thought? Yes.

Did I think of where I was going to store the robot once I had made it? No.

Was my son pleased with the finished result? Yes.
Then, it was worth it.

Johnny 5
Johnny 5 finished result

Are you an 80s fan?

What Johnny 5 quotes can you remember from the movie?

What is your favourite eighties movie?

*The content of this post is based on personal experience and is for information and educational purposes.

Published by Positively ASD

I'm Yvonne, a blogger and a mother to my amazing, creative son. He is also autistic. I write content about autism, our day to day life, art, science and wellbeing. From a mother's perspective and through my son's eyes!