FAQ

One passenger on the drivers lap in in rare acts of honorary abductions. If you ask for a ride you will simply be eaten and thus you will ride as a passenger in many small mashed up poison-pumped pieces.

Skid steering... similar to a tracked vehicle.

Yes

About the size of a small car, but it's as wide as it is long.

It is capable of killing 20 hippies per minute. When there are no hippies around, it crushes cans.

A brisk walking pace, or a very slow jog.

48V Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack, 160Ahr capacity

The inspiration came from Vancouver Junkyard Wars.

Art for arts sake.

uhm... you can use it to kill hippies. But it's for the enjoyment of the designers, builders, riders, and spectators. Some of the hippies on the Mondo Spider team wear a special patchouli-encrusted crystal amulet to prevent their otherwise certain demise. For such an amulet please email us in advance.

We disassembled it and put it in two trailers: a wicked horse trailer (thanks Wade!) and a peanut sized utility trailer. In 2007 we plan to bring it down in a custom built trailer.

We were camped with Camp I Am over on the west-most side of the Esplanade. We generally did not stray too far from our camp. If you were over on the east side, well.. that might explain it. Another possibility is that you might have been looking for it during the day. For the most part, the spider only went out at sunset and at night. The spider also broke down twice in 2006, and was repaired on the playa both times thanks to the dedicated Mondo Spider Crew of bedlamites. Considerable reliability improvements are being made to the spider for Burning Man 2007.

It's currently hibernating in Dillard's garage in North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

We are bringing it back to Burning Man 2007! We also plan bring the Spider to schools and exhibit it at galleries, show and other public arts events.

The leg linkage mechanism was designed and patented by a genius named Joe Klann (http://www.mechanicalspider.com).

There are also other mechanisms that offer a similar foot path... see Theo Jansen's Strandbeest for an example (http://www.strandbeest.com).

Yes! There is a very large number of people all over the world that build robotic walking machines, and there are a small few who build ones that you can ride inside.

Our good friend Joe Klann builds 'em all the time ;)
http://www.mechanicalspider.com

Here's a link for a huge catalog full of walking machines:
http://www.walking-machines.org

Also, our friend Crabfu (the artist) built a steam-powered spider with help from Joe Klan:
http://www.crabfu.com/steamtoys

There are many wheeled vehicles that look like "walking machines" but are in fact rolling kinetic sculptures. True large-scale walking machines that you can drive are very few and far between. Here is a list of all those that are known to the Mondo Spider Crew.

1. Two teams built walking machines as part of the Junkyard Wars USA competition.
2. Three teams from the Vancouver Junkyard Wars built walking machines (including the prototype Mondo Spider). Email us for photos.
3. Pulsetech (now Timberjack within John Deer) builds a wicked hydraulic powered logging machine that looks like a giant grasshopper: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y
4. General Electric built one a long time ago:
   http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mil/Museum/Cybernetic.htm
5. Tiger Shiva by Kezanti: http://www.kezanti.com/about.html
6. The Big Ant (by Dr. David G. Ullman and his team): http://www.ihpva.org/Races/DaVinci2004/AntInParkingLot.jpg
7. Toyota built an exoskeleton type machine: http://www.plyojump.com/exoskeletons.html
8. Joe Klann (the inventor of the six-bar linkag used by the Mondo Spider) has built a human powered version. http://www.mechanicalspider.com
9. Molten Steel Man is building one too: http://www.moltensteelman.mechanicalspider.com/

In Vancouver, British Columbia.