This is our caterpillar. When I asked my daughter what she wanted the car to be this year, she just said, "A caterpillar!" I don't know where she comes up with this stuff.
Anyway, I thought up a lot of different plans to accomplish a caterpillar, and finally decided that gluing balls together was the only way it would look right. I was about to try to turn the balls myself on the lathe, when it hit me that I might be able to buy them. We went to the craft store, and bought 7 maple "doll heads". They even already had one flat side. I flattened another side on 5 of 'em and thought I was home free.
Unfortunately, maple is *way* heavier than pine, so it was *way* over weight. I had to break the balls apart again, and try to hollow them out with a drill. I did the best I could, but we ended up having to run the race with the final ball removed.
We painted him all yellow, and sponge-painted the green. The nose is a little pom-pom, and the antennas are sparkly pipe-cleaners.
I hadn't really thought about the "platform" he was gonna stand on until the end, but the caterpillar turned out so cute that it seemed a shame to make him stand on a black square like the pod racer. I suddenly hit on the idea of giving him some leaves to crawl on, which wasn't as easy to do as it sounded -- but it was worth it. It's carved from the original pine block so I wouldn't have to worry about the wheelbase or axle alignment.
