Labyrinth Scene Box (2009)

This is one of the cool things I made and something I'd like to make more of someday, but with different themes.
It's a "scene box". A box that you have to open in a certain way, guiding you through all kind of scenes from a movie.

The finished box, approximately 22,6 cm x 22,6 cm x 22,6 cm

At first sight it looks nothing different then some kind of cube, resembling the Companion Cube from a video game. But if you look at this sketch you might think otherwise.

Step 1: Closed box.
Step 2: Slide backside off.
Step 3: Flip top lid up.
Step 4: Slide out the sides.
Step 5: Click off the front side.
Step 6: Open the doors.

The "ordinary, nothing special"-box can transform, flipping up, sliding out, open etc.

This particular Labyrinth themed box was made for a friend who is a big fan of the movie.

It starts with a big pile of pieces: 

All pieces were drawn first in a 3D object, so I could calculate the needed sizes of every part.

Next to wood I also used some engraved plastic parts, which I engraved at my job at Railz Miniworld. I used AutoCAD to trace the lines of original pictures and converted it to a file which the CNC grinder uses.

These pieces had faces of all kind of characters who would pass by in the movie.

My favorite character from Labyrinth:
Sir Didymus
The white plastic was rubbed in black paint
then dry painted with silver.

All 7 engraved pieces: Sir Didymus, Ello-worm, Hoggle,
Sarah, The Card Figures, Jareth and Ludo

All pieces were sanded, prime painted and added with the color they needed. I used a dark red color and covered it with black stains. For that I used a fumbled piece of newspaper which was dipped in black paint.

The corner pieces were painted gold.

Colored side plates.

Colored corner pieces

When it was dry I could glue the engraved emblems inside the holes.

4 plates with their emblems. The worm and Didymus were places inside.

After painting everything was put together. It was quite difficult to do, since the thickness of the wood together with the paint were slightly different than the ones that were calculated, leading to some extra sanding. Also wasn't it the most easy project to glue together, because there wasn't much to hold on too, due to the moving parts.

None the less it worked, making this the end result:

Step 1: Closed box.

Step 2: Slide backside off.
It revealed the curious goblins, from the bedroom scene.

Step 3: Flip the top lid up.
It reveals the ballroom "Cinderella"-scene.
In the scene the bubble was broken to go back to  her real life.
Later on this "bubble" has to be "broken" to get to a key.

Step 4: Slide the sides out.
This reveals 2 scenes.
1: The Labyrinth at which the "Ello"-worm lives. (his emblem is in the left wall)
2: "The Bog of eternal stench" where they had to skip stones and met Sir Didymus (his emblem is in right wall)
The scenes are printed from the movie (or a good resembling picture from Google) and glued onto the wood.

Step 5: Click off the front side.
It's attached with  a magnet. It reveals a Firey; it are creatures that  take their heads off to play around with it.
I used double sided tape for this effect.

When the front is removed it leads to a door, which is also seen in the movie.
The shape on the lock is the same as a pendant Jareth has around his neck.

The other side of the doors. They contain pictures of the annoying door knockers .

Step 6: Open the doors.

 The door leads to the final room. 
It's the Escher like room, with steps and doorways at the walls, ceiling, floor etc.
Inside is Jareth the Goblin King about who the story goes. He has a crystal ball he plays with 
(Contact juggling it is called; I learned a few tricks after seeing Jareth's ball-skills.)

This is how it looks when all the pieces are opened, flipped, removed and/or slid out.