I’ve just been watching the Six Million Dollar Man episode “The Return of Deathprobe” (all one word, not Death Probe mind you).
It's back, and this time it's black...
As I kid I was completely in awe of this thing – and it’s only watching as an adult that I realise how completely silly the plot really is.
I did notice one thing, it must have been incredibly dangerous to work with the prop. It really looks like it’s made out of metal and flails around rather uncontrollably in certain sequences.
Watch out Steve...
Lee Majors narrowly avoids being side swiped during the sequence where he’s trying to blind the thing by spraying foam over the “visual sensors”.
Oooh that was a close one...
Scary…
UPDATE : Thanks to DrBrodski, we were able to locate this clip from the 80′s movie “Heartbeeps” featuring an ever-so-slightly-more-jazzy-deathprobe (just don’t mention “Dalek”, OK?)
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Steve Hobley works for a software company, but in his spare time likes to deconstruct all the lovely consumer goods with a goal to make unique and interesting things.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I wonder what the death probe was made out of , i sometimes think it is a small car and made it look like a probe. What do you think it is made out of? I would like to know
Not sure, I always thought it was custom made – I think you might be able to see under it when they winch it up at the end – I’ll have to check…
From the way it rocked back and forth a little while moving forwards in some sequences, I thought it was a Bobcat excavator (with the cab removed and some kind of shuttle-shaped fibreglass shell put over the whole thing). Watch the 1981 Andy Kauffman comedy Heartbeeps and you’ll see Deathprobe again. After being given an extreme makeover, this huge prop was employed again by the studio as the “Crimebuster” robot. Check Youtube and Google for “Crimebuster Heartbeeps” and you’ll see what I mean.
Yes, a Bobcat would be a good choice – at one point they hoist it up and you can see the underside, but I don’t remember what that revealed…