Ancient Web: Simon Jansen Built Bender to Brew Beer in 2007

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Somebody suggested building a full-size version of Bender from Futurama. Simon Jansen decided a robot merely standing there would be a waste: it should brew beer.

Visit the Bender Brewer Project.

The first page is dated June 24, 2007. Jansen reproduces an earlier instant-message exchange with friend David Moore, who reminded him that the cartoon's robot once served as a brewing vessel. Jansen was initially interested in a beer fridge, but Moore preferred a brewer. The conversation ended with a proposal to construct the character as a practical object rather than a decorative shell.

A second idea made the project more unusual. Jansen wanted Bender to talk using a MOS 6502 microprocessor, the family of chips familiar from the Commodore VIC-20 and Apple II. The combination is pure early maker-web enthusiasm: woodworking, electronics, fan culture, and a needlessly delightful engineering constraint.

A cartoon body is surprisingly hard to measure

The construction diary begins with a problem no factory blueprint could solve. A two-dimensional cartoon character does not have consistent physical dimensions, so Jansen watched episodes, collected screenshots, and drew full-size outlines on the back of a door.

His initial structure used MDF rings and wooden dowels. He planned to cover the form with cardboard and fiberglass, creating a lightweight shell around a large cylindrical space for the brewing equipment. The photographs show circular cutouts, a homemade router jig, body framing, and leg components.

Then came a wonderfully ordinary setback: after assembling the body, Jansen decided its taper was wrong and rebuilt it. The page records that choice without turning it into an inspirational life lesson.

Further project pages and circuit diagrams document how the proposed machine developed. The article should not be read as proof that every planned feature was finished or that the brewing system has been tested here.

The broader domain is also home to Jansen's long-running Star Wars ASCII animation, begun in 1997. This 2007 project is a separate and distinctly eccentric branch of the same personal maker world.

Explore the original Bender build diary.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.