This college student 3D printed a Daft Punk helmet

by: Michael Cooper Nov 1, 2016

In terms of clout and being able to do whatever it is they want, Daft Punk may very well stand alone. The group hasn’t toured in over a decade, yet rumors that they will once again hit the road still abound almost every year — sometimes even after it’s come out that they have no intention of doing so. Still, the enigmatic French robots are so beloved that appearances by imposters become news.

There is also the culture of fans creating their own versions of the iconic helmets that Daft Punk wear. It’s easy to forget in the current mask-saturated electronic community — see: deadmau5, Marshmello, Malaa — that Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo pioneered covering their face and letting their exquisite tracks do the talking.

In a positively 21st century update, one enterprising fan — a college student on Reddit known as CrazyElectrum — went through the process of 3D printing his own version of Bangalter’s helmet. The final product does look fairly genuine, and even in spite of the ease with which 3D printing made creating the helmet, significant work went into programming and designing the iconic lights within.

“Printing took 72 hours for 26 pieces. Worked on it for about 60-70 hours outside of printing. Overall took roughly 5 weeks of neglecting school and real life responsibilities. I made an android app to control about 10 preset animations I created.”

Select images from the build are available below, with the entire gallery available here.