Bob Partington: A Few Of My Favourite Things

Let’s face it, the creator of The World’s Slowest Rube Goldberg was always going to give good Favourite Things, and in this capacity, Good Times director Bob Partington does not disappoint.

With a career as an award-winning commercial director, bolstered by his work as an acclaimed mechanical sculptor and creator of his own invention show ThingamaBob, Partington has been busy since landing in New York with a Master’s in Fine Arts from NYU and working in stop-motion on MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch.

Here, he gives us the wacky widgets and delightful doohickeys you’d expect from an expert in experimentation.

The Pegboard [above]

Welcome to my new shop - and pegboard, which is one of my favourite things. 

New shop, new pegboard, I have moved workshops a lot.  

It’s my trick: start with the pegboard, all the things you need that don’t fit in the toolbox. 

By the end of the process, you have a home… and you get a backdrop for Zoom calls.

The Tortoise Saddle

Yes, a tortoise saddle that shoots a sprung golf ball when said tortoise passes under a wire, much the same way they harness the lightning in Back to the Future. 

This is a remnant from my World’s Slowest Rube Goldberg and a reminder of how fascinating time and scale can be interpreted through the film medium.

The Potato Gun

This was one of my first fascinations as a kid, and a useful lesson in thermodynamics, possibly. 

It’s also a crowd favourite for Phantom cameras – I’ve shot plenty of potato gun projectiles for the Phantom. 

This one actually shot onions (through knives), then limes for the wrap party. 

This build was also the realisation of a childhood dream: to incorporate a piston valve – the crème de la crème of valves, putting sprinkler valves to shame. 

And something that only a production budget can afford.

The Einstein

MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch was my transition into filmmaking; I was working there while building a career showing kinetic sculpture and struggling with the documentation side of it. 

Stop-motion production gave me an understanding of the balance between the object and the medium of film, and how the science of that relationship becomes elastic through human perception – the thing that makes stop-mo, and real builds, so engaging to watch!

The Wile E. Coyote Bow

Built in a hotel room with hand tools, this is not my proudest piece of work – but it’s a reminder of how much can still be communicated through some good ol’ craftiness. 

This was a working “bow” that shot Wile E… made about the same time Coyote vs. Acme was in pre-production. 

I was pitching this build series to WB, bringing their animation IP into real-people-sized builds.

The Film Supplies

I have racks and racks of bins that have a proper order – but sometimes things just stay in boxes and get a label. 

They have meaning, sometimes usefulness, sometimes they spark an idea – mostly they’re just a comforting texture to have around.