Installation

Mondo Spider

bookable

An eight-legged, 1,600 lb walking machine you ride. Steel legs step in a Klann linkage at a brisk walk, and since 2010 it has run silently on batteries.

The Mondo Spider, an eight-legged steel walking machine, with its rider seated in the middle in front of a graffitied rail car

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Specs

Footprint ~8 x 8 ft, ~5 ft tall

About the size of a small car, and as wide as it is long.

Weight ~1,600 lb (730 kg)

Power Battery-electric, no generator

48V lithium iron phosphate pack (160 Ah). Range of about 14 km per charge.

Transport Enclosed trailer from Los Angeles. / Quoted per event.

Container fit Fits a 20 ft container

Install Carries one rider

Piloted by its builders.

Machinery Ramp-equipped trailer; no crane. / A 120V outlet for charging between rides.

Storage Stored indoors in Los Angeles. / About 8 x 8 ft footprint.

Home base Los Angeles, CA

Engineering P.Eng stamped

P.Eng stamped.

Insurance Artist's own liability certificate, confirmed per event. / Certificate naming your event on request.

Site Firm, flat ground with a clear walking loop. / About 30 x 30 ft for demos, with a controlled perimeter.

The Mondo Spider is a ride-on walking machine the size of a small car. One rider sits in the middle and eight steel legs step it forward at up to about 4 feet per second, a brisk walking pace. The legs run on a Klann linkage, a mechanism that turns a spinning crank into a walking gait.

It started as a wooden walker at Vancouver's Junkyard Wars in 2005 and was rebuilt in steel in 2006 by Jonathan Tippett, Leigh Christie, Charlie Brinson, Alex Mossman, Dillard Brinson, Sam Meyer, Ryan Johnston and Daniel Anderson through the eatART Foundation. It walked at Burning Man in 2006 on an art grant. In 2009 CODE Live commissioned a conversion from a Honda V-twin to battery power for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, which made it the first zero-emission walking vehicle and quiet enough to walk indoors.

Since then it has appeared at the Vancouver Art Gallery, in New York and on television.

Photos: eatART; Ever Falling (CC BY 2.0).

Request to book

Bring Mondo Spider to your event

Nothing is held until we confirm your dates.