Pillow Fight '07

[Paul]

Sorry for the late update everyone. For some reason Revver took way longer to process the video then normal. Our current theory is that the sheer amazingness of this video overloaded their servers.

Big thanks to Alex for having the foresight to get out there with a camera to film a bunch of people being very silly.

[bsx]

Big thanks to Alex for having the foresight to get out there with a camera to film a bunch of people being very silly.

ACK!

I agree with Alex that all wars should be fought this way. I would even join the army for that.

[Simmemann]

FRIKKIN' AWESOME!!

[Misty]

Oh wow... Alex's goggles distracted me for the first several minutes or so. They're freaking huge!!

I love the people being all ninja about their pillow fighting by twirling it around, trying to look all cool. And when that dude on stilts walked out they were all like "ZOMG A TALL DUDE- LET'S GET HIM!!!"

And yeah, why does Alex keep coughing in his videos?

[darkduck]

And yeah, why does Alex keep coughing in his videos?

Because he's a poor, sickly little geek?

I think the goggles were necessary protection. (is that what you meant by "you'll see"??? they were freaking huge!)

[The Happy Friar]

was the audio slightly off for everyone, or just me?

That looks pretty fun. All the great stuff happens on the other side of the border.

[DontPanic]

I want to make Alex a pillow that says "diplomatic immunity" on one side and "sex goggles" on the other side.

[korri]

someone tried to do this at school.. they posted a group on facebook.. but it failed horribly...i think maybe 3 people showed up...

and am I the only one who would pillow fight with the zipper side of the pillow outward? my friends tell me i am evil for doing this...

[dark_realm]

someone tried to do this at school.. they posted a group on facebook.. but it failed horribly...i think maybe 3 people showed up...

and am I the only one who would pillow fight with the zipper side of the pillow outward? my friends tell me i am evil for doing this...

nah, i'd do that and have extra heavy pillow dough in it aswell!

[Misty]

And yeah, why does Alex keep coughing in his videos?

Because he's a poor, sickly little geek?

Either that, or he has black lung. Whichever lends itself to a more hilarious backstory.

[Alja-Markir]

Hmm. I imagine if I rolled and bound pillows properly, I could deploy pillow mortars.

I'd just need to hook a storage resevoir and some flow-valves onto a single-opening metal tube or pipe about one foot in diameter. Load pillow sabot, release pressurized air, launch pillow 100 feet in the air.

Trouble is, I'd need to either refill after each shot, which is noisy and slow, or reload filled resevoirs, which could be a technical difficulty.

Plus, I'd have to get my arse out to the cheap Tawainese knockoff some time. Ahh well. I'll file this under "Maybe".

~Alja-Markir~

[Faye]

That's awesome! How come people don't do cool things like that in America?

yet another reason I would like to move to Canada.

[RPGManic]

Suit of armour made of pillows, for both you and your steed!
Pillow flail - bedsheets tied up and then tied to the pillow, LONG RANGE CHAOS! MWUAHAHAH

cushion throwing stars as well, tiny little ones XD

get a full set: U R TEH PILLOW WARRI0R


I wish bradford was that fun... very good job Alex.

FOR THE HORDE!

[JesterJ.]

Oh God that was so great! Totally worth waiting 'till today to see it.
Some of those lines were great

"SORRY! I thought you were a pillow!"

Hahaha


And I like how at the end, when it's in slowmo, you can see one of the "Target Dudes'" gaping mouths open, watching in awe at the rush through them.

[Sable]

Alja:

Here's another Technical Discussion of Something Very Silly.

To build a pillow mortar you would need:

1.) Large liquid CO2 canister. CO2 liquifies at about 750psi, and in general you can rent a tank from a store that fills paintball tanks, or rent one from a welding shop (This is what I do). By "large" I mean "Four or five feet tall." You'll know them when you see them.

2.) An adjustable regulator - this may come with the tank. It allows the pressure on the output side of the main tank to be no greater than a set limit - let's say 100PSI because that is seriously a hell of a lot of force.

3.) A "buffer tank" - as the main tank will be high-pressure and relatively low-flow, this tank will store gas at 100PSI but have a gargantuan valve on the other end. Which brings us to:

4.) A HUGE valve. You can get solenoid-actuated pilot valves but for maximum silliness use a huge butterfly valve and a very large lever. If you're a fan of Mythbusters, this is the mechanism Jaime and Adam used for the chicken gun.

5.) A piece of tubing or pipe large enough to cram a pillow down. It should not move freely, as the expanding air from the buffer tank has, again, an almost stupid amount of power.

6.) Miscellaneous piping, tubing, couplings, boots, pressure meters and time. You may want to include overpressure valving as well, but this is not strictly necessary.

7.) Some kind of disablement mechanism for the dump valve lever. This can be as simple as tying the lever to the barrel - this is the equivalent of the safety on a gun.

8.) Pillows.

The flow path for the gas looks like this (I may draw a more detailed diagram later, if anyone wants one):

Tank -> Regulator -> Tubing of some sort -> Input of buffer tank -> Dump valve -> Barrel.

This can be an incredibly fun machine (I have built potato guns like this) or an insanely dangerous one. You are dealing with probably more power than you realize and if you build it out of the wrong materials (DO NOT, under any circumstances, use PVC pipe - PVC fails explosively) you can hurt yourself. Even though you would be firing pillows, do not fire them directly at anyone. Do not ever, ever stand in front of the loaded and primed machine.

Like everything that deals with lots of power in a confined space, common sense is key. Use it, and you'll have a lot of fun. Don't, and you'll hurt someone.

This setup lets you fire the cannon as often as the dump tank reaches 100PSI - when you close the butterfly valve you re-seal the chamber and the pressure will start to rise again. You can repeat this process until you run out of CO2 - which may be a while.

If anyone builds one of these and gets hurt, I'm very sorry but it was your own fault.[/i]

[Tiger1313]

This is Madness.

Madness you say.

THIS IS PILLOW FIGHT '07!!!!!!!!!!!


I would like to know how long the actual event lasted.

[Kara]

There were some pretty 1337 skillz with those pillows. I loved it when the guy actualled ducked the pillow and swiped back. Props to all Pillow Fighting Torontonians for their mastery of the Art of Pillow Warfare.

[Tapir12]

I was in Toronto LAST week......

[Alja-Markir]

Yes Sable, I know. I'm a technical geek too.

*grins*

I've built similar, ranging from an air-rifle converted into an automatic pool stick, to a pretty sophisticated CO2 bird-scaring cannon for agricultural use. I'm not about to do anything stupid.

As for the pillow mortar, air power I think would be sufficient for a pillow, and less dangerous and thus less work. It doesn't have to be magnificent, just enough to launch a light pillow. The sabot seal would need to be fiddled with, but all in all I could put in little work to make a cool and non-dangerous pillow toy.

~Alja-Markir~

[Citin]

God i wish stuff like that happened in Saskatchewan

[Corax]

this fieo was pretty funny, i really enjoyed watching, and sa we say in the US only Canada would do this lol

[Alex Steacy]

This is Madness.

Madness you say.

THIS IS PILLOW FIGHT '07!!!!!!!!!!!


I would like to know how long the actual event lasted.

It went on for a couple of hours I think - I lost track of time in the turmoil.

This is one of Newmindspace's best events, and I rank it just a little higher than their subway parties, but not as high as their mobile parade.

THAT was awesome. I dressed like a ninja.

Also, about the coughing: It's always due to something different, and I think it might become a running non-gag for my vids... First it was old gasmask crud, this time it was pillow feathers (which were way worse than the mask, actually)

Let's see how many more times I get coughing.

[emma]

It went on for a couple of hours I think - I lost track of time in the turmoil.

I was told that it lasted about an hour!

Man, I am so angry that I was sick, injured, and too busy to go to that. I had plans, such plans, to go. BOO.

Good video, though, Alex.

[Alex Steacy]

And when that dude on stilts walked out they were all like "ZOMG A TALL DUDE- LET'S GET HIM!!!"

Spoiler: That guy was piggybacking. No way would you be able to stay upright under pillow assault on stilts.

Well maybe you could, there was that one guy with rollerblades.

[Alja-Markir]

That reminds me, I still need to finish my own stilts. I've been putting it off, because it's impossible to finish them without the saw I own but which is several geographical regions away at the moment, and because I also don't have anywhere to test them.

They're not your standard stilts. They're inspired by the movie, The Dark Crystal. If you ever watch the Behind-The-Scenes stuff for that movie, they show how they did the rabbit-strider things, and I based my design off of those. Stilts on both arms and both legs for a very similar form of motion, and superb stability.

I'm still not certain if it will work well. I can guesstimate and do the math as much as I like, but field testing is needed. I'm hoping if this initial wooden set performs to my liking, I can then convert to an aluminum set. Pity I can't find the time to work on this crap. *grumbles*

~Alja-Markir~