The staff weapon is complete! And just in time for the contest deadline. Here are a bunch of pictures, but I'll show you the video first.

It is hard to take a picture of the full staff. It's about 2m long.

Here are the main components starting with the head.

With the top half removed you can see the electronics tucked inside.

From below you can see the battery, servo and some wires. They just wouldn't fit inside nicely. The wires leading back to the control section run inside a 3mm groove along the bottom of the shaft. They are painted, so they really aren't very visible.

Next is the little forward decoration. It doesn't do anything, but I like the look of it and it stands out.

Then comes the control section. There is a little lever switch for a trigger that is easier to see in the video. Push up for arming/disarming, push back for firing. This part didn't turn out as well as I would like, but with the time constraints I'm satisfied.

Finally, the tail. Again, good enough considering the time.

Whoa, wait a minute. I just realized I forgot to tell you about the projectiles. They are based on dollar store key chain lights that were ground into a cylinder and the white LED was replaced with an orange one. Completed one on the left.

They are launched by a spring which resides in a hole in the center of the head. The servo pulls a piece of wire that holds the projectile in the hole. The projectile is inserted with the light facing back, so it isn't visible till it shoots. Just watch the video.

And with that the project comes to completion. Thank you for your interest and I hope there are more sci-fi contests in the future.