Secret Origin of The TARDIS Guy!

03 May Secret Origin of The TARDIS Guy!

Here we are , a new website and I will be writing and publishing articles on here regularly. A new article will be published the day after launch and another the day after that to kick us off, then a new one every two weeks, so if you have anything you would like to have me write about, or even write one yourself, please let me know.

I’m The TARDIS Guy, but it wasn’t always so. You can read a whole bunch about me in the “About” section of this website, but that isn’t the whole story.

So what is the whole story? I’m a 44 year old English guy living in and loving Melbourne. I’ve been in Australia for about 14 years and in Melbourne for about 3. I have a background in mechanical and production engineering and carpentry but have worked in many industries. I did my engineering apprenticeship back in the UK in the late 80’s / early 90’s when we still used drawing boards and paper and our first CAD machine had 2 megabytes of RAM, (I think it cost the company about £2000). Later, after arriving in Australia, I got my carpentry ticket and started working for myself. I was renovating houses, building decks and doing as many cool , creative projects I could, when suddenly, I found myself sub-contracting to an events company. We were creating mad crazy things so far removed from my normal work. One day it might be a backdrop for a trade show , the next it might be making glittery centre pieces for a posh dinner the next a spaceship. I loved it.

I’m also a massive nerd, Doctor Who fan, comic book reading super hero wannabe. Some of my earliest memories are of playing with Lego or laying out tracing paper over old comics and copying the shapes of heroes like Thor and Captain America. Comics, games, Lego, role-playing, it’s in my blood. It was only a matter of time until something happened.

What happened was my friend Nic asking me if I could build a full size TARDIS for him. He would buy the materials and I would build it with his help.

“Sure”, I said, “how hard can it be?”

Three months later we found out and we finished it almost the same week that I moved from Brisbane down to Melbourne. I was sad to leave it behind but even sadder to say goodbye to Nic. Melbourne here we come.

What happened next was something of a shock. It turns out your clients don’t move interstate with you when you move. I found myself in Melbourne with no work and starting over. I did the usual thing I do when confronted with starting over, I ignored it for a while and played board games, but that can’t really last, so I went back to renovations and carpentry. Six months later I was chugging along, converting old garages into posh wine cellars, when some guy asked me if I could make a full size TARDIS.

What , wait? Haven’t we just done this part? Time travel is a real thing , right?

“What do you mean, full size TARDIS?” I said.

“You know, from Doctor Who, to help promote a Doctor Who convention in three weeks”

“In three weeks?” I said.

“Yes”

“Sure”, I said, “how hard can it be?”

So that’s what I did and that’s how I became The TARDIS Guy.

Wait, what?

Yeah, I know that’s not the full, full story. There is plenty more to it than that. What about the Doctor Who convention? What happened there? How did you build a full TARDIS in only 3 weeks? What happened next? What do you even do with a full size TARDIS once you have it? Didn’t you make a Captain America shield or something? These are all good questions, which will have to wait because my fingers are tired. This writing stuff is hard.

Next time; My First Convention Experience.

Allan, AKA “The TARDIS Guy”