With our fish-pellet-flinging catapult at the ready, we already knew hands down we were going to get top points for a perfect autonomous run. Our speed is looking good too, which means that the only thing left to think about was... artistic merit.
For the Feed the Fish challenge, there are 150 points to be gained from the design of the fishbowl. That's 10% of a possible 1500 points. We wanted to create something that was more than just a basic painted cuboid like what was given as the example - 20cm x 20cm, with an opening 40cm off the ground.
But who wants to feed a boring old box?
Idea number 1:
Our first idea was to just use a literal fishbowl with literal fish inside, and chuck coloured balls with painted fish into it. This (surprisingly) still seemed too simple for the challenge at hand. Also, it's expensive to buy a square fishbowl, even on Amazon Prime.
Idea number 2:
Make the fishbowl resemble a toilet. That idea never really went anywhere.
Idea number 3:
Make the fishbowl into a massive fish - something the size of a shark but the colour and stupid expression of a goldfish - swimming up out of the floor and opening wide to catch the little coloured balls in its 20cm x 20cm fat gob.
This idea was met with open arms and it became a weekend project for my dad and I.
We began with working out exactly what it would look like on paper, down to the materials we'd need, and also some quick maths to work out the exact measurements.
The outer body of the fish is made out of four trapezoidal pieces of cardboard, attached to a base and wrapped around a box inside (one that would be the same size as the original cuboidal fishbowl target).
The result was better than we could have ever imagined.
I then painted it orange and added cartoony scales to the sides. I have had my art featured at the Royal Academy but painting this fish took every ounce of my talent.
Finally, we topped it off with large comical balloon eyes.
Altogether I think it's quite an outside-the-box creation. It's perfect for the challenge, matching the theme, the dimensions and fun factor.
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