Help finding custom chairs for my spaceship bridge?

May 29, 2014 4:10 PM

I created the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Sim game, and I've collected quite a bit of equipment to show it off. But finding just the right chairs for my bridge installations has been tough. Should I commission some custom ones? Is the perfect chair set out there for me already?

I've found this: https://www.google.com/search?q=Zuo%20Unico
It's kinda what I'm looking for, but not really enough.

This is too expensive!
http://elitechoice.org/2007/12/17/jean-luc-picards-enterprise-e-command-chair-sells-for-45000/

Ideally I want chairs that can be easily broken down and efficiently packed, for shipping to and from conventions.

And if I have to get them custom-made, I'd rather not spend more than $1000 per seat.

Any ideas? Thanks!

posted by Techbear to Technology (8 answers total)

If you haven't already tried this, I've had success at this problem by finding the not-quite item in Amazon, then scrolling through all the "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" to find similar (but probably also "not-quite") items, then scrolling through their "Also viewed" lists, etc, jumping around but overall iterating towards what I want. Then jumping between Amazon and Google Image Search, using keywords learned from various Amazon not-quite items to find new swathes in Google.

I'd also guess that some otherwise-good chairs are let down by having a distinctively office-chair base. It might be possible to create the desired chair by swapping the base of those chairs out for a better looking base, or more likely, making a custom shell that fits over the base of an office chair to give it the appearance of being a solid floor-mounted base.
posted by anonymisc at 5:49 PM on May 29, 2014

How about a proper captain's chair, for a boat? It probably doesn't fit your criteria of being easily portable, but the look should be close to what you're after.

Some googling indicates that it is called a "helm chair". There seems to be a quite good selection out there both from online retailers and ebay etc.
posted by compound at 6:37 PM on May 29, 2014

Maybe search for gaming chairs rather than office chairs? They're usually intended to look pretty futuristic.
posted by XMLicious at 6:42 PM on May 29, 2014

An Egg chair might be a good choice.

Kardiel sells them in a variety of colors and materials.
posted by cuscutis at 7:00 PM on May 29, 2014

The Tulip chair may be what you need as it is the style from Star Trek.
posted by cuscutis at 7:02 PM on May 29, 2014

chromcraft sculpta chairs


You would have to find some on ebay/etsy or other vintage shop but they are not that uncommon. I would guess the base can be disassembled from chair to make it easier to move/ship but I do not know for certain. I believe they appear in some startrek movies if that helps/hurts they as a choice.
posted by Ommcc at 8:41 PM on May 29, 2014

You can probably get used Aeron chairs for a dime a dozen from one of the many start-ups that bought them and went broke.

There is also this.
posted by empath at 9:10 PM on May 29, 2014

My first thought seeing that inflatable command chair was that it would be perfect for Artemis, but then I saw the weight limit and decided it would limit who could be captain too much.

I thought this would be right up IKEA's alley, but their more sci-fi chairs aren't very packable. Nevertheless, ARVIKA would make a good captain's chair, and FJÄLLBERGET seems like a reasonably packable option for the other stations. SKRUVSTA also looks futuristic, but bulky.
posted by ckape at 2:16 PM on May 30, 2014