Weta Workshop gifts Valve a full-scale, working 'Portal' turret

Valve's Portal games featured a now-iconic sentient turret, and Weta Workshop — the New Zealand-based props and special effects house made famous by Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films — recently sent the company a gift: a life-size, working turret.

Valve's Portal games featured a now-iconic sentient turret, and Weta Workshop — the New Zealand-based props and special effects house made famous by Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films — recently sent the company a gift: a life-size, working turret.

Valve's unboxing video is available below. Weta shipped the turret to Valve last week in a massive crate stamped with Portal-appropriate messaging, including Aperture Science logos and warnings that the device is only "for use with GLaDOS operating system." Valve employees unpacked the box to find a full-scale turret with moving parts, the characteristic robotic female voice, and, of course, four machine guns.

Weta's turret looks quite a bit more functional and complete than the one built for an Advanced Mechatronics class at Penn State this past spring, but then, that unit was just a framework and Weta is a professional studio, so let's not be too critical of the student project.