Queen mum
The QM died in 1994. Ever since then she's been animatronic, and has gone through several revisions until the machinery finally gave up in 2002 and was retired. You can chart her progress and development of the animatronics from 1994-2002. The first model, QM01 had the realistic body shell, but the insides were quite rudimentary. Her public appearances were limited to car trips, and upper body displays. Main features included simple side to side head movements, simple waving, realistic blinking and mouth movements.

In 1997 she was conspicuously absent from public life, due to the upgrades. QM02 never made it to release, but QM03 was unveiled in late 1998. The most signficant development was of course the realistic walking action. Only ever appearing in public wearing knee length outfits to cover the complex leg machinery, QM03 was capable of unassisted walking for up to an hour. It took 16 people to remote control the finer facial movements, and the range of waving was drastically improved, with over 17 new hand gestures.

QM03 through to QM06 consisted of mainly software upgrades, and public appearances were gradually reduced until until 2001 to allow for maintenance, an increasing burden.

2002 saw the final release QM-NEXGEN1 and was a remarkable overhaul. New exoskeleton, servos, body kit, authentic hair, speech modules, AI, the works, and a fully functional, self aware, independant QM was rolled out in March 3rd in Windsor. Within 3 or 4 hours, the neural cells used to power the model had already started to overload. A frantic 20 days of tuning was unable to revive or repair the failed cells and the project was closed on March 28th. A public 'death' was announced on March 30th and the files were expunged.

All the above was leaked in 2004 by a former palace employee.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:35, 7 replies)

That
is impressive.
Click
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:39, closed)

Was the original shell
based on the T1000?
(Evilweevil is covered in bees, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 16:59, closed)

Do I know you...
... outside the world of b3ta?
(gordonjcp, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 17:53, closed)

No.
And yes. For I am everywhere and nowhere.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Fri 28 Aug 2009, 22:09, closed)

Now I am become STEVE, the destroyer of WHEELIE-BINS.

( ejlflop errrrrgs. Regularly., Sat 29 Aug 2009, 3:14, closed)

Hmmm
I'm wondering if I'm one of the starters of this theory.
I've been telling it to people for years.
Your version is much better tho. I just told people she was animatronic and that you could tell if you looked closely enough :-D
(TheProfessor For all your redbearded intellectual needs, Sat 29 Aug 2009, 10:37, closed)