Calliope, anybody?

[Bkeeneykid]

I'll admit I had to look up what a Calliope is, but certainly seems like an interesting idea. Looks like you'd have to actually, you know, generate steam somehow. This seems like it would be a messy thing to deal with, especially since you'd then be out of the range of FIRST legal parts, which means just about everyone you're dealing with is less experienced with such things. Assuming you got it electrically boiling, you'd also need a way of regulating the pressure evenly, otherwise bad things can happen. Also, you'd need to tune it. Either you'd get some pre made whistles, or you're going to spend a LOT of time getting the right pitch for each. From there you're either stuck in the key that your fight song is in, or you're making a chromatic one, which takes even longer.

I think the idea of it playing music is cool, but I'm not sure a acoustic instrument is the correct way of going about. Perhaps attach a speaker, a MIDI sequencer and a Animusic style light show (with less CGI)? I think that get's a bigger wow factor and is also easier on you, the people building the thing.