Thank you everyone. Tonight, I just sat down and got on with the 3D model. I had sketched enough (more than 20 notebook pages, which is unheard of). I knew what I needed the Droid to do and everything came from that.
Best of all, I get closure on this thing that's been eating me longer than this thread has.
With regard to the question at the end of the original post...
...I've got a few ideas that have sat on the backburner so long that I no longer think they gel with my sensibilities. Thus they'll stay forever in the shadows until either they seem relevant again as a part of a retro/kitsch kick, or until they get morphed into something similar (but not quite the same) is a different game idea.
Ironically, one of these backburner projects that seems to have lost relevance is a "library of lost ideas" where I was planning to store concepts just like these.
That's curious, Michael. I use Google Docs as my library of lost ideas. I've taken to scanning the more interesting pages of my notebooks into it too as I've seen the disaster of washing a notebook left in a pair of trousers!
Another idea that's on my mind lately -- a fantasy RPG world based on Early Iron Age ... The historical background would be prominent, but used with certain liberties. Also, all the mythic creatures that are depicted in art/literature are real. Best thing: you get to play as this guy:
Player characters have an attribute called "liminality", which rates how "human" or "otherwordly" the characters is. Zero is human. One - passes as human, but has some weird abilities. Two - has the head of a lion, maybe wings, hoofs, superior abilities (e.g. demonic bodyguard).
Magic is ritual, with some ideas taken from original texts, etc.