diff --git a/etg/_core.py b/etg/_core.py
index ba924c7a..32ea3bc2 100644
--- a/etg/_core.py
+++ b/etg/_core.py
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ INCLUDES = [  'defs',
               'dirdlg',
               'config',
               'searchctrl',
-              #'variant',
+              'variant',
               #'radiobox', # need to resolve abiguous GetDefaultBorder issue with mult. inheritance
               'radiobtn',
               'scrolwin',
diff --git a/etg/dataview.py b/etg/dataview.py
index 5ca7b686..d89b3569 100644
--- a/etg/dataview.py
+++ b/etg/dataview.py
@@ -38,11 +38,6 @@ def run():
     # Tweak the parsed meta objects in the module object as needed for
     # customizing the generated code and docstrings.
     
-    module.insertItem(0, etgtools.WigCode("""\
-        // forward declarations
-        class wxVariant;
-    """))
-
     c = module.find('wxDataViewModel')
     c.abstract = True
     #c.find('GetValue').ignore()
diff --git a/etg/variant.py b/etg/variant.py
deleted file mode 100644
index d80082ee..00000000
--- a/etg/variant.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,75 +0,0 @@
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Name:        etg/variant.py
-# Author:      Kevin Ollivier
-#
-# Created:     15-Sept-2010
-# Copyright:   (c) 2011 by Kevin Ollivier
-# License:     wxWindows License
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-import etgtools
-import etgtools.tweaker_tools as tools
-
-PACKAGE   = "wx"   
-MODULE    = "_core"
-NAME      = "variant"   # Base name of the file to generate to for this script
-DOCSTRING = ""
-
-# The classes and/or the basename of the Doxygen XML files to be processed by
-# this script. 
-ITEMS  = [ 'wxVariant', 'wxVariantData', ]    
-    
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-def run():
-    # Parse the XML file(s) building a collection of Extractor objects
-    module = etgtools.ModuleDef(PACKAGE, MODULE, NAME, DOCSTRING)
-    etgtools.parseDoxyXML(module, ITEMS)
-    
-    #-----------------------------------------------------------------
-    # Tweak the parsed meta objects in the module object as needed for
-    # customizing the generated code and docstrings.
-    
-    
-    c = module.find('wxVariant')
-    
-    # FIXME: No matter what I do here, I always get 'same signature' errors
-    # for the various constructors. I've tried removing the ones that seem 
-    # similar, and renaming parameters in the wx interface file, but neither 
-    # approach changes things. Do we just need to use a mapped type for all conversions?
-    c.find('wxVariant').overloads = []
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('wxAny').ignore()
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('wxChar *').ignore()
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('wxChar').ignore()
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('wxLongLong').ignore()
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('wxULongLong').ignore()
-    #c.find('wxVariant').findOverload('void *').ignore()
-    
-    c.find('GetAny').ignore()
-    
-    # SIP doesn't like the syntax on these methods. I don't know if it's 
-    # something wrong about the SIP output, or if SIP doesn't support these.
-    c.find('operator double').ignore()
-    c.find('operator long').ignore()
-    c.find('operator wxLongLong').ignore()
-    c.find('operator wxULongLong').ignore()
-    
-    c.find('operator void *').ignore()
-    c.find('operator wxChar').ignore()
-    c.find('operator wxDateTime').ignore()
-    c.find('operator wxString').ignore()
-    
-    assert isinstance(c, etgtools.ClassDef)
-
-    
-    
-    
-    #-----------------------------------------------------------------
-    tools.doCommonTweaks(module)
-    tools.runGenerators(module)
-    
-    
-#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-if __name__ == '__main__':
-    run()
-
diff --git a/src/variant.sip b/src/variant.sip
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2653fdca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/variant.sip
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+// Name:        variant.sip
+// Purpose:     
+//
+// Author:      Kevin Ollivier
+//
+// Created:     20-Sept-2011
+// Copyright:   (c) 2011 by Kevin Ollivier
+// Licence:     wxWindows license
+//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+// We always convert wxVariant to / from the native Python types since its purpose
+// is basically to allow a variable to be multiple types in C++
+%MappedType wxVariant
+{
+    %ConvertToTypeCode
+        // Code to test a PyObject for compatibility
+        if (!sipIsErr) {
+            if (PyString_Check(sipPy) || PyUnicode_Check(sipPy))
+                return TRUE;
+            else if (PyInt_Check(sipPy) || PyLong_Check(sipPy))
+                return TRUE;
+            else if (PyBool_Check(sipPy))
+                return TRUE;
+            else if (PyFloat_Check(sipPy))
+                return TRUE;
+            
+            return FALSE;
+        }
+        
+        // Code to create a new wxPyUserData from the PyObject
+        wxVariant* data =  new wxVariant();
+        if (PyString_Check(sipPy) || PyUnicode_Check(sipPy)) {
+            // TODO: Can we just reuse the code in string.sip somehow?
+            
+            // TODO: check state or iserr?
+            int iserr = 0;
+            wxString* strPtr = (wxString*)sipConvertToType(sipPy, sipType_wxString, NULL, SIP_NOT_NONE, NULL, &iserr);
+            *data = *strPtr;
+        }
+        else if (PyInt_Check(sipPy))
+            *data = (long)PyInt_AS_LONG(sipPy);
+        else if (PyLong_Check(sipPy))
+            *data = (long)PyLong_AsLong(sipPy);
+        else if (PyBool_Check(sipPy)) {
+            if (sipPy == Py_True)
+                *data = true;
+            else
+                *data = false;
+        }
+        else if (PyFloat_Check(sipPy))
+            *data = PyFloat_AS_DOUBLE(sipPy);
+        *sipCppPtr = data;
+        return sipGetState(sipTransferObj);
+    %End
+
+         
+    %ConvertFromTypeCode
+        // Code to convert a wxClientData back to the PyObject.
+        PyObject* obj;
+        
+        if (sipCpp == NULL) {
+            obj = Py_None;
+        } else {            
+            if (sipCpp->GetType() == "string")
+                obj = PyUnicode_FromWideChar(sipCpp->GetString().wc_str(), sipCpp->GetString().length());
+            else if (sipCpp->GetType() == "long")
+                obj = PyLong_FromLong(sipCpp->GetLong());
+            else if (sipCpp->GetType() == "double")
+                obj = PyFloat_FromDouble(sipCpp->GetDouble());
+            else if (sipCpp->GetType() == "bool")
+                obj = PyBool_FromLong((long)sipCpp->GetBool());
+        }
+        return obj;
+    %End
+    
+};
+
+// Used just for unittesting the MappedType code, it can be removed later
+%ModuleCode
+wxVariant testVariantTypemap(const wxVariant& arr)
+{
+    wxVariant local = arr;  // force a copy
+    return local;
+}
+%End
+wxVariant testVariantTypemap(const wxVariant& arr);