What would you design?
What would you ask Santa's elves to make for you?
Or… A gnome of your own?
Just over a year ago the idea of a DIY 3D printed toy with moving parts seemed a little far off. 1 Then Kparanya uploaded their Toy Car with Captive Wheels. Since then we’ve seen all kinds of multi-part toys uploaded to Thingiverse including lots of puzzles, a transformer, and Beco building blocks.
Although I use my Cupcake CNC to print a lot of tools and things to assist with repairs, what I really love using it for is printing toys – especially those I’ve designed. At the moment I’m really enamored with the idea of designing an open source disc shooter. But, this is just something which interests me. 2
If you had a MakerBot at your disposal, what kind of toy would you want to design? I suppose another way to ask this question is, “If you had one of Santa’s elves3 at your disposal to create any toy imaginable, what would you ask for?”
If there’s enough interest, perhaps I could do a series on the process of brainstorming, designing, creating a proof of concept, prototyping, and creating a polished design for a toy. (Although, I suspect this process is reasonably similar for any kind of inventing) Leave a comment and let me know what you’d like to see!
- Photo courtesy of jpellgen [↩]
- Although, it seems like at least one or two others would want to print them out if the designs were available. [↩]
- Or, perhaps a fussy gnome? [↩]
| Tagged with | comment, makerbot toy, poll, toy, toys | 6 comments |
6 Comments so far
Jake
I would find a cheap remote controlled fighting robot at a local toy store to re-skin
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Charles Shapiro
Ooh, pick me, pick me, meeee!!!
How ’bout some balance toys, like this one ( http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/r5/dragon-fly-balancing-toy-lg.jpg )? Soon’s I get my bot workin’ that’s about the first thing I want to try. Or a whirligig, either wind or muscle powered. Seems like lots of 19th century wooden toys could be re-engineered to print well, ‘specially the ones which feature moving parts.
Soon’s I get my ‘bot printing and my Blender chopz in order, I plan to Amaze the World!
MakerBlock
@Charles: Yes? You in the back?
There are several balancing toys on Thingiverse already – although they are stacking balancing toys. I think one like you described could be printable if you made the body one piece with slots for the wings. I think that’s doable.
I’m looking forward to seeing your designs!
InnovationByLayers
I already did, my dalek:) although I would like to see the new models, since they look very toy like, if they could have ball bearings in the bottom and movable arms that would be even better.
MakerBlock
@InnovationByLayers: And an amazing Dalek it is. I suspect we could design it to include ball bearings to roll on. It’s such a small model that adding movable arms/eyestalk will be challenging. But, I think we’re up to the task.
MakerBlock
@InnovationByLayers: BTW, that Dalek guards my desk at work.
I printed one out in clear PLA and it is spectacular…