MakerBot Industries

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!

1. Photo courtesy of jpellgen [↩]
2. Although, it seems like at least one or two others would want to print them out if the designs were available. [↩]
3. Or, perhaps a fussy gnome? [↩]

First ever Botacon!

A Botacon is an exciting get together of robots and the people who are creative near them.  Already we’ve got several hundred people interested in this all-day event.  (Don’t worry – I’m saving a spot just for you.)  It will be at the Brooklyn Lyceum from about 10am until 6pm on December 11, 2010.  Right now we’re still taking suggestions for ideas and topics, but the rough outline is:

• A keynote speaker in the morning
• A bunch of small talks and discussions (anywhere from 5-20 minutes each)
• About 2 hours for lunch
• A workshop project
• Some more talks and discussions (also 5-20 minutes each)
• Time for people to get dinner
• A bar drinkup¹

However, since we’re still putting together the program for the Botacon we need your input.  Please take the time to fill out a super short survey, drop us a line, or leave a comment.  We’d love to know:

• Who do you want to hear from as the keynote speaker?
• Who would you like to hear from?
• What kinds of talks would you be interested in?
• What kinds of things would you like to hear about?
• What would you like to see?

And, don’t forget to submit your talk!

I hope you decide to come out.  It just wouldn’t be the future without you! 

1. Because even roboticists need libation.  Hint: If you have a robot, like robots, can spell robots, or have an evil laugh – you count as a roboticist in my book. [↩]