They’re multiplying!

Backstory: after their debut at the Maker Faire Bay Area 2012, the creatures of the MakerBot Robot Petting Zoo were put onto Thingiverse. First Wheely, then Bumper Bot, Button Bot, and Bubble Bot.

And then we noticed that a couple of these bots were quietly re-made by two brave Thingiverse citizens. Woot!

Here’s Xephius’ version of Wheely, with a hilarious description below.

This is a descendant of early high performance sport UAV’s that settled in BC’s Fraser Valley. They can easily be identified by the bright yellow and red markings and tell tail Stainless Steel Rodgers hardware in Imperial not Metric. (Canadian Tire doesn’t carry any M3 hardware!) Because of the relatively low number of wild UAV’s in BC (420 in last count), they are protected by the Province. Recent observations show they are attracted to Poutine, Hockey pucks, and Timbits, seen here courting a Sieg X2 CNC mill…

Just hours ago, a new cousin to this Wheely derivative popped up, too! Here’s cornwarrior’s version of Bumper Bot.

Awesome work by these two superstar Thingiverse members Xephius (aka John Cooney) and cornwarrior (aka Josh Kugler)!

Two down, two to go. Who will complete the happy family?

Life's a Beach

Woohooooo! Memorial Day Weekend is upon us and hot dang are we excited to blow off some steam! It’s been an absolute whirlwind here at MakerBot HQ. The Wall Street Journal scooped our big move to to the Brooklyn Tech Triangle,  but we still managed to put the final bolts on our traveling Robot Petting Zoo and pack them off to the first Maker Faire of the year in San Mateo! We hooked up with our old pal Schuyler and talked to thousands of people about changing the world with desktop manufacturing, and more importantly, customizing our own LEGO blocks. We captured some magical moments  in our photo booth and went hunting for bots in the wild. We exchanged much needed hugs with our west coast family. We made @hugs idea come to life and helped a really cool kid fix his Go-Kart in 45 minutes flat. It was AWESOME. We got home just in time to cause a disruption at TechCrunch and say a bittersweet farewell to our second season of MakerBot TV. What should we do next season?

Oh! We also  helped a team of engineers light up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and gave Jared Leto a giant PLA frog.

How to Start The Summer Off Right:

Head to the beach.

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Crack open a cold one.

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Catapult.

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Get patriotic.

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In further celebration of Geek Pride Day, we are pleased to announce that the masterpieces collection from the MakerBot Design Team known as the Robot Petting Zoo will now be available on Thingiverse!

You heard us talk about these and you saw it all over Engadget and CNET and a bunch of other spots. We are incredibly proud of these little guys, and not just because they won Editor’s Choice from Maker Faire. They represent what a MakerBot is capable of and the power of combining open-source hardware technologies.

Now it’s time for the more important phase in the project: when we put the files in your hands and tell you to run free with them. (Don’t run too free. In our experience, you’ll need a fence to keep these robots in one place). In keeping with the open-source, collaborative spirit of everything we do here, the designs are now yours to use as you please. And the beauty is you can take these and be inspired to come up with other pet robots, and help us turn this petting zoo into a robot circus.

The first set of files to go up are for Wheely, the “robotic chicken” designed by Michael Curry. Here is how Michael describes his pet robot.

Wheely is a domesticated subspecies of the common Flightless Aircraft.  Found in the disused aerodromes of the southwestern deserts, Wheelies descend from earlier generations of autonomous UAV’s.  They live in rigorously organized communities called ‘squadrons’ and spend most of their lives socializing.  Largely ambivalent to other mechanical organisms, Wheely retains his ancestors ability to detect electric fields.

Wheely is up on Thingiverse right now (!!), and the rest of the bots — Bumper, Bubble, and Button — will be up in the next couple of days. Go make these, make them different, make them yours!

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In case you missed it, our own Michael Curry gave a great interview to Engadget this weekend. Find out why we decided to make a Robot Petting Zoo, and what we plan to do with it now.

The photo booth was a big hit this year at Maker Faire Bay Area. After visiting the Robot Petting Zoo, we gave everyone the chance to take a few shots with one of the robots or express themselves with monster gloves and googly-eye headbands. See the full set in the slideshow below, or find them here on Flickr!

Thank you to all the fascinating MakerBot Operators who stopped by our booth at Maker Faire this weekend, especially those who were able to make it into our Family Portrait!

MakerBot Family Portrait: Maker Faire Bay Area 2012

Step right up!

The MakerBot booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 is taking shape. For all the updates on where we are and what we’re doing, watch our twitter @makerbot. There will be lots of reasons to keep an eye on us tomorrow, if you catch my drift (…prizes!).

If you are headed down to the San Mateo Event Center, I’ve doctored some maps to help you find us.

We’ve already gotten some visits from other Makers who are setting up today, including the MakerBot superfan Schuyler St. Leger.

Maker Schuyler St. Leger gets an early look at the Bot Farm

Banners are being unrolled:

And the dance floor is installed:

We’re almost ready to roll. Come join us!