You’ve heard about Michael Curry’s Rocket Playset and the MakerBot Astronauts who live there. So you must know that these astronauts love adventure – over their lifetimes they will be traveling to the farthest reaches of Thingiverse to discover the unknown. Follow along on their adventures or take them on adventures of your own.
What lands will your astronauts traveling to? Take some pictures of your MakerBot Astronauts in the wild and show us what kinds of adventures they’ve been having!
We believe that this Thingiverse should commit itself to achieving the goal before the month is out of landing MakerBot People on the moon, and housing these daring adventurers there safely and productively in sight of the distant Earth, their home….
So stated President R.Maker in a recent address to the Congressional Assembly of Benevolent Moderators and the Citizens of Thingiverse… and we have breaking news to report. There has been touch down on the moon. I repeat, the MakerBot mission to the moon has now landed, and the MakerBot People are having a great time.
Yesterday, we introduced Michael “Skimbal” Curry’s MakerBot Fairytale Castle Playset. Now, we transport you thousands and thousands of miles away — to the MakerBot Moonbase Playset! Michael has clearly outdone himself with this lovely Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers / Tintin-inspired 1950s rocket playset centerpiece. Gizmodo declared this playset: “The Best Use of New MakerBot“!1
As a special treat for CES this year, MakerBot posed a set of provocative questions:
Remember the playsets, dollhouses, action figures, army figurines, and plastic ponies you played with so passionately in your youth? Dreaming up secret worlds — or creating narratives with friends, neighbors, classmates, and siblings?
Well, what if you could produce these tools of imagination with the push of a button? And what if you could roll up your sleeves and invent your own characters, furnishings, and buildings — and share them not only with your children, nieces, nephews, neighbors, or friends, but also, and instantly, with the rest of the world?
Handcrafted dollhouses are nothing new to the serious Maker, but MakerBot is taking steps to make this practice easier and more widely adopted than ever before. For the rest of January, MakerBot and a squadron of Makers will be introducing the MakerBot Playsets to the Thingiverse: 1:18 scale dollhouses as full of imagination and mischief as craft, modeling techniques, and cleverness.
MakerBot’s own design superstar Michael “Skimbal” Curry, creator of such Thingiverse megahits as the Turtle Shell Racers and Gothic Cathedral playset, starts the ball rolling by architecting a pair of MakerBot Playset buildings. Introducing two new Thingiverse superstars: Cushwa and PrettySmallThings are doing a tremendous job furnishing these playsets with their imaginations.1
That’s right folks — people interested in video games have noticed that MakerBot’s own in-house designer, Skimbal, has created a set that allows folks to play a physical, table-top version of the classic city-creation game! In his post, Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett calls for a set of rules that might transform this playset from a mere recreation of elements in a classic videogame into a fully dynamic table-top gaming experience.
Yes, that’s right, a board game. Dare to dream!
I, for one, suggest that it should use non-6-sided dice. I am in for anything that allows me to roll a d20. At any rate, it looks like the giftability index for this particular set of prints has just shot through the roof!
Tonight at 9pm EST sharp (6pm PST) on Make: Live, hosts Becky Stern and Matt Richardson will direct their attention to the world of DIY 3D printing.
This short 30-40min episode will feature lots for the MakerBot world to love! Catch segments with MakerBot staff such as an interview with CEO Bre Pettis, a Tinkercad demo by hacker/educator Liz Arum, and a teardown of the Turtle Shell Racers from the MakerBot Raceway at World Maker Faire 2011 with modeler/maker Michael Curry !
Check out this video of the folks at Engadget racing a duo of turtle shell racers around their offices!
The lil’ guys weren’t too tired to pay a visit to the live taping of the Engadget Show yesterday, where they were a big hit with the audience! Hosts Brian Heater and Tim Stevens drove them around the studio as an intro to a segment on Maker Faire NYC, which featured the turtle shell race track and designer Michael Curry (Skimbal).
The Engadget team also devoted a blog post to the turtle shell racers. Here’s just a little of what they had to say:
“MakerBot’s Turtle Shell Racers may well be just the ambassador that the world of 3D printing needs. The toy football-sized RC cars are proof positive that the devices can turn just about anything you can imagine into reality.”
The apotheosis of the Bre-scan mashup has finally arrived, thanks to a collaboration between Michael Curry (Skimbal), Michael Overstreet (I-Bioloid), & Luis E. Rodriguez (Luis). While much of the magic here is indeed below the neck, it is remarkable how well Curry’s implementation of the head “reads” dramatically and brings the whole robot together. I thought it worth posting again to share this video. I’m looking forward to seeing Boomer/Bre Bot in more detail at World Maker Faire 2011.
I learned two things from this video. One, the head scan really sells me on the robot as a character. Two, I am really scared of my boss now.
Curry writes in his Thingiverse release: “Bre Pettis’ head adapted to match the Bioloid bracket system and artfully grafted onto a new, superior, robot body. I for one welcome our new robotic CEO…”
I’m sure you’ve all been at the edge of your seats eagerly awaiting the arrival of MakerBot TV’s second episode!
Well wait no more – S01E02 is here!!! And it is, dare I say, even more awesome than the first one!
In this episode we’ll get you hyped-up for Maker Faire, have some behind-the-scenes fun with turtle-building Skimbal, learn about bot calibration with Elliot and get the low down on a brand new and totally rad MakerBot challenge with Bre.
Weeks ago my daughter came to me with a toy catalog to show me a pink kitchen set she wanted. 1 I suggested that she use her existing pink kitchen set. She pointed out that this particular kitchen set had a microwave where hers did not. I offered that she and I could design and print one to go with her existing set. She responded that she would need it large enough to match the rest of her set. I explained that one of the only people I knew who was capable of printing something that large was Michael Curry and that we might need to ask him.
Fast forward to yesterday after work. She wanted to draw plans for things we could print on our Thing-O-Matic. One of her requests was a blender. We drew one and then she asked if we could really print it. I suggested that we could – but that we’d need to do it in big pieces and might need to ask Webca for help.
Then she piped up, “Or Michael Curry.”
Webca, Michael Curry – you guys are heroes in our house.
By way of context, my daughter is a little over four years old. [↩]
A 3D plaque of Creative Commons Licensing information.
Easily display all the important information needed to give credit under Creative Commons Licensing to the original designer of your print.
It's perfect for displaying prints during photo shoots, fairs, and any other situation when viewers m…
