So while we’re releasing super serious, completely unfun technologies like The Mixtape, because we are a very serious company, there are artists and toy designers out there making toys on a MakerBot. Can you imagine that? Toys? On a MakerBot?!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention: they’re gorgeous toys.

This post at Jeremyriad talks about our appearance at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this month, and shows some nice shots of toys designed by our friends Ron English and Dave Bondi.

In distilled essence: MakerBot allows you to think of an object you need (“I just cracked my iPhone inCase case again!”) or come up with your own unique idea (“Ron English-style vinyl toy mascot for Kashi cereal”), bring it into 3D physical reality and multiply it. Whoa.

Collectors of designer toys have been tepid on this technology, but consider the fact that the Replicator lets you print in either ABS (like LEGOs) or PLA (a bio-material made from corn). Not only that, but you can easily replace broken parts and even mint your own accessories. Imagine if your basic ink jet printer laid down fine powder and glue instead of ink and moved vertically instead of horizontally, and you’ll have a simplified understanding of “additive manufacturing”. Vinyl is so Toy Art 1.0.

 

Some people are just designed to push the limits of things. They see possibilities where others see limitations. And then there’s the special breed of person who finds all these new answers and then shares them with everyone else. Cosmo Wenman continues to prove himself one such person.¹

Here’s Cosmo’s latest: using a MakerBot to make a negative, that is a mold, of something, and then casting the shape in metal. Look at some of the incredible stuff he’s done with this process already.

You’ll see in the video that Cosmo’s using an acetone bath to slowly peel away the ABS mold. This isn’t necessarily something MakerBot encourages people to do, and if you choose to work with acetone, you should do it with a lot of caution. Also, note this extremely important warning on the Thingiverse page for these items:

[UPDATE: I have to point out that all the low temp "cerro--" alloys have lead and cadmium, and are toxic. You need to use proper ventilation, and keep it away from food preparation areas. In fact, I'm going to be looking into "Field's metal", which has neither lead or cadmium, and I'll report back how well that works in ABS. The objects you make *won't* be suitable for food preparation or food containers or utensils of any kind, and probably not for kids' toys either. FWIW, I've seen several gunsmithing how-to videos that don't mention toxicity of the Cerro-lines at all, and they aren't using ventilators either, but they should. For all I know it gives off gamma rays too. Here are some Material Safety Data Sheets I found:

bendalloy.co.uk/Cerrosafe.pdf
alchemycastings.com/pdf/Low158-190%28Safe%29.pdf

Now, imagine the possibilities of this process. Like he says, it’s like lost wax casting, but a few steps easier since you make the target object on your computer and there’s no “wax burnout” step at all.

 

1. In fact, we could probably declare him the champion of Thingiverse documentation. Any objections? [↩]

This video courtesy of a pioneering yo-yo master @yochu, who throws down some dope spins on this MakerBotted yo-yo! Get Eric Chu’s yo-yo files for yourself on Thingiverse (link below!)

Note: I’m sorry for saying “dope spins”. I don’t know yo-yo lingo, even after I googled “yo-yo lingo”.

This is the coolest thing in the world right now.

Remember those Fisher Price record players that pumped out jams like Mary Had A Little Lamb and, I dunno, the theme from Babar? They’re back, and ready for MakerBotting!

Instructables author fred27 has published a nice set of steps for producing custom records for these machines on a CNC mill. There is also an app for generating the music. It looks fairly simple, just drop in notes.

Here’s the thing: this was all done on a mill, but as Gizmodo points out, this is prime territory for a 3D printer like a MakerBot. Of course, longtime MakerBot community members will remember some of the serious research we have already done into 3D printable vinyl…

I read through the Instructable and noticed this bit of caution:

we will end up creating plastic pins around 1mm in size that trigger the music box hidden in the record player’s arm. I was worried about whether the extruded plastic technique used by most printers would give it the required strength.

 

Looking at the picture above, I feel confident a MakerBot could make these nubs more than strong enough to resist the music box mechanism. I’d suggest making this with higher infill settings to be sure.

But how to MakerBot this?

The gcode for milling these suckers is available from fred27, and the process would need to be converted. The Instructable provides the design file for the blank disc itself, but in order to be used with a MakerBot, you’d need the entire model with the music added in.

Fred27 says that in order to mill the disc at one time, you should use the gcode file marked “…(Full).nc”.

Aha! Maybe that’s the answer. If that gcode for the entire record, musical nubs included, can be converted back into a model, then that model can be sliced to provide appropriate instructions for the MakerBot.

This is the perfect opportunity to put a modern spin on an old toy, and Fred plans to submit it to the Make It Real Challenge.

So what tunes do you remember from these records, and which custom tunes would you make?

 

Turning kids’ silly drawings into physical toys. What a beautiful idea!

 

via i09

 

You thought I was exaggerating when I said there was a NERF arms race going on? Look here, doubters!

There is an Instructable up for an Arduino-controlled NERF Vulcan. The instructions involve some admittedly crude hacking — like, with a saw — so this should be performed or supervised by a responsible¹ adult.

The end product of the tutorial is an automated gun that “will just shoot for 2.5 seconds, stop for 2.5 seconds, and so on,” but worry ye not, as it could “easily be expanded to do whatever you want.” For example, “you could use a proximity sensor to make security system, you could use an ethernet shield to shoot it remotely, the possibilities are endless.”

Endless? I’d much rather the possibilities here be ended. Full of limit. I think it’s an appropriate time to say for the first time on this blog: hide your children.

 

1. to an extent [↩]

Finally, some after-market modifications on a…Nerf gun!

It may have become apparent to you that we are big fans of printable shooting things here on this blog. Such as superami’s 3D-printed guns and diw08′s Nerf claymore mine. But we’re not the only ones! There are 11 things tagged Nerf on Thingiverse and another 10 Nerfish accessories that come up in search. Incidentally, it looks like this ammo holder design isn’t up on Thingiverse just yet.

This is interesting for another reason, too. The post at CTHackerspace reveals that this didn’t come from an expert 3D modeler. The design started in 2D with some very precise specifications in order to fit the gun, and then did some simple extrusion to make a printable model.

And in case you’re interested, there is a video of the whole piece being printed on a MakerBot. Look at that impressive adhesion to the build platform!

In this episode we’ll meet MakerBot operator Steve Conine – known to Thingiverse as sconine. Steve is most famous for designing Thingiverse’s Mechanical Animals, Toy Train Sets, Log Cabins and Starfish. Check out some of the many toys that he has designed and printed with his children and find out why he decided to bring a MakerBot into the family.

Buy all 3 of the brand new MakerBot Projects today and drive your own 3D printed RC car, generate electricity, and conquer the world with your windup robots!

Today we’re launching MakerBot Projects with 3 fun projects. The MakerBot Wind Up Walkers, The MakerBot Dynamo, and the MakerBot Botmobile Remote Control Car. (Store Link)

MakerBot projects is an ongoing collection of kits to make everything in your world with your MakerBot printer. We’re on a mission to give every MakerBot owner the parts and instructions for making everything in their lives.

The MakerBot Botmobile is the first open source remote control car. MakerBot’s own designer Michael Curry, took everything he learned from creating the Turtle Shell Racers which were featured on the track at Maker Faire, and created the Botmobile kit. All you need to do is get the kit, print out the parts from thingiverse and you’ll have your own RC car. It’s got a great 12 volt motor, a 2 channel radio controller, a tiny servo for steering, rubber racing tires; all rolled into a a ready-to-go kit. The BotMobile kit requires no soldering, all the parts snap together – It really is a perfect weekend project. The body design is a slick dune buggy – and it’s already on thingiverse (link), ready to be printed. You want to change it or customize it? The design files are open source and are ready for you to turn it into a hot rod.

The MakerBot Dynamo is a wonderful project that shows how hand motion is converted into electrical energy. The kit comes with a toy motor, 3 metal screws and 3 large bright LEDs – you print the big gears and a handle on your MakerBot (thingiverse link). Simply put it all together following our assembly instructions to make a simple science project that showcases some basic principles of engineering and energy production. We can’t keep our hands off this thing at the office, and have put in 100s of hours of electricity generation while fidgeting in meetings.

The MakerBot Windup Walker was inspired when Bre declared: “everything on Thingiverse should be able to walk”. The Windup walker pack comes with 5 barebones windup feet, ready to start walking. They’re cool, but they’re mostly soulless and require your creativity to bring them to life. Need a robotic posse? Fire up the MakerBot and start printing them out! Elliot Cohen here at MakerBot modified R.Maker for you to get started (thingiverse link), but we expect a flurry of windup walker designs to start popping up on thingiverse as soon as you start designing the next greatest wind up toy.

Today and through end of day Monday we are offering a limited time special deal. Buy the Botmobile and the Dynamo, and get the windup walkers for free (Store Link) – We know you’ll like them as much as we do!

best,

John D.

Here we have a very exciting new Thingiverse item: a Lego-compatible train!  This is a seriously viable toy, especially since we can already print compatible train tracks.  Add in the Lego blocks that you’ve already got at home (don’t pretend you threw them out…) and voilà: infinitely customizable train set!

You know, for kids.  I mean, I definitely don’t see any adults printing out these parts.  Who plays with toys at our age?

Thanks are due to prolific Thingiverse modeler sconine, who created this (and other) awesome 3d models for playing with.  I’m sure that he just printed these parts out to make sure they’re optimized for play.  For children to play with, I mean.  These things are for kids to play with.  Kids.