What incredible entries! More than 75 designs were entered in our #backtoschool Challenge, making it difficult to determine our three winners. A big “thank you!” to each and every Thingiverse community member who entered. Your creativity and modeling skills are a joy to see, and students everywhere will certainly benefit from your innovative designs.
We asked entrants to submit designs for a set of three school supplies: a pencil case, a ruler, and a pencil topper. Mashing two or three of the objects into a multi-use tool was a very popular approach. It was something we hadn’t intended, but we were impressed when we printed them and they worked so well.
There were three categories: Best Design, Most Useful, and Coolest. Best Design took into account appearance and functionality. Most Useful was based on any clever applications the designs may have had, and Coolest was decided by the reaction of community and judges and “Wow” factor. All entries had to have all three objects uploaded to the same Thing page and be tagged #backtoschool.
Each of our three winners will get the following: FIVE spools of the newest MakerBot PLA Filament, a Thingiverse t-shirt, prints of their set displayed in the MakerBot Store at 298 Mulberry Street in NYC, and their design featured on Thingiverse.
And now … the winners in each of our three categories:
Coolest
Coolest was decided by the reaction of community and judges and “Wow” factor. Our panel of judges gauged the positive community response in combination with how far our own jaws dropped when we first saw the Retro Rocket Pencil Case by Arnold Martin, who is Thingiverse user RealAbsurdity, and decided it was the clear winner. We loved the 1960s NASA styling and the folding ruler (which shows units in centimeters and light years), but when we saw how the pencil case is a fancy carousel that opens to show off your pencil collection and then snaps neatly back into place, we all had one response, “This is cool.”
Most Useful
Most Useful was based on the application of the design. We selected the Back to Basics Drafting Set by Adam Sbeglia, Thingiverse user asbeg, to win this category because of its intense focus on utility. The pencil case has two 30-60-90 triangles for drawing lines and angles, as well as tracing several radii. A protractor attaches to the case to serve as a handle too. The two pencil toppers snap together to create a compass. Finally, the ruler has four scales: “a 1:10 and 1:50 engineering scale, and a 1:100 and 1:500 metric scale.” What can we say? Adam is a thorough guy.
Best Design
Best Design took into account appearance and functionality. Our panel of judges chose the Test Obliterator X800 + Eraser Thief + Yard Wand by Arjun M., who is known on Thingiverse as coolarj10, for its spectacular capabilities: the Test Obliterator X800, a “Pencil-reloading arm gauntlet,” fits on your arm and ejects a new pencil when you twist the top, the Eraser Thief viciously scoops eraser material from fancy block-style erasers, and the Yard Wand extends over one yard. Not only is this school set functional in the most extreme situations, it looks awesome.
If you haven’t yet watched Arjun exuberantly describe his inventions in this video, you MUST.
Congratulations to our winners!
Here are our honorable mentions:
PenRuleTop and Print in Place FlexiCase by Gyrobot
All-In-One Ruler, Protractor, and Pencil Holder by makerseth
Customizable Locking Pencil Box Set by MakerBobDesigns
The School Tool Box by corben33
Alien Pencil Case by Solstie
Rainbow by SShelley