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Future Factory at Monster Kolor Wrap Up 25 Jan 2013

Future Factory

Reposted from PrometheusRising.net

Future Factory

On January 25th fans of awesome homemade toys descended on the Monster Kolor shop in Middleboro, MA for the first ever Future Factory! Future Factory was a class on making toys using 3D printing hosted by Prometheus rising Studios (me), Brownnoize Productions, and Mechazone. The three of us brought our 3D printers and acetone setup to make toys live at the studio. Participants were able to chose from a stable of designs between the three of us and have the toy printed while they waited. Read on for details about what turned out to be a fantastic afternoon of toy fun!

Future Factory

Participants got to pick their designs, printed in different colors by each artist, and have the toy made while they wait. Once we got the printers running, we walked everyone through our backgrounds and toy making processes. We discussed the software used to model, the process of designing models for 3D printing, our experiences with owning and operating 3D printers, and our inspirations for the toys we have designed. Here you can see Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries Units 1 and 2 warming up and preparing to print.

Future Factory

I brought my two UP Mini printers, and David and Sanjeev both brought their Afinia-H series printers. The two models are something of cousins, produced by the same manufacturers in China and sharing many components, but distributed by two different companies stateside. Everything went off without a hitch and the printers happily cranked out eight finished toys in the span of a few short hours.

Future Factory

While the printers were chugging away the three of us gave our talks about the process and why we do what we do. I may have been the first of our little Boston-area creative collective to start using a home-level 3D printer to make finished toys, but I have no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the help and support of these two plastic masters. Pictured from left to right: Mechazone (David), me, and Brownnoize (Sanjeev).

Future Factory

Future Factory

Future Factory

Once the printers had completed their runs, we had to clean up the parts before assembly and acetone vapor bath (AVB) treatment. Sanjeev, David, and I have met up plenty of times to talk shop, but it’s still always interesting to me to see the different ways we each do things given similar tools and materials. Once we had finished cleaning up and assembling the figures, they were ready for the acetone bath! Click here to go watch a short clip on Monster Kolor’s Flickr Stream, where I grabbed most of these photos from.

Future Factory

Future Factory

Future Factory

By now Instagram is chock-full of great shots of the toys people had printed at the class. Be sure to check out the hashtag #FutureFactory for more 3D printed mecha action like the shots above, shamelessly taken from some of my buds’ feeds. Shown above are Brownnoize’s Shogun Voyagers in black, lime green, and red, PRHI Bounce Tortoise and Stalking Toad in gray, and Mechazone’s Hammerhead up front in green and black. The three of us have been working together on this class for months and bounce design advice off each other constantly, but I love how diverse and distinctive our toys’ styles are.

Future Factory

I think that about does it. The class was a huge success and we were so happy with the turnout and enthusiasm people brought. Our goal was to de-mystify some of what we’ve been doing to encourage more people to look at 3D printing for their toy making ideas, and to make sure everybody left with at least one slick new robot toy. The first Future Factory was an incredible time, and there will certainly be more in the future. I want to thanks Sanjeev and David for their hard work bringing this show together, and to Matt Walker for providing us such an incredible space to show off what we do.

In addition to toys printed live, each of us brought a whole mess of finished toys for sale. Above is the Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries spread, with a six inch Iron Man figure that snuck in there for scale. Featured are DX Bounce Tortoises and Strike Tortoises, Mini Bounce Tortoises, Stalking Toads, and Gun Drones, Micro BTs, STs, and GDs, and some Allarounds for good measure. Oh, and those two big meaty Blockmen in the middle, not for sale but present to show off the current state of that project. I didn’t get good shots of Sanjeev and David’s spreads, but you can catch glimpses of them in all the photos above. The two of them brought some incredible heat, showing off how much could be done with different color plastics, rather than my fully painted approach. Leftovers from the show are available now on the Monster Kolor web shop.

Future Factory

Future Factory

Future Factory

Future Factory

Posted 28 January, 2014 - 20:06 by Prometheum5