This is going to be a big one. I’ve got a lot to talk about.
Orange County Maker faire was Awesome
Apologizes to those who don’t like shorts, this week my YouTube is going to be a series of short videos from the Orange County Maker Fair, as well as my Instagram and Tiktok. Gotta grind that content.
The day before I was going to leave for Orange County, I got the big idea that I needed a book that visitors could flip through and get an idea of the sorts of thing you could build with PrintABlok. I hastily put together something, only to discover at the fair that I badly formatted it. Now that I’m back I’ve reformatted that book, and you can download the PDF from the pinned comment on the #printablok channel on my discord.
It’s really astonishing to me just how far PrintABlok has gone in such a short time. This 72 page booklet really lays that all out. Check it out if you’d like all the PrintABlok kit instructions in one easy to follow place. I may have to stay on top of it in the future.
Something Old, Something New
If you’re a backer on Patreon, Printables, or Thangs, you should have access to the Flying Saucer with Anthromedian pilot PrintABlok kit. If you are a patreon backer who tried downloading the file and got a “File not found Go to shop” error, please try downloading it again.
It feels like only a minute since the BattleMechas Kickstarter ended, and if I’m honest, I don’t think I’m quite done with it yet. But one thing that those who printed out the BattleMechas might notice is that the cockpit of the flying saucer is very similar to the cockpit of the Kame Battlemecha. That’s because the Kame mecha was designed this way for the purpose of being reused for the flying saucer.
I am planning for the next couple of premium models to be basically this. Updates to some of the older kits to put pilots in them.
What the Anthromedians?
For those who don’t know, I’m a crazy head. I can’t just be making these neat building blok toys, oh no. I’ve also got to build a lore for them. Granted it’s a lore that I’m not telling in any medium right now. (I only have so many hours in the day, after all.) But this lore drives development decisions.
Right after the first kickstarter I showed a number of future PrintABlok possibilities. Among them was this picture to show the basic idea I had for pilots, and it’s been surprising how much I’ve been able to stick to this. The plan even back then was to have 3 factions to keep the design of the pilots interesting. There’s the heroic Polyforce, the brutal Cyberbarbarians, and lastly the Anthromedians. Recently I’ve been able to develop 3 of the Polyforce pilots and 3 Cyberbarbarians, but I hadn’t actually modeled any Anthromedians.
Until now.
The first Anthromedian pilot is a female turtle piloting the flying saucer. This fit in my mind. I haven’t named her yet, but I am pleased with her design. Like many of the other pilots, I might have pushed the detail a little too far, with features that most FDM printer’s aren’t capable of showing, but even without that she’s distinct from the other pilots in other factions and fairly beast-like.
The picture above is an early prototype. I found the helmet made her too indistinct when printed at size and I also found out that only male turtles have the long claws. If you’re a backer, you can check out the STL to see the difference.
The Anthromedians are mostly flying the SkyForce ships, so as I update a selection of those kits I’ll be adding cockpits and Anthromedian pilots to them. The next, a lion, is already ready to go. The last one, a bird, will round out the Anthromedian team for now. Once those two are out, I may update a few of the kits from the first kickstarter with the existing pilots as well.
Shifting Focus
Now, If I’m being honest, taking old kits and updating them with pilots is fairly easy work, especially as compares with developing whole new kits. And while it is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, I’m doing this now to free up some bandwidth to work on a couple of other projects.
One of those projects I’m going to work on is a return to Chibimals. Since making the kickstarter, Chibimals has really developed… in my mind. They’ve also done very well on the Toybox platform. So I want to update the idea of them with clamshell style playsets that join together to make a whole playset, but close up for easy storage. Like Polly Pocket or Mighty Max, but 3D printed. But bringing these designs to fruition is going to require more or less having to start from scratch with them, scrapping most of the designs I’ve already made. Don’t worry, your favorite Chibimals will almost certainly still be around. They just may be standing up after this. (Part of the reason for this is the lore I’ve developed for Chibimals. Like I said, crazy head.)
I also want to explore the possibility of producing physical prints and selling them. I have all these 3D printers, might as well use them, right? And whether I can pull it off or not, I think it’ll make a great video.
Anything else?
No.
