The PST-002 Stalking Toad is a heavy ground combat power suit intended for frontline duty. The Stalking Toad balances armor and mobility, capable of bringing concentrated fire down on enemy armored targets. The default Toad load out features a heavy laser and rapid fire gattling canon with built in manipulator hand for added versatility in its roll as a ground superiority unit. Smoke grenade racks on the torso provide extra cover, earning the standard Toad its ‘Stalking’ moniker for its ability to disappear under smoke cover and reappear with a punishing barrage.
On January 25th, Prometheus Rising Studios, Brownnoize Productions, and Mechazone will be descending on the Monster Kolor shop in Middleboro, MA to spread the good word about 3D printing toys. We’ve been planning this for a while, and I could not be more excited to finally announce Future Factory, our first ever 3D printing class and live demonstration. Sanjeev, Dave, and I have been working for the last few months to develop new figures in each of our own styles that can be printed in a single afternoon. The three of us will be bringing our printers to the Monster Kolor shop for an afternoon of toy-making. For $65, participants will be able to chose from our three sets of designs and watch their toy be printed live while we discuss the process of designing and producing toys using 3D modeling software and printers. We will even give the finished toys an acetone vapor bath so they are smooth and shiny for you to take home. Due to time and equipment limitations, we only have eight slots available to leave with a newly printed toy, but others are welcome to come learn about 3D printing, and maybe even purchase other mecha toys produced by the three of us.
You can purchase your spot from the Monster Kolor Store right now. Hurry, because tickets spots are selling fast. Even if you don’t get one, be sure to come down to the MK shop from 12-6PM on January 25th!
I’ve been collecting a lot of Star Wars toys lately, and one of the things I was most excited to get was the latest version of Hasbro’s big X-wing. Amazingly enough, the modern X-wing mold’s origin can still be traced back to 1998’s Power of the Jedi 2 Electronic Power F/X X-wing mold. I remember seeing TV commercials for the Power F/X toy back in the day, but never had one. The mold has gone through a number of revisions, but the bones are still the same in today’s X-wing toy. I was thrilled to get a big new X-wing toy, but I was incredible disappointed by the S-foil deployment gimmick when I finally put the toy together. Out of the box, the wings are saggy, loose, and do not deploy evenly. I figured the mechanism could not be that complicated, so I cracked open my new X-wing and got to work. The jist of the mechanism is a lever that depresses a spring-loaded plunger that deploys the wings. The level slides to the side to lock in place, but when slide to the side the lever does not depress the plunger evenly or far enough, so the wings are uneven and floppy. I fired up the computer and designed a new piece and printed it on my 3D printer, going through a half dozen iterations in a weekend until I had a new piece that held the plunger all the way down evenly when locked in place. The ABS plastic part printed on my UP Mini was good enough for me, but not something I was interested in making a number of for others. Instead, I ordered a couple of test prints from Shapeways and found the best one, which is available now in my new Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries Shapeways Store! I may use Shapeways to offer some of my own toys in the future, but for now it is the home of my first third-party toy add-on part. Keep reading after the jump for details on the development, installation, and end result of my X-wing bar.
I’ve been on a bit of a Star Wars kick lately, sparked in part by realizing how awesome the current 1/6 scale offerings available are. There’s all sorts of cool clone troopers and bounty hunters and all the great, colorful characters for sale, but droids seem to get a bit of a raw deal. There’s a couple of protocol droid and astromech molds available, but they are either old cheapie Hasbro toys or outrageously overpriced Medicom toys. There are so many other great background droid designs that I love, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. The Gonk Droids, or Power Droids depending on who you ask, are such a classic, simple, goofy design that a Gonk was the obvious starting point. Read on after the jump to see some behind the scenes of my design process and lots of photos.
The “My Friend the Micronaut 2013” opening sounds like it was a huge success. There are a ton of pics on the Micronaut 2013 Tumblr page now, so thanks to everyone who attended and snapped some shots! The show’s webstore is now up on the Grass Hut site for your perusal. There are three Allarounds left for $150 each and the Blockman prototype for $275. I’m pleased to say that my 3D printed figures are in good company, as they are listed right alongside the incredible works of Brownnoize Productions. Sanjeev is cranking out some incredible stuff. His Shapeways-produced Powered Suit Fake Type is an multimedia tribute to the original Diaclone Powered Suit toy. What speaks to me more, however, is his home-printed Powered Bio Suit (PBS), a Diaclone Powered Suit scaled up to Microman size. I’ve been following this project behind the scenes for a while now, and I am so excited for Sanjeev to finally be debuting such a rad project. It’s funny that we both independently came to similar conclusions with what we wanted to do with our consumer-grade 3D printers. I am sure we will be seeing some Blockman and PBS crossovers in the future. There are also some other terrific Microman-centric works for sale in vinyl, PVC, canvas paintings, and more than one other 3D printed project, so make sure to check it all out on Grass Hut’s site.
Union Fighter Blockman is an obscure little Takara line that came out in 1984 as an offshoot of Diaclone and the SF Land stuff. The line featured two inch tall plastic and metal robots covered in 5mm pegs and ports. The bots were cute little pocket warriors that could combine together and with a whole range of accessories to create everything from jets to massive gestalt robots. The story behind Blockman was that the Combination Droids were built to help human space colonists explore and settle. The Blockman sets came with little one inch tall chrome pilots with sculpts reminiscent of Diaclone drivers, which were the same size. I have always enjoyed Blockman as a fun building line with neat little bot figures, but thought that the Combination Droids could be pushed further. I also love the way the different Takara SF Land lines (Henshin Cyborg, Microman, Diaclone, …) were interconnected and related even though they were different scales, so I wanted to see how a Blockman would look scaled up to Microman (1/18) scale. While I was at it, I figured I should take advantage of the added room the large size would afford to add some new live to the design. A few days and test prints later, and the Micro-scale Blockman is ready to roll.
The fully posable Blockman features ratcheting joints in the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, with additional articulation at the shoulders, biceps, wrists, waist, and hips. The extra room on this huge figure gave me the opportunity to try out a couple of new articulation tricks that worked like a charm, and I could not be happier with the results. The first CD-1-L Blockman prototype is available at the “My Friend the Micronaut 2013” show at Grasshut. It’s a huge figure that takes a bit to print, but rest assured I am working around the clock to get some more made for public consumption. The best part about this guy is that he is 100% printed ABS parts, including all of the articulation. That means no more fighting with fit to existing joint parts or worrying about running out of supplies.
“My Friend the Micronaut” is a yearly show at Grass Hut Art Market where artists from around the world display Microman/Micronaut-themed work. The show is the brainchild of Grasshut front man Bwana Spoons, who has done many Micro-themed pieces over the years. This year, I was asked to participate by show co-host Microbry, and I jumped at the opportunity. The Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries Allaround power suits are 1/18 scale, designed to look at home next to Micromen and their many robotic allies. The “Buffalo Squad” being deployed at Micronaut 2013 is the Allaround’s first release, done up in a Diaclone inspired scheme and given a proper PRS weathering treatment. These are also the first painted PRHI 3d printed figures to receive the acetone treatment, and I could not be happier with the results. Micronaut 2013 opens on August 1st, and hopefully there will be some good coverage! There are five Allaround figures, including a commander with the mag-rifle, being released at the show, and any figures not sold in person will go up on Grasshut’s online store.
I’ll be sure to put up a link to the show when it goes live. Microbry has set up a Tumblr page with details on the participating artists, and the lineup is great. Pay special attention to Brownnoize Productions. I’ve seen some of the 3D printed mecha goodness that Sanjeev is sending to the show and it is not to be missed. Also at the show will be the first completed test figure of the next Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries toy, which should blow up more than a few skirts when the photos start rolling in 😉
After the most recent Paul Kaiju show at FOE, I got a chance to stand outside in the cold of frosty Northampton and talk shop with Sanjeev Teh Jerk, master of all things 3D design. While I have been going headlong into home-grown ABS printing, Sanjeev has been working on some face-meltingly cool multimedia affairs for production through Shapeways. Production method aside, we are both always looking to existing toys for inspiration. Sanjeev mentioned to me how he had recently cracked open a vintage Gokin and found a joint design that we both were pretty sure would work in 3D printed ABS. We talked, froze our asses off, and then I went home, and the gears were in motion.
As soon as I posted the first Bounce Tortoise to come out of the acetone vapor treatment I have been experimenting with, I started getting requests for some kind video of my process and equipment. I spent the weekend working on a couple of Allarounds, so it seemed like the perfect time to shoot some video. Spend fifteen minutes with me and watch some Allaround parts go from the print bed to finished smooth, shiny acetone slicked parts ready for assembly.
The thing that has been slowing down Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries so far has been the post-processing and sanding of printed parts. Even though I was happy to leave some print texture on some parts of my figures, there was still plenty of cleanup that went into each figure. I have been hesitant to start a big production batch because the thought of all the sanding that would be needed was pretty intimidating. A couple weeks ago, an interesting post on the RepRap Blog for homebrew 3D printing made the Twitter rounds and kept being sent to me by different people that knew I was big on home printing.
Prometheus Rising Studios 
