More toy design notes: parts sizing
One thing I've thought about is at what scale to eventually physically create this toy. As you can see from this pic:
- the toy can curl up fairly small or expand to quite substantial dimensions. (All the modes in that image are to scale - each 'cube' is the same size.) As you can see, modes like the truck are ten cubes long (including the gunpod) on their longest axis, whereas ones like the wyvern, dinosaur, and insect can be 20 or more long/wide and nearly as large again on their secondary axis.
The smallest individual parts in the design (barring internal pins/joints which would probably be metal) are 0.1 cubes thick. There are some 0.05-cube-thick details on larger blocks, but they don't really count. Really, I wouldn't want each cube to be smaller than about a centimetre, as that puts things like the robot fingers, knuckle joints, and insect antennae at one millimetre thick. There are a couple of panels only that thick, as well. Too much smaller, and they'd be incredibly flimsy and fragile.
On the flip side, if the cubes were as large as, say, an inch, you'd be looking at a toy which was ten inches long at a minimum, and could potentially be displayed in modes which were nearly two feet by two feet in size. That's a fairly large toy right there, even for a Transformer. Not to mention that the 3D printing costs would be a couple hundred bucks (maybe even four figures). It'd be OK for display in art rooms at cons, but not really the kind of thing you could comfortably carry around to idly fiddle with during the day.
Not that it's a decision I'll have to make for a while, but I guess I'm kind of leaning towards the smaller size at this point. If I had it created at the large size, one copy for every mode, I'd need nearly a six-by-six-foot display area.
- the toy can curl up fairly small or expand to quite substantial dimensions. (All the modes in that image are to scale - each 'cube' is the same size.) As you can see, modes like the truck are ten cubes long (including the gunpod) on their longest axis, whereas ones like the wyvern, dinosaur, and insect can be 20 or more long/wide and nearly as large again on their secondary axis.
The smallest individual parts in the design (barring internal pins/joints which would probably be metal) are 0.1 cubes thick. There are some 0.05-cube-thick details on larger blocks, but they don't really count. Really, I wouldn't want each cube to be smaller than about a centimetre, as that puts things like the robot fingers, knuckle joints, and insect antennae at one millimetre thick. There are a couple of panels only that thick, as well. Too much smaller, and they'd be incredibly flimsy and fragile.
On the flip side, if the cubes were as large as, say, an inch, you'd be looking at a toy which was ten inches long at a minimum, and could potentially be displayed in modes which were nearly two feet by two feet in size. That's a fairly large toy right there, even for a Transformer. Not to mention that the 3D printing costs would be a couple hundred bucks (maybe even four figures). It'd be OK for display in art rooms at cons, but not really the kind of thing you could comfortably carry around to idly fiddle with during the day.
Not that it's a decision I'll have to make for a while, but I guess I'm kind of leaning towards the smaller size at this point. If I had it created at the large size, one copy for every mode, I'd need nearly a six-by-six-foot display area.