Don't Roll a One

It’s kind of a holiday post!

Matchbox Heroic Scale

I got what I can only describe as “the toymaking bug” after acquiring a resin printer and sending a bespoke mini to my friend. On brand for someone obsessed with car chases, my next few projects were attempts to engineer cars that would fit well with my long-suffering White Line Nightmare (now possibly called Outlaw Country) ttrpg-in-progress. I wasn’t content to simply print car-shaped scatter terrain, I wanted them to make that Hot Wheels whizzz sound.

Glow in the Dark

Then I got glow-in-the-dark PLA for my FDM printer.

Another gaming friend loves monsters, in particular the Amazon from NES Pro Wrestling (basically the Creature from the Black Lagoon with boots and pants). After many futile searches for an official or (affordable) unofficial toy figure, I found a 5.5″ action figure template on thingiverse and did it myself.

I Guess I’m Santa Now?

This brings us to my current project. Some of my youngest daughter’s core holiday memories involve a musical animated tabletop Christmas village decoration, some sort of Hallmark-adjacent thing that blared 30 seconds of Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. It eventually broke and we got rid of it, not knowing how treasured it was.

I’m going to make my own, because I cannot for the life of me find a replacement.

• I have the terrain-building skills to create the xmas village scene.
• I was yesterday days old when I learned that TinkerCAD exists, so now I know how to use a breadboard.
• I have a motor and battery pack out of a CrunchLabs project (the boomerang car, not my precious duck game).
• I have a sound board and LEDs and fiber optics on the way.
• Because 95 RPM is too fast, I had to learn about gears. Then I gave up, bought Precision Gears for Blender, and it worked perfectly and immediately. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwl5oDk6e-o

I don’t know if I’ll make it in time, but I’m going to try. Get pumped about something new – that’s the best way to learn a new skill!