unicornconglomerate

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This is my second groaning long Furby, I’ve named her Sparkle Beast.

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The click clack and 3D is appealing, but the cost of 20 3D printed faces x the time to paint the faces might be greater than the ADHD allows.

Sometimes I think about that furby icosahedron concept art I made a few years ago

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I’m gonna threaten to make this at some point whenever I get time to work on digitizing the embroidery for Furby faces.

Sometimes I think about that furby icosahedron concept art I made a few years ago

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I hope you didn’t think I was done with the groaning long furbies.

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Meet my newest creation next weekend at Captain Slinky Presents OddMall in Monroe WA. Remember please groan responsibly.

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affirmations

i am a complex organism brutally engineered by uncaring forces of nature

i am a product of billions of years and trillions of deaths

i am building a machine greater than myself

i am able to make phone calls and appointments

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This is impressive

Zephyr Slip

At the end of last year, before I'd begun working on Bit Cobalt, I ran into some paleoart of Austroraptor, a dromaeosaur (raptor) from Argentina. Austroraptor is one of the largest dromaeosaurs, with a long, narrow, Big Bird snoot, conical teeth that probably point to fishing, and small forelimbs, as well as leg proportions that hint at a runner. Much of the paleoart I saw depicted Austroraptor in waterbird colors, which gave it a soft and friendly appearance, immediately my new favorite dinosaur.

So I drew an Austroraptor and then a robotic one, adding a quail topknot or ahoge feather, and started to think about making a transforming figure that would change from this animal into a humanoid robot. But a transformation from cute robot girl to cute robot girl, except one of them is a dinosaur, seemed a bit redundant, and there would be compromises in both directions that would detract rather than add.

But a couple of months later, I saw a particular motor scooter and something clicked, and the game was on. I love motor scooters, and they're a fantastic accessory for other figures on the shelf. I went through two foamcore prototypes to nail down the transformation, making it as simple and sturdy as I could manage and making sure both modes would scale well with other 1/12 scale figures.

I also started collecting some reference images for details I could nab and integrate, and to nail down the scaling of the scooter.

After I had something that worked, I drew up some concept art for both modes and started modeling. I was able to streamline the design a couple of steps further in the 3D model, and then it was all carving up shapes, fine tuning, etc. Probably the longest phase of modeling was after I had my model roughed out into shape, but needed to build the joints, firm up the edges, define all the contact surfaces, and apply subdivision surfaces. I found it useful to rig the model and set a couple of animation steps in Blender for the two modes so I could simply page back and forth between them.

I had to set the design on the back burner while I worked out the kinks with my 3D printer and built my last couple of projects. Then I made a test print to identify any trouble spots, and after a couple of tweaks to get the feel right, it was time to print and finish the real thing. Zephyr Slip is the first thing I've printed in "color", and thanks to some dyes I need to experiment with more, she won't be the last. That means a much more durable finish for parts that have to slide against one another or clip into place. I did add a gloss coat to some surfaces of the black elements, but it shouldn't show chipping much. (Unlike the kickstand, thanks to my terrible decision to paint its feet.)

Like my previous figures, Zephyr's eyes (and console) are just printed gloss paper under a coat of gloss varnish, and her headlights and taillights have some clear resin poured in over the paint and cured into place for lenses.  Cutting plastic windows like the ones on my Vertigo GT for the lower headlights didn't have the same effect, so they got the same clear resin treatment. The decal designs themselves were made in Blender, because I've given up on Inkscape's interface, but I think they came out okay.

The joints are almost exclusively 3mm ABS rods, although her hip joints are Kotobukiya Hexa Gear joints, which gave me a sturdy pin and hinge in a compact package and without visible pegs. I'm looking into options to make the pegs show less while being easy to remove for the construction and painting process. Despite some care with the tolerances, I did have to widen some peg holes and mush some pegs during assembly to get her pose well and snap together tight into either mode. But everything does clip solidly into place, resulting in a really playable figure. 

As my first fully transforming figure and also my largest, Zephyr Slip is definitely the biggest figure project I've tackled so far, and I'm extremely happy with the results. Posability is probably her weakest area, but she can pounce and emote, and with her solid handfeel and satisfyingly snappy transformation, I'm happy with the design. 

Paleontologically, I've followed most of the proportions of the real animal, although her torso should be a little bit longer, and her tail half again as long. She should also have visible first fingers, and I'm playing into the paleoart meme of bare snouts on dromaeosaurs that shouldn't have them. The proportion of thigh to shin is exaggerated, and the tail should have some left-right sway even if it's inflexible in the vertical axis. But it pleases me that she is both a roughly accurately scaled Austroraptor, and also a fairly realistically scaled scooter (if a bit chunky).

As always, due credit to @aprilpowered and Workbenchmaniac for support and feedback along the way, as well as Nemocyte (Tumblr | Twitter), whose feedback helped me to work out (among other things) the articulation needs of a theropod figure, something I'd never had to think about before.

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starts tonight 12am pst!!

we are vending in the online SAD fair all this week and i will be on a live tabling zoom next weekend. SAD fair features sick, disabled, and mad artists.

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Cromulent News and Blatant Advertising! I recently bought too much polyfil, so to make room in my closet I'm offering a discount to the first person to buy my largest item. I still need to make the darn thing so pay attention to the processing time listed on Etsy.

help me....

[unicornconglomerate]

Cromulent News and Blatant Advertising! I recently bought too much polyfil, so to make room in my closet I'm offering a discount to the first person to buy my largest item. I still need to make the darn thing so pay attention to the processing time listed on Etsy.

help me....

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I think I used all my good karma on this. I need more people to appreciate this. Reblog for a visit for the perfect seams fairy.

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Catch me this weekend at the SnoCo Toy Show in Monroe, WA

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Different frog in progress

When you set something down in an unfortunate way

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End of September sale running on Etsy right now. Includes my new rainbow gelatinous cubes as well as Get Out Frogs. https://unicornconglomerate.etsy.com

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When you set something down in an unfortunate way

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Fird - Firffels (Remco)

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Vending at OddMall this weekend. Find me in the gaming area offering custom trays and new colors of gelatinous cubes. Flash sale on the cubes on my Etsy if you can’t make it to the show.