Friday, February 17, 2012

Do the robot!

A couple weeks ago I was watching TV and since it was 6 pm I was watching CITY TV.  Weekdays at 6 pm on City they the video game/entertainment news show called EP Daily followed by the video game review show Reviews on the Run at 6:30 pm.  I could watch the news, but instead I choose to watch something important!  Head over to EP website to see the segments for yourself.

I was watching EP Daily and they had a piece on a company called My Robot Nation.  At their website you can sign up and use their robot creator software to make your own robot right from your browser.  Note: The robot creator software wouldn't run in Firefox, but works with Chrome.  The cool part is that when you make your robot online, My Robot Nation makes the robot in real life.  They use 3D printers to physically make your robot.  Awesome!

Since I'm writing about it then you know I had to go make my very own robot.  While I had seen 3D printers on TV,  I've never seen the finished results in real life so I was interested to see how it would turn out.  The prices range from $14.99 for a 2" robot to $169.99 for a 6" robot.  Since I'm poor as dirt I went with a 3" robot for $24.99.  You can choose from several different styles of bodies, heads and appendages.  Then you can more parts, stamps and colors.  When I was making mine I kept adding all sorts of crap on it, but then decided he looked too cluttered and took most of the stuff off.  Choosing the colours was pretty hard, so went with good old blue and black.  I have no sense of style.  Once you done you get to name your robot and save it to My Robot Nation where they start making/printing it.


Once your robot has been made and shipped they send a picture of the finished product.  At the naming stage I came up with the totally lame and unoriginal "Coolbot".  Please go to My Robot Nation and "like" him.   I should've named him something cool like Walter.

Coolbot arrived in the mail today and I have to say they package the robots pretty well.  He was all rolled up in what looks like a roll of toilet paper.

Yes, there is a robot in there somewhere.

There he is!

Fun in the sun!

The robots are basically made from plaster of paris.  After they are made and cleaned they are covered in a couple layers of coatings to help make them stronger.  Still, don't drop in on the floor or it's toast.  Coolbot does have bit of granular texture to him.

After I finished making Coolbot and had him sent to be made I was looking at other robots people had made and thought "How come my robot doesn't look that cool?"  I still love him, he is one of a kind and I designed him myself.  Eventually I would like to make another one.  If I do I will probably go a bit crazier with the design.  A robot with a bow tie?  Oh yes!

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