When I tell people that 3D printing has come a very long way, it’s hard to judge just exactly what I mean. It feels like it wasn’t too long ago that we were happy to simply get a shape that looked relatively close to what we intended, with a decent surface quality. Now, you can download and 3d print transformers that look and work great. As a child of the 80s, a transformer seems to be a fitting ultimate test of the quality of a machine, I know that the machines I started out testing would never have produced parts that could interlock and function cleanly enough.
Dr. Operator on Printables has been producing these delightful, quirky, and unique transformers for about a year now and you can download and print your own.
These are really cute and have a quirky theme. A sandwich? A toaster? adorable.
I became aware of these kits when Dr. Operator came onto our discord to show off his latest, a telephone headset that actually has a built in bluetooth module!
Unfortunately, the headset isn’t available yet as a download but you should keep an eye on their printables account for when they ultimately upload it.
This series of models is a bit of a testament to the power of little contests within the community. This all started with Printables held a contest to design toy cars and Dr. Operator was looking for a way to stand out with their entry.
In January of last year, Printables.com ran a contest to design toy cars. I had designed a simple looking hippie van, but wanted to make my entry stand out and had come to the conclusion that turning it into a Transformer would accomplish this. The end result was a very crude looking Transformer whose arms and legs were prone to falling off and it didn’t come anywhere close to winning but it was a ton of fun trying to figure out how to turn a van into a robot. Now, I walk around looking at stuff like “Dude, that frying pan would make a great Transformer.
– Dr. Operator
I asked them if they had a piece of advice for people just starting to learn to work:
A year ago, designing that original Hippie Van Transformer, I would have said something like Ham & Cheese was out of reach. When I was designing Ham & Cheese, I would have thought Dial Tone was out of reach. I don’t really have a dream project because when I come up with an idea, I tend to dive in head first. Nothing is really out of reach as long as you’re willing to put in the work. You’re only limited by your imagination.
-Dr. Operator
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