I tried 98 test prints, mostly from the Toybox catalog. Every single one came out successfully on the first try, with no errors or failures. The overall print quality was surprisingly good, nearly completely free from Z-banding or virtual artifacts, for smooth, finished sides and walls. After the first dozen prints or so, I started to forget that this was a machine built for children, especially when it came to the torture-test calibration prints I output for higher-end machines like my Bambu Lab H2S.
(Credit: Michael Lydick)
Once I started using the machine, I morphed back into a kid. I wanted to make increasingly complex prints, building my own kits of multicolored toys. I remembered my days of Fisher-Price Adventure People, Legos, and Star Wars action figures, and set out to make toys I remembered wanting to play with when I was eight or 10.
I started with a multicolored truck, which easily snapped together. I felt surprisingly satisfied when it was finished and christened it with a “Vroom Vroom” across my desk.
(Credit: Michael Lydick)
Next, I stumbled across several spaceships in the Explore side of the app, and I chose this particular rocket I’d have loved when I was younger…
(Credit: Michael Lydick)
I can’t explain the feeling, other than to say that when I browsed the “Space Builders” set of toys, I whispered, “Cooooool,” and set about figuring out which colors I would use to make another rocket ship, this one a snap-together model. The connectors clicked the pieces and blocks together easily, and within a few hours, I was completely satisfied with the result.
(Credit: Michael Lydick)
Through the eyes of my inner child, I started to see what this printer was and who it was for. The toys I played with growing up were important, and informed who I became in my professional life. I recall one toy in particular: a robot arm that my father bought me from Radio Shack (“Armatron”). I could control it with joysticks and use it to manipulate blocks and balls on my table. The toy meant so much to me and my imagination that I’ve kept it all these years—and, during my tests, I took it out and used it with some of my new Toybox creations. I can’t imagine how something like the Toybox would have influenced me if I’d had one growing up.
(Credit: Michael Lydick)
