Li'l Craftys

Heya Craftys,

I want to take a minute to introduce you to the line of Comic, Game, Cartoon, Film, and general Pop Culture figures that I've been creating under the sublabel of Li'l Craftys, and where I want to go with them.

With these figures, I want to build a broad range of collectible characters that will look great all together on your shelf printed and painted, or even printed in multicolor.

I've designed these figures based on several considerations that I hope will add long-term enjoyment for makers and collectors:  inspired references, poseable interactions, and silly customization of the entire collection.

I started building this idea while I was working with INSPYR3D. I wanted to make little appealing pop-culture figures styled through a childish lens like the work of Skottie Young and Dustin Nguyen, which paid homage to the community creators who inspired a love of 3D printing. Not only would this be based on the nostalgic characters that INSPYR3D is known for, but it would also highlight creators with an established affection for a character. Looking to combine characters and YouTubers makes putting Uncle Jessy's head on a Magneto body an easy pairing, but I have a long list of other creators I need to match up to characters.

Making a little figure that could be printed with either a Magneto or an Uncle Jessy head opened the door to head variants, a feature of high-end model kits that I've always loved.  Rather than design each figure so that its pieces would key together, if I designed around a standardized round neck post, you could choose to display the model with either head option, and pivot them around to slightly adjust the pose.

Additionally, once I had a few of these parts in my hands, the options expanded and became even sillier.  Not only could you put Skeletor's head onto He-Man's body, but imagine TrapJaw's silly mug atop the mistress of the elements, Storm.

Though I'm sure there will be exceptions (characters with long hair or helmets are difficult to accommodate) my plan of action is to design around using 6x2mm magnets to hold heads onto figures, and figures onto bases. All heads will be swappable, and the spacing of the magnets on the bases will be consistent to support interchangeability. The magnets also help to overcome the instability inherent in these big-headed figures and allow me to design modular characters in dynamic poses.

Don't miss out on the release week of these models while they are free to download for a limited time. Even if seeing Joel Telling's head on his favorite character from Doctor Who isn't your jam, you may find he looks better atop Halflife's Gordan Freeman, or Fallout's Vault Boy coming down the line.

Stay Crafty,
Holt Harper