14 DAY TRIAL // Children of graphics and toy designers are lucky because their parents are among the best equipped to provide them with awesome birthday presents, and this goes especially true for the daughter of video game designer Jim Rodda.
The man was going to 3D print a My Little Pony glitter cannon, but it turned out that producing a spring with compression power sufficient to shoot glitter was too hard to make.
He hasn't given up on the idea, but he decided to take things slowly. That is what yielded the medieval armor that his daughter's Barbie doll has taken to wearing.
That's right, Barbie is wearing full plate mail now. She's a real iron lady, that girl. A cast iron woman.
Okay, not really. The armor is made of plastic after all, not of actual steel or whatever other metals some 3D printers can work with these days.
Regardless, Jim Rodda liked the idea so much that he decided to see if he could make money off it. So here we are, beholding a Kickstarter project for it.
Since this is a pretty small endeavor, the man is only seeking to raise $5000 / €3,627, which is just a grand short, despite the fact that there are 20 days to go.
We suppose that there are plenty of parents who would like to provide their daughters with something that will refresh their interest in their Barbie dolls.
And since Barbie is already qualified for basically every job and career known to the contemporary human, going backwards in time to learn other professions makes perfect sense for the doll.
The 3D printed armor is made of 30 pieces, plus ten 3D printer carabiners that hold the plates together. A MakerBot Replicator 1 was used to produce them all.
Rodda said that he had to make sure that the armor wasn't something that Barbie would be afraid to be caught dead in. After all, she may be gearing up to kill the dragon herself instead of waiting for the perpetually unemployed Ken to suit up and do it for her.
But in the end, she is still a lady, a princess even (you know, when she's not actually a businesswoman, president or astronaut), so she couldn't get dressed in just any old set of rusty plates.
Jim Rodda said that he's only worried that he might offend Barbie's creators, but no lawsuits have been thrown at him yet, so maybe you'll see that Ancient Greek Armor too. His site The Forge has the models available for download.
Parents should keep in mind, though, that the armor isn't all that kid-friendly, especially if your child is 3 or 4 years old. The 3D printed sword is actually pretty sharp.
