3D-printed Game of Thrones toy robots help fill the void in the off-season

The sigil creatures of the four main families have been produced by designers at The Crafty Robot

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We might be in-between seasons of the hit HBO series, Game of Thrones, unaware what lies in wait for Daenerys, Jon Snow and co, but these 3D-printed toy robots can help fill the void while they’re off-screen.

As fans of the show, designers at The Crafty Robot decided to create the sigil creatures from the four major families: Targaryen (Dragon), Baratheon (Stag), Stark (Wolf) and Lannister (Lion). The Mother of Dragons and King of the North may have been overlooked, but the four sigils allow you to re-run your favourite Game of Thrones scenes.

“I wanted to create a set of creatures that go together,” Ross Atkin, the founder of The Crafty Robot told TCT Magazine. “Initially, I was thinking of doing Greek Myths but I decided that Game of Thrones would probably have more resonance with people. Also as they represent the four main houses, fighting them allows you to re-run the twists and turns of the actual show.”

Powered by Fizzbits, super capacitor powered vibration modules, the designs can be made to run around after a USB charge.

The Crafty Robot designers had previously designed 3D unicorn models during last year’s Kickstarter campaign. After shipping the unicorns, they noticed a large amount of videos appear on social media featuring the 3D-printed products. They then realised many of their followers had access to 3D printers.

“I was keen to improve on the way the original unicorn model moved - It does a fair bit more shaking around than going forward,” added Atkin. “I realised that the paper models, like the robots that come with the Fizzbits and the designs we have on the website to download, had much more inherent flexibility than the unicorn, which is actually too stiff.

“After a fair bit of experimentation I discovered that putting a diagonal slit in the side of the model allows the upper rear half (which contains the Fizzbit) to shake around partially independently of the lower front part which is in contact with the ground just enough to get decent forward motion.”

The mechanical development of the blank creature shape was done without any features, just four legs and the details to hold the Fizzbit in place. Once the designers were sure the robot could move, the faces, ears, horns and other distinguishing features were added, using 123D design for the entirety of the design process. This original ‘Creature Base’ file has been placed on Thingiverse. The Crafty Robot hope people will download the file (for free) and design their own creatures, focusing on the more fun elements rather than the engineering process.

The GoT creatures were all printed on an Ultimaker 2 3D Printer with a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.1mm layer height, printing at 100% fill – they are modelled to be hollow inside. They all print upside-down and work without supports. Apart from the stag sigil, the rest of the group are flat on the top so they can be charged without the users’ laptop being lifted from its surface. The stag needed additional antlers, which are printed separately and slot into holes on the sigil’s head.

Additionally, the sigil’s come with the family banners which feature in the TV series.

“I had a lot of fun drawing the banners and I’m pleased that the creatures can all be ridden by Lego minifies – though I recommend holding them down with double-sided tape,” said Atkin. “I hope people like them and are inspired to design Fizzbit-compatible moving figures of their own.”