Review – Mecha Zone Vindicator

At the Super Robots Giant Monsters show last weekend I got the chance to meet David White, an artist with awesome skills and some great robot artwork. You need to check David’s site — mechazone.com — for a peek at his work . . . and it turns out David’s doing even more than just illustrations these days. For example, the Vindicator transforming robot toy shown here.

3D Printing At Work

Created from a 3D printer, the Vindicator transforming robot toy is a great example of what the future of independent toy manufacturing may look like. Every single part was generated with David’s printer, and after some cleaning of the parts and assembly the final toy is more durable and fun than I had first expected. It’s still a tad fragile, but normal handling shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Tank Mode

Twin cannons and treads, the Vindicator is a squat little contraption that’s ready for battle. The above photos show how the toy looks in its tank mode and it’s a simple and fun transformation that works well for a 2.75-inch tall robot toy. Hasbro could use exactly this transformation process for a small official Transformers toy and it wouldn’t be out of place on store shelves.

Robot Mode

Unfold the arms and legs, twist the head around, and the toy is instantly transformed into a robot. The swivel waist is a great touch and there’s a total of twelve points of articulation which give the toy far more poseability than I expected. And the design? Clearly one of David’s works . . . as you’ll notice if you’ve seen his two art books.

Closing Thoughts

If this is what’s being made in these early days of at-home 3D printing what can we expect in the future? I have no idea, but I fully expect that mechazone.com will continue to show off new robot toy designs as David collects more and more expertise with the machine. I’m not personally going to rush out and buy a 3D printer, but if this is what can be made with one then I hope more artists keep buying these printers.

And now I’m kinda regretting not buying one of the larger robots David had at the show. Maybe they’ll be available online soon.