The Y-Wing "Green Leader" Project - NOW OPEN SOURCE!

So all afternoon I've been thinking about the Mattel Thing Maker I had as a kid and go searching on EBay (bad idea!). Now I'm the proud owner (again) of one of my favorite sets of molds for the Thing Maker, the Fighting Men set!

Thing Maker Molds.png

For those of you that are too young to remember Thing Maker, Is was an open face hot plate onto which you placed an aluminum mold filled with liquid plastic. The hot plate heated the mold up to about 390 degrees :eek which set the plastic into a hard rubber which could be removed from the mold after it cooled. There were also molds for bugs, called Creepy Crawlers, monster parts and others things.

From Wikipedia - "It is generally believed that production of the original Mattel Thingmakers was discontinued following consumer safety concerns over allowing children to use a small electric heater as a toy."

I'll say!
 
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390 degree hot plastic - children using a small electric heater as a toy...what could possibly go wrong!?!

Of course, this was back when we would go out all day jumping bikes or hiking and come home for dinner sometime after the streetlights came on and no one was even a little bit concerned...



apb
 
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Love those old molds! As for using those for greeblies; I think that the Mother Ship from Close Encounter of the Third Kind would be suitable;)
 
Very cool video. Nice to see you braking down your build techniques and where your at with the Y. Cant wait to get my hands on those parts you cast. Congrats on being recognized!

Mike
 
Yep I agree, great video indeed! Seeing those parts mocked up on that Y really gets me excited. I can't wait to start that project.

And that X-Wing too.....beautiful. Good stuff Dave, good stuff.
 
No worries Max! Glad you posted it.

I can't believe how coherent I am in the interview! When you do these things it just kind of goes into auto-pilot and when you finish the over-riding thought is "Gee, I hope I didn't sound like an idiot!". The video is pretty much 100% of what we recorded so I guess I didn't ramble. Norm is also really good at conducting these interviews. He's relaxed, but excited, which made me the same. And the room was very loud which is a hard environment to talk in.
 
Couldn't agree more. I'm expecting a message from Norm that says he could use my interview because I was rambling, haha. It was really cool to see your stuff in person Dave. Really nice work!
 
I kept getting anxiety every time Dave's hand waved passed his x-wing's laser cannons. I just know from experience how easy it is to knock those damn things off. I should put mine under glass but then I couldn't fly it around the house anymore.
 
Excellent interview Dave...!

Although, I must admit, I was tempted to step on over and flash some rabbit ear fingers behind your head at the opportune moment!

;-)


apb
 
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