IntroOh Lawd, it’s already the second of the month and I’m just now writing this!June really flew by. From starting out the first few days of it stuck on the mainland waiting out a typhoon, to having to use my lunch break most days to swing by my house and feed little 1-month-old Waffle, to seeing said Waffle grow big enough to start jumping around and getting under the bed, behind the TV, on the shelves… she’s been a huge hassle.I still love her to death, though, and if you want to see her in all her cow-patterned feline glory, she now has an Instagram! So please follow it; she’s worth it.…she already has more followers than I do. Japanese studies have been eating up more and more of my time as the days go by; my method of studying involves past flashcards steadily coming back to be answered again and again, coming back even later every time I get them right. Essentially, that means that when I started, I had X amount of flashcards every day, and then 1 day in I had 2X every day, four days in I had 3X, etc etc. So until the day comes that I stop learning more words, the time I have to take every day to clear out my reviews will steadily increase. Fortunately, the rate at which the amount of words is increasing is decreasing, if that makes sense. If it doesn’t… ah well. It’s not that important. What is important, however, is that I simply haven’t had a lot of time recently in order to get the things done that I want to get done, and that might be a continuing theme for the next… 5 months or so. December is both the month Waffle is scheduled to get fixed and the month that I am scheduled to take the Japan Language Proficiency Test, so it’s looking like 2026 is going to be a tiring year. However! The silver lining is that starting the 17th of July and continuing through the entirety of August, I have 0 classes to teach. Which means that I, as an assistant teacher, will have the very important job of sitting at my desk for 8 hours and making sure it doesn’t go anywhere. So I absolutely will have time to catch up! I just need to use it wisely. June TimePokemon TCG Pocket Coins So… I didn’t actually knuckle down and upload anything. I’ve printed out Arven, Morpeko, and Sobble, with Mega Lucario on the way, but Mega Sceptile, Koraidon, Miraidon, and now Elesa and Piplup are all sitting there, waiting to be printed. The issue with taking pictures is it involves having to basically clear my desk and set it up again as a photo studio, and I have to do that every time I want to take a picture of a coin. So, I thought it would make more sense to take pictures of all of them at once in order to batch load them, but for that, I’d need to print them all out. The current plan is to finish printing the available coins, knock out all their pictures at once, and then hack away at uploading them one by one. I’m currently 9 in the hole, with presumably more coming. Yeesh. Other StuffI posted some YouTube videos!This one is about how Japan Airlines almost sent me the wrong direction, and this playlist contains a whole bunch of videos about the various booths I visited at JRRF.I’ve also been having a pretty fun time writing articles on my blog, which I enjoy checking out! It’s like a less time-intensive way to get my thoughts out there compared to making videos.I’ve been posting weekly updates about my Fire Emblem: Binding Blade challenge run streams over on Twitch. I’ve also uploaded an article about my thoughts on MakerChips, so check that out!I don’t believe I have any blog subscribers yet, so if you wanna be the first to sign up for email alerts, that’d be amazing! New Models!…Don’t exist!Unfortunately, it does seem that I’ve uploaded literally 0 models in the month of June.…Dang. Past Goals My one goal was to mainly finish up preparation for the Pumpkin Jam. Read more about that here!And unfortunately, I think this is the first time where I can’t say in good faith that I finished my goal. Don’t worry, though, the accompanying tutorial video is all filmed and cut up, and it just needs the final edit + the thumbnail, etc, but I’m not 100% done. The Theme itself has been written up, but the intro video hasn’t been started. It’ll all definitely get done before the 11th, but it’s unfortunately not done right now. What’s Next for July?Main GoalUnsurprisingly, the Pumpkin Jam is my number one priority, so I want to Absolutely finish all preparations for the Jam before it begins, and thenUse the rest of the month to record all the footage for the results.That’s it!Stretch GoalThe Stretch Goal would be to get a rough cut of the results video together, and the Impossigoalis to finish the Pumpkin Jam, publish the results, and get it all behind me. That would be absolutely amazing, because then I could have the entirety of August essentially free for projects.  To which honestly, I really, really want to do, because I haven’t sat down and designed something new in god knows how long. ConclusionThat’s the plan! Sorry if I’ve come off as having the all energy of a worn-out boot; it’s just that sometimes I feel like I have all the energy of a worn-out boot. I’ve honestly been trying to do too many things in too short a time span, and I feel like I still haven’t recovered from the whole snafu that was returning from JRRF. I’m really hoping that August will come with it fewer responsibilities, so I can take a step back, chill out, and focus on taking it easy and making what I want.Until then, though, PLEASE sign up for the Pumpkin Jam, and I’ll see you then!As always, Bucket List below.  Bucket ListThis is just every idea from the last time put here again for recordkeeping. I’ll probably delete some if I have zero interest in doing them, but feel free to skim through this and see if anything catches your fancy. So here they are!Testing actual VG BoomerangsBoomerangs have always interested me–I mean, how cool is a piece of wood with 0 moving parts that returns on its own after you throw it? I’m interested in designing a bunch of Boomerangs from Video Games (Specifically from the Zelda Series) and testing out how well they actually would fly if you threw them irl, if at all. Lemme know if you know of any games that have boomerangs in them.3D Modeling Poseable Models in BlenderI know Blender is more about animations and stuff, but I currently almost exclusively use it for importing one kind of filetype, and then exporting it as another. Since it certainly seems to be a powerful tool for handling meshes and stuff, I figure it’d be good to learn more about how it works, and to try and model some basic poseable figures in there. The prefecture I live in, Kagoshima, has a group of mascots that are all pigs–I think it’d be cool to create a base form for them, add bones onto it, pose it like they do in their promotional images, and then add their little accessories to make a cute little figurine set.     Gameripping and Crowdfunding   I’ve used The Models Resource to find models as reference material many times before, so I was considering repaying the favor and getting some models to add. The Magical Sword from Hyrule Warriors has always been in the back of my mind to make, but there are a couple problems. No one ripped the sheath from the game. Both the sword and shield are there, but no sheath to put the blade in.It would take a lot of filament. More than would be sustainable for a hobbyist such as myself.For this challenge, I’d like to see if I can’t learn how to rip the model, so I can try and upload it myself. And to get the filament, I want to try out Maker World’s crowdfunding feature to see if I can’t scrape together enough to get the filament to properly test it and then print it out. It’s a pretty complicated model, as you can see here. It’d be a big undertaking by itself in order to try and adapt it.   Making Practical MechanismsSo I have no idea what direction this would go, but have you ever worn a hard hat? You put it on, and there’s a knob in the back that tightens it down so it doesn’t fall off your noggin. I want to try making a headband that works like that, but has a mechanism in the front that lets you easily attach and detach a mask. How would that work out? Is PLA even bendy enough to make a reliable headband? I don’t know, but I found the patent for the ratchet, so…   Making More Rubber Band HingesY’all remember Bakugan? I do. Really cool marble-like toys with a hidden magnet in ‘em which, when passed over a metal card, triggered the magnet which unlatched a bunch of springed hinges, transforming it into a little figure. Really crappy card game, super interesting concept. I wanna see if I can make one using rubber bands to power the hinges, similar to how my Poke Ball works.   Working with TPUFun fact: I’ve never printed in TPU. Ever. Sounds fun though. I’ve seen people make squeaky rubber duckies with TPU, and I want to try to do that myself. Except instead of a Duck, I want to make a Pig Ball, from the obscure PlayStation game Tomba! 2. This is the highest resolution photo I could find of it via a quick google search, which should tell you how rare it is.   What are those Suspended String Thingies Called?I’ve seen some pretty cool models like the one in this image here. I have no clue (ok I have some clue) how they work, but I want to try one! I’m a fan of Naruto, and for some reason these prints remind me of a Sharingan floating in a tank. I’d like to make one, and swap out the design for every one seen so far in the series. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?  Trying out Some CosplayReally small goal, but I want to try and make Zero’s Buster from Mega Man X3. I’ve got an idea to try and use straps that might make it relatively ergonomic and solid, but I also want to think of a way to make it easy to take on and off.   Electronics and API, maybe?A while back I made a video (or 2… or 3…) in which I attempted to make disco lights for my twitch stream. I kinda succeeded, but the end product was really finicky, unreliable, and hard to set up. Basically, the gist of the thing was that I wanted to make a spinning ball with holes in it that projected shapes from an internal light onto my walls, in order to spice up my twitch stream. I was toying around with trying to make one from the maker’s supply, and if that worked out, I want to try and sync it up with my twitch stream so that it changes color if I get a follow, raid, sub, or something like that. That’d be gnarly. I’ve had a couple people tentatively offer to help, and I feel bad that I haven’t followed through… The old one had (technically) remote control, RGB capability, and variable spinning speed somehow, but it’d take a lot of learning to figure out how to do it effectively and reliably.

Hey, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, because I’m not! I’m feeling rather under the weather, so in an effort to make myself feel the littlest bit better, I’ve decided to do some mental spring cleaning and vomit out some of the thoughts that have been bouncing around my head recently. Today’s topic: MakerChips! At the turn of the month, I was extremely blessed to be able to attend the Japan RepRap Festival. Despite being an avid printer for the last 8-ish years, the stars had never aligned, so this would be my first ever in-person 3D printing event. As such, I wanted to experience it to the fullest–I volunteered to be a translator, and scoured the official site to learn as much as I could about the event. It was in my perusing that I stumbled across a page dedicated to something called MakerChips. Curious, I read on… Where Did They Come From?When I started my 3D printing journey, I remembered watching a lot of videos to prepare myself for buying my first machine. 3D Printing Nerd, Maker’s Muse, Thomas Sanladerer… all great sources for information on how to get into designing and printing your own models. However, I distinctly remember one short 4-minute video from Maker’s Muse talking about Maker Coins. Basically, the idea was that you could design your own little small coin to practice/show off your modeling skills, test out filament samples, and do a little advertising by handing them out at events. Some people were calling them “business cards for makers,” but honestly, given how no contact information was typically displayed on them, I think “calling card” was a better descriptor. A much closer equivalent for the “business card for makers” would come about some time later, when a maker by the name of K2_Kevin would come up with the idea of a standardized Maker Coin called–you guessed it!--MakerChips. While I’m certainly no expert on the history of MakerChips (to be honest, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of concrete “official” information by the man himself out there), the idea of the MakerChip is to serve as “a customizable token designed for 3D printing enthusiasts. It serves as a creative outlet for personalization and a practical tool for advertising and showcasing your 3D printing capabilities,” if I may be so bold as to lift directly from the description of its MakerWorld template. Essentially, the more concrete gist I got was that while Maker Coins are indeed really cool, once you start heading to a few events, you now just have a bucket of plastic geegaws of various sizes and shapes kicking around your house, which you keep because you don’t want to be rude but then inevitably throw away because God dangit you’re a 3D printer and you’ve got enough junk as it is. In order to solve this, K2_Kevin made a pretty simple suggestion: why not standardize Maker Coins’ dimensions, say, to 40 millimeters in diameter, and 3~3.5 millimeters in thickness; about the size of a poker chip? That way, while makers may not have the same amount of space to be creative with their own designs, people can have a much better time organizing them and displaying them. And why not encourage people to put a QR code on the back, to let people link to their stuff? Thus, the MakerChip was born. So What Do I Think?Honestly, I really like this idea. While I’m not a fan of it being based off of a gambling token, and it’s certainly a shame that people don’t have as much space to be creative as they do with Coins, I actually really like the principles behind MakerChips. I think the strict limit on size actually can encourage people to think more outside the box with how much they can cram within such a small space, so it results in some genuinely impressive designs. Also, the standardization really scratches that “collector” part of my brain, and is probably why they’ve taken off so much in Japan.  It also allows for a lot of creativity in terms of accessories surrounding the MakerChips. Carrying cases, display pins, little gacha-esque machines that facilitate trades by accepting someone else’s chip and spitting out yours… The sky’s the limit! They even held an accessory contest for JRRF, so if you wanna see the cases I made for them, you can check them out here, among other things.HOWEVER, with all that being said, do you remember how I said that Maker Coins would just kind of sit in a bucket until you inevitably throw them away? Well, MakerChips are different! They sit in a neat little case until you inevitably throw them away.Oh, and to shoehorn something else right here–remember when I rhetorically asked “why not put qr codes on the back?”Well, fraud’s why. Just sayin’ it’s not a great idea to scan QR codes from strangers. Anyway, here’s the deal:While they’re generally thought of as business cards for makers, in my experience at JRRF, there was a sort of collector’s mania about them–you would see people with signs requesting to trade, you’d swap Chips, and keep walking. In Japan, with traditional paper business cards, there’s a very particular culture around how you exchange them. You swap them, take a good look, put them away in your carrying case, and continue talking. There’s intention there, because if you are receiving a business card, chances are you’re doing so because there’s a real chance you would want to contact the person you’re receiving it from again in the future. With MakerChips, it seems that more often than not, you just pick them up in droves at events, so they really aren’t all that effective at being a business card. For example, I put my website in QR Code form on the back of my Chip, as is customary. And when I checked Google Analytics in preparation for writing this article, I found that in order to sign up, you apparently need to register your site as a business and it doesn’t start counting traffic for your site from that day forward even if your site literally uses Google Sites. So, uhh… it turns out that I can’t tell how many people visited it during or soon after JRRF. Oops. I can, however, track the number of people who saw and signed up for the Pumpkin Jam, but despite putting in Japanese on the homepage instructions on how to sign up, a grand total of 0 people did so. Side note, though, if you’re unaware, the Pumpkin Jam is an online event that challenges you to create and upload a 3D printable model in only 48 hours according to a Theme I send out when the event starts. Good for beginners and veterans alike! You should check it out if you’re at all interested–next one is the weekend of July 11th! This leads to quite the conundrum. On the one hand, we have this really cool 3D print that allows makers to embody what they’re all about into one little Chip, but on the other hand, we have a whole bunch of inevitable plastic waste. So how can we reckon these two conflicting issues? Well, it seems relatively simple to me: just make good MakerChips that people will want to hold onto.How to Make MakerChips GoodNow is the part of the article where I ramble on about what to do and what not to do when making your MakerChip, based off of what I noticed from the dozens upon dozens of chips I received. Let’s see if I actually have a substantive amount of things to say!Oh, and while it would have been a good idea to show images of what not to do for illustrative purposes, I really don’t want to put some random person on blast, so I will refrain from doing so. Conversely, I want to show off a couple good MakerChips, and will link to the respective creators’ sites so you can check out their stuff. Hopefully, through these instructions, you’ll come away with ideas to make MakerChips worth handing out.1~ Stick to the Dimensions.The first one is very simple: your MakerChip should be 40mm in diameter, and anywhere from 3-3.5mm in thickness. Honestly, for both your and others’ sakes, I’d recommend sticking with 3mm. Thicker just means more plastic to print, and the chance that it won’t work properly with various accessories people make for them goes up. And while you can (and should) do a lot of creative things with your Chip, you absolutely cannot have anything sticking out of it. Imagine a little container with a cylindrical space in it that’s 40mm in diameter and 3.5mm thick. You should be able to put your MakerChip in that container and close the lid all the way down. If you can’t, then I regret to inform you that the thing you’ve created is not a MakerChip, but a Maker Coin. While being creative is something that I will harp on in later points, you absolutely should not think outside the box here. Why? Because the standardization is the entire reason MakerChips were created. To quote the original MakerChip model on MakerWorld: “Size Matters! A MakerChip is 40mm dia.. x 3mm to 3.5mm thick.” That’s Rule #2, right behind “It's called a MakerChip, not a coin.” But unlike Rule #1, though, if you break Rule #2, bad things actually can happen. For example, if you, say, design a really cool free-rotating propeller into your MakerChip, that’s awesome. But if it’s held in place by a nose cone that sticks out a few millimeters, all of a sudden you’ll no longer fit inside most storage containers, you won’t be able to stack properly, and you’ll jam up most dispensers. If I can’t put it in the case I made specifically for MakerChips, chances are it’s probably not making it home with me. And if I don’t have it, I’ll never be able to use it to navigate back to your webpage/socials/whatever. That being said, if you want to cut away material from the Chip, you may do so, although I will caution against removing material from the borders to the point that it’s no longer round–it might not be compatible with certain accessories if so. And if you really, really want to have something sticking out past the boundary, there is a way to do so; it takes extra ingenuity, but you can design moving parts that can move outside the limits, as long as they can move back into the typical Chip shape. If they have no way of sticking back together, and just freely fall apart… yeah, that’s not good either.2~ Whose Chip is This? While this isn’t the most fun thing to think about, if you don’t properly display your information, the whole “business card” aspect of the Chip kinda falls through. There are two ways people tend to link their related stuff to their Chip–either by putting a QR code on the back (the more popular option), or putting an NFC tag inside (do people just have NFC scanners kicking around that they can use?) If you go the QR code route, try and make sure that whatever URL you use to link the code to is as short as possible. The longer it is, the more little squares they gotta use to contain the info, which means that it’ll be increasingly hard for both your printer to print them, and for other people to scan them. If you really want to get fancy, you can have a short domain name that redirects to your site to make it really easy for folks to scan your code. Just make sure that whatever QR code generator you use actually makes the QR code to your site of choice; some QR code generators will first link you to their site, but then immediately redirect you to the site you entered. They do this to eventually cut off access until you pay to have it reinstated, so double-check that your QR code is good by scanning it and confirming that the associated link that shows up with it is, indeed, where you want it to go.Also, make sure it’s obviously visible. I saw a really cool concept of someone that printed the QR code in black and the background in filament that, when heated up in your hand, turned white and revealed the code. While this is very creative, is it worth people having to grip your coin for 30 seconds before they can see your code? I’d argue it is not. Oh, and I recommend that if at all possible, you have your own site domain to link to over a social media profile; you never know when the social media you like to use will change, go down, or get taken over by a Nazi. Hypothetically speaking. Ideally, you also want your name somewhere on the Chip. In my experience, people like to put their logo on one side, their QR code on the back, and call it a day. The issue with this, however, is that it’s really easy for recipients of your Chip to forget who the heck you are just based on your logo. Also, if someone is genuinely interested in checking out more about you but (understandably) doesn’t want to scan a code given to them by a stranger, they can’t search you up if you don’t put your name on it somewhere. But of course, that’s assuming that they do find you or your MakerChip interesting, which is a challenge in and of itself. So…3~ What Makes a Good MakerChip?Hopefully you do!Now that we’re done with the nitty-gritty of marketing and the like, we can finally talk about the fun part: the actual design!My absolute favorite part about MakerChips is the information they hold about the creator. Not the QR code or the logo; no, the best MakerChips are ones that tell you what kind of creator they were made by. It’s not 1-to-1, obviously, but I tend to notice that the more interesting stuff the creator is doing, the more interesting their MakerChip tends to be. Regrettably, the two MakerChips I thought were the most interesting I was only able to see in the big Wall of MakerChips they had near the entrance, so I was unable to actually take them home or scan them. However, it seems one of them was a time traveler and took this article’s advice when they made theirs, because they put their name on the front.The first I believe contains a genuine electroplated 3D print, made by Hen3drik, a creator whose videos I’ve often seen in my YouTube recommended. The second one belongs to the creator who presumably owns this twitter account. I’d love to check it out and see how the heck they managed to get such insane detail in so many colors on their Chip, but I nuked my account into oblivion long ago. It looks kind of like it might be a sticker, but I don’t know, so I want to find out more!And in my case, while it’s a bit difficult to see at a static angle (and honestly, in this lighting), it has circular sparkles to it. That in and of itself was eye-catching to quite a few people, but if you’ve ever printed on an effect plate before, you know that it’s pretty tough to get a lot of detail since any adhesive added to the smooth PEI plate will most likely ruin the effect. I, however, have tons of experience with making detailed sparkly Pokemon coins, so for me, all I needed to do was put my design in my pre-existing print profile, and I got Chips like this at this level of detail with a less than 1% fail rate. To get to the point, if you want your MakerChip to make other people want to learn more about you, you need to make it in such a way that it makes people want to learn more about it. Accordingly, if you as a maker specialize in something, integrate that skill into your MakerChip. Are you a 2D artist? Put an intricate design on your Chip. Do you make multi-part assemblies? Make your Chip into a mini Transformer. Do you often work with unusual materials? Print your Chip with one of those. Do you have a non-3D printing medium you use? Incorporate that into your design. A MakerChip is supposed to be a symbolic representation of who you are as a maker, but that doesn’t mean it should just have your symbol printed on it! You have roughly 4 cubic centimeters of space to do pretty much whatever you want. It may not seem like a lot, but you’d be surprised what you can actually get away with. And if you don’t have anything super remarkable about your creative process yet, that’s ok! I just want to give a friendly reminder that despite all the cutthroat talk in this article about standing out, marketing your stuff, and good branding, at the end of the day, making is all about  having fun and being creative. If you just want a simple Chip to show your friends and family, then don’t worry about trying to pour hours and hours into the most revolutionary disc that the world has ever seen. Despite what I’ve been saying, it’s perfectly fine to slap your logo on the front, QR code on the back, and call it a day. But if your goal is to stand out and get eyes on your projects and spread your Chip to the masses, then it’ll probably take a bit (lot) more creative juice than that. Final ThoughtsAll in all, I wrote this article because I really like the concept of MakerChips–a physical manifestation of your creative power as a maker condensed down into a little tiny disc small enough to fit in your wallet, with an entire ecosystem of creators making their own creative designs in order to help you store, distribute, and display them? Sign me up! But in practice, given how it seems to have been stressed more as a collector’s item than anything, the general vibe around them (at least at JRRF) was that MakerChips were something you just tried to amass as many of as you can, and to that end everyone had to have one in order to fit in. I had multiple people go so far as to apologize to me because their Chip wasn’t up to their standards, because they felt like they had to rush to make one for the event. The emphasis was less on showing off your creativity in a fun way that helps you keep in touch with cool people you met at events, and more about just filling your coffers with as many coins as possible. So if you think you want to participate in the MakerChip movement, go ahead!But please, don’t feel pressured into just making one so you have something to exchange with people you meet at events, and don’t feel pressured into accepting one from every single person you meet that has one. Going forward, I’m unsure as to how I’ll approach distributing and receiving MakerChips in the future. I’ll probably still bring them for those who want them, and still accept them from those who are distributing them, but I’m sad to say that even then I’ll be doing that knowing full well that I’ll be picking a few I like to actually use and putting the rest away for eternity in the back of my closet. But until then, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go design a MakerChip that no one will want to throw away.

All 3D models with links span 3 words; the first leading to MakerWorld, the second leading to PrintabIes, and the 3rd leading to Thing!verse. IntroMan, this month felt like it lasted quite the while, if I’m being perfectly honest. Usually I say they fly by, but I think due to how much my life has kind of shifted gears recently, I feel like I had to go through a long journey to get here.First, the school year has started back up here in Japan, so I’m going through the motions of introducing myself to new teachers, new students, giving the same presentation 37 times at all 9 different schools I teach at…and I still haven’t been to them all yet!Second–and more important–I’ve completely restructured how I go about my day-to-day life. I wrote a whole manifesto about it, but the long and short of it is that due to my contract most likely ending in the summer of next year, I’ve decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December to get certified and therefore more able to enter the workforce here. As that is something that directly affects my future livelihood and 3D printing things is a hobby, that has taken exclusive precedence over 3D printing. So while I still will be doing 3D printing stuff, just know that if my goals here are a bit lower than usual or my uploads are a bit less frequent than usual…that’s why. On another note, I’m going to the Japan RepRap Festival at the end of this month, so the next roadmap will be a little late! I figure rather than writing my next roadmap early and just uploading it on the first, It’d be better to write it after JRRF so I can think about the next month with what I saw at JRRF in mind. I’ll be working there as a translator, so keep an eye out for me! Although, to be honest, I have no idea what that will entail; I should really send a follow up email to request more information. I’d like to go reporter mode and make some videos about the event in its entirety as well as the exhibitors there and their products, but that will depend on what my role will be and what free time I have. Should probably follow up on that… But enough waffling around, I’ve gotta report on what I got done last month!What I got done last monthPokemon TCG PocketHuzzah! I have finally cracked the code to consistent, detailed effect prints! While I did slow down the speeds a bit, I changed the layer size from 0.08mm to 0.14–that’s it. It prints out the first layer at 0.1mm thickness, and the rest a bit thicker at 0.14. I’m not sure exactly why it works, but if I had to guess, it’s something to do with the fact that the nozzle has to do fewer passes, and therefore drags on the part less, and each layer is thicker and therefore less prone to warping. There’s potential to be able to still get away with higher speeds, but to be perfectly honest, I really don’t want to spend the time experimenting. Either way, I only figured this out recently, so I haven’t had time to fully catch up. I’ve still got a few of the older coins to print out, but the four I did manage to do are a Mega Gardevoir coin and a Toxtricity coin, while a Mimikyu coin, an Iono coin, and a Pokemon 30th Celebration coin got uploaded slightly after April ended. Hence, why this roadmap is a bit late! Oh, and this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but… I stumbled across the Pikachu Ver. 2 coin in my “to upload” folder, assumed I forgot to move it to the “Uploaded” folder, but… nope.    There are quite a few coins left undone, though, so I’ll be printing them whenever I’m not printing any other project. They are, in order that I plan to release them:Sprigatito, Arven, Morpeko, Shiny Mega Gengar, Mega Kangaskhan, Zoroark, Sobble, Mega Lucario. We’re so back! Looking forward to being caught up. Project KurtI got news! But it’s not very good. Finally reached out again to my editor, and he officially said he would not have any time to continue editing them going forward. Tried reaching out to my brother and making a deal with him (he hates recording and likes editing, and I’m the opposite), but he also doesn’t have time. So who knows how the heck it’s gonna shake out going forward; I’ll probably just have to figure out a steady pace I want to edit them at. Given that paying an editor a fair wage for videos that return $0 is kinda off the table… meh. We’ll see how it goes. April’s DeedsMain GoalTwo main Goals: Make my MakerChip, and revamp my Website in preparation for JRRF! Welp, here’s my MakerChip:  Does it look like a cross-section of a pumpkin? Maybe? That’s what I was going for.And if you want to see how my website turned out, scan that QR code! Or of course, just visit carlthepumpkinman.com.I did revamp it to have all my socials and stuff, but there’s a bit more I want to do before JRRF. I’ll talk about that in this month’s goals, however. As a side note, in making my Chip, I also made a carrying case that can hold a whopping 154 Chips! It was designed to balance both storage capacity and searchability; the MakerChips are densely packed while also having enough space around them to quickly locate Chips at a glance. It’s also got removable holders and a fold-up print-in-place carrying handle! If you want more info, you can look at the photos below or download it here!Oh, and if you could go onto the JRRF site and vote for it to win the contest, that’d be great! I honestly don’t know what winning gets me, but I sure do wanna win! Stretch Goal  Make that King Slime, baby! And make it I did. There’s not much else to say; I found the original model online, adapted it into both an AMS and single-extruder version, and voila! Here you go!Fun fact, it got featured on the front page of Thing!verse for like a day. If you’d like to see a bunch of different Dragon Quest Slimes, I made Collections of them on each of the sites I use, so feel free to take a look! ImpossigoalYes, it remained forever out of reach. Should I even mention it in the recap if I didn’t reach it? Might just stop next month; who knows! May We Continue?Geddit? May? Because it’s the month of– Main Goal Anyway, the Pumpkin Jam #03 is slated for the weekend of June 13th! If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically a fun little event where people sign up, and then when it starts everyone receives an email detailing a Theme, and they have 48 hours to design, print, and upload a model that fits that Theme. I print all of them out, give feedback to everyone, and crown one the winner!This time around, we as of yet have no prizes involved, but if someone wanted to sponsor one…You can find out more and sign up here. The astute of you may have noticed that that will be after JRRF, and that was intentional! I want to try to get JRRF attendees to participate, so my Main Goal will be to finish up the final preparations for the Jam and also translate everything relevant into Japanese, so that Japanese users can also participate. This also means doing even more edits to the site, writing the Theme in Japanese and recording/translating the Theme video as well…this is gonna be a lot. But I can do it!Stretch Goal This is a Jumbo Coin Case made for holding Pokemon Coins, and it’s what I remixed to make the aforementioned MakerChip case.If I can do it in time, I plan on designing a bunch of remixes that have designs that correspond to all 28 Poke Balls that are usable in the main series of games. On MakerWorld, however, if you release a print profile of something, you have to actually print it out and show that the print profiles work. I, of course, don’t have the resources to print all 28 of them, so I thought it would be fun to just upload all the print profiles and let you guys upload them and reap the benefits from it!I’ll probably make a more in-depth post about it on MakerWorld itself, but basically, if you want to print one I didn’t print, you can download the 3mf, print it as is, and reupload it as a print profile. You get all the points that that print profile accrues if other people want to print it. ImpossigoalI probably won’t get to this this time around but I swear on all things holy I’m gonna make one of those suspended-string print things one of these days. It’ll happen. Probably. ConclusionThat’s it for this time, folks! Japanese studies have been great so far; I recently took an official JLPT N2 practice exam and passed, so I’m feeling good! It’s looking like I might be able to get N1 in December at this rate, so wish me luck! See you next time! And as always, enjoy my Bucket List: Bucket ListThis is just every idea from the last time put here again for recordkeeping. I’ll probably delete some if I have zero interest in doing them, but feel free to skim through this and see if anything catches your fancy. So here they are!Testing actual VG Boomerangs Boomerangs have always interested me–I mean, how cool is a piece of wood with 0 moving parts that returns on its own after you throw it? I’m interested in designing a bunch of Boomerangs from Video Games (Specifically from the Zelda Series) and testing out how well they actually would fly if you threw them irl, if at all. Lemme know if you know of any games that have boomerangs in them.3D Modeling Poseable Models in Blender I know Blender is more about animations and stuff, but I currently almost exclusively use it for importing one kind of filetype, and then exporting it as another. Since it certainly seems to be a powerful tool for handling meshes and stuff, I figure it’d be good to learn more about how it works, and to try and model some basic poseable figures in there. The prefecture I live in, Kagoshima, has a group of mascots that are all pigs–I think it’d be cool to create a base form for them, add bones onto it, pose it like they do in their promotional images, and then add their little accessories to make a cute little figurine set.     Gameripping and Crowdfunding   I’ve used The Models Resource to find models as reference material many times before, so I was considering repaying the favor and getting some models to add. The Magical Sword from Hyrule Warriors has always been in the back of my mind to make, but there are a couple problems. No one ripped the sheath from the game. Both the sword and shield are there, but no sheath to put the blade in.It would take a lot of filament. More than would be sustainable for a hobbyist such as myself.For this challenge, I’d like to see if I can’t learn how to rip the model, so I can try and upload it myself. And to get the filament, I want to try out Maker World’s crowdfunding feature to see if I can’t scrape together enough to get the filament to properly test it and then print it out. It’s a pretty complicated model, as you can see here. It’d be a big undertaking by itself in order to try and adapt it.   Making Practical Mechanisms So I have no idea what direction this would go, but have you ever worn a hard hat? You put it on, and there’s a knob in the back that tightens it down so it doesn’t fall off your noggin. I want to try making a headband that works like that, but has a mechanism in the front that lets you easily attach and detach a mask. How would that work out? Is PLA even bendy enough to make a reliable headband? I don’t know, but I found the patent for the ratchet, so…   Making More Rubber Band Hinges Y’all remember Bakugan? I do. Really cool marble-like toys with a hidden magnet in ‘em which, when passed over a metal card, triggered the magnet which unlatched a bunch of springed hinges, transforming it into a little figure. Really crappy card game, super interesting concept. I wanna see if I can make one using rubber bands to power the hinges, similar to how my Poke Ball works.   Working with TPU Fun fact: I’ve never printed in TPU. Ever. Sounds fun though. I’ve seen people make squeaky rubber duckies with TPU, and I want to try to do that myself. Except instead of a Duck, I want to make a Pig Ball, from the obscure PlayStation game Tomba! 2. This is the highest resolution photo I could find of it via a quick google search, which should tell you how rare it is.   What are those Suspended String Thingies Called? I’ve seen some pretty cool models like the one in this image here. I have no clue (ok I have some clue) how they work, but I want to try one! I’m a fan of Naruto, and for some reason these prints remind me of a Sharingan floating in a tank. I’d like to make one, and swap out the design for every one seen so far in the series. Shouldn’t be that hard, right?  Trying out Some Cosplay Really small goal, but I want to try and make Zero’s Buster from Mega Man X3. I’ve got an idea to try and use straps that might make it relatively ergonomic and solid, but I also want to think of a way to make it easy to take on and off.   Electronics and API, maybe? A while back I made a video (or 2… or 3…) in which I attempted to make disco lights for my twitch stream. I kinda succeeded, but the end product was really finicky, unreliable, and hard to set up. Basically, the gist of the thing was that I wanted to make a spinning ball with holes in it that projected shapes from an internal light onto my walls, in order to spice up my twitch stream. I was toying around with trying to make one from the maker’s supply, and if that worked out, I want to try and sync it up with my twitch stream so that it changes color if I get a follow, raid, sub, or something like that. That’d be gnarly. I’ve had a couple people tentatively offer to help, and I feel bad that I haven’t followed through… The old one had (technically) remote control, RGB capability, and variable spinning speed somehow, but it’d take a lot of learning to figure out how to do it effectively and reliably.