VST – Tremendous Mike 3D Printed Robot.

Although this is a new custom made robot, it comes with a cool story, here we go 🙂

About 2 years ago i bought a Tremendous Mike robot in parts. I kept it in a box since them because the robot was not complete, it was missing the arms and the face shield, the blue part, the eyes and the nose.I kept the robot because i had in mind to make it complete.. one time.. Now with the modern 3D scanning and Printing techniques, the changes to make the robot complete again grew by the minute.

Now are the arms complex to draw in Cad but i found a solution to make them. I had a chime trooper in my shelves and guess what… He shares the same arms with Mike. I made 3D scans of the arms and I made the missing parts for the face in CAD. While doing this, I thought.. why don’t you take things a step further and make the complete robot in 3D. So I spent the rest of the week making scans of all the separate parts, altered them digitally to use them on my 3D printers.

I thought long about the fact if I would make the robot battery operated or windup. In both cases I wanted to make the robot work with old school technology
After a long search I found a mystery bump & go mechanism that i could alter and use for this project.

The result is a stunning rebirth of Tremendous Mike but this time made with modern technology. The robot is printed in high resolution on Ultimaker 2+ printers with a total printing time of almost 50 hours. Inside the robot runs an old school mystery bump and go mechanism that also drives the antenna and drives the holographic logo light. ( more about that later ) The mechanism is powered by 2 AAA batteries that can be accessed by removing the bottom of the robot ( 2 red screws ). The rod for the antenna drive is flexible and goes through a tube. When the bottom is removed, the antenna rod slides out the tube. The batteries can be accessed and replaced.

Because the original tremendous mike is a windup robot with sparkling action, I had to think about the way to light the screen with the battery operated version i made. I did not want to put a simple light behind a red gel so it took me a couple of days to come up with a solution for this: I made a HOLOGRAPHIC screen where a 3d printed and glow in the dark VST logo “floats” surrounded by special holographic light effects… I have to admit…it looks REALLY cool to see that live in action.

The “chrome” parts of the robot, the area around the screen, sidebars, and some other parts are hand painted. and at the back of the robot where
once the original on / off switch was for the windup, i made an on / off switch to turn the robot on and off… the body says there “ Stop “ and “ GO”.

In action the robot hoovers around with mystery bump and go action, holographic lighted action, swinging arms and a revolving antenna. The antenna is a loose part and can be removed for transport. Because Tremendous Mike was originally made in 2 color variations i decided to go with these 2 colors for the 3D Printed version: Grey and Orange.

The robot is an EXACT copy of the original with all the details, You will even see the folding of the original tin parts back in the 3D prints.
These details give the robot its charm and these details can only be captured with 3D scanning techniques. I had not to think that long about the box.. Making a Custom box for this robot is not needed because the original artwork for the box of Tremendous Mike is hard to beat.

Therefore I decided to go with the original artwork of Tremendous Mike. The box is a professional made AND slightly altered copy of the original box. The box is made in a press room with the same techniques as the boxes were made in the sixties in Japan. So NO cheap laser copies or pictures glued on a box, this box is just like the real thing ! AND… its a special made box for this battery operated version !, made in Holland ! 🙂

There will be a strictly Limited run of 25 pieces in Grey.
Every robot has an unique number at the bottom and a specials made “ golden” printed label. There is an ID card that shows the year of manufacturing and the serial number of the robot. for me, the main reason to make this creation is the fact that finding an original Tremendous Mike is almost impossible.

But… I really wanted to have this robot on my shelves and this exact copy of Tremendous Mike is I think a VERY good alternative to fill the Tremendous Gap just as long it takes to have an original one pass by 🙂
If you have questions about this project or want to order your own Tremendous 3D Printed Mike Robot, Contact me at: boogo.nl@gmail.com

Marco