It commences (again!): last year, not long after I completed my first set of Japanese tin robot illustrations in Blender, I started thinking about which ones I might want to include in the next round of 25 or so. Whereas the original series was intentionally faithful to the original bots of the 1950s-60s, I knew I wanted my subsequent designs to be more diverse, and not necessarily all real; for at least half of the new bots, I’d like to imagine what might have been produced if tin had remained a viable medium for toys beyond its relatively short era of popularity.

But first things first. There were a handful of real robots I wanted to build that I didn’t get to my first go-around, including this early 1990s Billken reproduction of a popular Astro Boy design that’s actually part of my small personal collection. It’s one of the first I bought when I was living in Japan, and a sentimental favorite.

The Blender model itself was relatively simple. The body is very basic, an archetype of a style often used for tin robots based on popular manga and TV characters. The plastic head is more complex, but I’m experimenting with new tools that help me generate a basic mesh from my uploaded photos that I can bring into Blender and Substance Painter for additional editing and texturing. I’m not quite happy with the materials and lighting yet, and I think I’m due for some Blender training to get more proficient at both. But I’m in a “move fast and break things” mode right now, with at least a half dozen other projects on my plate, so I’m fine with calling it good for the time being. I’ll take another pass later as this new set starts to evolve.