The Problem

I'm Funko Pop collector, kind of bubble head toys. I started having just a few of them from Star Wars franchise, but my collection increase to almost 200 units. So, I started to having problems related to store them, but also about how can be showcased. Within this kind of collectable items there are some of them that are really valuable and unique, that need to be protected.The problem is now only about storage, my major problem is related with people intending to open the collectable boxes and trying to play or joke with some valuable items, without following any protocol endangering risk their value. I intended to showcase some open funkos to aovid this kind of problems. Distributing them between different shelves around my house.

So I have been exploring different options from commercial shelves (not customize for funkos), just regular vertical shelves to store them without showcase special items, to highly customize thematic shelves. Thus, I look for inspiration by shearching diferent geometric designs that could cover completly a wall. I found some commercially and cumtomized options available in other countries. So I decide to drawn some ideas that could be applied and thinking about how I can be produced it locally using digital fabrication technologies.

The First Idea

The idea that I have is to build a hidden wall. Hence, the funkos could appear and hide using a sensor or a remote control. In this way, they could also be protected from dust and light expossure. That is also important, because it reduce possibilities of damages and investment on extra covers. Thus, I can use the space that I already occupy for showcase my funkos.

Hence, my idea is to build the wall using hexagon forms, like simulating a bee panal. That kind of structure could cover all or part of the wall. Could be built by modules, and each one could have different colors, like legos that are sticked together. Thus, some hexagons could be blank and other could containg funkos. In this way, not every hexagon serve as shelve, and coulb be build using playwood, and replace some the hexagons with 3D printed colored pieces. Like some art wall that I found on a friend house, that you can observe in the image. But instead of being 2D Hexagons stick in the wall, I can produce 3D hexagons inserted in a playwood wall.

The following image tried to provide a description of the functioning process of each 3D printed hexagon. The shelve could be closed and then could be actioned, the hexagon top is opened and a hexagon or rectangular platform could slides to showcase a funko

I visited some 3D printing designs repositories like thingiverse looking for hexagon shelves models, and found two that I think could be useful. The first are big hexagon sehlves, functioning in a modular way, the couple forming some kind of big shelve that could be ensamble. The problems with the design is that it seems very slim and it would need some kind of frame to contain a top. So the frame could also provide support to have a mobile top. Considering that I want to open and close them. I decide to look for hexagon wall shelves, that sometime I have seen used to hold flowerpots. Finally, I found a Wall mounted foldable modular hexagon shelf (print in place) desing by RiverRaid. You can observe that the design include one printed piece, that is foldable and have a frame, that allows to open and close the top, and support small flowerpots.

The First Test with 3D Printing Process

I donwload the files to printed them, and to have an idea about dimensions. Because I need to test the diferent funko models, not every model present same characteristics. So I can decide if I could used packed or unpacked funkos. I have some problems when printing. i think that ir was because my filament was expose to much time to humity.

I test product dimensions using different kind of funkos, because some special design are wider or taller. So I can decide for which kind of funkos I will develop my final design. I also notice that build something for the unpacked funkos will need something bigger

Looking for mechanisms that I can use

Thinking that I would need to use stepper motors and servo motors that I could use. I comented my idea during a global open time, thus I found some interest ideas, from artist and from previos FabAcademy Students. First I found Gonzalo Siu final project. .

During global open time I comment about my final prject idea and they suggest me to watch a group project develop by Benjamin Bente and Joany Jonathan from waag fab lab called the motion wall final project. .

First Components Layout

With my instructor support, we review the components that I'm gonna need for my final project in order to decide which output could be the starting point. So I decide to start with a Servo motor that I'll probably use to open the hidden shelve. The following picture show the potential devices that I would use for my final project. I would use 2 Servo Motors, so the option could be to fabricate one or two boards. I decide to fabricate one.

  1. One Stepper motor (4DO)
  2. One Limit switch (1 DI)
  3. 2 Servomotors (2DO)
  4. 1 LED Strip (1DO)
The idea would be to use a switch or a remote control to control prototype motion