Entering Our Designer Stage
Well, it has been a few weeks, but we have started working on developing our 3d design skills. to help me get going, I have partnered with a local game store, KCS Nerdshack, to make accessories for various trading card games. I started with Pokemon tin inserts and Elite trainer boxes. Well, if I am making insert, I should also make things that go in the inserts… so I designed custom status tokens.
I have printed one mini tin design made by someone else and it is just too good to mess too much with. My first tin is the small Hex tins. I designed them to fit a 60 card single sleeved deck, a jumbo coin, 8 status tokens and three “Used” tokens. After printing it, letting players see it and thinking on it a bit more, I realized there was something missing. There was no real spot to put damage dice. So I went back to the design and shuffled stuff around. This gave me more space to play with, but I just could not get the spots right for damage dice… so I designed custom damage counter! Now the small hex tin inserts can hold everything listed below and then 21 damage tokens. Oh, and I also put a spot on the top that fits a top loader. It is positions so you can display your favorite card through the window in the top cover.
Since the difference between the small and large hex tins is just about 30mm in height, it made it very easy to design the large ones. I just had to expand the over all size down about 30mm. While that was enough to make it fit the larger tin, it also meant a lot of wasted space. So of course, I had to add new features for the larger tin. Now it contains everything the small hex tin could hold, but I have added two recesses at the botton that can hold 3 regular dice and 20 small dice, the size of the damage dice or Lorcana dice.
Since I have ADHD, I frequently need to change things up to keep my attention. 3d Design allows me to switch from one project to another to change things up. So while designing the tin inserts and tokens, I decided another thing I could help with were the Elite Trainer Boxes. I took some time away from the tin designs to craft up an insert that could utilize dividers that have slots they fit into so the divider doesn’t move once inserted. This allows you to separate your cards in a manor where they don’t flop around in the box. You can use it to hold small amounts of bulk or separate out cards by energy/color/type. It was a great distraction and ended up being the first model I have uploaded to Makerworld! Now others will be able to find this design and print it as needed.
Pokemon is not the only TCG that will get love from us. I already have some designs I made a while ago for MTG. I need to redo them now that I can use a more powerful CAD tool. I want to see if I can make them look and feel better, while also fitting into the same space they did before. I am also making some accessories for Riftbound and possibly Gundam.
TCGs are not the only things I am designing. I have also been designing things to solve small problems around my house. I currently am using three USB hard drives to store my 3d print files. I have one as the primary and the other two are copies, so I don’t lose everything if one fails. I don’t move them much so I designed wall mounts to mount them to the wall right under my desktop. This way they are out of the way, but still always connected. I also deisnged a quarter holder for our water tower. We go refill the 5 gallon bottles our selves so having quarters readily available is a must. They would be left on top of the tower, sometimes in a bowl, sometimes an old pill bottle, or just loose on top. Now we have a quarter holder that can be Command Striped to the side or magnets can be imbedded as well.
So is there anything you can think of that you would like to see me design next? A TCG or board game where custom tokens or pieces would be cool? special storage for cards in board games? Somewhere to store coins or loose items? Send us an email at sales@yumamakers.com or hit us up on Instagram or Facebook @yumamakers on both.
