The last thing I want to write about that relates to the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em look for the 2024 Her Universe Fashion Show is also about San Diego Comic Con in general and that’s the 3D modeling and printing I did. This year I ended up doing quite a bit for both my fashion show look as well as the other look of Toy Story Aliens that I did with friends and even some extra for my friend Jillian.
Specifically I did the modeling and printing for:
- The rivets and screw on the side of our Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em look.
- The controller earrings for our Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em look.
- The medallion in the center of our championship belt that we used as a prop.
- The belt buckles for our Toy Story Aliens.
- Claw earrings for our Toy Story Aliens.
- An amulet necklace for Jillian.
Rivets and Screws
When I was figuring out how to attached the rhinestones, I knew that I wanted to go big. I also knew that I wanted to be able to sew them (glue would be a backup). I was having a hard time finding sew on stones that were the size I wanted. Jill had brought me over a rhinestone for her necklace and I used that to play around with since it happened to be red.
While I was testing the fit for Jill’s amulet, I happen to lay it on my fabric. I loved how much more the rhinestone popped with a bezel around it. I then proceeded to design a bezel that could be sewn on and then the rhinestones added afterwards. I figured I would glue the rhinestones in with e6000, but as it turned out they popped in there and really stayed. You have to pop it out with a paper clip through the holes if you want to remove it. But it made it so fast to put them in.
You can see the sew holes in the picture above. It was nice and modular so I was able to have several different sizes easily for the different size we needed. Above is the set that I printed for Raeven and sent to her a couple days before the event so she could attach them. The really big ones are for the upper shoulder screws.
I tried blinging out one, but it just looked kinda janky because the rhinestone sheet (same as the gold down the arm sides) was hard to cut in a nice way. Fortunately since we were going from plastic toys for our inspiration, the plastic silver actually worked pretty well.
Again, because we were dealing with plastic toys, the plastic bezels looked fine. I printed at pretty high resolution and you couldn’t see the print lines from the audience. However, it did make me want to get a resin printer which is much higher resolution. If I start to do more high fashion 3D printing, I’ll definitely look into it.
Either way, I’ve made my rhinestone bezels available on Thingiverse for those that want to play around with something similar. The rhinestones are all from AllstarCo from Amazon and I’ve labeled the files with the corresponding size (32mm, 43mm, etc.)
Thingiverse: Rhinestone Bezels
Here’s a video of how the bezel settings work:
Robot Controller Earrings
The next thing I printed for the look was our earrings. We considered blinging them out with rhinestones but ran out of time. However, I’m really happy with how they are as plastic, again, given the plastic nature of the toys.
The final iteration of them was the small one on the left. I believe the one on the right is closer to the actual toy, but it was a bit big for actual earrings as they were hitting my shoulder. See below:
The top part has a hole all the way through that I put a head pin through, looped and attached to an ear wire. Then I glued the gold top into the colored bottom and that was it! I was pleased to find a silk turquoise filament that matched Raven’s fabric color so well!
Also putting these up on Thingiverse in case someone likes them.
Thingiverse: Controller Earrings
Championship Belt Medallion
The last thing I printed for the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em look was the championship belt medallion. Raeven had the idea to do a boxing championship belt and use it as a prop and afterwards we gave it to Ashley (pictured above). It’s really cute with our robots’ names (Red Rocker and Blue Bomber) as well as “Her Universe” and “10th Anniversary” on it. Raeven put it together and made the decals while I did the medallion and we assembled it the night before.
I had already vectorized the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Logo, so printing it out with a slight bezel at the edges wasn’t too bad. The only thing I did differently was switch colors. I hadn’t done much color switching before this except on accident when I ran out, but I did it intentionally this time and I love how it turned out. Makes me wish I had a multicolor printer!
I really like the photo above because you can see all of the 3D printed items — rivets, screws, earrings and the belt!
Toy Story Alien Belt Buckles
The other look I worked on for SDCC was the Toy Story Aliens with my friends Jillian, Lauren, and Mi. I love how it turned out and we had so many people “oooh ahhhh the claw!” at us all day. Super fun!
The aliens have a little belt. At first I was going to do the buckle like a normal buckle but then I realized that they’re actually solid, not normal ones.
So I made an outside with an inside that fit in that the belt itself could loop through.
Sadly, I didn’t have time to perfect it sot hat it “snapped” in. We had to go old school and use thread to gather the fabric around. But it did give us very nice shaped belts that were all consistent.
<INSERT FINAL BELT pic>
Toy Story Alien Claw Earrings
And of course we had to have matching earrings for the Toy Story Aliens. Since the Claw is a big part of their “culture” I wanted to incorporate that since we didn’t have it anywhere. I tried to make them functional, but I just didn’t have the resolution (again, wanting a resin printer . . . ). But I think they still turned out pretty cute!
I figured I’d toss these up on Thingiverse as well.
Jill’s Amulet
Jill needed an amulet for her Zatanna cosplay she was wearing one of the days. She actually wore it last year, but it was the day of the fashion show when she was backstage with me with whole time so she didn’t get to actually wear it in public. She wanted to upgrade it a little bit this year and one of the ways was with the amulet. I was more than happy to help. I modeled an amulet that she could actually string. I printed 2 versions. One in the gold and one in cosplay filament that is supposed to be easy to sand. That’s debatable in my opinion, but Jill did a great job with primer and made it look pretty sweet.
So yeah, definitely a busy 3D printing year! But it was great to expand my modeling skills and I can’t wait to try out more pieces (though now I really want a resin printer . . . maybe someday).
