Floating Figures

Launch Date: Spring 2023

The goal of this project was to create a line of figures from a variety of licenses that float upright. I was the lead engineer for this project.

Per the Design team’s request, each figure had to stay true to the license which meant we needed to accommodate the unique sculpt when designing the floating upright feature. The original plan at project start was to have the figures be molded in ABS with the bottom halves made of solid PVC. For example, our original idea for Batman was for his legs to be made of solid PVC and his torso to be ABS front/back halves with foam trapped inside. However, after our first models we had to pivot because the floating profile didn’t match the spec.

This was a unique opportunity for me as we had to iterate through multiple versions for each license and the iterations were minute details. We were debating the shape and size of the foam, the individual weights of the deadweight and associated position and were being quite scrappy with the prototyping. The images below are me hot gluing washers to the first painted models to get Chase and Marshall from Paw Patrol to float upright.