MicroScribe® Connections for Maya – Tonka Toy Lunchbox Redesign

by Colin Brown

I chose the Tonka Toys lunchbox because the idea of improving this simple product seemed enticing. First, I started drawing graph lines on half of the lunchbox. I drew a lot of extra lines because I thought I would want to add more to the original design of the lunchbox. I used the MicroScribe G2LX and it worked great at adding polygonal strips into Maya for later rebuilding and only took an hour to accomplish.

Once the lunchbox was scanned into Maya in patches, I used the split polygon tool to create four sided polygons. This process, along with flipping all normal faces around, took a couple days work to finish.

Once the lunchbox was patched together, I duplicated it over so that it was a complete box, then I began adding my improvements. The two main improvements I made was an old-fashioned belt strap to keep the tin closed, I thought of using this because the old tin case felt nostalgic so I thought I’d take it one step further. The other main change to the object was a plastic handle with grips for the fingers, it only took three hours to add in these improvements and give it a finished polish.

I found digitizing the lunchbox took long only because of the added geometry that I found out later I didn’t need. Other than that, the project went smoothly and I am happy with the outcome of my improved Tonka Toys lunchbox.