Marty the Red Nosed Reindeer

It’s Christmas time! And every Christmas our favourite holiday robot, *Marty the Magical Reindeer*, gets to work helping to deliver presents worldwide. With his unusually luminous red nose, Reindeer Marty guides Santa’s sleigh through the harsh winter weather.

This Christmas we’d like to introduce a way for you to dress your Marty just like everyone’s favourite Christmas pal. Why not dress your robot up as *Marty the Reindeer* and help them shine some festive cheer on everyone they meet? To make your very own Marty the Reindeer costume, you will need two antlers and one big red nose!

You can make your very own Reindeer Marty with some simple household items, or a 3D printer if you have access to one…

How to make some glorious Marty antlers:

I have a 3D printer: If you are lucky enough to have access to a 3D printer, you can have fun creating your very own 3D antlers. You can either create your own from scratch, finding inspiration in your favourite Christmas tales or download our pre-made antlers and modify as you please. You can also find a large selection of predesigned antlers on 3D printing sites such as Thingiverse. Remember that *your* magical Christmas Marty can be as creative as you want, no need to hold back because you only have bright orange printer filament!

I have some card and a brown pen: Step one, either cut out the antler template provided here, or create your own wacky or majestic antler design. Step two, colour them in brown and then stick it to your Marty. *Voila!* Your very own Marty reindeer antlers!

How to create that dazzling reindeer nose:

I have a 3D printer: Again, if you’re lucky enough to have a 3D printer, then you can be as creative as your mind allows you. Either download our Robotical Reindeer nose here or create your own from scratch — Don’t be tricked into thinking that it’s as simple as a round nose, you’ll also have to think about how your nose should be attached to your Marty. You should never need to use glue or sticky tac to attach accessories to Marty, there are plenty of mounting opportunities available, you just need to get creative…

I have a red ball… or a white ball and a red pen:  Depending on the colour of your ball you have, you can either colour you ball in red or you can jump straight to step 2 and go right ahead and stick your nose onto your Marty reindeer. You might need to introduce some sticky tac or alternate way to attach your red nose.

Why not take your Reindeer Marty that extra mile?

Magnetic antlers: Why not be inventive with your accessory attachments and introduce some magnets, for easily changeable accessory mounting? One of the best ways to create an easy accessory attachment point is to glue a magnet to the inside of Marty’s head. That way, you can attach another magnet to the accessory part and then easily change between antler, ears or another accessory you think of. The Robotical antler design has a small pocket built in, ready to fit a 9.5mm diameter magnet. You can modify this design to fit whatever magnets you can find.

LED Nose: Now you’ve created your Marty Reindeer nose, you can experiment with further functionality. No Marty reindeer is *truly* complete without a super bright LED to illuminate even the darkest of winter nights! We’ll soon be releasing more info on just how to do this. In the meantime, if there are any budding technologists out there that want to experiment and try to work it out on their own, we look forward to seeing what you create! Please share your experiments on our social media channels, we’ll be sure to share them far and wide!

A four-legged Marty!

4 Legs! In case you hadn’t noticed, reindeers have 4 legs and Marty only has 2! So far, Marty has managed to get about just fine with his two legs, however, for this Christmas season, it might be time for an upgrade! Robotical is in the process of putting together a future article explaining how best to do this and provide the necessary inspiration and resources to create your very own 4 legged Marty body! If any members of the community want to demonstrate their own 4 legged Marty designs, we look forward to seeing them! Stay tuned!

Have fun and be sure to let us know how you get on via social media! We look forward to seeing your creations!