Move It! A Design Contest

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – THE WINNERS(!):

Grand Prize:

Thorin Oakenshield's Steam Locomotive

Runners Up:

Anachronist's Strandbeest

Jorge Torregrosa's Bechanical Butterfly

BlackCrow's Morrigan Rock Bouncer

Thank you everyone for your excellent entries. This was a tough one to judge as every entry ticked some checkboxes for me. Overall, very impressive entries. If you have any questions about my judging rational, please post comments and I will try to answer. I believe this is the sort of transparency people would like more of from the official Printables contests.

Prizes: I will be messaging the winners with details of your prizes. Once you respond, I'll send you a voucher code you can use in the Prusa store. It can take Prusa a few days to issue me the voucher codes, so please be patient.

----

THE CONTEST

What's this? Yes, another unofficial design contest! Enter your motion-oriented design for the chance to win a Prusa Mini+ Kit or free rolls of filament.

CONTEST THEME (Contest end date: March 31, 2024)
This second contest of mine is all about things that move: multi-part objects that move in some purposeful way, things that hop, fly, swim or walk, or any other type of thing that features motion. Could be a toy, could be a tool, could be a work of kinetic art. Anything that moves with a purpose, as opposed to something like a fidget device. (Please, no fidgets. I'm oh so tired of fidgets.) If you have any questions about what might be suitable - drop a comment and I'll be happy to expound further.

The Gyroman model posted here is my example of a motion-themed model. (Feel free to download and print it from the original model page.)

PRIZES
I've upped the ante and decided to award a voucher for a Prusa Mini+ Kit(!) as the grand prize, with additional vouchers for a free roll of filament (Prusament PLA or PETG) for the next 3 runners up. I've got a bunch of unused Prusameters which I will redeem for the prize vouchers, and then I'll DM the winners with voucher codes that they can use in the Prusa store. (Note: the vouchers don't cover shipping charges.)

HOW TO ENTER
Just post a comment here on this model with a link to your contest entry model on Printables. Also add a photo of your model to help me recognize it. Please post as a comment rather than as a “make” so that we don't screw up Prusa's reward accounting.
Note: Other comments are welcome as well - good to keep things lively!

Lastly, at the end of your comment/entry, please list the number of likes and the number of downloads at the time you enter. (e.g.: “…blah blah blah (likes: 17, downloads 32)” ) See the JUDGING section below to see why.

ELIGABILITY
Any design, posted at any time before the contest end date (March 31, 2024), is eligible,  provided that:

1. It is primarily your design
2. It adheres to the design theme
3. There is only one entry per Printables User

Note that if you want to change your one entry, simply delete your comment/entry and add a different one. I'll be calling out in the comments any design that I don't think fits these rules. Also this is all new to me, so I may add rules on the fly as needed. (This contest is only for Printables users and entries must be posted on Printables.)

JUDGING
I'll be the sole judge of what I think are the best entries. I may not be rational. What I'm really looking for are clever, well designed models that are either new ideas, or older designs that may have been overlooked by the community in the avalanche of daily model postings. (This is why I'd like to see the number of likes and downloads – perversely, the fewer likes the better!) And of course, taking an older favorite model that's been overlooked and making some new improvements would be even better.

WHY AM I DOING THIS?
Initially, I thought of sponsoring my own design contest as a way to put my unused Prusameters to work. But my other motivation is to help curate worthy designs that have otherwise gotten buried in the firehose of daily design postings. (We've all posted great designs that have gotten absolutely no traction.) That's why I'm accepting both old and new designs.

I'm also doing this to keep myself entertained. If this ceases to be entertaining (too many junk posts, too many mean comments, too much whining), then I'll simply take this down and pretend it never happened. Hopefully we won't have to go there.  I'll be looking forward to your entries, and good luck!

(Note: I've checked with Prusa and they seem OK with me running a design contest on the side, but they are otherwise not in any way involved with this contest.)

Lastly, if you are curious, here is a link to my previous Gears! design contest. 

-------------------------

About the Gyroman 4 design shown: this is one of my all-time favorite designs. Please visit the original posting of this model for complete details on making your own.

Display model used for introducing contest.