The Instructables Robot Piñata.

Welcome to my party project: The Instructables Robot Piñata.

Why a piñata? In south America, piñatas are very representative of birthdays, especially for children. These piñatas always come in the form of well-known pop culture characters, so why not make one of our beloved robot friend from Instructables? Well, here we go.

The origin of the piñata dates back to ancient China, where the New Year was celebrated with animal figures filled with seeds that were broken. Marco Polo brought this tradition to Italy, and from there it passed to Spain, acquiring its name: pignatta (fragile pot). The Spanish introduced it to Mexico as part of a process of evangelization, adapting it to the celebration of the Christmas Posadas.

The piñata is shaken and hit with a stick and when it is burst, gifts, sweets and surprises fall out from inside.

So, to commemorate 20 years of Instructables, I decided to make a piñata in the shape of the site's friendly robot mascot.

but this one will be made entirely of recycled materials from other parties

Paper/Cardboard

Tape

Templates

Scissors

Hot Glue/Glue

Shiny red metallic paper

Black Foam

*Recyclable material from previous parties*

Soda caps, Soda cans, Used Gold foil curtain backdrop.

First of all, we must know the character in which our piñata is inspired, and it is nothing less than the friendly robot from Instructables. This robot is characterized by its yellow color, its squeaky wheels and its thoughtful look, so I captured all of that by making a 3D design, preserving its most particular features.

I then worked on this design in Paper Maker to obtain the respective templates that will later be the guide for the physical assembly in 3 dimensions.

Here you can download the templates and then review step by step which one corresponds and guide you through the assembly.

Let's start with the chest. To assemble it, take the two corresponding pages and cut out the indicated parts.

Then glue them onto the cardboard so that they are joined at the respective seam.

Sometimes the adhesive can come off the cardboard because it is such a porous material, so I recommend drawing a guide with a pencil to avoid mistakes.

Remember to demarcate the valley folds you find on the dotted line.

Use a ruler to get more exact cuts where the cut is a long, straight line.

separate the piece from the breast and set it aside

repeat the same process for the back piece

For the side part of the body, the process will be different since you should not glue the template piece, because it will be mirrored to obtain the right and left sides.

If you want, you can mark each side of the mold to avoid confusion.

Cut the pieces with an Exacto, and you would have the complete pieces to assemble the body of the robot friend.

Now, with the ruler and a worn-out pen, emboss the dotted lines to make it easier to fold and give the cardboard the curvature of the shoulders.

If you can, remove the paper, but only if it is a little loose. If it sticks well, forget it, as it could damage the piece.

Now make a 45-degree bevel on the inner edges of the side pieces of the body, so that at the time of gluing the edges are sealed and do not alter the assembly of the mold.

Now glue the side to the chest pieces together. Check the images to avoid incorrect gluing.

I recommend gluing with hot glue, as the cardboard has better adhesion.

Do the same with the back piece and the other side of the body.

Now prepare the templates for assembling the arms. Review the images carefully.

Glue the arm templates onto the cardboard, keeping in mind the dotted lines corresponding to the folds. When gluing, try to find the grooves in the cardboard so that folding is easier and more precise.

Cut out the arm parts, taking care especially with the curved parts

Use the ruler and the worn ballpoint pen to emboss the folds. Keep in mind that on the arm templates there are two red dotted lines for valley folding, that is, they have to be embossed on the opposite side of the piece.

To easily emboss the two red lines, mark them with the cutter on the side where the template is glued, then make sure to join these marks with the pencil or directly with the embosser.

The waist will be the gate through which the candy comes out of Mr. Robot's piñata, so cut the template from the larger square mold that you will find in the PDF file.

Transfer to cardboard and cut the side edges of the waistband

On the square pieces, make 45-degree bevels to create right-angle joints, apply glue and join the pieces together.

You would now have the compartment where the candy and surprises of the piñata will be stored.

Now follow the head templates, review the images very carefully to identify the pieces.

Select the material very carefully, for the body I used cardboard which is quite thick, and my idea was to make the head with the same material, I even managed to glue the templates onto the cardboard, until I realized that due to the size and detail it was going to be an impossible job, or well it could be done but the detail of the attributes would be lost especially in the forehead and jaw pieces, so I decided to go with a cardstock for the head.

I had a perfect piece of leftover cardboard so I glued the templates there.

cut the head pieces

emboss the dotted lines of the folds

Join the pieces, the head in theory is a square, but it has its own shape, so be guided by the images for assembly

Now for the forehead and jaw, if you prefer, mark the pieces to guide yourself, if you can't, use the images as a guide.

For the eyes and earmuffs, get some shiny red metallic paper, so glue the templates on the back and cut carefully.

Carefully emboss the folds of the eyes and ear flaps to create a piece with the exact shape.

Prepare the pieces to glue to the base of the head (forehead and jaw)

Below you can see how the pieces should be glued, but remember that you should only glue the forehead and the jawbone. The eyes and earmuffs will be after having painted the head piece.

You can also check how the head should look when connected to the body.

We will paint the head gold and the soda caps silver. You can use the paint of your choice. Prepare the pieces with some sticks to avoid contact and damage the paint.

For the legs we will use entirely soda cans, in the templates you will find the squares corresponding to the thigh, calf and the size of the wheel, use those templates to draw lines with a marker from the tip or base of the can, then with a tape join those marked lines to form a parallel that will later serve as a guide for cutting, first cut with the cutter to separate the can, then with scissors for more precision

When you have the 3 pieces, we will make two holes on each side of the top of the can so that when you join them together they are solid.

Now thread a wire through the holes and join all the pieces together, leaving the tips at the top, then join them to the waist.

Prepare the leg and waist pieces to join them together

But first, cover the wheels with black foam to give it the appearance of a tire.

When you have the pieces assembled, mark some holes in the belt, distributing the pieces very well and with the wire make a knot to adjust them.

I used golden cans to perfectly match the colors of the robot and the festive atmosphere.

You can also paint them if you prefer. Here you can see how they should be attached to the body.

For the hands, take a can and glue the hand templates on the patterned side, then cut.

On the arms you can make a straight cut to insert the hand if you want you can draw some edges on the hand in an illustrated style to make it look a bit cartoonish

Now comes the most fun (boring and tedious) moment: making the ribbons.

For this, use the tape, sticking it with the adhesive side facing up, and start taking strips of the curtain and sticking them to the tape, then cut and cut and cut again until you create long rows to cover the robot's body.

Now cover the entire body with the strips already formed one on top of the other, covering all the cardboard spaces.

Place all the pieces in their place and apply good glue so that the piñata can withstand several rounds.

Add some lines of black foam to the ears and belly, and your piñata is ready for the celebration.

Conclusion:

Piñatas add joy and fun to parties, and this one really exceeded my expectations. Despite being made with recyclable materials, the final piece is very eye-catching. It's going to be sad to demolish it, well, that is, until my birthday.

Thanks for checking out my project.