Unexpected Common Points Between Marine Life and Mechanical Structures - BLDB Proposes Adult 'Free Research' with Metal Parts

BLDB's Ocean Metal Model Series, featuring Mechanical Jellyfish and Giant Squid, is the main visual image for the Ocean Day special project.

BLDB, a brand that plans and sells metal assembly kits, will focus on the 'Ocean Metal Model Series,' which takes the body structure and movement mechanism of marine organisms as motifs, and propose rediscovering its charm from the perspective of making things, in celebration of 'Ocean Day' on July 20th.

While 'Ocean Day' is generally known as a season for swimming and leisure, BLDB has focused on the 'rational and functional beauty' that marine organisms, which survive in harsh underwater environments, have acquired through the process of evolution. Natural shapes include many elements that are common to industrial design and robotics (biomimetics), such as the propulsion movement of jellyfish and the multi-joint structure of cephalopods.

This project proposes 'Adult Science Hobby,' which assembles these complex structures through precise manual work using 1mm thick stainless steel parts and screws, and understands their mechanisms with five senses. We introduce a meaningful intellectual way to spend summer, stepping away from a digital-centric daily life and concentrating on creating three-dimensional objects with your fingertips.

(1) Reconsidering the intersection of natural beauty and mechanical engineering on 'Ocean Day'

'Ocean Day,' which is established as a holiday in July, is a day to thank for the blessings of the sea and wish for the prosperity of Japan, an oceanic country. At this time of year when many people visit the seaside, BLDB presents an intellectual approach of 'deeply understanding the structure of the sea indoors.'

The appearance of marine organisms that we casually observe is a crystal of functional beauty that has been refined through a long history of evolution. For example, streamlined forms for efficient movement while withstanding water pressure, and joint structures that balance flexibility and strength are greatly referenced in modern industrial products and cutting-edge robotics. In this way, the approach of utilizing excellent biological mechanisms for technological development is called 'Biomimetics (biomimetic technology),' and it has become an indispensable research field in the world of making things.

BLDB's Ocean Metal Model Series is an assembly kit that reinterprets the functional beauty of nature using hard metal as a material. It not only provides a kick to display a good-looking model but also provides an opportunity to physically consider 'why this shape is necessary' and 'how it moves' through the assembly process.

(2) Expressing biological movement with hard metal 'The charm of contrast'

Most marine organisms are soft-bodied animals without skeletons or semi-transparent organisms composed of flexible tissues. On the other hand, the main material adopted by BLDB is 1mm thick high-precision stainless steel. There is a unique charm of metal models in expressing 'soft and organic natural shapes' with 'hard and inorganic artificial materials.'

To reproduce the appearance with many curves and smooth silhouettes, the kit contains countless fine metal parts cut by laser. The process of slightly bending the parts cut out from flat metal plates with your fingertips and standing them up into three dimensions is a moment when you can directly feel the change in the texture of the material.

In addition, 'link mechanisms' that connect multiple parts with pins or screws, and 'gear structures' that transmit rotation are incorporated to express tentacles and joints. The smooth movement of organisms is replaced by a mechanical clicking sensation and a regular mechanical repetitive motion, creating works that combine a unique worldview like steampunk and beauty as industrial design.

(3) Reading the blueprint and understanding the structure with your fingertips 'The value of assembly'

When you purchase and display ready-made figurines or objects, the information you can obtain is often limited to visual information. However, the experience of constructing a three-dimensional object from scattered parts based on a single blueprint has a completely different value.

BLDB's metal models adopt a structure that tightens with bolts and nuts and dedicated tools attached, without using adhesives. During the assembly process, fine adjustments and judgments like the following are required.

Torque management of screws: Find the optimal balance with your fingertips, as tightening too much will make the movable parts unable to move, and loosening too much will not maintain the overall strength.

Direction and symmetry of parts: Accurately confirm and place the direction of continuous tentacle parts or structures that form a pair on the left and right.

Ensuring clearance: Assemble while being conscious of a slight gap (engineering tolerance) so that multiple movable parts do not interfere with each other.

In contrast to the digital environment where you can instantly get results by just tapping the screen, such a series of operations requires considerable time and patience. However, the time spent concentrating on one task and precisely fitting the metal parts in front of you is a high-quality digital detox time that refreshes your mind away from the noise of daily life.

(4) Enjoying failure and adjustment, 'intellectual free research' for adults

Free research is often associated with children's homework, but originally it is an act of deeply exploring things based on spontaneous curiosity regardless of age. For adults who are busy with work and daily tasks, 'adult free research,' where you can enjoy trial and error at your own pace, becomes a luxurious time.

In assembling metal models, everything does not always proceed perfectly from the beginning. There may be times when you mistakenly put the parts forward and backward, or a gimick that should move gets stuck. The process of loosening the screws once, reviewing the structure, finding the cause, and making corrections is the essence of intellectual hobbies.

In modern times where entertainment that can be easily consumed in a short time is common, the experience of spending several hours to more than ten hours to complete one three-dimensional object has special value. The sense of accomplishment when a mechanical marine organism smoothly moves in your hands after repeatedly making fine adjustments with effort is extraordinary. The completed work remains as an 'achievement' filled with your time and trial and error, not just as interior decoration.

(5) Sharing curiosity across generations, parent-child crafting

BLDB's metal model series is mainly designed for adult hobbyists due to its precision and difficulty. However, it is also suitable as a theme for parents and children to work together during the summer vacation period precisely because it is a 'slightly challenging task.'

For example, in households with children in the upper grades of elementary school or junior high school, it is possible to divide roles, such as adults taking charge of reading the main blueprint and fine screw fastening, and children taking charge of sorting and cutting out parts.

By discussing questions like 'Why does the squid have 10 feet, and why are only 2 of them long?' and 'How does this gear rotate, and why do the tentacles move in conjunction?' during the work, interest in natural science and mechanical engineering can be nurtured naturally. Seeing parents seriously engaged in making things and trying things out is an experience that fosters richer reading comprehension and creativity than teaching with words.

* Safety Notice: The kit contains very small screws and sharp metal parts, so please be careful not to let small children accidentally put parts in their mouths.