Mechanical toys that are driven manually or by electric motors are now widely produced. The existence of plastic toys is mostly mass-produced by large-scale factories. The public response to these educational mechanical toys (science toys) is very high, this is evidenced by the exhibitions that have been demonstrated in museums and entertainment venues in Indonesia, to introduce the public to the phenomena of physics, mechanics, optics, electricity, magnetism and chemistry. However, the type of educational mechanical toys that can mimic the movements of humans, animals and machines is still not widely demonstrated. This prompted Ben Reza Awang to create a mechanical automata toy made of wood by taking the idea from the movie How To Train Your Dragon.
The student of UNY's Craft Education program said his interest in making this mechanical toy was from his hobby and daily experience, by designing and making several types of miniatures, figures, electric and manual mechanical toys that can be enjoyed. "The movie shows very unique dragon species, the most popular example is Toothless who is a role model for all the dragons around him, besides that other dragon species also have different shapes, sizes, strengths," said Ben Reza Awang, Friday (15/3).
This educational mechanical toy uses balsa wood and Dutch teak wood and is finished using acrylic paint, spary paint and clear. The toys created feature different dragon shapes and movements in each work. This toy is made with a simpler form, which can move and is able to produce dragon-like movements, both when flying or other dragon activities and has referred to the concept of design aesthetics. The only source of drive for the mechanical toys is rotation, unlike robots where all joints have rotating gears that can be controlled, showing that the kinematics mechanism used can be simple to very complex. Viewers of this toy can see the unique shape of the dragon, accompanied by dynamic changes in movement in the toy produced by the mechanical rotation and rotation generated so that players get an education on the kinetic movements produced.
Ben Reza Awang explained that the techniques used in the process of creating this mechanical dragon toy are flat carving technique, bench work technique and scroll technique. The making process starts with cutting the wood according to the pattern and then cutting and shaping it according to the main pattern. Next is the initial assembly process after everything has been cut and smoothed, proceed to the coloring and fhinising stage to give the character of color and beauty, then the last process is the final assembly where the final assembly also determines the flexibility of the work when played. There are ten works made including Pendragon, Toothless Dragon, Robo Dragon, Domino Dragon, Guardian Dragon, Rex Dragon, Baby Dragon, Dragon Squad, Turtle Dragon, and Dragon Crammer. "The advantages of the toy products produced are original designs, as well as works that have beauty created from the details and mechanics themselves. In terms of size, color, shape and simple mechanical system, it has been adjusted and can be enjoyed by all groups," he concluded.
