My Little Dream Cruiser

A cute My Little Cruiser toy car with animal ears in bright red and green against a blue-green gradient background. This version has a racing tag number on the sides in black and yellow.

I am working on a cool project! I wanted to make something cool for our three-year-old neighbour, Jason. Jason is always busy drawing on the pavement in front of his house. He uses bright colored street chalk to scribble and draw his doodles almost daily sometimes.

Last summer I talked to him and his parents and asked him if he would make a drawing in front of our house too. He looked up, somewhat shy. “No,” he said. ‘I am afraid to’. We don’t have kids, so for me it’s hard to gage their abilities. I tend to treat them as fully able mostly unless proven otherwise, which is why they probably think I’m weird and funny. “Well Jason, you are more than welcome to draw on our pavement in front of our house at any time you feel ready.” He nodded.

Two months later, our doorbell rang. When I opened the door, Jason’s mother was standing outside, looking a bit nervous. “He told me it was okay,” she said, pointing at Jason beside her, his fists covered in pastel-coloured chalk. Jason had remembered our conversation and had filled our pavement with colored scribbles and drawings. One of them was a drawing of a yellow car.

This is an artist's impression of a chalk drawing of a car made by four-year-old Jason on our pavement. We see a very simple bright yewllow car with black wheels. — An artist impression of the car that Jason has drawn on our pavement.

Jason loves cars. And as I was thinking about projects for 3D printing, something I had just picked up, I decided to make him a little gift. I came up with a little car that could function as a nightlight. A little buddy to help him sleep.

This is a screenshot of a 3D model of a cute little toy car, which is part of a series of little cruisers for kids, created in modelling software. Here, the front of the car is shown at an angle. — The first rough sketch of Jason’s little cruiser

I started printing prototypes. I’ve never made anything like this before. A few weeks later the first model was ready for assembly.

Table showing the parts of a 3D-printed model. These are parts of the Pikachibi My Little Cruiser Night Light for children. We can see the main body, the top dome with the flashlight, the tyres and axles, the wheel caps, the licence plates, and the front and tail lights. Some tools are scattered around the table.

This is a small nightlight for children. This purple, egg-shaped toy car has a blue flashlight on top. White light shines through the dome-shaped window and headlights.

When I handed it to him, he was four years old. He didn’t get it at first, the concept of a light didn’t mean anything to him personally. But as soon as we started clicking the light on and off he got really excited.

This little cruiser project has evolved into a somewhat larger undertaking. Check out the lastest!