Automoblox A-10 Warthog
Project: Product Design
Date: Spring 2025
Timeframe: 4 Weeks
Skills Used: Research, Modeling, Prototyping
Ideating, AI Development, CAD, Rendering
Automoblox- They are modular wooden toy cars made from solid hardwood that can be taken apart and rebuilt in different configurations. Their clean, geometric forms, natural wood textures, and bold colors create a modern, design-forward aesthetic inspired by real vehicles, blending imaginative play with timeless style.
Project Brief:
Hasbro has acquired the Automoblox franchise and aims to elevate the brand by integrating popular licensed properties. The goal is the develop a strategic expansion model similar to Lego's licensed sets, ensuring that Automoblox retains it's unique brand identity while incorporating thematic elements from high-profile intellectual properties.
Project: Design
Examining the toy market and trends. Design a toy to fit the Automoblox lineup and stay true to our license: US Army
Compatibility
The vehicle should be designed with full modular integration in mind, ensuring its parts seamlessly connect and interact with other Automoblox models. Interchangeable components must maintain brand consistency while introducing military-inspired features that expand creative building possibilities.
Heritage
Rooted in a legacy of service and resilience, the design should reflect the history of the U.S. Army through authentic military-inspired elements, disciplined graphics, and purposeful color palettes—interpreted through Automoblox’s clean wooden aesthetic.
Play Value
While honoring military character, the vehicle must remain engaging and imaginative. The modular build system should encourage hands-on creativity, allowing children to reconfigure and explore different mission-ready forms that blend structured realism with playful discovery.
Narrowing Down Ideas and Sketching
We learned what Automoblox was as a brand and as a toy along looking more into the license, the US Army. After that, we narrowed down what's important for this project, we wanted to make a toy that is enjoyable for a younger audiance. Since we are also designing with the US Army, we wanted to make this toy to be a collectable for those who enjoy collecting diffrent models and memorabilia. The team split after that to come up with a vehicle of our choosing and how we will go about making it a into assembly pieces.
Prototyping
I began by making a model for the toy Automoblox of my chosen vehicle, the A-10 Warthog. I began by making the toy with the correct A-10 proportions to the plane in service today and after some feedback and analyzing, the toy was way too big. I went to trim my wings just slightly further to this design.
Prototype: "Happy Accident"
As I trimmed the Wings down a size further, out of curiosity, I take the ends that I was throwing away and put them up against the main body of my design, I start to fall in love with the chubbiness of the toy.
Comparing the two, the chubby plane seemed to grab more attention and play off more of a playful vibe and appealed to the target audience better.
This "happy little accident" turned out to be the new design direction of my toy, and I was about to throw away the pieces that would change this product for the rest of the project.
Prototyping V.2
With the new design in place, I began to construct a new body and parts built around my new wings and going with the theme of being chubby and playful. This is how my model turned out when keeping to those design guidelines and helped to model the parts in CAD.
Early AI Rendering
With my new model established, I wanted to visualize to my teammates and client what my vision was for the Automoblox A-10 Warthog. I quickly snapped a picture of my prototype and after editing it in procreate I plugged it into Vizcom to produce some early visualization as to where I wanted this product to go.
Modeling and CAD
Using my prototype I made a orthographic to give me some visualization and dimensions to help me model the toy plane. After a couple of days in CAD, using Solidworks, I then put my model onto a 3D printer and printed all the parts needed for my toy to come to life. Making sure everything worked and the assembly pieces fit beautifully, making my toy come to life.
Keyshot Renders
