Two days ago we told you the story of Sophie Lester, a seven-year-old girl from Brisbane, Australia who has all lived her young life feeling the very keen sting of there not being dragons in the world. (Don’t we all?) So she wrote a letter to CSIRO, the national science agency, asking whether they could please make her one. CSIRO, perhaps won over by the way Sophie started off her letter with “Hello Lovely Scientist,” wrote her back apologizing for the grave error they made in not having invented dragons yet and promising to get on that ASAP. And now they’ve sent her one. It’s 3D printed, but that’s probably for the best. I’m not sure Australia needs any more killer lizards, especially with Steve Irwin not around.
The dragon, named Toothless per Sophie’s request (if it were a boy it would be Stuart), was 3D printed from titanium and officially—yes, officially, don’t argue with me here—belongs to the species Seadragonus giganticus maximus. Via CSIRO’s blog:
“Being that electron beams were used to 3D print her, we are certainly glad she didn’t come out breathing them … instead of fire,” said Chad Henry, our Additive Manufacturing Operations Manager. “Titanium is super strong and lightweight, so Toothless will be a very capable flyer.”
Toothless is currently winging her way from the lab where she was born to Sophie’s house, where I’m sure the new Mother of Dragons will be very happy to meet her daughter. Sophie originally requested that Toothless be black, and as you can see in the picture she’s blue. But if Toothless is, per the taxonomy, a seafaring dragon, being blue will just make her blend in better when she skims along the top of the ocean, right? So it’ll be that much easier for her to avoid capture, making Sophie’s quest to conquer neighboring cities and eventually march back home to reclaim her birthright that much easier.
And anyway, the CSIRO blog tells us that they were contacted by none other than Dreamworks, who said “they knew how to train dragons and wanted to speak with Sophie.” So she might be meeting the actual Toothless.
Who totally exists. Or had better soon. Don’t flake out on me, Australia. 3D printing a toy doesn’t get you out of your promise.
(thanks to tipster Foxfire!)
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