The Energon Pub

Hi people, i'm pretty new to the forum so if i've put this in the wrong place, feel free to tell me where this thread would best settle.

Right, now for the long story relatively short-ish...

I'm currently studying a Hnc/Hnd Graphic Design course and have the fortunate luck to develop whatever interests me as my final piece/project for my work, so i thought about creating my own transformer/transformable robot (as obviously i don't want to call it a transformer because of copyright etc).

Now there are multiple ways of me going about this i'm aware, i was just going to start out with possibly just packaging for a transformer, but i thought why shouldn't i give making one a go? I've looked into papercraft which would be cost effective and good for a prototype (even if i never make it to the plastic stage, the marks are in the development and journey of my work), but i was thinking of possibly going down the route of using a 3d printer? For research i was also thinking of approaching 3rd party companies to look at processes they've used and just put it towards my work, as i'm unsure if Hasbro would really share their design processes and allow me to make my own, however the character and design will be completely my own creation and not based on any intellectual property that Hasbro as made.

I'm gonna post this on a few other forums just to get peoples ideas on the matter, i'm not trying to make money from this, just get grades

Thanks for your time!