In early 2021, Johannes Kirsch got in contact with me again and we continued the table football project (see the first part here).

The Guardian from very early on was supposed to have an opponent. And somehow we knew it had to be a dragon :-)

Now this turned out to be quite the challenge since the form of the Guardian is so minimal, that establishing what makes a dragon a dragon (scales, horns, snout...) in a fitting style was a very fine balance between being distinguishable and clearly different while at the same time integrating naturally. 

It also had to play exactly the same as the Guardian.

And parts of the injection-mould of the Guardian needed be re-used, so the side-holes had to match 100%...

An additional complication was, that the figures are created with a  two-part form only, so front and back have to be able to move away from the finished figure without scratching it or any cavities or setbacks.

Injection moulding has a lot of special needs on top, like our horns couldn't be too thin and pointy, since when the fluid plastic is injected under very high pressure, air would be trapped in the cavities of the horns and, by being compressed, become so hot, that the plastic would burn...

In the end I went for slightly rounded-off horns and small central scales on the back - also for security reasons. Big shoutout to Nate for the final nudge towards the scale design! :-)

The overall form of both figures is very stylised and so we thought about what they actually are (more about that below). Is this their natural form or are they wearing a kind of armour? 

The latter felt more in line with our design and so we decided that the wings of the Dragon would also be more like futuristic high-tech-appendages, that one could imagine folding out  with smart materials or even containing jet drives instead of classic bat-wing-like wings.

For the dragons face it was a fine balance to match the slightly sinister look of the Guardian. The initial designs made him look too young and friendly - we didn't want him too dark, but still very intent and determined.

This time, I could do all the work in Rhino directly, since with version 7 it introduced native Subdivision Surfaces and their conversion to NURBS. This was a godsend and worked very well.

The foot geometry of course is exactly the same as in the Guardian and also the side-holes in the head, the "arms" and the foot.

We got very good support from our injection-moulding partner and are superhappy how our heroes turned out :-)

Back in 2016 we had speculated about possible stories around and behind the two figures and somebody came up with the typical "shining white knight and the sinister dragon" story.

To me that felt a bit shallow and trite.

When we talked about it again in 2021, we both were convinced that this does not fit the spirit of table-football, which is not one of absolute dominance or a bloody fight between enemies, but is a game of finely honed skills, speed and cleverness in a social setting of equals and friends.

The longer we talked about it, the more it became clear to me, that in fact this is a totally different scenario from the initial fantasy cliché.

For me, it became this:

The two figures symbolise the duality of our being human.

On one hand there are all the great things humans have and still do accomplish with their minds and spirit, from philosophical ideas like zen to the arts, from science to technical mastery and engineering, from the laws to our social systems, medical breakthroughs, too many to count over the ages.
All that is great and noble about the human mind.
This I see represented in the Guardian.

But just as important - and often undervalued in our current societies - is the other side:

 

Us being highly evolved animals with a body that needs food, training, warmth, drink, company, beauty for our eyes to see, music and voices for our ears to hear, air to breathe, gravity to stay on the ground, to touch and be touched to feel alive.

And this is the Dragon for me, this raw and earthy force that keeps us going.

And those two sides aren't opponents really, they are both needed alike to keep us whole, healthy and sane.

So even if you are just enjoying a game of foosball with your friends, all of the above is what allows you to do so. 

And those two aren't enemies but one, like Yin and Yang, pitching their skills against each other, but not out to hurt...

The other part of this round was, to create additional tables and improve over what we had done with the initial table in 2016.

Partnering with "Sportime", we developed a new range of tables for them, one of which is already revealed and available at their store, the "Dragon" table.

It is way more affordable than the original Guardian table from 2016, which was created manually in low numbers from very high quality materials.

This new table is much more affordable without reducing the quality or joy of playing it. 

So while it's form is the classic one, it uses simpler ingredients like MDF instead of birch multiplex for the corpus. 

But when playing, it is just as precise, has the same angled playing field that returns the ball automatically to the reach of the figures, the same bearings for the rods and professional grips (also designed by yours truly) and a very satisfying weight.

What I also developed for this table is special bearings that can be removed in two halves after removing a screw-on ring that holds them together and in place. This allows to remove the rods for transportation without un-screwing the figures.

The challenge here was, that we wanted it to consist of two identical halves, so that you don't have to hunt after the fitting other half. Also packaging and re-supply etc. is much easier with only one part.
This requires the screw-part to be double threaded, one thread starting on each half. Since this isn't a standard thing to do, I had to develop the thread myself.

In this, 3D-printing became extremely helpful to figure out the right depth and steepness of the threads and the overall form, so that it securely holds together and can't slip out of alignment while being easy to remove.
I ended up with two FDM-printers and printed a lot of bearings, dragons and even table models with the larger one :-)

The other big change compared to the original Guardian table is the inner design of the goal chamber. We were able to massively simplify it while still preventing the ball to bounce back out onto the playing field after the goal was hit.

Johannes Kirsch also created a new design for the playing field, since usually you get soccer markings that do not make much sense on a kicker. His new layout helps with training and better overview on where the ball has to be to be held, shot or captured.

So again we are quite happy with the result, it looks and plays very well and should be perfect for home, office or training usage for a price that is still affordable.

Here is a (German) video where Johannes Kirsch shows the details of the figures:

Find more videos if you scroll down the product page

Big thanks to our partner Sportime for all the support!

Find the whole range of products around the Guardian and Dragon here:
https://www.sportime.de/Guardian

And a major shoutout to Johannes Kirsch who was the heart and soul of the whole journey.

Find his latest project here: https://www.karriere-kick.de where people looking for employment or education meet potential employers in a friendly round of kicker... :-)

And then there is SuKoMotion, without whom the world would be a very poor place indeed - thank you so much for all your input and love! :-)