Andrew Garrett 3D Prints David Bowie Records as Nursery Rhyme Replacements for a Fisher Price Player

Photographer Andrew Garrett has added a bit of funk to a classic kid's toy, 3D printing a new record for a Fisher Price Music Box Record Player for his David Bowie-loving niece.

A great introduction to the concept of vinyl records for kids, the Fisher Price Music Box Record Player combined the metal comb lamellae of rotary music boxes with stamped plastic records. Swapping out the record, which was encoded with raised dots to 'pluck' the lamellae, changed the song — just like your parent's record player, but without the shattering sound of broken vinyl or the screech of a needle clumsily dragged over Dad's favourite LP.

The song selection, however, may not be up to snuff for all kids. "The records like 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'Jack & Jill' that came with this 1970s Fisher Price Music Box Record Player just weren’t cutting it for my two year old niece," Garrett explains. "But she loves David Bowie and I have a 3D printer, so I whipped this up for her."

While Garrett hasn't shared technical details of the project, it seems likely he leaned on earlier work by maker Fred Murphy who released software for turning music into 3D-printed records compatible with the Fisher Price player back in 2012. That, in turn, was a follow-up to his earlier work in milling compatible records using a CNC mill and acrylic sheeting.

Sadly for anyone looking to follow along at home, a recently re-released version of the Fisher Price Record Player isn't compatible with self-printed discs: Rather than using notches to trigger mechanical lamellae, the modern variant has digital music pre-loaded onto an internal microcontroller and uses its grooved discs for nothing more than selecting which song to play back. In other words: It's the real thing or nothing.