Bryan Newton’s 3D printed rhinos have become the unofficial mascots of Virginia Tech‘s 1,274-seat Centre for Performing Arts, where the security worker designs and prints a custom miniature statue for each event, giving it away as the prize in a staff guessing game.
Newton works security support for Rhino Sports and Entertainment Services at the venue. The job brings variety: one night the hall fills with the volume of a Metallica concert, a few days later the same space hosts a ballet. He has leaned into that range, using it as creative fuel.
How Bryan Newton’s 3D Printed Rhinos Got Their Start
About two years ago, the Rhino staff invented a simple game to keep their shifts lively. Each worker guesses the night’s attendance, playing by Price is Right rules: get as close to the number of scanned tickets as possible without going over. The game needed a prize. Staff members began taking turns bringing something in, but Newton had a different idea. He owned a 3D printer and realised a miniature rhino, nodding to his employer’s name, was the obvious answer.
The first themed statuette, a warrior rhino, was designed for a wrestling event. A dancing rhino followed for a contemporary Australian dance show. Since then he has produced rhinos wearing Halloween witch hats, rhinos with Easter bunny ears, and rhinos in hoodies of Virginia Tech’s maroon and orange. Each one is tailored to the night’s programme.
The time involved varies widely. Some are finished within a few hours. Others become what Newton calls a 12-hour labour of love, depending on the complexity of the design and how much he chooses to customise the look. The design stage alone, either selecting an existing model or building one from scratch, is part of what he values.
‘It brings joy. And it’s fun,’ he told a Virginia Tech news team. ‘Going through the process and either picking or designing it, it’s a nice creative outreach for me.’
From Staff Prize to Patron Talking Point
The rhinos have quietly built their own following among regular attendees. Newton often places the finished statuette near the turnstiles as the audience arrives, and returning patrons have learned to look for it on show nights. One winner takes the figure home at the end of the evening.
That detail matters. These are not promotional items produced in bulk or distributed as merchandise. Each one is singular, made for a single event, and goes to a single person. The scarcity is part of the appeal.
Newton’s connection to Virginia Tech runs deep. He graduated from the university and, going back roughly 25 years to his time as a student, managed the school’s Marching Virginians band. Staying close to campus after graduation, through his work in security at the Centre for Performing Arts, gave him the setting he needed to channel that long-standing attachment to the institution in a practical, tangible way.
The breadth of what the venue books is what keeps the project going. A Metallica concert and a ballet are not natural neighbours, but they give Newton a wide canvas. Each event presents a new design problem: what does a rhino look like when it represents this particular show, on this particular night?
More than 20 distinct figures have been created across the run of events, covering music, dance, sport and seasonal themes, based on the range described. The collection, seen together, maps the programming of a busy mid-sized performance venue in a way no poster run or programme archive quite manages.
Newton has said the process is as much about the making as the giving. The winner gets a small plastic rhino. He gets to keep doing something he enjoys, shift after shift, event after event, with a 3D printer and a clear idea of what the next one should look like.
