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I just spent about 45 minutes surfing Shapeways. There are some really cool TF custom pieces up there. (E.g. Ariel's Customs has all of the War for Cybertron weapons...neat!)

I noticed that some of the seller's items seemed to have a strange porous texture to them. What setting did you use to order your parts?

Also, do the prices include mark-ups by the designer or is Shapeways taking the entire profit?

And if someone had a crazy idea to try to make some helmets on their own, how would you recommend they do it? Is there some kind of template for LEGO-compatible headgear? It seems like it would be a pain to design the female-plug on the inside of the helmet...not to mention making sure one left enough room for the face to peer out.

I'll try to answer what I can.

Tresob wrote:I just spent about 45 minutes surfing Shapeways. There are some really cool TF custom pieces up there. (E.g. Ariel's Customs has all of the War for Cybertron weapons...neat!)

Yeah, there are a ton of amateur toy designers such as myself on shapeways making tons of TF addons or replacement parts, and Ariel Lemon (Or Fakebusker as he's know on the the TFW2005 boards) is our patron saint. The guy does some amazing work and he's my hero. All of the shapeways stuff I've ordered so far (other than my own kit) has been from him. 3 of which are essentially minicons that are super tiny yet transform and have more articulation than anything that HasTak is putting out at that size.

Tresob wrote:I noticed that some of the seller's items seemed to have a strange porous texture to them. What setting did you use to order your parts?

The main material that most folks get stuff printed in is WSF or White Strong Flexible. It's very strong and can take take a lot of force making it great for stuff like this that is going to have some torque on it like ball joints and what not. The down side is that it does have that porous looking texture you were talking about. that's the material you see pictured with my kit. It's possible to get stuff in WSF Polished which means that they take the printed model and then sand it a bit to even out the texture. Of course this will throw off any joint tolerances that you may be counting on as a designer. The other main material that people will order is FUD or Frosted Ultra Detail. This material is great for really fine details and a smooth surface but it's not as strong as the WSF and has been known to break on occasion.

Tresob wrote:Also, do the prices include mark-ups by the designer or is Shapeways taking the entire profit?

It all depends on the designer I think. If you look at my kit up on shapeways, that price right now is ALL shapeways cut. I have the option though of tacking on anything I want to it to make a bit for myself. But as you can see I really wouldn't want to add much to it at all if I want people to take an interest in purchasing.

Tresob wrote:And if someone had a crazy idea to try to make some helmets on their own, how would you recommend they do it? Is there some kind of template for LEGO-compatible headgear? It seems like it would be a pain to design the female-plug on the inside of the helmet...not to mention making sure one left enough room for the face to peer out.

I did my design work in Sketchup. I'm a total noob at 3D stuff and I found this one to be the easiest to work with of all the ones I tried. I also found that Sketchup is great for being precise, like you would want in a CAD program or something for designing products as opposed to designing character models. I also found it to be pretty intuitive and after watching several of the tutorial videos I was able to jump right in. It also helps that it's free and they have a warehouse full of user created models for you to explore and download.

As for a template... I've seen several Sketchup models in the warehouse of Lego minifigs, but none of Kreons. You could try going w/ a lego guy as a starter, but I'd be afraid that the measurements might be off. I'm borrowing my friend's digital calliper/micrometer and I've been taking measurements like crazy of every aspect of the Kreon that relates to my parts and then crossing my fingers that I didn't mess something up when I ordered the prototype parts.

I've got some design sketches for a few different torso ideas.. one uses a single torso and adds a lot more parts (so would be more expensive) and another uses 2 torsos and some connector parts so it'd be cheaper.. I may have to try both of them :/

Then I think I'll see what I can do about the helmet shortage. Will likely start with Omega Supreme since it's been requested... I'm also REALLY looking forward to the Kreon combiners to see what all I can do to improve on those. I know new gestalt heads are a must.

Dear Hasbro or Mega Bloks,

Please hire Wulongti immediately, as they have very obvious talent, and then please market these designs as soon
as possible. Every Transformer/mech/giant robo fan that also
collects lego'esque building blocks will want as many of these
as possible, Lego, don't hire him, you make your kits to expensive these day.

Sincerely, Me.

P.S. In all honesty dude, those are amazing. I would love to own a bajillion of each, in many many colors. I already have custom transformers ideas spawning using those and the mega bloks need for speed and halo lines. Rest assured, come next pay day, I will be ordering atleast one set, if not 5.

Stormcry wrote:Dear Hasbro or Mega Bloks,

Please hire Wulongti immediately, as they have very obvious talent, and then please market these designs as soon
as possible. Every Transformer/mech/giant robo fan that also
collects lego'esque building blocks will want as many of these
as possible, Lego, don't hire him, you make your kits to expensive these day.

Sincerely, Me.

P.S. In all honesty dude, those are amazing. I would love to own a bajillion of each, in many many colors. I already have custom transformers ideas spawning using those and the mega bloks need for speed and halo lines. Rest assured, come next pay day, I will be ordering atleast one set, if not 5.

Oh wow, that's awesome man! thank you very much for the kind words On this morning's train ride I sketched out design ideas for more parts... primarily connector and adapter pieces but also a few new parts that will combine to form a torso upgrade (w/ ab crunch) or could be used as new feet. Maybe some other stuff too, I'm not sure till I can play with them in hand.

For those interested, I've broken up the parts into separate sets and kits to make it easy to mix and match colors for those that want their parts pre-colored rather than having to paint them.

Getting a full kit is still the most economical option though simply because of the way Shapeways charges for stuff. I'm more than happy to put together custom layouts for those that want to "gang mold" a set of parts, in order to keep costs down. Just shoot me a PM, IM, whatever.

Shapeways | WuLongTi Toys by wulongti

On a side note, while you are entertaining requests, there is a particular kind of brick I've always wanted to see but have never found.

It would really be handy to have a small, right-angled, one-stud piece with the stud on the hypotenuse and a female bottom face. This brick could then be attached to a plate and the kreon's foot attached to the angled brick so as to make the kreon look like he was running or jumping.

In other words, imagine if the little vent piece that they use for Skorponok's stinger had a stud instead of the vent.

Without such a piece, my kreon's always have to have one leg perpendicular to the ground.

Make that piece in clear plastic, and you would be a mini-fig hero.

Tresob wrote:On a side note, while you are entertaining requests, there is a particular kind of brick I've always wanted to see but have never found.

It would really be handy to have a small, right-angled, one-stud piece with the stud on the hypotenuse and a female bottom face. This brick could then be attached to a plate and the kreon's foot attached to the angled brick so as to make the kreon look like he was running or jumping.

In other words, imagine if the little vent piece that they use for Skorponok's stinger had a stud instead of the vent.

Without such a piece, my kreon's always have to have one leg perpendicular to the ground.

Make that piece in clear plastic, and you would be a mini-fig hero.

hmmn... so like a square wedge with a 45 degree angle. A female port on the bottom and a peg on the sloped side. Sounds like it would be pretty simple to model up. I think I can knock that out for you easily enough

Just ordered my first of probably many sets. Just got the plain white, cause well... Still need money for christmas shopping. If you keep expanding your shop, I'm sure to be atleast a once a month customer!

Stormcry wrote:Just ordered my first of probably many sets. Just got the plain white, cause well... Still need money for christmas shopping. If you keep expanding your shop, I'm sure to be atleast a once a month customer!

Dude, that's awesome thank you so much! I'd love to see some pics of your upgraded dudes when you get the parts in

On a side note, I'm nearly finished modeling the final part for the torso upgrade, then it's on to the "Omega upgrade parts"