The Energon Pub

BeastProwl wrote:Sounds good! I am really interested in this. I cant paint worth a damn, but I'm still interested in how it will come out.

I am planning to take orders directly for finished sets (ie: fully dyed and painted and possibly with a bonus piece). I had considered and received advice about making molds and casting them in plastic but that is beyond my means at the moment. I may do it with a later set but not with the Octopunch one right now. Details on finished sets will be coming after I get everything up and running.

I was expecting at least some response by now. Do you guys not like the helmet? Feedback would be much appreciated!

Anyway, the next part is the shoulder. Remember my proof of concept with the Lego tentacles clipped onto the shoulders? Those Lego's turned into this:



That is an early rendering based on measurements taken from my mockup. The few people who I had shown this to before didn't seem to get what it was so here is a pic of the actual mockup in action:



I'm thinking the shoulder pieces should be in yellow, like in the old Marvel comics.

I decided against ball joints for the tentacles as the would actually have less of a range of motion then I wanted. What's a little wiggle room if it can't bend backwards? But those are for next time!

I'm liking the helmet and the Idea for lego tentacles. Can't wait to see the finished product!

How has no one else posted about it??

I really like how it's turning out! But my issue here is, I'll be puting all this on seaspray...Not Octopunch, so it may look a little wierd. But some Reprolabels and these add on parts will probably make it look more Octopunch than Seaspray...I hope...

BeastProwl wrote:I really like how it's turning out! But my issue here is, I'll be puting all this on seaspray...Not Octopunch, so it may look a little wierd. But some Reprolabels and these add on parts will probably make it look more Octopunch than Seaspray...I hope...

If anything, I think that means you're luckier than me as you can paint (or have someone else paint) it up to be more to what you want it to be! I'm stuck with the seafoam chest and you're not. You get to make it truly yours! When I get the pieces (when ever that may be) I'll post pics of them on Seaspray for you just so you can see what you'll be working with.

Okay, hide the schoolgirls because it's tentacle time! These are what really made me want to do this. The helmet I could've lived with just having made a better version of the prototype I did and not making any more after that but these are what I had to design and have made. I know it's a boring pic but it's not how it looks now but how it would look with the whole set!



I know that some people wanted ball joints and for a while there, so did I, but ball jointed tentacles just don't have the posability for it. They can have a little wiggle room but ultimately, they would've left Octopunch without the ability to rear his tentacles back and forth. With simple pegs there's 90° forward and backward motion in each joint. Each of the four tentacles comes as four pieces: a base, two middles which are identical, and an end tip. The two different sizes of bases is because I'm bot sure how long is too long until I get it in hand. And when it's all available, extra middle sections will be available for anyone who wants to make him have a ridiculously long reach. The suction cups at the joints themselves are actually indented so they don't get in the way of posability and the suckers stay evenly spaced throughout. The minimum 4 piece tentacle is as articulated as a normal human finger both forward and backward. I seriously can't wait to get these things out of my head and screen and into my hands because these will be insanely cool!

There is only one other part I may show after this. I'm hoping to get the physical set as soon as possible to show and share!

My only real concern here now is vehicle mode. I wish it could all, you know, intigrate. I guess thats stretching though.

BeastProwl wrote:My only real concern here now is vehicle mode. I wish it could all, you know, intigrate. I guess thats stretching though.

I actually did think up a way for the shoulder pieces to fit in the bay with a crane arm to swing the diving bell/helmet over the side on a hook. The crane arm would have become this weird bent and broken looking trident staff to go around the kibble under his hand. But the problem is the shoulder pieces would've been too small to actually fit on the shoulders anymore and the staff was just plain bad. Plus, you still would have had a pile of tentacles sitting there!

It just wouldn't work. But I did try and when it wasn't working I refocused on making it the best representation of the Pretender shell I can! I always find that the best thing to do when you're stuck on a problem is turn it around. Attack it from a different angle and that in of thinking actually solved a very large problem I was having with these, the tridents:



I spent days of design and work hours pouring over the original design for these! They were originally going to go into the spring loaded launchers and hang over the side in altmode as anchors but I was stuck with one glaringly obvious problem: I was going to be making forks that would shoot people in the eye! So I kept rounding it down and smoothing it out and making it safe until there was no more trident at all! It was a Catch 22, make it safe or make something people would want. Then I stepped back and looked at the problem from the side of attachment and I realized I didn't need the launchers at all! Suddenly it could look as pointy as I wanted it to without having to worry about sitting across from a fellow fan with an eye patch in court! ( only with more blood and screaming.)

So it is designing to open (trident) and close (anchor) and has plugs for altmode/arm attachment, handles for totally awesome duelwielding in battle and still hang over the side as an anchor.

These are the part I am most proud of. After I get this whole moving thing situated I will not rest until I have a hard copy to post pics of! No matter the cost...

Okay, less than the $345 that Shapeways estimated. Those guys are killing me with that!

zodconvoy wrote:Okay, hide the schoolgirls because it's tentacle time!

I can't believe you just said that ! I laughed for like 2 minutes straight.

You don't take commissions for custom Shapeways projects by any chance, do you? And if so, would you also be willing to lay some paint on said commissioned pieces/customs?

I love what you're doing with this set and as soon as you're all done with it you can mark me down as a customer.

xyl360 wrote:You don't take commissions for custom Shapeways projects by any chance, do you? And if so, would you also be willing to lay some paint on said commissioned pieces/customs?

I'm not going to rule anything out for later but right now this is my focus. If you want to talk about doing something in particular, PM me!

zodconvoy wrote:

xyl360 wrote:You don't take commissions for custom Shapeways projects by any chance, do you? And if so, would you also be willing to lay some paint on said commissioned pieces/customs?

I'm not going to rule anything out for later but right now this is my focus. If you want to talk about doing something in particular, PM me!

PM sent, thanks .

Wow, this set is looking good. Sorry I've not posted on it in a while but I wanted that "OMG!" feeling when I saw the progress.

A little late in the game for this suggestion, but, re: integrating the tentacles and helmet to alt mode - you could have made the tentacles combine with the helm to make a sort of octopus creature. It would have made no sense, but it might have been cool.

Anyway, those anchors look pretty good, but will there be a longer trident?

Havnt poked around in here for a bit, how go things?

craggy wrote:Wow, this set is looking good. Sorry I've not posted on it in a while but I wanted that "OMG!" feeling when I saw the progress.

A little late in the game for this suggestion, but, re: integrating the tentacles and helmet to alt mode - you could have made the tentacles combine with the helm to make a sort of octopus creature. It would have made no sense, but it might have been cool.

Anyway, those anchors look pretty good, but will there be a longer trident?

The problem with a long trident is there's a piece blocking the bottom of the hand. The best possible is a handle like a coffee mugs jutting off the pole itself and I thought that would look plain terrible. While I like the idea of the tentacles integrating into the altmode, I couldn't find a way to do total integration without huge sacrifices to the botmode and that is the focus.

BeastProwl wrote:Havnt poked around in here for a bit, how go things?

I've had to take some time off from it unfortunately. The person who was helping me couldn't get it working with Shapeways either so she suggested I start over again from scratch and that is not happening yet. I'm still learning all this stuff and I'm going to finish it and make it available, don't worry. Life's just getting in the way. And to think, when I first had this idea back in January I thought I'd have finished products ready to sell at Botcon!

Well, it's not your fault. Count yourself lucky you know how to work that stuff. I cant, not for the life of me. Iv'e tried, I ended up making what can best be described as jell-o