The Energon Pub

News Credits: 3 · by **Tresob** » Sun Jan 13, 2013 8:47 pm

In case you want to swap out those Predacon heads...

by **wulongti** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:53 am

I am soooo jealous of the amount of free time you have

Looks good man, in particular I rather like the kitty heads. I'd prefer helmets over heads, but that's just me.

News Credits: 3 · by **Tresob** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:18 am

wulongti wrote:I am soooo jealous of the amount of free time you have

Looks good man, in particular I rather like the kitty heads. I'd prefer helmets over heads, but that's just me.

I'm still waiting to order my new test heads before I go through the process of hollowing out the helmets. Helmets will give people far more versatility and flexibility than complete heads.

On the other hand, I suspect that some people might be fine with prefab faces...it will save them the trouble of have to hunt down spare heads that work for the character (or from having to customize their own heads). (One of my biggest problems kitbashing is having enough heads to go around.)

by **wulongti** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:26 am

Tresob wrote:
wulongti wrote:I am soooo jealous of the amount of free time you have

Looks good man, in particular I rather like the kitty heads. I'd prefer helmets over heads, but that's just me.

I'm still waiting to order my new test heads before I go through the process of hollowing out the helmets. Helmets will give people far more versatility and flexibility than complete heads.

On the other hand, I suspect that some people might be fine with prefab faces...it will save them the trouble of have to hunt down spare heads that work for the character (or from having to customize their own heads). (One of my biggest problems kitbashing is having enough heads to go around.)

Yeah, I'm all about versatility

I've decided to include my "skull head" in the Toybox set that has all of my stuff thus far. I also did up a textured version of a standard Kreon torso. totally original so not made to look like any particular character, but I'll toss that into the toybox too. Eventually I'll end up having an entire Kreon available as a "bonus item" lol

News Credits: 3 · by **Tresob** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:52 am

wulongti wrote:Yeah, I'm all about versatility

I've decided to include my "skull head" in the Toybox set that has all of my stuff thus far. I also did up a textured version of a standard Kreon torso. totally original so not made to look like any particular character, but I'll toss that into the toybox too. Eventually I'll end up having an entire Kreon available as a "bonus item" lol

Funny you mention that...I was trying to work on some extra limb parts, but I wasn't sure how to work the hollowed-ball joint in them. (The ball looks like it's about 3mm, right?) Any pointers on how to judged where to intersect so that there's a wide enough opening to push the ball through, but small enough so that it sticks once its in there?

by **wulongti** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 11:03 am

Tresob wrote:
wulongti wrote:Yeah, I'm all about versatility

I've decided to include my "skull head" in the Toybox set that has all of my stuff thus far. I also did up a textured version of a standard Kreon torso. totally original so not made to look like any particular character, but I'll toss that into the toybox too. Eventually I'll end up having an entire Kreon available as a "bonus item" lol

Funny you mention that...I was trying to work on some extra limb parts, but I wasn't sure how to work the hollowed-ball joint in them. (The ball looks like it's about 3mm, right?) Any pointers on how to judged where to intersect so that there's a wide enough opening to push the ball through, but small enough so that it sticks once its in there?

obviously the more enclosed the socket the harder it is to get the ball to go in, but the more secure it is... I don't have any training in this so I'm not real sure what the "proper" way to do things is. For the ball jointed stuff I've done, I've been between 60 - 75% enclosed. That said, you can get away with a more enclosed socket if you allow for expansion via a slit or something. I also try to have a hole in the socket to allow air to escape or to allow for a paperclip or something to be shoved in there to help get the ball back out! lol

In my notes I have the shoulder ball having a 3.35mm diameter. The distance from the outer-most point of the ball to the start of the connection rod is 3mm. The rod is 2.3mm thick and 1.11mm long.

Hope this helps

News Credits: 3 · by **Tresob** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 2:59 pm

So, something like this:

No idea if this thing will snap together. There was a lot of conjecturing on those ports. And the legs...ugh...so many intersecting proportions to consider.

I didn't bother with angling the arms at the elbows. Perhaps I should. And the idea of relying on a 3mm cylinder in WSF made me nervous, so I put in an extra panel along the inside. I've since tightened it though, to reduce interfering with arm weapons. I also added a 3mm port on the forearm...for later additions. I might create another set of arms with the port up by the shoulder.

by **wulongti** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 3:28 pm

Tresob wrote:No idea if this thing will snap together. There was a lot of conjecturing on those ports. And the legs...ugh...so many intersecting proportions to consider.

I didn't bother with angling the arms at the elbows. Perhaps I should. And the idea of relying on a 3mm cylinder in WSF made me nervous, so I put in an extra panel along the inside. I've since tightened it though, to reduce interfering with arm weapons. I also added a 3mm port on the forearm...for later additions. I might create another set of arms with the port up by the shoulder.

Wow, gotta say man... you've just taken to this like a fish to water eh? You keep posting all this stuff and it makes me wish that I had the time to work on my toy designs all day! Today at lunch I was finally able to spare some time to widen the head cavity for my Omega helmet and get that update pushed to all the other files it's saved in as well as update any of my shapeways listings that have it.

As for your limbs, I'm happy w/ the straight arms, makes them more versatile that way as opposed having a set right and left arms. If you carve out a little groove in the shoulder socket similar to the hip socket then your arms will be able to move outwards as well

I think that the thin part of the arms would be fine at 3mm. It's on such a small part and it's not like it's load bearing or anything.

Are you actually planning on selling your alternate Kreon body? I'm assuming it'd just be cheaper to get more blind packs right? Unless you are planning different body types.. that I could get behind.

I got an idea you can have (given that I don't have the time to act on it and you do). Shoulder bells. Design a part that fits over the existing shoulder like a cap and has a hole for the ball joint to fit through. You could do wheel shoulders, box shoulders, super sentai robo pagoda shoulders...

Just think how excited Dough-bot would be to have Ultra Magnus shoulders hahaha. In fact you could have a the inside wall of your shoulder bell with slit ball sort of hole instead of simply a hole. A hole in the center a little wider than the ball connector rod with a cut coming down that's the same width as the rod. That way you don't even have to take the arms off to install it. ^__^

News Credits: 3 · by **Tresob** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:52 pm

wulongti wrote:
Tresob wrote:Wow, gotta say man... you've just taken to this like a fish to water eh? You keep posting all this stuff and it makes me wish that I had the time to work on my toy designs all day! Today at lunch I was finally able to spare some time to widen the head cavity for my Omega helmet and get that update pushed to all the other files it's saved in as well as update any of my shapeways listings that have it.

As for your limbs, I'm happy w/ the straight arms, makes them more versatile that way as opposed having a set right and left arms. If you carve out a little groove in the shoulder socket similar to the hip socket then your arms will be able to move outwards as well

I think that the thin part of the arms would be fine at 3mm. It's on such a small part and it's not like it's load bearing or anything.

Are you actually planning on selling your alternate Kreon body? I'm assuming it'd just be cheaper to get more blind packs right? Unless you are planning different body types.. that I could get behind.

I just sent you a file with the shoulder "bell"...a studded version, no less.

As for the reverse engineered mini-fig body, it weighs in at $6.87, so I don't see a huge demand for it as such. And I don't want to infringe on any intellectual properties, either. That being said, it might come in hand if people wanted to order parts in colors, and wanted those colors to match up more closely.

And, like you said, this could lead to custom parts...like clawed feet...for predacons...

by **wulongti** » Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:06 pm

Tresob wrote:I just sent you a file with the shoulder "bell"...a studded version, no less.

As for the reverse engineered mini-fig body, it weighs in at $6.87, so I don't see a huge demand for it as such. And I don't want to infringe on any intellectual properties, either. That being said, it might come in hand if people wanted to order parts in colors, and wanted those colors to match up more closely.

And, like you said, this could lead to custom parts...like clawed feet...for predacons...

checked it out, looks like a good start and I think that would help a lot for those interested in customizing their figures. I really think some character shoulders would look awesome w/ your vests though