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3D Printed Lego Action Figure Rig



Anyone that’s a fan of animated Japanese robots has probably dreamed of building one. After (hopefully quickly) realizing that this just wasn’t going to happen, making a model might have been a better option. For those of us that don’t have the patience or steady hand to paint a plastic model, Legos might seem like a good robot-building option.

Unfortunately, Legos don’t normally lend themselves well to building a humanoid Mecha robot. If, however, you are able 3D Print a frame for the pieces to fit on, things become a lot simpler, as shown in the video below. You can download the files for these prints from Thingiverse, or directly from the creator, Hero Design Studio.

http://youtu.be/ZVasQ3Hzqjw

According to the io9 article where this was originally seen, these models stand at an impressive 11 inches tall, and are ready to be posed however you like.

Certainly one would need a lot of skill and a huge number of Lego bricks to make a decent looking suit like the “Snow Fox” in the video. I have a feeling that if I tried this, it would end up looking more like an exploded gray castle. On the other hand, why would it have to look like a “Mecha?” Using this frame, your creature could be anything you like, as long as it’s vaguely humanoid!

Zahru II wrote:That's a nice frame - it can probably be built (with some tweaks) from actual lego by the looks of it though.

piltogg wrote:certainly it's possible to build with real lego, but most designs are going to run into one or both of the following:

1. large (ugly) joints exposed. Ball joints from bionicle parts are the worst perpetrators.

2. Flimsy. If some other part that isn't a ball joint is used, the mechs tend to fall apart very easily and are not easy to play with for children. They look much nicer than ball joint mechs, but fall apart if you touch them.

I could see this being a viable solution to both problems. Although it would be difficult for the average person to acquire unless they started selling kits in stores somewhere. I'm in mechanical engineering, and even I am rather unsure how to get prints of this. It's definitely a niche market right now.

Battlegrinder wrote: I'd be surprised if there aren't a couple online 3D printing service available at this point, where you can send the pattern and have them print it for you. Certianly once home 3D printers become viable, the market for stuff like this will explode.

CADmonkey wrote:

3D Printed Lego Action Figure Rig



Anyone that’s a fan of animated Japanese robots has probably dreamed of building one. After (hopefully quickly) realizing that this just wasn’t going to happen, making a model might have been a better option. For those of us that don’t have the patience or steady hand to paint a plastic model, Legos might seem like a good robot-building option.

Unfortunately, Legos don’t normally lend themselves well to building a humanoid Mecha robot. If, however, you are able 3D Print a frame for the pieces to fit on, things become a lot simpler, as shown in the video below. You can download the files for these prints from Thingiverse, or directly from the creator, Hero Design Studio.

http://youtu.be/ZVasQ3Hzqjw

According to the io9 article where this was originally seen, these models stand at an impressive 11 inches tall, and are ready to be posed however you like.

Certainly one would need a lot of skill and a huge number of Lego bricks to make a decent looking suit like the “Snow Fox” in the video. I have a feeling that if I tried this, it would end up looking more like an exploded gray castle. On the other hand, why would it have to look like a “Mecha?” Using this frame, your creature could be anything you like, as long as it’s vaguely humanoid!