[Zap Rowsdower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hushed

Overall, I do like these ideas. I don't think I would want a 3d printed part. It would be too expensive, and more prone to break I expect. Maybe I'm wrong??

Another thing to think about, is what is the reaction of MTF and BFS going to be? I recently saw on the MTF Facebook group someone posted a sculpt they had made over a MTF torso. Ruben replied saying something to the affect that it wasn't cool, as the sculptor was talking about selling the sculpt. Ruben had something along the lines of "I must have missed the email", or similar. From what I can tell, that post is gone all together.

I don't know what the legality would be of using the same size balls. There is probably nothing they could do to stop you. But I strongly suspect they could prevent you from advertising using their name if they didn't like it.

Maybe consider running this by MTF and BFS to see if they are cool with it. For all we know, they might be planning this already, and you might be stepping on toes.


If someone puts these ideas out as a product up to the same quality as MTF/BFS/Hasbro gives us, I would buy quite a few.

Resin prints are more or less on par with injection molded parts in terms of strength. Check out CLIP printing if you are curious. If I can get my parts printed in that material I won't have any durability concerns at all. It is somewhat pricey though.

To your other points, I don't think you can patent a ball size first off. Heck, the Jazwares Assassin's Creed figures are pretty much fully HACKS-compliant in design. How many manufacturers have knee pins that are sized the same as each other? I really don't think anyone would have anything to say about it. Secondly, I'm not advertising or marketing anything. I don't believe "BFS" or "MTF" are trademarks, but even if they are there's still such a thing as "fair use." I don't think there is anything violative about saying something works as an adapter with someone else's stuff. But again, I'm not advertising anything anyway.

With that said, BFS digitally designed both lines' internals and could have these produced at the drop of a hat if they have any desire to do so. I'm sure they could undercut competitors while doing it, too. I have no aspirations of becoming a toy manufacturer but even if I did this would be the dumbest place to start.

I'm not factory-shopping or looking at mass production. I honestly don't see why anyone in either camp would care. If they do care I'm sure they will let me know. Personally, I would much rather they do it themselves anyway but we've been waiting for years and there has been no announcement of production or planning for parts like this. Why wait longer? If I had a resin printer I would be sitting on a dozen of these already by now. The big dogs are in no worse position so you've got to believe they just aren't interested in supplying these parts.

[Zap Rowsdower]

Test prints just arrived, and the results are pretty positive. I have some adjustments to make on the BFS torso "cup" to improve ball retention and I need to adjust the MTF torso ball diameter and ever-so-slightly reduce the shaft length. All of the hip stuff fit like a dream though, and the neck barbells came out PERFECTLY!

First up, the neck barbells... My printed barbell is slightly shorter than the BFS standard:



And here you can see there are no tricks up my sleeve. This is an unaltered MTF head:



Here is that MTF head on a BFS barbell and torso:



And here is that very same head on my printed barbell and the BFS torso:









It's snug on both ends so the head stays right where you put it. Removing the barbell with pliers worked just fine (no breakage - I only had one of these printed so EVERY time you see my printed barbell it's the same exact one being used). I simply couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

So for good measure, I tried it on some female heads on a female BFS torso as well. I used a rusty old pair of needle-nosed pliers to remove the printed barbell from the heads each time, so disregard the rust-colored markings that show up on the barbell in some of these shots.

First up, a Resolute Scarlett head on the printed barbell on a BFS body:









As compared to the "ride-height" of a stock BFS head in its native environment:



And then a MTF head on the printed barbell on a BFS torso:





Range of motion test:





I noticed an ugly gap below the ear in this position:



But apparently it exists among native BFS parts as well:



One thing to note is that the neck socket end of the barbell probably needs to have a slightly smaller ball for best use with the females. It fits the males perfectly all around and it certainly works with the females as is, but it was harder to get into the female neck socket than it should have been and will probably stretch the BFS female torso's neck socket out if left in place long-term.

Next post...the torso adapters!

[Rude Kid]

I'm down with this

[ChevyMel]

Looks great so far !!!

[MagicWazard]

Nice!

[HUNMARINE]

That is awesome! Keep it up with you"re great work!

[Zap Rowsdower]

In addition to the barbell pictured above, I also printed one each of the "BFS torso to MTF waist" and "MTF body with Joe legs" adapters (the two adapters I figured would be most useful).



My work on the torso "cup" needs adjustment, unfortunately. The material flexes enough to allow the torso ball to enter the cup, but my inside dimensions don't allow for enough "grab" on the ball to keep it there once it's in. It tends to pop itself back off within a few seconds (you'll see the issue with that just below). I'll have to print a few revised versions to get it to a place where I'm happy with the performance. For now, however, feast your eyes:





The hips fit tightly and allow for durable posing:



And combined with the printed neck barbell I can now make a bare-chested MTF figure:



But remember that torso ball retention issue I mentioned? Well if you don't hurry up and take the photo fast enough...:
(note the gap between the upper and lower torso)


So that needs a bit of work still. I have a similar issue with the torso ball on the "MTF with Joe legs" adapter as well. Once again, the legs are a wonderful fit on the peg (and in the foreign waist as well, though I might set the hips wider just to allow the legs to come a bit closer together):



Again, good posing (only one of these legs even had the rubbery hip cup friction thingy so the other one is working fine just on the basis of friction between the parts):



And you can install a torso on the peg even in this current version, but it's floppy and can be pulled off VERY easily:





An internal view shows why:



The MTF torso barely has any "collar" to the socket, so ball size needs to be as thick as possible. The ball I measured to model this piece from was wider in one direction than it was in the other, so I went with the smaller dimension thinking that would be safer. That turned out to be a mistake. I'm pretty sure the next print will be a snug fit if I just bump up to the larger dimension, but I'll probably try a few incremental sizes larger to find one that fits best. I also need to shave off a smidgen on the torso peg's shaft length to let the torso rest in the waist more closely. It's not terrible the way it is now, but it could be better by a few hundredths of an inch and it would make a noticeable difference.

Coming up next, WIP posts for the 3D sculpts of the female torso adapters as I begin creating them...

[jlw515]

WOW!! These are amazing!

But on another note, tell us more about that soft-goods, custom Zarana top!!

Jason

[hushed]

Good work.

[Zap Rowsdower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlw515

WOW!! These are amazing!

But on another note, tell us more about that soft-goods, custom Zarana top!!

Jason

Oh, you mean....THIS? I might possibly be able to make another one if you want one...juuuust maybe.

I also made a halter top for no particular reason. I've been tinkering with soft goods here and there.