@Mr_props Thank you, I hope to place my order soon!

@unit1257 Hello! The polyamide material (strong and flexible) is the strongest that shapeways can offer to print this model, so it should be alright as is (it is by the tests i made). I ordered polished polyamide materials to check if it still works correctly (the polishing might alter the tightness of ball joints). Because of the ball and socket assembly, it is not possible to print it in materials such as steel because the parts would break or bend when snapping them together. if you find a material that looks like more suited, i will take a look, but i tried many and checked samples (like frosted detail plastic or fine detail plastic) , but none of them looked like more suited than this one. Thank you for your interest! Best regards.

Hey could you make this available in more materials? I'm really interested in buying one but the pictures make it seem really fragile.

Hi! I noticed some people bought the character in polished materials. I made a mistake when i allowed client to order these, as i didn't have time to test them. Please give me feedback if you can, because i don't want to let client ordering them if i'm not sure the result is allright. Thank you!

@mcsdaver Looks like sweet! Be carefull if you have such a bulky body to make in polyamide, it has to be as hollow as possible, with reinforcements as thin as you can manage. Trying to make thick parts will result in the material shrinking when cooling down, thus affecting the mechanical properties and aspect of the part. Looks like an interesting challenge anyway! good luck :)

@mcsdaver Nice work! 3d printing will hopefully solve most of your problems as you can get a very nice precision. At a bigger scale, gimbals can sometimes prove to be more efficient, especially if wires are supposed to go through your articulations. If you are looking for realistic movements, you have to think that when two bones are rotating together, such as for the knees, the pivot is not between the two bones. Instead you have two pivots, each one at the center of the rounded side of each bone. This means you need a third bone between the two bones, just like on most BJDs and 1/6 action figures. This allows bigger movements especially if the body is hard. Most of the time, i noticed that robots manufacturer forget about the fact that the harm movements start with the clavicle, i guess it would be too complicated to insert it. The spine if also rather symbolic on most models, but it really helps for balance, especially when walking. I guess you have been thinking about most of this already. Good luck! I hope i can see your model when it is finished!

@Mr_props The robot figure I am making will be bigger so hopefully I can get all the joints strong and movable. Thank for the advice. This is all new to me. I don't even have my printer yet. It is ordered and paid for, but will be weeks away. I am also making a large humanoid robot. He is about 66 cm tall. I will be printing his face, hands and some body parts with my 3d printer. He has ok hands right now, but he will have great ones soon.

@mcsdaver maybe i can give to you a little advice, as i tried a lot of ball and socket joint stuff that failed. I designed these this way because they are easy to clip, allow a lot of movements, and are rather strong in polyamide. The basic ball and socket system doesn't work so well, because it is much harder to clip the parts together and you might even break them during the assembly. So it is much better if you can cut it like the petals of a flower, so that the parts are flexible enough to snap together. On my model, you will notice there are only two "petals" (on each side of the joints) so that the parts wouldnbend instead of breaking. A good exemple are the ball and socket joints made by the most famous bricks company. Otherwise, just take a look at how stop motion pupets are made if you are looking for inspiration. You will notice you can download thi model. Take a look: the arms joints are the smallest i could get in polyamide. If you try something smaller you can get down to 3mm for the inner ball in frosted detail, but look out, the socket can break easily! One last thing: if you have trouble doing the assembly, you can soften polyamide parts in hot water (don't boil it!), so they can deform when snaping. Thank you for your interest and good luck! (please feel free if you have any question).

Cool, I have a portal gun that might fit this little guy. Also I am building action figures from my robots I built for a story I am writing. The robots are all computer models right now. I will use this toy to learn how to make my robots more poseable when printed out.

Ok guys! Thanks to all of you for your kind comments. I don't have much time to make this character evolve the way you would like. Soooooooo... You can now download the mesh and do whatever you like with it. In fact let's say it clearly: it is now "open source". Print it, modify it, enjoy it, just keep in mind the following: Smaller ball and socket articulations for elbows or leg just do not work (they get loose quickly and just don't fit if less than 4mm diameter in Polyamide,and 3.5mm in frosted detail). Be carefull as the waist and knees joints can break very easily if you try ultra frosted detail (and be carefull with the others.. Have fun!

@agent_of_the_8 Thanks! In fact i saw that the superglue was used in Paranorman to clean the surfaces of the 3d printed parts. About the wrist/elbow joint, i don't have much time to study it. In fact it is not possible to print a thinner joint because it gets loose so quickly that it is not worth the effort.

@Mr_props You're quite welcome. In my experiences with painting G.I. Joe or Transformers sockets and joints, do a little sanding of the plastic (but not too much to ruin the fit badly) before the paint is applied, then a bit of super glue seals the deal. I've even found a dab of clear nail polish coating works in a pinch... =) The super glue route is what I'll be doing on this figure for the chest area (which was mislabled as "waist joint" in my last post... Sorry. =/ ), but the rest I'd planned on using what y'all just mentioned: a spray can spritz or two of clear car paint covering. Thanks for the heads-up about the long wait time of drying. Looking forward to your future work/s! I'm gonna toss my hat in, as well, with all the previous folks mentioning a working elbow/wrist system. We've all got faith in you, hoss. ;) Sell 'em as "add ons" in a bundle pack with a few made up weapons or tools or various sundry items a Neo Ego guy/gal might need for their adventures and y'all may have another big hit on your side! =) - a_o_t_8.

@agent_of_the_8 Thanks for the pictures:). I tried before to have a smooth surface by a using car primer spray, but it didn't work as i expected because you have to wait for several days for the paint to be hard enough so that it wouldn't peel away on the ball and socket connections.

I have got to say thanks for this tiny guy! Been having a lot of fun customizing him with specialty weapons and giving him a dye-job. Soon as I get some spare time, I'm adding some metallic green stripes to the "super villain outfit" and a clear coat (to seal in the colors, give him a bit of sheen and to tighten his waist joint)... so these photos are not "final shots." ;) Hope you like seeing him in action! - a_o_t_8. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/silentsidewinder/0D2D809D-A898-48AF-BF7D-49E749498618-11091-000011912B97368F.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/silentsidewinder/3065F8F8-C80C-4D91-8680-34F0617C7535-11091-0000119159E1537A.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/silentsidewinder/3065F8F8-C80C-4D91-8680-34F0617C7535-11091-0000119159E1537A.jpg[/IMG]

Hi! Thank you everybody for your comments as they are very intructive. As i mentioned before, given the material properties, it would be very hard to have an elbow or a wrist added. I hope i can improve this model, but i lack time because i'm working on a fully articulated doll body. Thank you for your support!

You have inspired me in amazing ways, thank you amazing sir.

also i think you could do the wrist with a peg and hole design. if you do a next gen with elbows and maybe wrist i would love that. please keep in mind the frosted detail like in the first gen, i really enjoy it

I love this so much, but like everyone eles i would love to see the elbows movable too. even if its bulkier. good work!

Wow great work!! any change of getting this in white strong and flexible polish ? or Frosted detail any time soon?, BTW i agree tif you manage to make them have elbows it with bee even better than the K-reos mold

This looks AWESOME, the head is a bit odd, and the ball joints look fragile, HOWEVER, the overall design is nice, its sleek, but still looks to fit in with Lego, I will say adding an elbow joint would be nice, as well as maybe a wrist, but still, this is nice how it is, if anything, I would find a way to add wrist articulation, but never the less, great work :)

Thank you:). I considered articulating the elbows, but i must change the shape so much that i'm losing the design. Given the materials properties, it is hard to make a ball and socket connection less than 4.5mm diameter. It results in a bulky design. A simple one-axis articulation would be easier (just like for the knees, but i need to try a few things more.

Amazing stuff. Have you considered articulated elbows too?

yes, it work with nylon, but it will require modifications if i want it to work with frosted detail, because frosted details can't deform enough to snap. I though the knees would be useless if the torso wasn't articulated, this is why i made both.