Trinifigure - Three Legged Minifigure

A Lego-compatible, three legged, two headed mini-figure. Legs are fully moveable. Only the torso and the hips/legs are included, you must provide your own heads and arms.

The first torso I ordered was printed slightly warped, and it cracked when I put the arms in, because the arm holes were not perfectly round and were therefore too small for the arm connectors. If your print is warped or distorted, ask Shapeways for a reprint. All the edges should be straight and the flat surfaces should be completely flat.

This model has extremely tight tolerances and very fine detail, so it's easily broken. Be gentle! The outer legs would be very easy to break off. And you should always separate the torso from the hips by pulling them straight apart, with a firm grip on the hips, not on the legs.

See full-size photos here

Cleaning instructions

1. Attach the torso to the hips first and keep it attached for cleaning. This allows you to stabilize the model by its hips and avoid putting force on the leg joints, which are the weakest part.
2. Use a piece of dental floss to clean between the legs. (Use unscented floss, unless you want a minty-fresh three-legged mini-figure.)
3. Use a thin needle to clean out the support material around the axle where the hip joints connect to the legs. I had a dentist's scraper tool available, which worked perfectly.
4. Grasping the model by the torso (not the hips or the legs), very gently wiggle one of the outer legs, being careful not to torque the leg, and apply only rotational force in line with the axle. At first the leg will only move a millimeter or so. Apply more force, slowly, and at some point the leg will start to move, reluctantly.
5. Rotate the leg all the way forward, and clean off the excess support material there.
6. Rotate the leg all the back (it only goes back about 75 degrees), and clean off the excess support material there.
7. Once you have moved the leg back and forth a few times, it will rotate freely.
8. Repeat for the other outer leg.
9. Once both outer legs are mobile, repeat again for the middle leg, being careful to grasp the model by the torso, and not to torque the outer legs.
10. Attach heads now, before snapping the arms into the sockets. Depending on the grain of the print, this can help prevent the model from splitting when the arms are snapped into sockets.
11. Snap arms into the sockets.
12. Impress your friends with your ridiculous mutant three-legged mini-figure!