TF: Prime deluxe Airachnid upgrades (Shapeways)

CAVEAT: PIECES SHOWN ARE NOT FINAL AND ARE STILL EXPERIMENTAL. MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS.

Hi guys, for now I'm just going to share some of my recent experiments with the Airachnid figure. Awesome, awesome character. Shitty, shitty toy. I can't even understand how such a simple to create character could have gone so wrong. I mean, the visual cues like canopy shoulders, tail fin legs are all there so it should be obvious how it should have been designed.

Nevertheless, I'm on a mission to enhance this figure, so here I go.

First off, I did 2 variants of possible rotor -> spider leg replacements. The first is made to be thinner and proportionally accurate, and the legs can be transformed into a tri-rotor arrangement.

Unfortunately the thinness became a liability as the legs can't pose at all, which doesn't say much about their ability to support Airachnid's weight.








For the second variant, I made them (and their joints) thicker. These seem to work better for posing and supporting weight. Unfortunately, the joints are so tight that 2 of them broke

Also, for this variant I did a less accurate 6 rotor arrangement. This will be changed in a later version. And surprise surprise, they can support Airachnid's weight even with just 4 of them :3
Balancing is the key.







The other drawback to this version is that overly thick legs don't look like rotors at all...
Some compromises have to be made for functionality. But there is an upper limit on how thick I can make those rotors without having them look bigger than the body itself.


Update September 8, 2012

Alright, here's a little progress report. I had been trying to improve the arms of Airachnid, and also experimented with modifying her neck for better posability...

For the neck I made a replacement with a double joint so that she can tilt her head forward, but I'm sad to say the whole concept didn't work as the huge canopy behind her head is still as restrictive as ever. It serves you better to dremel off the chair backrest behind her head and modify the balljoint socket for a wider range of movement. I'm still deliberating if I should create a replacement lightpipe piece to serve that purpose.

Now for the forearms! These new ones are much, much better than what we get on the stock figure (which really doesn't say much, lol). The upper, lower arms are ball jointed, the wrist is double ball jointed and her hands can hold onto 5mm pegs. Also, I made it possible for the arm to flatten down into her chopper mode, but unfortunately there are still uncomfortable gaps that break the vehicle's silhouette. There is simply too much mass in these new arms to fit onto the sleek alt-mode.


Hence, for my next steps I will be doing a few things:

- Reduce length of arms (they are too long now in comparison to torso)
- Flatter arm panels for sleeker silhouette
- Reduce size of hands

Also, I am still working on those rotor legs but I haven't sent out my test order yet. We'd see how it goes in a few weeks.

And on a totally separate tangent, Mythbusters have proven you can indeed polish a turd.

Until next time!

Attached Thumbnails

 

Please please please make her better arms.


Also... why dont you make the legs accordion over themselves? Like instead of folding themsideways, have them fold over onto themselfs using henge joints. Then place a balljoint near the tip of the rotor "so the claw can rotate" and at the base.

I'm so in regardless. And let me be counted among those that do not care about helicopter mode. Give me a good spider and the rest can go hang.

Looking good already! I was hoping someone would make a set like this. Any chance of making a set of 6 legs that are longer like on the show that don't turn into rotors? Copter mode is stupid to me, but if there was a set of 6 legs, so she had 8 appendages, for just a spider mode I would bite in a heartbeat.

You are a brave soul to attempt to improve her!

Looks great, can't wait to see more progress.

My Twitter My Flickr
XBL Gamertag: ShadowbreakerX

Looking good so far FB. I do also hope you take a stab at replacing the arms.

I love this upgrade! So far they both lok good but I really don't care if the support her in her spider mode. Just as long as they look good that's enough for me.

Are you thinking of doing her arms next? They are in need for some improvements!

looks amazing it might fix her all together

As valiant an effort this is, unless you do an upgrade to replace literally every single piece of her, it'll be like sprinkles on a turd.

Holy shit

they look like crap as rotors, but as spider legs they look 1000000000000x better than the ones it comes with. Unfortunately, the rest of the figure is still shit.