Like a lot of people, I was a little disappointed with FortMax's city mode. I fiddled with fan modes, but didn't find one that wasn't a floppy mess. Until I started experimenting with adding parts to increase stability. So a bunch of cut-up cardboard and one 3D printer later, I have a stable skyscraper mode that all folds away for transformation: It's 3 assemblies, 6 parts. The shoulder platforms: These grab on to the ramp connectors and close up for transformation: And the catwalk across the top that holds the legs together: It splits in half and fits into the legs for transformation: The hole it's pegged into isn't used for any other purpose, so no partsforming is involved. Well, eventually. Right now the catwalk is 3 parts so I could more quickly find the right length by just re-printing the middle part. This is all very WIP, but I'm happy with how it's coming together. Next steps: round out the shoulder clip over the round part of the shoulder, make the catwalk 2 parts, figure out if there's a spot I can add the ramp clips back in, and add Titan Master 2mm pegs.
Are you going to upload the STLs to Thingiverse, by any chance? I've been keeping the towers semi-stable with little acrylic doo-dad holders from the dollar store.
This is excellent and I can imagine more "next steps" - most significantly, seeing if you can fit some floors inside the legs so Titan Masters or even Legends-class figures can stand inside.
Thanks! The plan is definitely to put these on Shapeways/Thingverse once they're done. This is my first real 3D printing project, so there's a lot to figure out still. I've been looking at interior floors. There are little ribs that run the length of the leg, so there's reasonably secure spots to place them. The trouble is that the catwalks take up the whole length of the leg when folded up, so any floor would need to be removed for transformation or I'd need to figure out how to fold them out of the way.
I wonder if they could fold flat with the insides of the legs. One side is attached more permanently and hinged, the other side is held in place by gravity/pressure.
This is a cool mod I think that idea seems like a good one. On the freestanding side that isn’t attached by a hinge, attaching a fold out brace might help keep it in place and wouldn’t take up much space retracted.
The catwalk actually touches the wall of the non-swinging side of the leg. There's about 3cm on the swinging side to squeeze things in. Another possibility would be to suspend some collapsible shelves under the catwalk itself.
Suspending them from the catwalk seems like a good idea too. The only issue I can see would be the platforms being floppy since they would all be attached together but I’m sure it wouldn’t be noticeable during anything except for transforming. All in all, it seems easier to do than folding out from inside the leg.
This is just so freaking cool I've never would have thought of anything like this with the big boy. Just so awesome and next time i take mine out I'm gonna try and replicate this cause i love the look.
I know the conversation has been focused on floors for the towers, but the shoulder ramps are more of a known quantity and I want to see how far I can take them before opening that can of worms. I've extended the ramp so it provides support to both parts of the legs and has a bit of facade to better blend the parts together. I'm not really happy with the window design and am open to style suggestions. It all still folds away for robot and space cruiser modes:
The shoulder add ons look nice. I love the addition of the window. It doesn’t seem that bad, perhaps it’s a bit random?
I like the idea of making them look like entrances to the "towers" formed by the legs. Maybe less windows and more of a parking garage vibe? Or door detailing kind of like on his toes, that look like closed blast doors.
Adding details to the shoulder parts. Trying to see what kind of detail holds up and how printing on the bottom of the swinging part works. Changed the windows into a more armored, fortress-like entrance. Updated the hinge for the top ramp to optionally accept the stock ramps. And added some armament for the battlecruiser mode. Hopefully I can make that work. Need to get them all detailed out first, and then I can figure out what options for selling them look like. Good call on the doors, guys.
