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Bionicle piece measurements


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Hey, as some of you know, I happen to own a 3D Printer. Now, before you go asking me to model things for you and print them, I just want to say no matter how expensive you get a 3D printer (even though mine was rather cheap), they are really, really finicky, and it can take me weeks to get a good print out.

 

The real reason why I posted this topic is that I am considering working on some custom 3D printed masks, and I was curious if anyone had accurate measurements of various Bionicle pieces, namely:

 

+ socket and pin dimensions

 

O socket and pin dimesions

 

Metru head eye height, mouth height, width, height, and any other measurements you can give

 

I'd say ball socket, but I doubt the plastic can handle that.

 

So, has anyone actually ever taken these measurements, as precisely as possible? If not, I'll just use a ruler, but I'd like to see if anyone else has already done it and would save me some work. :P I've seen minifigure measurements floating around the internet, but I haven't seen anything Bionicle related.

 

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Although I'm unable to provide measurements at the moment, I do want to make a suggestion, one that could make things soooo much easier concerning, well, all masks.

 

I think that whatever masks you make should be large enough to fit the Toa Mahri "visor" piece underneath, and have the mouthpiece be 3 studs long instead of the usual two. Anyone who's ever wanted to fit a visor under Toa Vakama's Huna and spray paint it blue to use for, say, a Toa Macku moc has run into the problem of it being, well, impossible to fit that way.

 

So however the outside of a mask is shaped, I think it would be best to find the measurements of that visor piece, make a 3D model of it, and just build all of your masks around that template. In any case, you'd never have to worry about clearance for the Metru heads to fit underneath.

 

Unfortunately, while most Metru-style masks CAN fit over a Toa Mata head, they tend to be very cramped, especially if the visor piece is used as well. In that case, I think it would be best to make two templates, and decide beforehand whether you want a mask to be worn on a Toa Metru head or a Toa Mata head.

 

 

 

If I may add... one thing I think would make people ESPECIALLY crazy, if you found the material for this (though it's understandable if you can't) would be... new colors of the Toa Metru eye piece.... like, say, yellow... or Tahu pink... or purple... but I think I've said too much, already.

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The Toa- A Bionicle Retelling by NickonAquaMagna http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/25275-the-toa-a-retelling-of-bionicle/

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Thanks, AdaptingChaos. If you want to go ahead and try it, feel free. I'll try my own (since in searching for an hour or so for the patents or other measurements, I didn't get anything), and we can compare.

 

I'll keep that in mind, NickonAquaMagna. I'll at least do it for your mask. ;) It does seem a bit more challenging to try than just a regular Metru head, but if I can get it to work, I'll try it out.

 

And I was planning to model the head pieces. It makes it so much easier to be sure you're not overlapping while also not going too far. I've already done a minifigure, and it helps so much.

 

I do have some molding plastic that I attempted to make a purple Metru eyepiece with, but it turned out terrible. I'm not sure how well it will work with 3D printing. Seems like it will be too translucent, but I may give it a shot if I have the spare cash to buy the filament.

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Just one question, were did you get your 3d printer, and how much did it cost?

 

I'm looking at buying one, to make some custom Bionicle parts for Mocs to sell on my site.

 

 

ldd2000

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Creating topic for Idd2000, please don't post until he does.

 

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I found mine on a local eBay-type website. I spent a while just searching various sites until I found one that seemed a decent price ($700 I believe).

 

Just warning you now, you'll probably spend more time trying to get it to work rather than printing. No matter which one you get; the technology just isn't perfected yet.

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I found mine on a local eBay-type website. I spent a while just searching various sites until I found one that seemed a decent price ($700 I believe).

 

Just warning you now, you'll probably spend more time trying to get it to work rather than printing. No matter which one you get; the technology just isn't perfected yet.

 

Thanks,

 

Also you might want to look up a new 3d printer coming out idk when, called the Peachy Printer

leechfoam.gif "Copy and paste me into your sig! The shadows command you!"

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Creating topic for Idd2000, please don't post until he does.

 

Or he'll eat you

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I can see your point, but I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on something that will do for me what I can do with a ruler and some time. I have been 3D modeling for 2 years now, so I am competent enough to model the pieces with enough accuracy to be used as a model.

 

I'm not sure how to get the pieces from LDD. I've heard there are add-ons to LDeaw that can convert them to models, but after trying for a couple hours, I never figured it out.

 

And thanks for volunteering. I have many of the measurements already from my own attempts with a ruler, but it would be nice to get something more accurate.

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