cylonchaney's custom figures

[cylonchaney]

15 hours ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

I have managed to make the head and torso and they work perfectly with official Minimate parts. The arms are next on my list. I have it started, but I know the elbow joint is going to be a pain. I was actually looking to see if there is a different sort of joint that would work well if I were to make an extra large sized Minimate. I want it to still look like a Minimate at the elbow joint though. Any engineers out there that may have any ideas?

Here's how I went about it. Note that the peg is attached to one side, not a separate piece, and thinner than a Minimate one. The standard Mate joint is bigger and doesn't leave enough material around the hole to be strong. Basically, my upper arm would always break when putting it together. The smaller peg means a smaller hole and stronger upper arm.

The downside of this simple design is that they don't click into place and hold. When posing, I often have to squeeze the joint back to a tight fit as the pieces tend to drift apart when the joint is moved. It's just a friction fit.

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2025 by cylonchaney

[Padrino]

43 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

Here's how I went about it. Note that the peg is attached to one side, not a separate piece, and thinner than a Minimate one. The standard Mate joint is bigger and doesn't leave enough material around the hole to be strong. Basically, my upper arm would always break when putting it together. The smaller peg means a smaller hole and stronger upper arm.

The downside of this simple design is that they don't click into place and hold. When posing, I often have to squeeze the joint back to a tight fit as the pieces tend to drift apart when the joint is moved. It's just a friction fit.

 

 

 

this is all fascinating to me. is the design change because the 3D printer material is less flexible than molded plastic?

[Liney]

Could you try adding ridges to the joints, or make it a hex/octagon to give it a bit of grip/rachet points?

[cylonchaney]

5 hours ago, Padrino said:

this is all fascinating to me. is the design change because the 3D printer material is less flexible than molded plastic?

The layer bond is the problem.

4 hours ago, Liney said:

Could you try adding ridges to the joints, or make it a hex/octagon to give it a bit of grip/rachet points?

They're tight enough on the axis that rotates. The challenge with my design and it's not a big one is that the arm and leg joint pins want to work their way out when the joints are moved. The figures are easily poseable and hold a pose.

The weak point of extruded plastic prints is the bond between layers. Any break will almost always be between layers.

There are a number of considerations. I want all of the parts printed in an orientation such that when the figure is assembled, the layer lines are all along the same plane. You may notice that this is true for every part of my figures except the upper leg piece which is printed lying down instead of standing. The other consideration with orientation is part strength. If I printed the upper arm sideways, it would look ugly for several reasons but the hole would be strong. Then there is print bed adhesion. Ideally you want a large flat surface aligned to the bed so it sticks well. One has to balance all of these considerations with some trickier parts.

[cylonchaney]

Below is the output of the slicing software that makes the object into a series of toolpaths for the printer. You can see the upright one would be easy to split at the hole along the layer lines. The sideways one would have a much stronger hole but the finish would be less pleasing. 

 

[cylonchaney]

Another simple joint design is the self centering pin. If you make the holes on each side of the joint different diameters, the pin can only go in one way and will naturally self center.

I'm happy to provide any advice I can to those attempting their own design. Some may have noticed my knee design is a mirror of the modern mate design, though some older mates had knees like this.

I could have done this joint for the arm as well, but the pin is rather small at 1X scale so I built it into the lower arm for my design. For printing really small figures, I have a lower leg with the pin attached as well, that I print as a single piece.

[cylonchaney]

I find it interesting that many of my discoveries come from something that didn't work out. I recently found a LEGO fly head 3d print file and decided I would make a custom from the 1950's The Fly. Of course I printed the whole body, lab coat, etc. and the head was in the last run. It turns out the file is no good for 3d printing and beyond my ability to fix. I could maybe whip something up using my basic CAD skills but felt I would be disappointed in my own efforts. I spent time looking for a similar file and couldn't find one.

Then I remembered my most recent attempts to work with AI. I was able to prompt it into producing a reasonably recognizable fly head. Good enough for one of my customs anyway. I was able to save it to stl from a free AI tool. I then took it into Blender to carve out a hole for the neck peg. And voila, The Fly! I did the hand in my standard CAD tool.

 

 

 

[THE_CRIPPLER]

I love that. He will fit in good with the Universal Monsters Minimates. Are you using a free a.i. program to make these (if there is such a thing as a free a.i. program)?

[cylonchaney]

8 minutes ago, THE_CRIPPLER said:

I love that. He will fit in good with the Universal Monsters Minimates. Are you using a free a.i. program to make these (if there is such a thing as a free a.i. program)?

https://hyper3d.ai/rodin

I posted elsewhere on this. You can upload photos to get 3d models. Somewhere on this site I posted an example where I uploaded a photo of a Superman Minimate and the model it made was pretty good for one photo.

In this case, I used text prompts to generate the fly head. Then imported to Blender to carve the peg hole.

The head and hand can be downloaded for free from my models page. https://www.printables.com/@JustSomeGuy_1140479/models

Edited February 24 by cylonchaney

[THE_CRIPPLER]

I remembered your Superman post after I asked what program you used. I just tried Canva, but was not impressed with the results at all. I even gave it a good pic and it was still way off. I will give hyper 3d a shot. Thanks for the help.

[THE_CRIPPLER]

Ok, I spent way too much time last night messing around on hyper3d. I managed something that looks pretty good to me, but will need some adjusting in Blender. How do I save the design that I like? I didn't want to hit the wrong button and loose it last night. Also, then how do I turn it into an stl?

[cylonchaney]

On 2/24/2026 at 10:34 AM, THE_CRIPPLER said:

Ok, I spent way too much time last night messing around on hyper3d. I managed something that looks pretty good to me, but will need some adjusting in Blender. How do I save the design that I like? I didn't want to hit the wrong button and loose it last night. Also, then how do I turn it into an stl?

If you want to save for free you have to find your way to version 1.5 which is not as good as the current one. If you keep moving forward, you'll get to a download point and there are little icons or buttons with output formats. STL obviously will work import to Blender, as will obj. Possibly some of the others. I went with stl. It's all on the right hand side once you have a 3d preview. It wants you to let the AI texture it before you can download. There is a step or two before download becomes an option. I think if you poke around and keep moving forward you'll figure it out. I hope you find this helpful. But remember, I'm only one successful model ahead of you.  

I don't think it will be too much longer before we can just ask for a Darth Vader / Santa mashup Minimate and get pretty much exactly what we were envisioning. Cool and scary.

I did another one. An Ovion from classic BSG and I get chills from how good it came out from uploading one single photo. I'll post it soon. Well hopefully. I'm really lazy about taking photos and posting.  But my little Vipers now have home made Colonial Warriors to pilot them and Ovion aliens to backstab them. LOL I'm bigoted against insectoid aliens. Never trust them.

[cylonchaney]

My friend made another AI animation of my customs. Lol

 

[Padrino]

2 hours ago, cylonchaney said:

My friend made another AI animation of my customs. Lol

 

Love this!

[luke314pi]

Haha that is so cool!!

[Shanester]

Very cool!

[cylonchaney]

Needs more work. But here's my prototype. I wonder if anyone younger than Gen X will know the character?

 

Already posted in another thread. But just to keep my custom work all in one place:

 

Edited March 4 by cylonchaney

[cylonchaney]

I've  been playing around with the idea of a Minimate compatible horse for a while now. Just playing around a little bit. I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion. I'm leaning towards a blockier look myself vs. smooth. I'm thinking the two rightmost would look best with Mates.

The furthest left one is just there for reference and not my work.

Also, who should go with the first horse if I ever finish? I'm leaning towards Charlton Heston in a loincloth. Take your filthy paws off of me you damn dirty ape Minimate!

 

Edited March 6 by cylonchaney

[Shanester]

I love that Lone Ranger.  He really needs that red kerchief. 😉

[cylonchaney]

1 hour ago, Shanester said:

I love that Lone Ranger.  He really needs that red kerchief. 😉

Agreed. He'll be getting one for sure. Those are just leftover stickers from previous customs. I'll try to capture his outfit better when I make him his own. He also needs revolver style guns. The ones he's holding are way too modern. And I might try to do a cowboy-boot-style foot. He will definitely be getting a version 2.

[buttheadsmate]

11 minutes ago, cylonchaney said:

Agreed. He'll be getting one for sure. Those are just leftover stickers from previous customs. I'll try to capture his outfit better when I make him his own. He also needs revolver style guns. The ones he's holding are way too modern. And I might try to do a cowboy-boot-style foot. He will definitely be getting a version 2.

"You speak much but say nothing Kemosabe "    - Tonto

 

1 hour ago, Shanester said:

I love that Lone Ranger.  He really needs that red kerchief. 😉

"Trouble find Tonto even when him not look for it "  - Tonto 

 

Great stuff as usual 

-chiefthundercloudsmate

Edited March 6 by buttheadsmate
sp.

[cylonchaney]

The Lone Ranger won't have to wait much longer for proper guns. The handle is going to be a minor pain but I'm almost there.

 

[cylonchaney]

 

I'm doing some maintenance on my good printer right now. This is off the old crappy one.

 

 

Now I have to make new holsters to fit these guns. LOL

[cylonchaney]

Still playing around with a horse design. I decided to go blockier since it's intended to be a Minimate horse. I think this is a better direction. I'll take another crack at the head as well. I will make hooves, and joints at the knees and ankles. But I'm starting to like where this is going. 

 

 

 

[Liney]

That looks pretty good to me! I think the blocky option was definitely the way you go.

 

I'm nos thinking how cool a minimate western style saloon would be...