As a kid I followed Transformers Gen 1, it was great. Through my teen years I didn't do much with Transformers, I still liked them, but I fell out a bit when it came to Beast Wars and the next few generations. In 2007 I was really excited for the Bay Transformers movie and after watching the Transformers Animated series that came out at roughly the same time, I was hooked again. The best part was I got to watch it with my kids. Now with disposable income I could become a collector.
Transformers Animated, the show that rekindled my love of the figures was fantastic and I truly loved how much the show's toy figures accurately represented the show's characters save for one figure / character, Lugnut. The show was meant to show the autobots as smaller underdogs compared to the larger, stronger and heavily armored Decepticons. Lugnut seemed to be the biggest brute of them all but his toy figure, while accurate, was quite underwhelming in terms of size. I personally was hoping for something like this:
but instead we got this:
For about 10 years now I've dabbled in 3D design (I suck) and 3D printers (bought a few) and hired one or two designers (nice people) but nothing has ever really turned out. Recently I came across
http://peripheralarbor.com/, the proprietor, Paul, is a 3D designer. I can't remember how I came across the site at all. I sent him an email and we got to talking about the project. He forwarded me this link:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/8839839...s-lugnut-print
Fantastic I thought - a Lugnut all ready to go! Unfortunately he was even smaller than the original. The files though...could be purchased - which I did. I worked with Paul on a few changes here and there AND made sure it was sized up. In the end I've landed on this design for now:
Paul even made a video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFBa_TXEbpA
So, I've been printing for about a week and a half now...its slow going but I'm learning lots on the 3D printer. I've lost a few pieces to stupidity but hopefully I won't make the same mistake...3 times?
All I'm going to say is that Lugnut's going to be big. I'm printing in white PLA first as a test shot, and then I'll print the whole thing again in coloured ABS plastic when all the kinks are worked out. Haven't really encountered any problems, Paul does great work.
If you have any questions - let me know. I'll try to update this post every so often.
Dec 27 2021 - Printing continues. The large core piece took 21 hours to print...that was fun. The printer got it done though. Both legs are together and turn into the tail of the plane. They are pretty loose though so I'll have to tighten them up. Looking forward to getting past the PLA stage and printing this out in ABS.
Feb 12 2022 - Putting pieces together now...realizing that the pieces that should be TPU, that's important. Reprinting a couple of pieces.
Feb 14 2022 - Final pics before putting on the fists.
April 14 2022 - Printing continues, decided to use PETG not ABS. Wish the purple was a bit darker but am overall pretty happy with it. What you see isn't pinned together or anything yet.
May 02 2022 - Pretty much done printing...except for the parts I forgot...which there seems to be a lot at times. He's coming together and is a lot sturdier than the PLA one...granted I printed out a lot more TPU parts as appropriate.
May 09 2022 - Done...well, as much as I want to do. He's really turned out well.
May 12 2022 - And the alt mode.
Sep 11 2022 - Ended up doing one more print. Wanted it to be more inline with Atomic Lugnut BUT...the colours didn't really work out. Regardless I'm pretty happy with it.