Minecraft skeleton prints

So my daughter is a little bit into Minecraft. As are lots of people I know. I don't think it's anything to be worried about, but, when I was young we struggled with computer graphics and the whole blockiness thing. Now we have advanced in the correct direction and have photorealistic computer generated imagery, and kids want the retro chic 80's all over again.

Anyhow, the whole blockiness thing plays nicely into the limited things we have to build with, this should only take 10 minutes, surely!!! Well, I was still cursing 8 hours in.

First things first, let's find an image... Well, you'd think there would be a standard Minecraft skeleton one could take a lend of for inspiration... the thing about these funny little critters is that there are an awful lot of images to choose from, so it really looked like I was going to have to make most of it up.

My next issue was about supports and things. A lot of bits print in mid-air, so you have to plan the pieces to minimise this and do some things like not print circles on an edge etc. Getting complicateder by the minute.

Now we have geometry and body anatomy... hips and shoulders to be precise. The thing about Minecraft is it's all supposed to be square. When you want things to attach and turn... well, the reason the wheel is round people. But I managed to work a way around that as well. (pun not intended).

Anyhow, 8 and a half hours later and a couple of test prints out the way, time to go grab the glow-in-the-dark filament and... well, wait 6 more hours of printing...

Well, that's Christmas presents sorted.

If you want your own, and you have a 3D printer, you can get the STL files up on @Thingiverse with thing #1921954.