I’ve thought for a while that LEGO R2 needed a swiveling head without the stud cutouts in the corners. I think he could be a far superior figure with that small upgrade.
i really like peoples suggestions of putting a normal stud there so the body could be used in other sets, really interested to implement peoples feedback!
I’ve gotta say, this custom is in a weird spot for me. I LOVE the body having a standard neck peg now, the slightly more detailed legs are fine, and the extra leg attachment is perfect for non-studded surfaces, but the head is weird for me. While I think that the 3D bits ARE more accurate to R2, it just doesn’t feel very LEGO to me, since I think they’d still try to find a way to keep using the existing head. It also means that any time they want to make a new droid, they need to mold a new head instead of just making a new print, which might not be something LEGO is willing to do for more one-off astromechs. Even still though, THE biggest issue for me is the removal of the stud. That kind of takes a LOT away from the LEGO feel of the figure, and it means you now can’t have things on top of R2. If I had to make one single change to this, it would be readding the stud to the head. I think that would also make the new 3D bits look less out of place, and overall make it feel more LEGO.
I agreed in everything, it would be asier and more lego-ish to just remade the 2x2 dome without the cut-outs and keep @TommyCFigs' head antistud in the middle, it would be way easier to find new uses for this part.
I think that it would be cool if they made a new R2D2 body piece that looks the same as the old one, but instead of studs on the top, it has a recess to hold the round turntable part (3679) and is a little bit shorter to accommodate for it. That way, it is still compatible and similar to the old figures but it can turn its head!
That’s fantastic!! The swiveling head and third leg are way overdue, but I also appreciate the detailed legs! The head is a little too striking to me, but I think it would look alright with some printing
I think putting a hole in the body for a technic pin would be the way to go. The head could either have a pin sticking out or a matching hole and a pin or half-pin could be used to connect them. That would create an incredibly flexible set of pieces with similar interconnection with other standard parts. The body is even long enough it could have a technic axle profile deeper inside. The third leg could connect with a technic pin or axle in the bottom of the body and if a stud pocket were added to the bottom of the foot it would create a unique angled pin to stud adapter (which I'm sure people could find a use for). Summary: Body: Technic pin hole in top, technic pin or axle hole in the bottom, possible technic axle profile through the middle. Head: Technic pin post to connect to the body or a technic pin hole requiring an interconnect piece. (A pin hole should allow for compatibility with minifig torso) Third leg: technic pin or axle connection to bottom of body and stud pocket creating an angled technic to stud adapter
Ok but hear me out, the body doesn't need the full neck piece, just a single center stud. Then it's compatible with all previous heads as well and still swivels. I'm personally fine with the classic heads, gotta have the stud on top for it to look lego right? lol. And I don't think the legs need so much detail. If anything, they could simply add some minor print details to them to spice them up. You use K2-S0 as an example, but even he uses the same basic arms and legs as the battle droids, and he looks fantastic. I will however say, I think some of the other astromech droid types could use some better representation for sure, maybe even some T3 or T7 droids.
My way of updating the figure would simply be making the body only have 1 stud, and removing the cutouts from the heads. It would mean that new droid parts and old droid parts would be incompatible, but it'd keep the lego-like appearance (instead of looking like an action figure), and still look good next to older droids.
Bruh they should have a CMF with rise of skywalker palpatine, good Ben solo, Starkiller, Tobias Beckett, Darth Plagieus, Emperor Starkiller, the Force ghosts, Grogu in his armour and an upgraded Din Djarin with a new head and maybe the hair from Owen Grady in dark brown
@@Autobot_Studios I’m not saying it was a good solution, I’m just saying I’ve been wanting that since I was a little kid, and this is a great way of doing that
What is fin With the r2dr fig is that you can customise him, no third legs ? He has a hole for that, no turning head ? Just use that one piece that lego use for chair
This is cool, but I do think you did a little too much. For example: The head didn't need. New mould imo, instead of the head pole, just use a single stud like on bb8
Interesting fact: the reason Lego doesn’t have a Star Wars CMF line or just sell the minifigs by themselves is because Hasbro has exclusive rights to sell Star Wars action figures and technically a minifig by itself could legally be considered an action figure. But make it a keychain or add other Lego bricks in them and it’s not legally an action figure
From what I can remember, apparently there were documents leaked that explicitly stated that the LEGO Group’s Minifigure did not qualify to be put under the category of an action figure. Apparently the stated reason LEGO did not choose to make a SW CMF series was simply that they did’t want too. Even though they stated the couldn’t make them due to Hasbro’s rights to the action figures for SW that has apparently been untrue the whole time. That can even be verified by the fact Lego has in the past released Polybags containing only a single SW minifig. I can’t remember the source of this info so take it a grain of salt buts it’s worth looking into.
I love the R2D2, but i still Think you should leave the stud on top, because it creates more playing. For example you cant make a crane that can easily attach to its head.
6:36 to fix this issue slightly, I feel you could replace the minifig neck with a normal stud, and make the bottom of the head like a normal 2X2 round plate anti-stud side, so it can clip into normal builds
I love this as a concept but I don't think it'd be viable for lego to do. What I think they could and should do easily is a vertical pin attachment rather than the 4 studs. You lose the cutouts on the bottom edge of the head and gain the ability to rotate the head, virtually no other changes are needed
the dome would still need changing to have one with no holes, as that method would show the holes in the head but all of the comments have made very good points about the design and will be interested to make some changes to my design! :)
I came to a lot of similar conclusions as you re-designing Character Building (Cobi) Dalek minifigs. Keeping the distinctive silhouette is the key! Nice Artoo unit you have there, no faulty motivator! 😉
I don't think artoo needs a complete redesign. I think he needs to at least keep the stud on top of the head. Also instead of the head pole use a stud that way that piece could definitely be used as something else. I think Lego's artoo is an iconic minifigure like Kenners artoo. I'd love to see more 3d printed things though like heads for Simpsons minifigures we never got or even futurama and family guy heads. Maybe even wallace and gromit or giving the toy story 4 minifigures 3d heads like the older ones had.
Keeping the stud on the top of the dome would have been nice, so you could have head attachments still. though you could probably get around using a unique head for that, or possibly a "shoulder" neck attachment
I love this but wouldn't an easier solution for the head be that they just make a torso piece with a single stud in the middle. Would mean all existing heads would work with the updated body and have the additional turn feature
It would, but using the existing dome piece would have a hole in it. You would be able to see through the droid, and I don't think that would look good. So, I think a new head is very necessary, hence why I didn't even talk about it in the video.
I think given how many times they've made R2, they should just make a dedicated mold set for the figures,, perhaps even do duel molding for the main head color and then a secondary color for the panels, then use printing for the eye and light features. same for the bodies, main body is molded as one color, while the doors are molded as a secondary color. then they can print extra details if the droid has them. this would also allow them to have a detailed backside of the R2 droids which has largely been blank for just about every droid except for a few recent special versions of R2.
The head I think stands out in a weird way because it doesn’t have the stud, and also because one cannot really see how it looks with print applied on. I think Artoo’s head would be worthy of dual molding, but only on its black eye so that the print can have continuity. Lego has retired very useful parts in the past, but I don’t know why not create a swiveling system for its head and body. After all, there’s no other use for Jabba, the Rancor, blasters or the mando helmets and yet they’ve been created
The best fix would be to make them smaller, in my opinion, Lego astromechs are just jarringly big when compared to normal figures, most of us are just used to it cause we grew up with it
I think the classic legs and head look good, so the torso should be changed. Instead of the torso, it should be a technic pin hole with the new technic pin with stud and friction ridges.
I think LEGO’s reason for not making a torso that allows R2’s head to rotate is because it would block the slot. R2’s torso, as well as any other piece that allows two pins to be inserted in a similar fashion, has a slot where the pins would touch, presumably as another way of removing the pins should they get stuck. Chopper’s body doesn’t have a top slot, but there is one on the bottom. In theory, they might be able to make a piece to go under a modified single connection point Chopper body, but then there’d be a visible seam and printing gap where the two pieces connect.
I don't think the original is too nostalgic to change, necessarily, it's just at a really great compromise between simplicity and legibility. Like...it's just good
For the head connection, I would have done a 2x2 round jumper for the top, instead of a neck bar Mainly because the normal Droid body is a good part for building, a full neck bar I think limits that
@TommyCFigs also if you make R2's little scope/eye bits the same size as the accessories hole on some mini-fig hats, you could plug in flowers and fire bits to his eyes lol
I think the figure is dope, but the density of detail is a bit too much for lego. The head peg is such a great idea for a swivelling head, but I don't think adding detail to the actual head piece is necessary for the silhouettes legibility. And I definitely agree about the third leg, but I think the issue of reusability could be resolved by making the bottom hole a technic pinhole and making the third leg a simper technic-compatible piece
Fun fact: Lego didn't actually use an existing piece when creating R2-D2. In 1999 all of his parts were new molds so there wasn't actually any clever money saving technique.
Honestly I think the best thing you could have done would be to have scaled it down a bit to make it closer to minifig scale because he's just a bit to big
1:41 "Im not sure you guys saw my video the other week" ah yes, 4 months ago, jsut the other week XD. Damn, that and this video are great though, the reason i found you all those months ago
I will say though, I do miss the stud on the heads, as even the BB units have that. But ye, reusability, like with the Minecraft Wolf and Minion Heads, can be surprising sometimes and work very well. So, I feel LEGO would find a way XD they always do
i mean there are ways to do it, painting, decals ect. but id rather put this in the hands of a custom companies as they have the technology to pad print and mold these kind of items :)
Only thing I would do is add the swivel head, the rest is just too iconic, I'm not a huge fan of the overly detailed new pieces like the stormtrooper or Darth Vader helmets cause I think they loose some lego charm
good job in also mentioning that resin is super unhealthy, i saw some other channels just grabbing resin figures they printed by hand without care and not using masks, little do they know how harmful that is in the long run, love the result btw
it is really important to me that if someone wants to get into the amazing hobby of 3d printing they know about the down sides and protecting your health!
Honestly coming from an artistic perspective, it’s too much and looks unless like Here’s an explanation first to understand my point… The Looney too heads are unLego like in artistic style, however they are designed in a manner, size, AND proportion that compliments it with the Lego body. No matter how weird it looks, it doesn’t look completely like it’s a separate thing from the Lego body below. Its design functions no matter how weird it can look. The new Lego stormtrooper helmets suck, primarily due to its overall proportions (also it’s just far less accurate in proportion design to actual helmet). Anyways the helmet looks is too tall, too large with the inconvenience chin overhang, besides the reduced functionality, the proportions have become so skewed and mismatched, the helmet is larger and more demanding in its artistic expression. This draws more attention to the helmet than the LEGO body (and its prints). People are instinctually programmed to notice problems and defects, it’s a survival instinct, it imbeds itself into design. Because of the helmets more dominant silhouette, its overpowers the LEGO body, this is especially bad given the helmet is unLego like in its silhouette, therefore it makes the LEGO body look like it doesn’t have the correct head, like the helmet is for an action figure. While your design is nice, it has some of the issues like the new stormtrooper helmet in matching a Lego silhouette. Even though the body is a recognizable part, it’s not enough to be immediately pointed to as Lego like a 2x4 brick would. The fact the edges of it do not show studs reduce the silhouette and feeling of Lego and makes it lean closer to action figure. However, this is one factor that can still be added IF the head is changed, while it’s a nice design, it feels EXTREMELY unLego like. If you were to make the entire figure in pitch black, it would be difficult to immediately tell its LEGO, maybe only the legs could tell, this all could be resolved by adding a stud on top of the head. If you analyze BB-8, it works in LEGO because I has two factors give in the LEGO silhouette, the stud on the top and the open stud on the bottom, if color in pure black, it could be identified as LEGO because of those making a LEGO silhouette. Lastly, the legs, it’s almost all good but one issue, too much detail, remove the little cylinder and you will match the style and simplicity of Lego, the inner details on the side of the legs are fines, it’s just the cylinders that stick out. Its main issues is that is has dropped all of the Lego factors (mainly being the studs) to look more accurate, but has now completely deminished its Lego silhouette, if look at from far way, it’d look more like an action figure rather than Lego
I mean, I disagree; the new droid is heavily inspired by the original, using the best parts from it, just updating the design. I agree with what a lot of people are saying about the head, and I will do a version with the stud on top. But unfortunately, a lot of these style changes are subjective, and that's okay. I know many people that don't like the new Stormtrooper and Vader helmets for the same reasons :)
