Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Articulated Tyrannozord

Hi RPF members,


I'm a new member but been lurking some time. The creativity around here is so inspiring, I decided to fullfill a childhood dream of mine. I'm looking to get some ideas from the brilliant minds around here.

This is my first real customization/rebuild project. I say rebuild because I'm taking a children's toy and turning it into fully articulated action figure. I have no real experience with tools, working with materials, casting, etc. I am a professional artist though, so I have some ideas for your consideration. Here is tv show version:




The project in discussion is creating a screen-accurate, fully posable Tyrannozord from the original Mighty Morphin Power rangers series.
The base I'm using is the Imaginext toy. There is very little articulation on this figure and is basically a brick.



I've already disarticulated a second that I purchased. I am mostly finished sculpting the head and now need to work out the articulation process.



I'll layout the questions as they pertain to the three areas I'm tackling right now:


1. jaw articulation


As it is now, the jaw can move up and down, but it does not keep it's position.
There is a smaller peg (a) that inserts into a larger tube (b). However, the peg is not large enough that it fits snugly, and so the jaw movement is loose.


Any ideas for articulating this jaw to keep it's position?




2. Neck articulation


I wanted to use a ball joint for universal movement. However, I'd settle having the head just moving up and down. Here is my idea for achieving this articulation.




I created the side profile of the neck with two pieces of styrene with epoxy holding them together. It feels like to much work, there must be a better way to construct the neck itself.





Any comments on this design?



3. Tail Articulation


This is the most complex challenge I have. I'm including a link from the show to give an idea what type of articulation I'm aiming for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP5S7CXqig4

Skip to 00:54




You'll notice the tail is divided into articulated segments, which are then covered by the larger segments. Here's my idea to achieve this articulation. I'm thinking ball joints to give it poseability.




The main challenge is whether this is a feasible solution, and how to devise a system to attach the joints within the tail segments.

Here are the pieces I'm working with.




Fellas, thanks for your attention, I appreciate any comments and suggestions.

I think the place to start would be with stop motion armatures. There's been a few projects on the board related to that a search for armatures may turn up some good information. Actually, I just did a google search for stop motion armature and the images turn up some very helpful info, better than anything I could come up with. Hope that helps.

justanuthercap said:

I think the place to start would be with stop motion armatures. There's been a few projects on the board related to that a search for armatures may turn up some good information. Actually, I just did a google search for stop motion armature and the images turn up some very helpful info, better than anything I could come up with. Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestion. I have previously looked into getting a pre-made armature. The problem I found was that all the armatures for purchase are smaller scale (around 6" or so) than what I need for my figure. Thus the joints would be too small and a customized armature would be pricey. I did do another search as per your suggestion and found a tutorial for making an armature. Another challenge I have is how to incorporate the joints to the plastic pieces, currently my solution is to attach them via epoxy. I'll look further into the armature idea and post updates, perhaps that will be more specific. Alternatively, I'm thinking of getting a flexible tripod and using this for a tail:

That tripod is not a bad idea at all for the tail.

Just submitting more updates on my little project. Rex just went to the dentist





You see all those "pellets"? Each one was sanded down to one tooth. It was a BITCH because not only did I have to make sure each tooth was the same height, but had to chose variants that were equal in width. Then I had to align and space them evenly, a process which took no less than three hours. And that was only for the lower jaw.


This was the third attempt at creating the teeth and I'd say it was successful. Initially I made teeth cutouts from styrene but they were flat and sanded poorly. Then I made cutouts from PVC, which sanded better but they wouldve been harder to round out.


Finally I created the raw teeth with apoxie sculpt by hand, then cut and sanded them. All in all, it was probably the most efficient way to get nice, conical teeth that were easy to work with. I also considered toothpicks but they were too thin.







Once the lower jaw was complete, it was way easier to align the top teeth. This took total about 1 hour.













Thats all for now. After all the teeth, I wanna get those little cylinders on the side of the face. See below:







After that the eyes will be next and the head will be pretty much complete. Part of me wants to add electronics to make the eyes light up, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I would need to make a clear mold of the eyes for this and dont have that info right now. I already molded the rough shapes for the cylinders though.


One more thing, I got an octopus tripod that I believe will work nicely for the tail.








Furthermore, It looks like I can use the main trunk to articulate the waist and both legs. The parts are there it's just a matter of combining them with the toy. Easier said than done!


Signing off, time to get some z's :sleep