The Poké Ball: An Accurate and Functional Representation

[Jm419]

If you get this off the ground, please send me a message.

I'll do that once I get a prototype in and working. Thanks.

Haha, only if you'd like. I'd imagine it'd just be a resizing of the one you already have, along with maybe making the black belt flush with the rest of the ball. Or maybe not. I'm not quite sure how the smaller one would look in real life.
Haha, and I'm more than ready for the wait, believe me. Kinda hard to let go of something once you hit that ten year mark, you know?
Lol, and I agree. You can't be a pokémon master without a pokéball that looks like a pokéball.

I'll give you a render, alongside a render of this one. I wanna figure out the Great Ball tomorrow; the interior took up my time today. If I have time, I'll do a quick mock up of the solid small ball tomorrow.

Pokémon is one of those things that you don't outgrow. I think that's unique to our generation, but it's a part of us now, in the same way Star Wars is for our parents, or whatever.

This looks beyond awesome.
I'm going to be watching this thread closer than mine, haha.
I really like how it looks with the belt on top rather than bottom, but like you said, that's just a personal preference.

Most of the reference has it on the top, and that's the way I'll do it. I like it better, anyway. I just had to see it.

great work. i will be waiting for you to produce these for sale. keep up the great work

I don't want to guarantee anything, but I hope that'll all work out. :lol

 

[C0mmand3rC0dy]

I've always wanted a Pokeball of my own lol

the best version I have ever found is a Jakks Pacific Electronic Pokeball,


but honestly, a replica would be AWESOME.

 

[Jm419]

I've always wanted a Pokeball of my own lol

the best version I have ever found is a Jakks Pacific Electronic Pokeball,


but honestly, a replica would be AWESOME.

Does this one count? :lol

Shapeways may be prohibitively expensive, but I can always cast a shell, see how it turns out.

 

[MooMooEgg]

Look great! The button on top when open definitely looks a lot better. I'll be following the progress of this =)

 

[michelmoermans]

I'm subscribing to this! I know all of my friends would want one of these But me first! Moehahahaha!

 

[Jm419]

Well, how about this one?

The Great Ball, for when you don't want to miss:

The red bumps took forever to figure out, but I think I've gotten them fairly close. Again, there isn't any definite shape to these, and each piece of reference has a slightly different shape and placement. I think this way looks the best.

 

[Jm419]

And, for Eric, a 1" diameter Poké Ball.

You may be a little surprised; it looks like a moon orbiting a planet. With only 1/27 the volume of the larger ball, you might think the small one is too small.

 

[Harry Bardwell]

Hi, not to down you idea or anything but why don't you use a hinge more like this.

Please forgive the crude drawing, but I think it gets the point across. It would be a smaller hinge, so there would be more room on the inside for a slightly more correct interior. What do you think?

 

[Jm419]

I see what you're saying; but wouldn't it bind? Wouldn't the back of the ball need to pass through itself?

I can always give it a try.

 

[Eric Sigh]

Sorry, my computer didn't load the page right, lol, I'll be right back with a real response.

 

[Eric Sigh]

I dunno actually, I think it might be pretty accurate

I found this diagram that is hopefully accurate to the show

In the upper left theres a size comparison, and I'm pretty sure it might give some measurements, if anybody can read japanese.

 

[Eric Sigh]

Well, how about this one?

The Great Ball, for when you don't want to miss:

The red bumps took forever to figure out, but I think I've gotten them fairly close. Again, there isn't any definite shape to these, and each piece of reference has a slightly different shape and placement. I think this way looks the best.

Also, this looks really awesome. I was gonna say the bumps might be a little wide set, but after looking at some reference pictures, I'd say they're spot on.

 

[Jm419]

Also, this looks really awesome. I was gonna say the bumps might be a little wide set, but after looking at some reference pictures, I'd say they're spot on.

This is right on. I had to look at all the reference I could find, because to me, the Great Ball looks like a fat pig, even though it's nearly the same shape as the Poké Ball. It took me a while, but I think I got them set at the right point, got the shape right, and got them the right length, so they didn't look too close or too far apart in the front.

 

[Eric Sigh]

This is right on. I had to look at all the reference I could find, because to me, the Great Ball looks like a fat pig, even though it's nearly the same shape as the Poké Ball. It took me a while, but I think I got them set at the right point, got the shape right, and got them the right length, so they didn't look too close or too far apart in the front.

Yeah, haha, I guess I'm just not used to seeing them so up close and detailed.

 

[Jm419]

It'll be neat to see how it comes out.

So I uploaded the Poké Ball parts to Shapeways, and it'd be more than $80 in plastic. Completely unacceptable, if you ask me; so I'm going to make the walls a third thinner and see how that impacts price.

 

[Hexvas]

If it were my baby, I would pay for it. But $80 is still pricey and $20 might make it feel too light/flimsy. In my opinion if you aren't able/willing to invest in it, a medium price range may work. A $50 price tag wouldn't be too bad....

 

[Jm419]

I'm working on it. I could always downscale it slightly - 2.5 in instead of 3 - and it would exponentially decrease price.

I shaved off 1/3 of the inside thickness, so we'll see how it comes out. Uploading to Shapeways now.

Anyway, another update for you folks. I did some work on the interior of the bottom shell, reworking the hinge as suggested so that the interior could be more accurate. It ought to save on material, too. Here are some photos of just the bottom half.

The gold pins aren't behaving. If you want some in your build, I can always make up a part and sell it separately, but it won't come attached. There are some wonky geometry things going on that won't look right if I leave them in.

Anyway, as you can see, the hinge looks much nicer now, and I have a new ball to show off too.

The Ultra Ball, for when you really don't want to miss.

You can see the old hinge in this image. The one below this text shows the new hinge design. I think it's much cleaner, and it allows for bottom shell detailing.

This one was always my favorite. I just like it, I dunno. :lol

Lemme know what you think.

 

[Eric Sigh]

The more I look at the small ones the more I really want this to happen.
I'm actually a little bummed to hear that you're going to modify it (I understand completely though, 80 dollars is way too much) since I really thought your first concepts would have provided an accurate weight and feel to the pokeballs.

 

[Eric Sigh]

I'm working on it. I could always downscale it slightly - 2.5 in instead of 3 - and it would exponentially decrease price.

I shaved off 1/3 of the inside thickness, so we'll see how it comes out. Uploading to Shapeways now.

Anyway, another update for you folks. I did some work on the interior of the bottom shell, reworking the hinge as suggested so that the interior could be more accurate. It ought to save on material, too. Here are some photos of just the bottom half.

The gold pins aren't behaving. If you want some in your build, I can always make up a part and sell it separately, but it won't come attached. There are some wonky geometry things going on that won't look right if I leave them in.

Anyway, as you can see, the hinge looks much nicer now, and I have a new ball to show off too.

The Ultra Ball, for when you really don't want to miss.

You can see the old hinge in this image. The one below this text shows the new hinge design. I think it's much cleaner, and it allows for bottom shell detailing.

This one was always my favorite. I just like it, I dunno. :lol

Lemme know what you think.

Ultra ball looks great. Each post just makes me more and more hopeful that this will work, lol.

 

[jazzygeoffery]

What if the extra bits were separate pieces, so you could cast a normal pokeball, then glue the detail piece to one of the casts, and cast that? Or would that cost more money to make the molds?