darkSpyro

I decided to document the trials of opening a 3D printed Imaginator dome for those who may be curious. I highly recommend not doing this, they were not made to be opened, I am simply a special case since mine was damaged in the post already. I have decided to repair this one and use my replacement code on a different figure who has thicker legs:

All steps refer to the image at the bottom of this post.

1. Turning the figure upside down you will notice small bumps on the bottom of the black piece, these are more than simply feet, underneath them are pegs that attach the bottom to the rest of the base, the holes they socket into can be seen by the red arrows in my image. These appear to be glued into place but they will not come out easily, I recommend dremeling through these.

2. Once you have detached the pegs the cover should come off easily, simply put a small flat head screwdriver in the seam to pop it up. If it shows resistance one of the pegs is still attached to the base.

3. With the bottom off the base the tag should simply fall out, in my figure it was not glued into place, it is simply held in the area marked with the yellow circle by the two pieces.

4. The only thing in your way now is the small clips indicated by the blue arrows, these are molded onto the dome and can be a pain to pry out of their holes on the base, I simply dremeled them down.

Oh crap, yours broke in post? That majorly sucks...

Quote: TheToyNerd

Oh crap, yours broke in post? That majorly sucks...

Yea UPS beat it up pretty bad, was pretty disheartening after waiting a month but the Activision support team made it right by offering a code for a free replacement. Also when asked they were unable to expedite the replacement order, but offered a figure from a previous game, so Knight Light will be arriving at my door tomorrow.

I want to make it clear however that Activision/Toys for Bob was not at fault for this incident. The figures packaging was protected by around 4 layers of bubble wrap on all sides, and somehow UPS managed to dent the figure package through it all. The exterior box looked more than crushed, it looked like it had been through a war.

after you fix it post a pic please. also, what does the character feel like? does it feel fuzzy? they look like they feel fuzzy..

First of all WOW! Your character is VERY cute! She would have been a great addition to anyones collection. I'm so jealous! Actually a twintail was on my list of to do characters.

And hey, did you make this walk though just for me? LOL I kid but seriously I think we had the only broken figures here on DS. But this is good for other people in case something happens to theirs as well. Mine arrived perfectly but the glue came undone two days later and she snapped parts during play.

So I went ahead and dremeled it at the spots you had indicated. The first one I tried to drill straight down at the bump, but that wasn't going so well. For the rest I went across the little leg things and just cut a line though below the little bump. That worked better for me.

I was surprised by the chip. Mine too was just flopping around loose inside and I was lucky I didn't dremel that. When I got the dome off, she felt more durable than I had expected. I fully expected her to crumble sands at my touch, but she held up rather well.

So then I went and flooded the base with glue in hopes that it'll stay put for a very long time. I glued her antenna and staff back and she looks...OK. I mean it's obvious she's been reglued and she shows some chipping damage...and her glasses are still awful (it's part of the Librarian head it seems) but basically she's ready for action once again!

Anyway, they done with me as they done with Sinkillerj. I got to pick a new figure of my choice (went with a Barbella) and a replacement created Imaginator of my choice. Sweet! People tend to diss Activision, but they do good work when it comes to replacements! I still feel a little nervous about using these figures and I'll be ordering cards instead of these figs, but at least I know I can open them up and fix them back up rather easily. Took me about 10 minutes total to fix her up. Of course I already own a dremel and glue and have a bit of experience with using both.

BTW exosquad, she doesn't feel fuzzy because she's not fuzzy at all. She looked flocked, but she's really done by some type of 3D plastic sand processing technic. She's actually very rigid and gritty. Almost like touching sandpaper, but I didn't do a lot of feeling as I was afraid of wrecking her more.

Thanks for that tutorial sinkillerj. My imaginator will have to travel across the whole US country and then it will have to cross the atlantic ocean to reach my country. Not only that, but the package will be changed to a smaller one before crossing the sea in order to minimize shipping costs. So, my figure is reeeeeeeeally in high risk of broking.

That said, your figure looks really nice. If i ever made another imaginator I think I will using the same head and eyes, they look superb.

A question which comes to mind: Activision doesn't ask to return the broken figures?

i guess its best to make a imaginator with a thick body, tiny feets,arms,tails etc break off easily by the look if it...

Quote: fairyland

First of all WOW! Your character is VERY cute! She would have been a great addition to anyones collection. I'm so jealous! Actually a twintail was on my list of to do characters.

And hey, did you make this walk though just for me? LOL I kid but seriously I think we had the only broken figures here on DS. But this is good for other people in case something happens to theirs as well.

She is actually based on a existing character of mine: https://twitter.com/tachibinarita/media

Glad I was able to help you with the guide, and hopefully your post will help as well. I simply didn't want anyone else going in blind like I did, As you can probably tell by my picture the process was less... elegant than I would have liked.

Quote: angelg

Thanks for that tutorial sinkillerj. My imaginator will have to travel across the whole US country and then it will have to cross the atlantic ocean to reach my country.

A question which comes to mind: Activision doesn't ask to return the broken figures?

I do quite fear some of the international results, may be one of the reasons they dropped support. I honestly wish they had just made the domes removable to begin with, maybe by screw, so that they could include padding inside it.

In the case of me and the other member who had a broken figure here they did not ask for a return, simply some basic order verification info, and for a picture of the figure including a piece of paper with a unique number written on it for verification.

Quote: exosquad

after you fix it post a pic please. also, what does the character feel like? does it feel fuzzy? they look like they feel fuzzy..

As fairyland said they feel like sandpaper, no surprise given the material. It may be awhile before I can post figure pics as I have to figure out what type of glue to use, but I certainly will.

For now here is what the character looks like in a card render:

she turned out cute. I wasn't sure how well the Bobbed and Beautiful head was going to turn out but gosh it's cute. Soon I'll find out how the Shield Maiden Head looks like but I doubt it'll be as cute. I was trying to go with a chinese/asian head look but something like the Bobbed Head just looks so off in the game. But all the female faces sorta have an asian vibe to them. Also nice to see how the princess skirt turns out.

Quote: exosquad

after you fix it post a pic please. also, what does the character feel like? does it feel fuzzy? they look like they feel fuzzy..

They're made of SAND, dude.

I haven't tried it myself, but if you want to make clean holes while removing the bottom:

This kind of drill bit might work pretty well...

You have to stabilize the base and make little divots into the feet before drilling, but you only have to drill through the thickness of the bottom cover. I think a 1/4 inch forstner bit would work, but 3/8 might clear around the peg better. I'm sure there are other ways to cut through, but this seems like it would be the cleanest.

A dremel with a blunt polishing tip is still my weapon of choice, eats through like butter without having to put much force. With a drill there is always the risk of going straight through the thing.