Category: Crafts

Let’s Forge Narsil!

September 7, 2024

There is a new type of craft toy where you make miniature items out of plastic and sometimes resin. Most of these are food based – and KLS has made a few – but recently one company brought out this Lord Of The Rings version. Inside the blind-packed plastic sphere is a kit to ‘forge’ a weapon from the Lord Of The Rings films.

That’s the contents, which include a few props and the tools and material to make the sword itself. You can see it comes with two hilts, which may be a hint the process isn’t trivial.

The blade is created by putting resin into a silicone mold. First you need to put a very fine opalescent powder in, and the process is a little slapdash. What’s the powder for? We don’t know, but our guess is to either help the blade not stick to the mold, or to give it a metallic texture since the resin is plastic?

The liquid resin comes in a tiny bottle and the kit includes this long nozzle to inject it into the mold.

This step was difficult since the mold is opaque and the resin is clear so it’s difficult to see how well it’s filling the mold, and whether air bubbles have been avoided. We did our best until it slightly overfilled.

Then you put a hilt on top and let it harden in light. The kit says 60 minutes is all that is needed but from experience – a near-failed model jelly kit – KLS decided to leave it for a day.

To be extra sure we put it under a UV lamp overnight!

The next day the blade slid out of the mold easily, but had an air bubble. Kristin did her best to fill it and we let it dry another day!

And after the second drying stage here it is! A tiny toothpick sized legendary blade with a missing tip 🙂

The blade bonded to the hilt well and took the detail of the mold nicely. It was a bit sticky so the final step was to rub it with some alcohol. While imperfect, I’d say overall it was a fair effort.

We attempted to make another one with the remaining material, but it was a fail and no photos were taken.

For an intro into resin molding I think these kits are pretty great, but they’re also messy and difficult and I can’t see the intended audience (children) having much success with them. It was fun for us though!

My Very Own Famicom

August 23, 2024

41 years ago Nintendo released the Family Computer (commonly known as the Famicom) in Japan. This home console introduced the world to Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Dragon Quest and a wealth of other landmark series that continue to this day:

I never owned a Famicom, and indeed few outside of Japan did, for Nintendo redesigned it and released it worldwide as the NES. I’ve seen Famicoms for sale in Japan every time I’ve visited and since they’re not very expensive I once or twice considered getting one ‘for the collection’. I never did.

This Japanese magazine came out a couple of months ago, and I picked it up in NYC when I was last there. It’s a commemorative special to celebrate 40 years of Famicom (albeit a year late) and if you look closely at the photo on the cover you’ll notice the console is a bit unusual…

It’s made of paper!

The magazine came with (and was probably printed exclusively for) a detailed life-sized papercraft model of a Famicom! Needless to say I had to have it, and while the $47 price tag was exorbitant (and a 360% increase over the ¥ price) in retrospect I may have got a deal since these are highly collectible now and the price is climbing much higher on eBay.

In addition to eight cardstock sheets of pieces, the magazine came with a box of additional parts including an electronic controller that makes authentic Super Mario Brothers sounds. It also had a few other bonuses, such as a sticker sheet, a guide book showcasing weird glitches in Famicom games, and a cute Famicom notebook.

I was surprised to see how in depth the instructions were. Happily the pieces were mostly cut already and punched out easily, but the actual assembly wasn’t trivial and certainly more challenging than I expected. I had to use the translator and read the steps carefully. While most of the pieces go together using tabs and slots, there are also steps requiring glue (or tape, which I used) but they are designed so the adhered tabs are mostly invisible.

That’s the model before I put the case on, and at that stage I’ve assembled about fifteen pieces. Note the rubber band on the right side: this is because the ‘eject button’ actually ‘works’ (it slides and returns as in the original hardware).

Assembly took me a few hours over three careful sessions. The above photo shows the finished unit, with controllers stored in their little slots (a feature removed from the NES redesign) and the cartridge waiting to be inserted. The power button moves as well.

And there is the system with the cartridge in ready to be played. The controller at the very front has a working d-pad and buttons, and makes all sort of sound effects when you use it.

This is a fantastic model, and certainly worth the original Japanese magazine price (¥1900). At $47 I was robbed, although I don’t regret it since I enjoyed making it.

Cardboard R2

August 2, 2024

Bernard sent me this:

It’s a cardboard R2-D2 model kit! Here’s what was inside:

Six cardboard runners with pieces, an instruction book, and a tiny tube of glue (which I never used). It also includes a cardboard tool to assist in assembly, which is fairly useless (I used tweezers myself).

The model is assembled by punching out the pieces and putting them together using a tab/slot system. Most pieces have slots that need to be punched out, and this can be a little tedious since some of the slots are too small and need to be enlarged before use. Some pieces are scored to bend, and this works better than I expected. I had actually purchased a different kit from the same manufacturer before and assembly was a nightmare, so I was nervous.

The initial steps included a lot of framework and placement of curved pieces. Unlike the other kit I mostly failed on, this all went together surprisingly well and in a couple of hours I had finished the main body.

The legs were a lot more finicky, and there may have been some cursing trying to get all the pieces together well. Once or twice I had to cut off tabs since (curved) pieces didn’t go together correctly, but I was able to do this in a way that was transparent to the final version.

After about 6 carefree hours I’d finished the four main sections, and it was time to put them together. This was also a bit nerve-wracking, since the potential for damage seemed high. But my worry was premature, and this final step was almost effortless.

And here he is! Doesn’t he look great? He’s about a foot tall and surprisingly sturdy considering he’s cardboard. As I said I didn’t use glue, but everything is together tightly and I don’t feel I need to be fragile moving him around.

Here he is compared to the two of my other recent R2 pickups: a Lego version and a vintage action figure.

Overall this kit gets a resounding thumbs up. As it turns out when Bernard sent it to me I had already purchased one myself, and I’ll therefore be sending him back one so he can make it for himself.

As for mine, I could just put him on the shelf, or in my office… or I could set him on fire and post dramatic photos on this blog! Let me know in the comments which is preferred?

Robot Claw