Mega Lego Skeleton

Intro: Mega Lego Skeleton

This mega sized version of Lego Minifigure Skeleton, is constructed primarily of empty Lego cardboard boxes.  It is articulated and stands about 3ft. tall.

Last year I decided to make use of a bunch of empty Lego cardboard boxes and other scrap cardboard. The result is my Mega Lego Skeleton. Built mostly of Lego packaging, other cardboard, masking tape, glue, hot glue and paint, it stands just under 3 feet tall, and is articulated the same as the tiny model it is based on. 

I have included a .pdf of the parts sheets laid out on 11x17 paper and the Blender file I created to design it.  The .pdf template is complete, but not fully formatted, I will update it at some point.  I will also add painting templates to the .pdf for the face. 

I designed it in Blender as if I were designing a paper model.  I had to add additional support due to the size.  From the Blender file, I used a combination of UV unwrapping and later discovered Pepakura designer, which speeded up the process quite a bit.  I ended up modifying the output from Pepakura quite a bit to make the cutting and structure make more sense for its large size and more rigid material.

Though mostly very accurate to the original, the arms are actually a combination of the real angled and straight arms. I wanted the angled arms but I also wanted it to be able to hold times up and down. So the arms are basically the angled arms with the wrist rotated 90 degrees.

I laid out all the parts in Adobe Illustrator and printed them out on 11x17 paper. 

I then used light tack spray mount to attach them to the printed sides of the boxes and cut out the pieces.  I used a ball-point pen or the back side of a craft knife to score the part where the folds are.

The grey parts in the template are meant to be cut out of thicker cardboard and used to create a lip to which the outer parts are to be glued. 

Some parts, especially the chest, are a little tricky to get together because of the small areas and bends, but cardboard is a pretty forgiving medium.  In come cases, I just split the parts open and resealed them.

Once the individual parts are assembled, I used glue and newspaper to bridge some of the small gaps that arose.  Then it was painted with acrylics.

The parts are all marked and I have included several in progress pictures to better understand how it all goes together. 

Please feel free to ask any questions should they arise.

Thanks for checking it out!

ZG.

Comments

[JosueN2]

alguien me puede enviar todo el pdf poirfa [e-mail]

[fernando.gonzaleznavarro.9]

Hi, I really want to do this project but I don't know how to do some pieces.

!!!I hope that you can send me the full PDF please¡¡¡

My personal email: [e-mail]

[sean2703]

This is brilliant, my son is going to love making this thank you :o)

[Sonictin]

Hi can anyone send me the PDF arm files please i really want to make this for my son.

[lexdarksidius]

HELLO:

How are you?, I send greetings ... regarding your beautiful, beautiful, hard work, congratulations and have loved my nephews and me. Furthermore, may I advise or send me your model PDO or PDF now to update and is ready but too much trouble or abuse?, I promise to send pics of how I have been.

In advance thank you very much and congratulations!

Sincerely.

LEX, Your admirer.
My email: [e-mail]

[ZombieGorilla]

Thank you for you comments!

I will updating the .pdf tonight or in the morning. It will have better formatting and additional instructions. As well as including templates for painting the face as suggested by SHIFT!.

I don't have a .pdo of to share as only discovered Pepakura when it was nearly complete. I used it just for the arms. And even then, I only used the exported .svg to generate for reference to help create the Illustrator fiie.

But the .blend file is attached above. You can export that as a .dae and load it into Pepakura.

Thanks again for comments, I would love to see pictures of the one you create!
Cheers,
ZG.

[christicritter87]

I was wondering if you could send me the arm PDF?

[christicritter87]

I cant seem to find the arms in the pdf... am I missing something?

[designbox]

FAB project. We set ourselves to building one and it looks great! With naive optimism we doubled the size of the templates. Our 'Bones' is life-size. Very cool. I've posted it on our blog site http://dgnbx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/skeleton-crew.html?m=1
Thanks!

[hankd]

Very cool. I love the size of the Skeleton. But I think the template is missing something. I downloaded the pdf and printed everything out. I started working on it last Friday and I got the head all together. But I noticed something there isn't any arms in the template. Are they suppose to be in the template? Did I download the wrong file? Thanks again for the sweet template. Could you let us know so what I can redownload it and finish building the skeleton.

[ZombieGorilla]

Sorry for the late reply, but you are correct, the for some reason i neglected to include the arm templates. They absolutely should be in there. I am so sorry. I will dig them up and post them, hopefully later today.

I would love to see pictures once yours is complete.

Thanks!
ZG

[gassybeans]

Sombody has a lot of time on their hands :)

[mahidc]

Wonderful! I have to try making one of these for Halloween. It's brilliant! Thanks for the instructable with all those pdfs. I can't get the blender file to open on my computer, so I hope I won't need it. Thanks for posting Mr. Megabones.

[SHIFT!]

Sweet! I totally love bigger than life Lego Minifigs and the skeleton is unbeatable..

Any chance we might get the classic 90's happy face skeleton design rather than the angry 2000's? That was always my personal favorite.

[ZombieGorilla]

I didn't actually include the face in the part file, I just painted it on afterwards.

However, your suggestion is great. I will update the pdf soon and include both faces as templates to aid in painting.

Thanks for the suggestion and your comment!

[lexdarksidius]

HELLO:

How are you?, I send greetings ... regarding your beautiful, cute, hard work, congratulations and have loved my nephews and me . Furthermore, may I advise or send me your model PDO or PDF now to update and is ready but too much trouble or abuse?, I promise to send pics of how I have been.

In advance thank you very much and congratulations!

Sincerely.

LEX, Your admirer.
My email: [e-mail]

[gbarrett1]

Very creative!

[ZombieGorilla]

Thank you!

[Vaughn235]

This is AWESOME! Nice job! Do the arms actually pop on and off the shoulders just like the real thing?

[ZombieGorilla]

Yes they do. Though when I designed it I assumed that they wouldn't, so I made it so the end caps on the leg and arm pins would come of so the arms and legs would slide on.

But because of the slight flaring on the connectors, they pop right on and off just like the real thing. I built 3D model using screen shots from the Lego Digital Designer to be as accurate as possible. Since the actual Lego parts are so well thought out and designed, my model benefited from inherent quality of Lego engineering.

I should also note that the arms are actually a combination of the real angled and straight arms. I wanted the angled arms but I also wanted it to be able to hold times up and down. So the arms are basically the angled arms with the wrist rotated 90 degrees.

Thanks for the comment!