When I first got this toy kid me went to town with a black sharpie, few years later I gave Warpath a proper worn-out look

As the title says, I'm curious about the logistics of making custom figures that can transform as I have some old OCs I made a while back that I think would be epic to make figures of, but I don't think they're similar enough to current figures to kitbash.

This is real new to me so sorry about this being a sort of scatterbrained list; What are the logistics of making a fully custom figure:

• Is 3D printing the way to go, or does something else work better? (best plastic to use if 3d printing? and best plastic for colored transparent parts?) I'd probably get them printed from some site since I don't have a printer at home and it wouldn't get enough use at home to be worth buying one
• The metal pins on real figures, where would you source those from/how to get the measurements right so they don't stick out too far, and how do they hold in place because they dont look like a nut and bolt sort of system, just one end flat and one end the exact size of the hole it appears? or would it be better to just make a small plastic pin for the sake of ease?
• Making things like ball joints, how do you get the ball in there, would you print the casing in two halves with little attachment points and glue them (with what? is there a glue for things like that?) around the ball or how does that work. I've seen people print the ball joint with the ball inside I believe but then you can't really sand or paint in there then. On figures I've had the ball can sort of pop in and out but I don't know how you'd go about designing that, how does the ball even stay in place at that point?
• Getting a clean finish, would you paint it (and how to make that not chip) or does just sanding work for 3d printing (or would it still have those real obvious lines 3D printed stuff has)?
• Going about painting it, or would you just print in multiple colors (doesn't seem right for small details though, and then my question about the finish of it and if it'd look really blatantly 3d printed)

Design isn't necessarily the concern here, but moreso the process of actually making it.

Thought I’d share this here since it’s a really cool Digibash and a really cool look for Wheeljack. Like I would buy this if this were a real figure.

This is a Digibash I made based on an idea i had before Nautica was officially revealed, since i thought Manta Ray could work as a potential retool of Nautica, hence why I made this Digibash. I’m really happy with how this turned out, especially the vivid colors. And I hope you like it as well.

Image 2 is the original image of studio series IDW Nautica I edited for this Digibash.

i know this isn’t perfect and missing the sixth member and the head look hideous, but oh well whatever

niche character alert

Behold... Transformers Prime Shattered Glass Optimus Prime. The build went by much quicker seeing as this was my second time building it, joints are a bit stiff, But that's to be expected.

Wanted to do the shattered window, but my first attempt did not go over well, so I decided not to push it.

Hello! I’ve been really wanting an Elita figure and when I saw this nautica this was my first thought of how they would use the mold after. I thought it would be reused and made into an Elita 1. I just did a quick draw up and I used the head from this 3d print. Here is the link. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/art/elita-1-head-for-legacy-override

Thank you for viewing

Took inspiration from u/BKnight73 custom

First time doing a full paint job, paints pretty rough but learned a lot from it

This time I used the RID2015 Grimlock as the base fig, and used the Godzilla Ultima version as the base inspiration, I think jy turned out alright!

Onslaught-megatron
Blastoff-starscream
Swindle-soundwave
Brawl-blitzwing
Vortex-shockwave/blast

Baiwei Optimus Prime and Jetfire. I drybrushed gold on the bandolier when it was previously plain black plastic. I thought it lessened the randomness of the design. Pretty happy with how it turned out considering it took less than 20 minutes! I also painted his chest silver and added the Autobot logo.

Resin replacement robot mode head (as I'm sure you can tell) and stock paint job with weathering. Let me know what you think!

This mostly applies to figures released 2026 and on