How-To: Add Articulation to Skylander Figures

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By Blake Maloof
Posted 2012/06/28 @ 1:30 pm
Category Fun & Games

Ever since Skylanders was released last holiday season, one of the most commonly requested additions to the franchise has been articulated toys. Custom toy maker Jin Saotome decided not to wait. He’s created a bunch of highly articulated Skylanders mods, many featuring plastic representations of their powers.

Now he’s produced a step-by-step guide for modding your own Skylanders with poseable parts.

However, mod at your own risk. Removing a Skylander from its base will cause the portal to no longer recognize the character. The base is where the magic happens.

[Disclaimer: I am a designer at Toys for Bob, makers of Skylanders. I also cover games for MAKE]

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8 Responses to How-To: Add Articulation to Skylander Figures

Chris on June 28th, 2012 at 2:31 pm said:

Hey Blake, since you work for the parties involved in the skylanders IP, how about being a good maker ambassador and talk to activision et al about their heavy-handed tactics towards makers regarding those ‘magic bases’?

Sources:
Overview: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/30/activision-sends-cease-and-desist-to-skylanders-hacker/
Take down letter: http://brandonw.net/skylanders/activision.pdf
Maker response: http://brandonw.net/skylanders/response.txt

Remember: If you can’t open it, you don’t own it.

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- Blake Maloof on October 26th, 2012 at 11:51 am said:
  
  Chris,
  This is definitely regrettable. We developers at Toys for Bob were following Brandon’s progress, some of us cheering him on, but Activision didn’t take so kindly to it and I unfortunately don’t have any sway with their legal department.
  
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Lacer on July 4th, 2012 at 1:06 pm said:

Looks awesome. I’ll have to grab some of the lesser used ones and try though out.

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John Mallamas on October 26th, 2012 at 11:23 am said:

Jin Saotome here, creator of that guide! Thanks for the link. For clarification removing the character won’t ruin anything and if you add the foot-peg they can be put back on the base at any time. But only the base activates on the portal, the plastic character does not.

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- Blake Maloof on October 26th, 2012 at 11:38 am said:
  
  Hey, Jin! Thanks for the great guide!
  And yes, I didn’t mean to imply that removing the character would break anything, only that putting the character on the portal would not work without the base.
  Keep up the great work!
  
  Reply ↓
Billy on February 24th, 2013 at 7:14 am said:

Pretty Cool! Although it would be damn near-impossible to do this with a skylander like Shroomboom (not enough room for joints) or series 1 stealth elf (body is too slim and frail)

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Jamie R on April 16th, 2013 at 9:45 am said:

this is cool but it will be really hard to do im thinking of making one any way even if it takes all day $$$

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Sean McGinnis on April 25th, 2013 at 9:01 am said:

Hiya I was wondering, although the guide shows you how to do it I feel that people may not have access to the tools needed. I also feel that altering the figure ruins its integrity.

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