030 - Meglos
From Meglos (1980)
Version 1 - Updated 4/1/2020

Beta: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1POJmUz2Ekv83HS16sMzybWx9UupzXTtB

Notes: As has become traditional, this is the April Fools Day "joke" figure for 2020.

It has zero points of articulation, except you have an option to print the cactus hollow using a flexible resin like Siraya Tech's Tenacious or filament like TPU or NinjaFlex, which means that in theory, it can "deflate" as seen in the episode. There's a loop up inside the tip of the cactus that you are supposed to be able to thread a bit of string around, then down through the platform and out a hole in the back, so you can pull on it and make Meglos collapse.

Unfortunately, even when printing out of 100% Tenacious, I couldn't get this feature to work on my resin test print. I haven't tried it with NinjaFlex (which is significantly more flexible) but I suspect to make it work, the walls need to be even thinner than they are now, but not so thin that they collapse or tear during printing. I might try playing around with this one later to see if I can get it to work better, but for now, it's primarily a solid structure.


Print Recommendations: The files come separated into 4 variants - Hollow (with and without spines) for printing with flexible resin or filament, and Solid (with and without spines) for those who want a regular figure.

I got at least some of the spines to print when using flexible resin, though it was a pain setting up support structures. I suspect for filament printing (even with TPU) you'll want to print the No Spines version.

Color Recommendations: Meglos is green. The exact same color as a cactus. However, the spines and outer edges are tan, as is the bottom section where it starts to taper down. (You can get a better view of the colorization in this rare composite photo taken at the Blackpool exhibit by Alex Lyon.)