[MOD] Ninjago: Cole's Dragon - Articulation Fix!

[Littleworlds]

Hello everyone!

I recently got the charming little set Cole's Dragon (70599). While I am really taken by the many ways to articulate the dragon, I was never quite happy with the way they did the neck and the jaw of it. So I fiddled a bit and came up with a fix:

Recap: that's how the original (vanilla) version looks like:

Instead of a jaw you can open and close, it is clipped on something which looks like a pretty blocky blaster, which makes it not only stay open but also get knocked off pretty easily. 

This really had to change, so I removed these parts:

 

and replaced them with:

As a handy side-effect, I wasn't only able to make the jaw nicely close, but also gave the head/neck joint a much more realistic way of articulation too. 

 

The final result looks like:

The "kinda-blaster-piece" got replaced by a very similar piece we all know and love from classic space times, the first bar piece with clip gets into the bottom side, the second one goes into the tube at the end of the dragon's neck. Surprisingly simple, but pretty effective!

Anyway, the dragon seems to like it! Rawr!

Having the jaw as one piece might at first thought appear as a step back, but it does work well with the overall look of the dragon. Also it is a very sturdy construction and the studs give the nice hint of teeth.

 

Hearing these news, my Dragon Queen found it was really getting time that her pet gets some proper training:

The Queen's Right Hand was more than happy to oblige and soon was able to show off his success in hand-feeding the beast:

 

Too bad for him, it decided to take the bigger snack. Why taking just a chicken leg if you can have a whole meal?

Luckily, the only thing that really got hurt was the dragon tamer's pride. And the Queen was pretty amused. After all the beast showed cunning initiative!

[Aanchir]

Nice mod! It's sturdy and posable but doesn't radically change the dragon's overall look. I sort of wonder what it would look like to replace the lower jaw with the original curved slope from the set plus this piece, which was introduced just recently. If you wanted to keep the studs in the mouth as teeth you could replace the curved slope with an inverse curved slope.

[Littleworlds]

13 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Nice mod! It's sturdy and posable but doesn't radically change the dragon's overall look. I sort of wonder what it would look like to replace the lower jaw with the original curved slope from the set plus this piece, which was introduced just recently. If you wanted to keep the studs in the mouth as teeth you could replace the curved slope with an inverse curved slope.

Thanks for pointing at these pieces. They are new to me actually. Very interesting though and they really fill some gaps in the range. Not only for the dragon.

[blackdeathgr]

Excellent idea. I, too have bought this set for its parts and poseability but when people were toying with it they were always always always trying to close the mouth, given how much poseable the rest of the body was and it snapped. Thanks for the elegant solution.

[Peppermint_M]

Not a historic theme though, I'll just move this across.

[The Architect]

Cute little dragon! Ahh they grow so quick 

[Littleworlds]

9 hours ago, The Architect said:

Cute little dragon! Ahh they grow so quick 

Thank you! And yes, they do! I bet soon he will take a cow between its jaws 

On 14/11/2016 at 8:09 AM, Peppermint_M said:

Not a historic theme though, I'll just move this across.

Thanks!

On 13/11/2016 at 2:25 PM, blackdeathgr said:

Excellent idea. I, too have bought this set for its parts and poseability but when people were toying with it they were always always always trying to close the mouth, given how much poseable the rest of the body was and it snapped. Thanks for the elegant solution.

Thank you! I like staying in the spirit of the set and just improve as much as really necessary. I know that sets always have constraints on the number and complexity of pieces etc, but that was such an obvious flaw!

[Peppermint_M]

By the by, I'll have to share this mod with my little brother, he loves dragons and Cole and this is an excellent solution that he can use. 

[Tyndale]

Haha, the pictures at the end make me laugh!

You really do know how to fix a set! Lego should probably hire you. 

Great job!

[gamejutzu]

Not bad! Though there isn't much of a visual difference in the end, i'm sure actually holding it and trying out the modeling and joints will feel like there's a real difference! Props.

Edited November 17, 2016 by gamejutzu

[Littleworlds]

On 15/11/2016 at 9:23 PM, Peppermint_M said:

By the by, I'll have to share this mod with my little brother, he loves dragons and Cole and this is an excellent solution that he can use. 

I'm happy to hear that 

5 hours ago, Tyndale said:

Haha, the pictures at the end make me laugh!

You really do know how to fix a set! Lego should probably hire you. 

Great job!

Thank you very much! How to demonstrate the fix better than in practical application? Also I will use your comment as reference for an application at TLG  

1 hour ago, gamejutzu said:

Not bad! Though there isn't much of a visual difference in the end, i'm sure actually holding it and trying out the modeling and joints will feel like there's a real difference! Props.

Thank you! My goal was to keep the cosmetic changes as small as possible. So mission accomplished, I guess!  Other modifications I did on other sets were less subtle, but it really depends on what you start with. Lego sets are usually very elegantly and efficiently built, so I don't want to ruin that with overengineering something