Unofficial Star Wars X-Wing Replacement Part
Ben Mininberg (blog, Twitter) has taken advantage of his tools to create a replacement part for Hasbro’s X-Wing toys (Amazon.com search*) to make the s-foils work much, much better than the factory design.
See this post at Ben’s site for all of the specifics — including several photos — and then visit Shapeways to order your own replacement piece. Geeks with 3d printers are about to make the world really special.
Interesting, but I am confused. I have this vehicle and the part that sags is the softer parts of the wings, where the cannons attach – the wings are physically sagging, curved, bent. Wings opening have not been a problem, it’s the wing itself that is sagging over time.
Hi Darryl,
You are correct that the soft material of of the wings themselves can warp over time due to the weight of the guns, but that’s not the problem I am trying to solve. On mine and other people’s I have talked to, the wings do not open up all the way or open up unevenly. My replacement piece fixes this problem, depressing the plunger that opens the wings fully and evenly, so the wings at least open all the way. I haven’t come up with a good way to prevent the warping issue, but for now I store my X-wing either in flight mode or resting on its engines vertically.