That shouldn't be any issue at all if I can get the material in colors or can colorize them. Might be good to offer several options.

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I think if you were to have the stickers already on the gliders themselves that it might be cool that way as well. As in not have any stickers at all but already on the glider....Though that'd probably be a little harder to do .

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I'd be very interested in the gliders if they were 25th compatible.

The goal is to make the glider work with any figure. No peg for the back, even if they have to have a rubber band to hold them on. Some sort of other idea is being looked into first of course, but the original one did have a rubber band along with the back peg.

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Maybe some kind of clip of seat belt?

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I know we're on to gliders at this point in the discussion, but I just wanted to publicly thank Joe for the great work he's done on the Cobra base.

I received mine recently and it's awesome!

When my back gets a little better, I'm going to switch out my display shelves to feature this bad boy alongside the Joe base interiors Cap made for me. And that's the highest compliment I can pay any dio set.

Totally worth the money.

Well, that is a huge compliment, Spin. I do greatly appreciate it. I'm just glad I can make these as well as people hoped for. I still wished I could actually manufacture these. As many as I have made and as many that is still on the list, I hate that it takes as long as it does to get someone their base. But I don't want to rush them and end up with it being less than it is. There's certain aspects about it I'm still not 100% happy with, but that's my nitpicking.

On the glider, yeah a seat belt or something would work. I'm thinking of a 4 point clip harness that I cast if it'll work. I'll already be casting the other part that clips on the front of the glider. But I also have another idea I'm trying to see if it will work. I have a crazy idea I want to try that involves a heat press and plates before I resort to casting.

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2 options I just came up with

A: elastic like the pte backpacks

http://cgi.ebay.com/Military-BACKPACK-w ... 2eb2baf7e4

B: Talk to marauder John and see if he can have a clip on piece with a classic style peg and then another with modern style. They could probably produce much faster and cheaper than you could, becausethat is probably more along the lines of their expertise.

B....NAH they'd break too easy most likely after a few flights.....the backpack pegs that is....J_mans stuff would be built stronger than the Hasbro one.

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Hehe, well I hope what I do won't break. But that's the think I want to do is mess with it until it's something that looks like it'll work. I'll slam a few in the ground with a PTE figure on it to see what holds up. I do have some options. I can't manufacture, but I can cast. I can do some injection molding as well as heat pressing. The main thing is to keep cost down.

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I need to give an update here for 2 things:

First up, the Pod launch. I made 2 to test and paint. I tried straight paint as you would any custom on one and I wasn't happy. It just didn't look right and looked like a prototype. Nothing I would mail out. I tried another one with some other paints that's more 'professional" but I still didn't like it. I mean if they were customs they'd be fine, but i wouldn't sell these. So what I did is checed with the place I get my plastic from and they do have a blue plastic... along with several other colors. So I'm going to get the plastic on Monday to make these the proper way. At that point I'll put them up on the site.

Next up, the gliders. I'm not having luck with the foam. I figured out, it's the same exact foam that is used for styrofoam plates. The question is finding full sheets of it. I'd really rather go this route because I could offer replacements for the originals without the need to buy full sets. If I can't find it though, I will be one of 2 other choices. It'll be better quality, but it wouldn't really offer the ability to upgrade the original glider. It's possible that tabs and such wouldn't line up. I'm giving it more thought before it goes live. I don't want to rush this one.

I just wanted to give my end of the week update to say what I've determined so far. The glider will just take a little time to perfect the idea. If I go with plastic, the fins will require a slight redesign.

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Would it be easier to get the foam in liquid form and cast it? I know Smooth-On makes a number of foams that might work.

It could be done, but it would probably kill the "low cost" idea. Smooth-On for sure is generally higher dollar. I've been doing a crash course looking for foam. There's a lot of names for this stuff. Lami-foam and laminated foam seems to be the main direction to drit toward. I'm trying to be very open with the creating phase since this is a project for everyone. I'm trying to also make sure to keep in mind that the material used needs to be bought in colors so it doesn't require being painted in any way.

Another thing about the plastic I was thinking about. Foam will allow the glider to be displayed wihout much of any idea that the wings might bow. Plastic, the fins on each side might just be enough weight to cause the wings to slowly bow down and could make long term display not worth it without a lot of support. It would require some thin gauge plastic to still fly and look good, and that plastic flops a lot when it's in larger shapes. it;s the reason I do the rocket and backboard on the Cobra Base in the thicker plastic.

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I think there is two different trains of thought here.

1) Function: to use as a toy, which means it will be used to fly through the air and land (hopefully) intact on the ground

2) Display: not meant for actual play, but only for staging/dio

I think #2 is what most would be getting it for.

Maybe a poll to see what people are planning to use it for?

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So I don't keep flooding JoeCustoms with stuff, I made a Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-Toys/156473201077991

I'll still do the major updates and progress of projects here, but I'll do other various updates that's I've done here before, over there. It'll keep this thread to be project progression. Any input from others on a build and stuff like that.

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