Articulated Dinosaur Questions

[AnimatronicRaptor]

This is currently my first post. I joined so I can join. I have 1 Question while making an Articulated Dinosaur Toy (Raptor).

What is the Material for the articulation, or the item to articulate a part? I am wondering what the Material, Item, Thing is for the Articulation Joint, and where is it usually found?

[Halichoeres]

Welcome to the forum! I'm having a hard time parsing your question, but it sounds like you're looking for something prefabricated that you could either sculpt around, or a replacement for an existing toy. Most action figures have more than one kind of joint (swivel, hinge, quasi-socket), and in the good ones they're custom-tooled. Depending on the figure, it might be made of the same plastic as the rest of the figure, or have metal components. I hope that helps.

[ImADinosaurRARR]

Welcome! Hope you have fun.

Sadly, no one that I know on this forum can help you. I'm pretty sure that anything anyone knows is from David Silva (I'm assuming that you already know who he is) on his Facebook. If you don't have a Facebook I could always PM him for you for extra details.

How far are you into your raptor? Any photos you can provide?

[Mirroraptor]

The Beasts of Mesozoic series was made by the factory that also OEM NECA Toys, so maybe the raptor series will also use NECA's articulation.

[Lanthanotus]

Welcome to the forums.

There's a lot of possibilities to make an articulation, it really depends on what kind of joint you want to realize. A simple jaw hinge can be achieved with two separatly cast pieces and a simple wire or even a wooden toothpick. However, if it's arms, legs and tails you want to articulate, it gets more complicated. Two methods that can comparibly easy be achieved by a layman sculpting individual figures are wires completly cast into a flexible material (great for tails; such methods can be seen in some old Safaris as the Tanystropheus) or strong rubberbands connecting the body with two extremities at once (as seen in the old Master of the Universe figures). However, ball joints and such a like are quite hard to produce on your own, though today you always got the chance to design a 3D model and get a prototype done by shapeways. Or buy preproduced joints and build them into your models as Halichoeres mentioned.