Takara Pony 3D models

[otteroflore]

Hiya, I'm new here. When I put out this question on tumblr it was suggested I tried these forums.
I only found out about the takara ponies (the Japaneses My Little Ponys produced in the 1980s) a few days ago but I really liked them. I decided to try 3D modeling them. I don't have a 3D printer but my local library does do 3D prints for a pretty low charge (the cost of materials basically) and I'm considering trying that. Given that this model is relatively simple I think it would be a good test: of course, it would be even simpler if I just 3D printed it as a statue all in one piece, but I have to make things complicated so I'm trying to give it joints. And to make things even more complicated, I want to make the joints relatively similar to the original takara pony joints, if possible.
Here she is, with my reference shots of pinky (found on wikipedia)

she looks extremely silly from the front

So, my question is joint-related. Does anyone know how the original takaras joints were assembled, or have sources on that? I've handmade ball-jointed dolls before (from clay) and so I know how to make a ball-jointed doll with elastics. BUT I don't know if this is the most efficient way to do a simple joint, especially for such a small doll with limited range of motion (in the pictures I've seen, the original takara ponys can sit with their legs in a V and have their arms move up and down, so it seems fairly limited). So the doll have a hollow middle and balls on its arms/legs with sockets in the body as such:

I've been trying to find pictures of disassembled Calico Critters to see how they're put together but I can't find any of those either. I found a few pictures of disassembled barbie bodies:

This is basically the opposite of how the BJD works, it looks like these have the ball inside the "hip" and the socket is in the leg. But it seems to me that this also might be do-able. One thing I noted is the sphere with a deep cut in it, I assume that is to make the plastic more flexible rather than having a solid sphere, and thus you can push these joints into the legs without either piece breaking from pressure.

I found at least one other 3D modelof a takara pony online, so I'm sure this has been done before but this is just a fun project for me to practice on. I'm pretty new to 3D modelling. If anyone has additional pictures of takara ponies I'd be interested to see them! I was also wondering if the body and head are separate pieces like in the old MLPs.

takara model says byeeee

 

[peepersponies]

(Hi! I'm the person on tumblr who recommended this forum for pony info.) I don't know anything about the original takara joints, but if you do decide to go the BJD route, I know Dollightful on youtube has a free 3d print file of a small rabbit BJD whose arms are very similar in scale and shape to this baby, so that could possibly be helpful! Good luck either way

 

[ponyville]

Hi! What an interesting project! Unfortunately, I cannot offer much help about the Takara ponies. However, if you are looking for a disassembled Calico Critter, I was able to look up 'Sylvanian Families disassembled' (シルバニアファミリー 分解された) using Google Translate and came across this link where I found a disassembled Sylvanian, which is the English and Japanese name for Calico Critters (they are called Calico Critters only in the U.S., I believe). Maybe that could be of some help, if no one else provides more information about the Takara ponies? I'd love to see more of this project, when you print the pony!!

Edit: Sorry, this post is a bit explain-y. If you are already familiar with the distinction between Calico Critters and Sylvanian Families, don't mind me!

 

[otteroflore]

(Hi! I'm the person on tumblr who recommended this forum for pony info.) I don't know anything about the original takara joints, but if you do decide to go the BJD route, I know Dollightful on youtube has a free 3d print file of a small rabbit BJD whose arms are very similar in scale and shape to this baby, so that could possibly be helpful! Good luck either way

I've seen that video, I didn't know the file was free so I might check it out! I actually handmade a fairly similar model before, similar to a calico critter I made a 3D pig, and uh, it didn't turn out great, mostly bc of the propotions. also, airdry clay shrinks so its hard to tell how big you need to make everything! I also havent 3D printed anythingg so i should probably see how much wiggle room the joints need to be a tight fit without like... not fitting at all.

 

[otteroflore]

Hi! What an interesting project! Unfortunately, I cannot offer much help about the Takara ponies. However, if you are looking for a disassembled Calico Critter, I was able to look up 'Sylvanian Families disassembled' (シルバニアファミリー 分解された) using Google Translate and came across this link where I found a disassembled Sylvanian, which is the English and Japanese name for Calico Critters (they are called Calico Critters only in the U.S., I believe). Maybe that could be of some help, if no one else provides more information about the Takara ponies? I'd love to see more of this project, when you print the pony!!

Edit: Sorry, this post is a bit explain-y. If you are already familiar with the distinction between Calico Critters and Sylvanian Families, don't mind me!

Thank you for this! I guess my keywords weren't good enough, because I couldn't find something like this at all! Someone on tumblr mentioned the calico critters are assembled with back and front glued together, so you cant remove the arms and legs without breaking it, but that sounds different from the material here, so maybe its older vs newer, or im missing something here.

(I did know the sylvanian families are the same as calico critters! but thats okay, you dont have to apologize! not everyone knows tbf)

 

[Cozytoyhoard]

Oh good, you figured out the forum! I was just about to reply to you on tumblr lol. Excited to see how this goes

 

[StormMaeker]

Hello and welcome!
This sounds like a very interesting project

Do you think that the joints could be similar to how the eyes are put in (link).
HQG1C are making blanks of Takara ponies but just the sitting ones.

Not sure if @Prince-Aei could help out? They make 3D models. Your model is looking very good so far too!

 

[otteroflore]

Hello and welcome!
This sounds like a very interesting project

Do you think that the joints could be similar to how the eyes are put in (link).
HQG1C are making blanks of Takara ponies but just the sitting ones.

Not sure if @Prince-Aei could help out? They make 3D models. Your model is looking very good so far too!

That link is so helpful, thank you! I knew I was missing something about the head but I wasn't sure if the pictures I found were legit vs replicas for some of them. As I understand it most of the fakies are the sitting ones. I thought hqg1c were making the standing up ones, also. That person you linked also posted some takara pony commercials which show the heads turning clearly so obviously I gotta fix that.
If the eyes are put in just by a little peg, I probably won't be able to replicate that in hard plastic, maybe ill have to glue the eyes but that wont work for the arms. I mean, maybe I could make plastic doll joints kind of like this:

specifically, the ridged stick could be in the leg part and a hole could be in the body. that way its relatively flat and rotate-able. I feel like this still has a risk of being quite breakable depending on how brittle the plastic used to print it is.
so maybe a BJD /is/ the way to go, idk so far. I'm learning a lot about doll joints from this project though so thanks!

 

[NovelNerd]

Oh wow this project looks awesome. I don’t have any input that’s helpful. I’m just curious to see how it all turns out.

 

[otteroflore]

thanks for all the interest btw everyone! I spent about 40 minutes fiddling with the model based on the pictures people have linked. (the blue lines are guides for the front and side views)

below is a comparison of the first one, based on the pinky pics, and the second, made based on the white "blank" model's proportions:

*note is that none of the pictures seem to be 100% head on/side i dont think, theyre all slightly angled
I've decided to resculpt it entirely though, i didnt want to because i already made the retopology from scratch but itll look better that way. i just wanted to post an update cause everyone was so nice.
So far its sounding to me like I'll just have to go with the ball joints, especially if im actually going to get it 3D printed. Since the original was likely made of a squishier vinyl, its joints were probably a little different. The good news is I've handmade a few bjds before so im not really worried about that, im mostly gonna try to preserve the aesthetics and keep a limited mobility (although now im thinking about how funny it would be if i made a takara pony but with alllllll the joints which would be pretty funny)

 

[minticat]

hi there! love the model! i have an adult takara (pinky) and if it would be helpful, i can take a video when i get home from work of how her joints move. also, compared to most g1s, her plastic is rather hard. maybe not as hard as they can get when the plasticizer leaks but she's pretty solid, lol

 

[otteroflore]

hi there! love the model! i have an adult takara (pinky) and if it would be helpful, i can take a video when i get home from work of how her joints move. also, compared to most g1s, her plastic is rather hard. maybe not as hard as they can get when the plasticizer leaks but she's pretty solid, lol

:0 I'd love to see how she moves, but also I'm sure we'd all just like to see the Pinky! Since I'm going in the direction of the joints being ball-jointed I'll probably have to adjust the bottom of the body to allow the legs to "sit" in the same pose as the doll, although I don't think that should be a significant change...

 

[minticat]

:0 I'd love to see how she moves, but also I'm sure we'd all just like to see the Pinky! Since I'm going in the direction of the joints being ball-jointed I'll probably have to adjust the bottom of the body to allow the legs to "sit" in the same pose as the doll, although I don't think that should be a significant change...

here's a quick video for you - also her head/nose do go 360° around and i think her arms could too if her cute fat little head wasn't blocking them xD

she usually wears an improvised outfit of two ponywear tutus, though i do have a sewing pattern for a takara-sized dress i need to get around to making.

 

[otteroflore]

here's a quick video for you - also her head/nose do go 360° around and i think her arms could too if her cute fat little head wasn't blocking them xD

she usually wears an improvised outfit of two ponywear tutus, though i do have a sewing pattern for a takara-sized dress i need to get around to making.
View attachment 79553

Ahhh she's so cute! I didn't even think of whether the nose could move around. I was going to make it all one piece in the 3D model, maybe a second version where its separate but needs to be glued on....
Do people have an opinion on whether the nose should be a separate/the same piece? If I get mine PLA printed I won't be able to choose the colors, it'll be all one, so it doesn't matter the base color since I'll be painting it anyways.

 

[StormMaeker]

Ahhh she's so cute! I didn't even think of whether the nose could move around. I was going to make it all one piece in the 3D model, maybe a second version where its separate but needs to be glued on....
Do people have an opinion on whether the nose should be a separate/the same piece? If I get mine PLA printed I won't be able to choose the colors, it'll be all one, so it doesn't matter the base color since I'll be painting it anyways.

I knew I had seen a picture somewhere of the nose piece taken off, I just had to search for it again
I’m not sure who this belongs to to credit but

I’d say make it separate if you want to try and make it as close to the original as possible

EDIT:
It was from the preservation project

 

[otteroflore]

I knew I had seen a picture somewhere of the nose piece taken off, I just had to search for it again
I’m not sure who this belongs to to credit but
View attachment 79567
I’d say make it separate if you want to try and make it as close to the original as possible

EDIT:
It was from the preservation project
View attachment 79569

:0 that poor lil takara!
Yea, as with the joints, it just seems that it won't be possible to make it exactly the same as the og based on the materials- PLA or resin, whatever people print it as, wont be able to pop like that. But I can make the nose separate and close enough in size to tightly fit it in, or to just glue it in place. At the end of the day, I can't print and test it myself so I'm not sure which method will work best :/

 

[otteroflore]

I got a little distracted this week and also my wrists have been hurting, so I haven't been working on the 3D model. But I thought yall might be interested in the /extension/ of this project because i need to make every project into 3 projects.
Remember how I said it would be funny if I made a takara 3D model with ALL the joints? uh yeah so i sketched it

and I liked it so much this is gonna be like the part 2 of the project.

also the reason my wrist hurts is probably because i drew all of these
Anyways yeah I really love anthro dolls and I really liked the idea of making takaras with more anthro-ish bodies. Hopefully pony purists wont think im warping the spirit of the original takaras or anything, and this counts as on topic for the thread. I also want to model little horns and wings on both the bigger models and the original (hopefully thats not blasphemy, i think it would look really cute!)

i ended up remodeling her and shes looking okay, although i need to adjust the nosebridge a bit (and finish the joints). 3D modeling from a character reference while trying to be accurate is hard. I ended up avoiding references for the most recent bit of fiddling with the model, trying to make it just look nice on its own ; I also had to make the cut at the neck and that caused me to thin the body out (the neck hole needs to be exactly round so the head can turn); looks like i should round out the body more, or else maybe the head should be smaller? And from the additional references above, i maybe should have made the ears bigger. I think i may have made the head too domed and the nose too far out, if i reduce that size a bit it may look closer to the original.

 

[Uftaki]

I love the little Takaras with all the joints! They're like the little anthro ball-joint-dolls! So cute!

 

[StormMaeker]

No wait, those extended Takara’s are amazing! Yes! I am glad to have seen this because those are great. Also your art is so cute

About rounding the body more, I can see what you mean but the same time I think it’s fine?

When I try to make things so close to accurate it can really give a headache but it’s worth it

 

[m0nsterpaint]

I got a little distracted this week and also my wrists have been hurting, so I haven't been working on the 3D model. But I thought yall might be interested in the /extension/ of this project because i need to make every project into 3 projects.
Remember how I said it would be funny if I made a takara 3D model with ALL the joints? uh yeah so i sketched it
View attachment 79799
and I liked it so much this is gonna be like the part 2 of the project.

View attachment 79800
View attachment 79801
also the reason my wrist hurts is probably because i drew all of these
Anyways yeah I really love anthro dolls and I really liked the idea of making takaras with more anthro-ish bodies. Hopefully pony purists wont think im warping the spirit of the original takaras or anything, and this counts as on topic for the thread. I also want to model little horns and wings on both the bigger models and the original (hopefully thats not blasphemy, i think it would look really cute!)

i ended up remodeling her and shes looking okay, although i need to adjust the nosebridge a bit (and finish the joints). 3D modeling from a character reference while trying to be accurate is hard. I ended up avoiding references for the most recent bit of fiddling with the model, trying to make it just look nice on its own ; I also had to make the cut at the neck and that caused me to thin the body out (the neck hole needs to be exactly round so the head can turn); looks like i should round out the body more, or else maybe the head should be smaller? And from the additional references above, i maybe should have made the ears bigger. I think i may have made the head too domed and the nose too far out, if i reduce that size a bit it may look closer to the original.

View attachment 79806View attachment 79805

that is absolutely adorable and if you do ever try to pursue it i think it would be super cute!!!!! you're making me wish I had a 3D printer now ;w;