Got any joints, man?

My friend Matt Doughty, the crazy madman behind Onell Design and the father of the Glyos System, sent me a Christmas gift this year that I'm enjoying like a kid in a candy store. He sent me a box of Glyos goodies including a bunch of the new Axis Joints that he has just released on his web store. The sets sell for $4, and I have to say that they TOTALLY change the game when it comes to Glyos. The Glyos System toys have always been known for their interchangeability, but these joints make building a whole new experience. I haven't built this much stuff with Glyos parts since I started collecting them a few years ago. Below are a few of the many things I've built with the new joints. I've tried to take images that allow you to see how the builds were made, but if anyone has any questions about building with these joints please feel free to ask. I also recommend that you check out the Glyos Forum hosted on the October Toys Forum... there are tons and tons of much more talented builders there making fantastic aliens, monsters, robots, and vehicles with these parts, and they are a friendly bunch!

The standard Axis Joint set comes with a small disc, two large ball joints, two small ball joints, and two male/female connectors. The actual ball joints are made up of two pieces that are useful to build with individually. A single set will increase your ability to build exponentially.

These joints allow for sturdier builds with a massive range of movement. All of the builds here are able to bear their own weight quite well, even in the exaggerated poses I have them in.






I wanted to make a Bio-Govurom (a nod to Matt's Bio-Pheyden from his blog)... these joints helped out a lot! The figure has a grossly mutated left arm that is hyper-poseable!




My favorite character from the Glyos System is Scar Pheyden. I wanted a beefy, well-articulated version of him... combining several Axis Joint sets allows for a nicely jointed figure that is pleasing aesthetically. The disk that comes in the set allows you to extend the torso of the standard Glyos figure to better match the length of the limbs.





This is a character that I call the Stalker. I imagine him kind of like an alien tracker that uses his huge sniffer to detect his prey wherever it may hide. Once again, the Axis joints provide for very sturdy construction that allows you to pose them any kind of way.







This figure is pretty much the culmination of all the things I've learned about the Axis Joints so far. I wanted an ED-209 type battle droid, so I started building this mech (which I named the Ectodrone). It's a sturdy, flexible build with a rigid core. The last illustrations show how to make the core.








Matt sent a couple of Rigs along with the other stuff. The Rig is the latest rotocasted vinyl vehicle from Onell Design. It's composed of 4 parts (an upper control module, a lower leg/thruster unit, and two gun arms) and can hold a Glyos figure inside. Before I had one of the Rigs I can honestly say that I wasn't that impressed by it. I thought it looked awesome, but was limited by how much you could build with it. Well, after playing around with this one I have to say that I was VERY wrong. The legs on the lower half of the Rig are sculpted in such a way that they can grip the arm units perfectly and allow you to put the Rig in all kinds of configurations. Add to that the fact that the holes for the arms and torso are compatible with the Armodoc, and you have hours of building fun on your hands!











Just having a little fun here... mixing and matching colors of the new Traveler figures and playing around with weird proportions.






So, if you haven't picked up a set of the new Axis Joints give 'em a try... they are tons of fun and will really get your creative juices flowing! And keep your eyes open for the next version of the Rig... word is there will be a release early in February... stay tuned on the Glyos blog for upcoming news!