Medieval Madness Merlin Mod

The Merlin action figure I started with from Disney's Sword in the Stone. While there are more elegant or regal Merlin figures out there I wanted to capture the somewhat whimsical nature of the Merlin in the game. Of course some changes will need to be made :)

Right off the bat I had to cut off a chunk of his lower body as he stood too high. I also needed to Dremel off the glasses as our games' Merlin wears no glasses. Doubtful glases were around in the dark ages either :) I mixed up a couple of purples to get the hue I wanted to match the game. I also had to mix up a flesh tone to repaint his face after shaving the glasses off.

Three coats of purple later and some deep yellow to add binding, crescent and star, he's looking great! I also had to trim the excessivley flowing beard.

Flat plastic Merlin removed from his bracket. Glad he's gone. Seemed odd to see a purple brick window sticking up in the middle of the playfield apart from the castle. Get outta here! :) I need that bracket though and, sadly, I'll need to whack the upright portion off with a hacksaw.

Don't get all excited yet! This is the necessary trial fit. I wrapped a piece of solder around the wireform ramp to hold the ball in place. Then I adjust the arms on Merlin to get the clearance I need. Also twist him around to get the best looking angle towards the player. Mark base with Sharpie. Back to the bench we go.

Closeup of clearance adjustment. Feel free to admire the highly detailed dragon wings. Dremels = great tools for making things the way they should have been from the factory :)

You can see the Sharpie outline on the bracket. At thispoint I pondered a half dozen ways I could mount Merlin to it. I could have filled his innards solid with epoxy and installed a screw from the bottom but, no. Too fragile in case of ball hits. Maybe hook an extension spring to the arm axle way up inside there? I tried. I liked it as an idea but... nah.

Miracles! Joy and rapture! A standard barrel (shooter) compression spring fits perfectly in his body and actually screws up in there tightly. I took it back out and found that it fits really snug over an 8-32 locknut. Nice! I'll silver solder the nut to the spring later but we're good for testing now.

I set the bracket up to sit level and placed Merlin atop it and lined up with the Sharpie marks. Now mark for the screw hole.

Screwed in place. Perfect height allows for some flex if hit by a stray ball.

Installed! He looks fantastico! Ok, now we need a light to highlight him during the game. I had a spare wedge base socket laying around and, for durability reasons, I chose a bright white LED. This gets wired up to the Merlin's Magic lamp below the playfield.

Fini! I used a big piece of red heatshrink tubing to cover the socket and lower half of the LED to both blend it into the game and to keep the lamp from getting knocked out. I hope you like my Merlin! The way I see it the game has an interactive castle, dragon and trolls. Why not a more realistic Merlin!? Video clip here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AJwCDvyFTo