The Krystal Staff Project is my attempt to create a game-accurate prop imitating Krystal's Staff from Star Fox Adventures and Super Smash Bros Ultimate. In this ongoing series of posts, I detail my process for creating it from scratch.

The project began over a year ago. I've been looking into the design and technical requirements of making Krystal's Staff from the games. Since this is the first post, I will detail the desired features:

• Lighted shaft (like Technicolor Cosplay's Staff)
• Raised details along shaft body
• Glowing bottom tip
• Glowing gems on top tip
• Opening and closing action on the top tip
• (Optional) Smoke/fog generation in the top tip
• (Optional) Sound effects in the top tip
• (Optional) Physical switches to control actions on the shaft itself

As I mentioned in the last podcast, I've already begun work on the project long ago. I've already explored 3D modeling the top tip for the purpose of 3D printing, and I've already mapped out a high-quality, game accurate texture for the shaft.

In Part 1, I want to tell you about generating the base shaft. After a bit of exploration, polycarbonate tubing seemed to be the way to go. It's both optically clear and very strong (used for lightsaber blades you can actually fight with). Basically glass but much stronger and lighter. The goal of the shaft is to have an underlying blue color which can project blue light outward along the blue channels in the original texture. It was important to have a blue color naturally so that it would still appear blue even when lighting effects were turned off. The tube would need to be flat at both ends so it could be lit from both directions. My thinking is that by keeping the lights at both ends, the center of the shaft can be used for the bulky battery power storage. Time will tell whether this is a workable strategy. Normally lighted tubes like this (as with lightsabers) either run the lights down the center, or rely on the center being open to shine a bright light down. Shining the light just on the edges is something novel, I believe.

Covering the blue areas would be the "gold" portions with printed or resin "carvings" glued on to give the shaft a physical texture of having actually been carved. That will be a subject for another time.

So, I got to work. First, I looked into many different forms of light generation. Since I wanted to have battery storage in the shaft, that meant very thin light source or a light source outside the tube body. I looked at OLED, Lumilor light-emitting paint, EL tape, flexible light guides, and LEDs in the tips. Sadly, all of the technologies except the last one was either completely unavailable or prohibitively expensive. The quote I got for Lumilor would have been around $2000 just for the paint, and it likely wouldn't have been bright enough anyway. LEDs in the tips it is!

I spent several weeks talking to several companies about obtaining blue polycarbonate tubing to use as the underlying Staff shaft. In addition to contacting a few plastic supply companies, I spoke to two different lightsaber companies, Kyberlight and TheCustomSaberShop. While they both had blue polycarbonate tubes, the longest one I could find (from anyone) was this 40 inch tube. That's not quite long enough for Krystal's Staff, and it is probably tipped with some a saber blade tip reflector, further reducing its length by a few inches. It just wasn't good enough. Sadly, while there are plenty of companies willing to do a custom order on colored polycarbonate, they usually require large batches, meaning I'd have to buy 500+ of them just to get one. Even at $10 a piece, that would represent a huge cost.

So, I had to try the consumer version. Polycarbonate tubes of much longer length are kept on hand by many sellers, but they are always clear, no colors. Acrylic tubes can be found in different colors, but I decided that acrylic would be too fragile for this prop. The goal would be to get a long, clear polycarbonate tube, and some way to color the outside blue. For that, I found some blue window tinting film. On top of that, I wanted to create a perfect internal reflection and diffusion system for the inside of the shaft, so bright lights shining down the edges of the tube would light up the whole length evenly. With some advice from Technicolor Cosplay, I settled on a pearlescent transparent wrapping film, which is often used by hobby lightsaber makers to diffuse the light source. To prevent reflections into the shaft body, I got a roll of highly reflective mylar film. That will go on the inner-most part of the shaft to separate the light and the batteries.

• Transparent Packaging Wrap, Opal - $7
• VIVOSUN Horticulture Highly Reflective Mylar Film Roll - $22
• Clear Polycarbonate Tubing 6 Foot - $20
• HOHOFILM 60"x20" Colored Window Film Clear - $15
• Total so far: $64 (though I can get at least four shafts done with the films and tints)

Next, I plan to assemble these materials, test it with light transmission, and figure out how to make the raised "carving" parts of the shaft.

Lastly, several people have expressed interest in me making them their own copy. I'm doing my best to keep costs down, but I have no idea how much the finish product will cost, both in terms of materials and labor. I'd like to make Staffs for people if they can pay, but be prepared, the cost will likely be well over $500 by my guesstimate right now.

See you next time!

I've been posting a bunch of stuff right away, instead of spreading it out. The reason why is because real life has been super busy and I'm about to leave for a trip, so I won't be able to post tomorrow. The good news: you get a week's worth of posts today! My final post for the week will be coming up in a few minutes.

YouTube user Luphine Howler used various Garry's Mod assets to create a very accurate version of Crazy Taxi with Krystal as the main character. 10/10 Game of the Year IGN.

Mild language warning.

Here's a quick summary of the basics of Krystal's history and position within the series. Probably little you didn't already know, but there may be some tidbits that are new for you. I have some slight disagreements with conclusions, but overall this is a great introduction by Miharu The Fox.

Thanks to Craig Beverlin for the heads up.

Reddit user starmeromeroheart actually took me up on the offer, and went to the interestingly named convenience store in Champaign, Illinois. He brought along his copy of Star Fox for the SNES for the photo op. Well done, you absolute legend!

Original Post

MMD maker, SchattenKitsune666, has produce another interesting animation. Not a dance in the traditional sense, but a quick action fight scene between Fox and two different kinds of Krystal: Dinosaur Planet and Adventures.

Created in 2008, and cancelled sometime around 2010, a Max Payne 2 mod featuring a Star Fox story and cast was created by Thomas18. Though nothing remains of the project, the Krystal model and rig created for the game exchanged hands from person to person for years until it was finally publicly released (with the original creator's blessing) on Steam Workshop as a mod for Garry's Mod back in early 2018 by researcher Ben24x7. The rig was later improved in July 2019. Releasing this rig here (again, with permission) has taken me far too long. But now you can find downloads to previous versions and a fully rundown of how this rig came to be and the history of how it moved from person to person on the rig's page, archived for all time!

The rig features basic fur effects and more tactical clothing. It can be used in first person mode with realistic arms and hands. The rig can be used in Garry's Mod, opening it up to be used with many different assets and tools, particularly for animating short films.

Star Fox: Paths of Fate Krystal Rig Page

Krystal files for bankruptcy. No, not the blue vixen Krystal. The red restaurant Krystal, aka, the reason why the Krystal Archive doesn't own Krystal.com.

If you hadn't heard of the restaurant chain, Krystal is a small-ish chain that primarily operates in the Southern United States. It's claim to fame is its miniature hamburgers and the fact that it is frequently open 24 hours, unlike most fast food restaurants.

Anyway, they've been closing locations recently, and now they've filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. This means they will probably reorganize, but not disappear completely, at least not for a while. That said, if they do, I'm going to see if I can obtain Krystal.com. Frankly, their name is far more interesting than their food. It made me sick almost every time I ate at one of their locations.

YouTube user Lazydragon tried out the recent Gecko code that makes Krystal playable in Star Fox Adventures. He had an... interesting experience.

Multiple-time world champion Smash player, and Star Fox fan, ZeRo, published a video playing the development version of Super Smash Flash 2, which has a playable Krystal character. The Krystal "DLC" is not yet available to the general public, so videos like these, where testers and prominent Smash players are given access to the development version, represent the only footage we have for right now. ZeRo takes the flak of liking Krystal (a long-time advocate of Krystal as a playable character in Ultimate), and explores how Krystal plays. He does well, but has a lot of trouble with Simon Belmont.