Classic Zelda Dungeon Book Nook

📖 The Story

As a kid, I spent countless hours flipping through the original Legend of Zelda instruction booklet. The artwork felt mysterious and cinematic, and this specific illustration always stuck with me. I remember wishing Nintendo would someday revisit that art style in a full Zelda game.

When Bambu Lab announced the Book Nook contest, this image immediately came to mind:

This project became a love letter to those early gaming memories and the very beginning of my video game journey. Recreating this scene in physical form was genuinely nostalgic and incredibly fun, and it brought back a lot of great childhood memories along the way.

⚙️🛠️ Updates

• February 1, 2026: Added a 2-color Darknut print profile to reduce print time while maintaining strong detail and visual quality.

🖨️ The Prints

The book nook itself is designed as a single-color print and is a longer print overall. Custom supports are included, though you may want to adjust them depending on your specific printer setup.

Link and the Darknut both come in 4-color versions, each with their own separate print profiles to make printing as easy as possible. If you prefer to paint your own figures, single-color versions of both characters are also included.

There is also a dedicated space in the back of the book nook for a Bambu Lab tea light. A yellow light works best to give the scene that warm, dungeon-like glow, and the tea light slides in and out easily.

🔧 Setup & Assembly

After everything is printed, you can either add a small amount of glue to secure Link and the Darknut, or simply place them freely when positioning the book nook on your shelf.

I intentionally avoided fixed or forced character placements. Where you put Link and the Darknut is entirely up to you, letting you customize the scene and tell the story your own way.

🧩 Final Thoughts

This is my first attempt at designing and printing a structure at this scale. Everything here was modeled, printed, and test-printed by me on a Bambu Lab X1C, including my own full copies of each major element.

This is a big print and it will test both your patience and your time, especially if you go for the 4-color prints on Link and the Darknut. That said, the end result is absolutely worth it in my opinion. Seeing it come together on the shelf was incredibly rewarding.

I pushed my skills in both modeling and 3D printing to their limits on this one, and I learned a lot along the way. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or send me a private message. I’m always happy to help.