Link Ball (Auto-Opening Custom Poke Ball Design)

Link Ball (Auto-Opening Custom Design)

Intro

This is a custom Poke Ball design made possible via Project Kurt! Check out the bottom of the description for a collection of other Poke Balls in the project as well as a video detailing everything it’s about.

Of all the 28 Poke Balls currently seen in the Main Series, a grand total of Three (3) have effects that aren’t related to just adjusting its catch rate. The Friend Ball gives the freshly caught Pokemon an initial boost to its Friendship level, the Luxury Ball permanently increases any boosts to Friendship of any Pokemon inside it, and the Heal Ball fully heals a Pokemon the instant it is caught. That’s it!

I think that’s a bit lame, so I hatched this custom design. Introducing….

The Link Ball!

The effect: any Pokemon caught inside that would usually need to be traded to evolve now can do so just by leveling up. Any other requirements still need to be met.

For example, leveling up a Graveler would trigger it to evolve into a Golem, but an Onix would only evolve if holding a Metal Coat at the time it levels up. This would allow people that don’t have access to trading with other people an alternate way to get Pokemon that would otherwise require it.

The main design inspiration came from the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series–since you play as the Pokemon directly in those games, you can’t trade in order to evolve. Instead, you offer up a “Link Cable” item–one inspired by the fact that before wireless communication, you had to use a physical cable to link your GameBoys together in order to trade. 

So, I designed the bottom as if it had a link cable wrapped around it, and made the top look as if both sides of a wireless link Cable had been plugged in. The blue color and the design symbol were pulled from the Trade option found in Pokemon Sun and Moon.

I will say, this was a bit awkward to model, so I unfortunately don’t have a Single-Extruder version. If you are interested in printing it, you’ll have to either use a printer with some form of dual-printing technology, or print it in one color and paint it yourself.

Print Instructions:

As this isn’t a super complicated model, I don’t have any fancy build instructions for this one; I’ve included a 3mf with all the settings you need–the first 4 plates are mandatory, with Plate 5 being an optional small stand, and Plate 6 being an optional trophy-style stand. 

The STEP file included has all the parts you need, with all the multicolor parts separated out by component in Fusion to keep them together. Both stands are in that file, so make sure you don’t print either of them if you don’t want to.

Included are a pdf file and a video with assembly instructions.

Custom Poke Ball Designs Collection: https://makerworld.com/en/collections/2254060-custom-poke-ball-designs

Official Poke Ball Designs Collection: https://www.printables.com/@CarlThePumpkinMan/collections/1673950

Informational/Assembly Video: