Star Wars X-Wing Fighter (POTF 1995) Laser Cannon Replacement

Back when I was young, Santa gave me a Power of the Force X-Wing Fighter for my collection of 3.75" Star Wars Action Figures for Christmas. The X-Wing Fighter came needing to be assembled with the injection-molded laser cannons to be press-fit onto the strike foils.

I really enjoyed the toy, but over time and over the course of seven moves between different states growing up, the four laser cannons became lost.

Fast forward 25 years and now I have a son of my own who, like his father, is becoming obsessed with Star Wars. He inherited all of his father's old Star Wars Toys which are missing pieces, broken and in disrepair. But, despite that, he plays with them every single day. For Christmas, he asked if Santa could fix all his Star Wars toys...that I had broken and didn't take care of as a kid. Broke my heart.

So, I set out replacing every single one of his old Star Wars toys with new, vintage ones still in their original boxes to give to him for Christmas (oh yeah - sorry - spoiler alert - Santa isn't real) but ran into a small problem. The laser cannons are kind of tough to find and can be expensive as a set of four, and I know they'd just get lost again. I could glue them in place, but then if they break I can't fix it.

So, 3D printing to the rescue! I paid for someone in Canada to send me one laser cannon that they had for sale online. Being an engineer, I 3d scanned it, uploaded the scan into Fusion 360, grabbed a pair of Mitutoyo Calipers and created a CAD model of it, comparing the new one I created to the 3D scanned version to ensure I was getting it just right - with a few minor tweaks since it doesn't need to be injection molded.

I am in process of 3D printing a set using SLA so I can 'fix' the X-Wing Fighter my son inherited and if/when he loses the laser cannons or if they break, I can make him a new one so the X-Wing will always be at 100%. I have not tested it yet, but will have done so before Christmas and made any necessary tweaks to make it work just right.