YipYip Family: Space Ship

This part of the YipYip Family collection is a ship designed to go with these expressive, flexible alien creatures.  It is designed after the ship the yipyips like to take to Old McDonald's Farm, and it even has an light up LED ring built in, along with magnetic door and hangable optional top part.

Materials Needed

This one takes some assembly and is a larger print, but my 2 year old daughter was pleased with the results, as she was obsessed with.  It holds one of the smaller yipyips from the collection inside.  Here's what you need to complete it as-shown:

• LED strip (0.5m) and battery pack from an COB LED ring I found on Aliexpress.. though any LED strip should do.  
• Clear PETG filament sections, 1x at ~6 mm length per hole (90 holes!) for the light-pipes to shove into the portal-holes.  This helps with the lighting effect, is a bit annoying and is optional, but I liked the effect.
• 20x (6x2 mm) round rare earth magnets for the door.  You could try using 12x magnets for a less-strong door snap feeling if you wish, skipping some of the holes, but I liked the feel with 10x on the door and 10x on the ship.
• 2x M3 screws for the door handle.  Anything between ~6-14 mm in length is fine for these.
• Superglue to attach ring to top/bottom.

Printing Info

• Everything here printed in PLA, except I printed the LED-holder insert from PETG and I cut transparent 1.75 mm Overture PETG filament into little bits to use as light pipes that were inserted into the printed holes.
• Recommended print and support settings (mostly 0.2 mm layer height) in a .3MF file for BambuStudio (tested on Bambu AMS).  Generic 3MFs and STEPs also included.  

Assembly Instructions

• After printing all the parts and removing any supports, the first step is drop in the LED mount insert into the top of the spaceship base and use a little glue to secure it in place.  This gives you a place to adhere a normal ~8 mm wide LED strip to, with a relief to spiral the strip inwards.

• Next, assemble/adhere your chosen strip in place and test it out. The one i used was 0.5 m in length and fits pretty well here but you can cut to size.

• Now insert magnets into the door and the spaceship.  Make sure to keep track of the polarity, as you will want opposite sites facing on the door/ship side.  I chose to keep all the ones on the door in one direction and all the ones on the ship the other.  The magnets have glue relief holes built in… but just a tiny bit of glue will do it!  If the magnets somehow don't fit easily (test fit them beforehand!) then I would suggest using an exacto knife or rotary tool to make sure they fit loosely … you don't want them protruding beyonf the surface.  I would encourage you to do a test-print for the magnet hole portions for your magnets before you print the large pieces.. and if they don't fit change the hole size in the STEP file.  This will be much easier than trying to fix it with a cutter later!
• Test fit the door.  Clearances have been built into the print, and it should “just work”, assuming the magnets have been properly installed.

• Screw in the door handle with 2x M3 screws from the inside of the door, as shown.  It may help to pre-tap the door handle with the screws and to preemptively intentionally over-drive/strip-out the door body holes so that the screws rotate more freely in the door body holes.  This well help you tighten effectively for a good fit.

• If you used the same battery pack as me, you can print the optional battery pack shim and glue it in place and use a velcro strip on the back of the pack to keep it secured inside the ship, like so.  I super-glued the curved portion to the inside of the ship cylinder.  This has the added benefit of adding weight to the bottom of the ship.

• Assemble the light-ring by inserting cut clear PETG segments into the holes like so.  Yes this is a bit tedious.  After they're all inserted you can quickly secure them all in place by running a bead of thin superglue around the inside that will wick into the gap between the filament and the ring and lock the little segments in place.  Precise length of the light pipe segments is not important.  Here I used a PTFE tube cutter to quickly cut a bunch of little bits and shoved them flush to the exterior face in with my hands, as you can see. 

The end result is that you get nice light-pipe behavior for the little portal windows, as shown here with a flashlight

• Next, using some gel-type super glue, glue the top into the ring but running a beat of gel around the circumference and inserting the top, which is chamfered to fit.  This will fix the ring to the top.  Later, the same can be done with the bottom, after you've tested everything.  After this, you should be able to test the LED ring effect with the top still removable.

• Now, choose your screw-on “topper” style for the hole top of the space ship, or leave it open, or make your own if you wish.  This is for decorative/hanging purposes.  I show one style here (intended for use with fishing line) installed onto the top with a screw-on mechanism, as included in the 3MFs.

• Now, finally, you can glue the top+ring onto the bottom portion in the same way as the top was glued into the ring, to complete the assembly.  Enjoy your new home for your aliens:

Because lawyers can ruin fun.. I ought to include the following disclaimers:

Child Safety Disclaimer

These models are intended for decorative or gentle interactive use only and contain potential small parts that could pose a choking hazard if the arms break. Supervise children during use and do not allow unattended play for children under an.  With that being said, my 2 year old toddler adores these under supervision.  But, please use common parenting sense and don't sue me, as i've warned you!

License Disclaimer

This is a fan-made, non-commercial, transformative artistic work inspired by the general concept of whimsical alien creatures in order to make my kid smile. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated in any way with Sesame Workshop, the Muppets, or any related entities. All names, designs, and characters in this YipYip Family series are original creations, and any resemblance to existing media is purely coincidental or intended as playful homage.

These models are provided strictly for personal use only. Redistribution for commercial purposes, including selling physical prints or derivatives, is explicitly prohibited. I do not grant any license to sell or otherwise profit from this design, and I strongly discourage any attempt to do so. 

Please respect the spirit of this work as a fun, free, and creative effort for the maker community.