Flexi Rex with stronger links

This is my improved version of the classic Flexi Rex. Somehow this version became the most popular one, maybe just because it doesn't break easily when handled by kids (and adults of course).
I uploaded this model to Printables for everyone's convenience. The primary source for this model remains its GitHub repository where you can find the latest updates, the model's history, and detailed instructions.

Go to my site for an overview of my other models (not all of them are published on Printables).

Attribution:

This is a remix of Kirbs' Flexi Rex (Thingiverse thing:1759297), based on airfish's remix (Thingiverse thing:2189652). That model in turn was most likely inspired by the ‘Flexy Rex’ by zheng3 (Thingiverse thing:929413).

The reason why I made this version is that my print of Kirbs' original model was not very kid-proof: one of the links broke after some rough handling. Hence I made all links more robust. This means this model can probably be printed even smaller than the original ones before the links become too weak. Of course you can also scale it up at will.

If you want an even more flexible version of this model, try the ‘Flexier Rex.’
If you want to print this larger than your printer allows and don't mind some manual assembly, try the separate parts version.

Update 2024/04/01

The tail pieces have been tweaked to make it even easier to balance the Rex on its tail. (Nope, this is not an April fool's.)

Note to anyone wanting to sell this:

You can sell prints of this model without having to ask explicit permission, but you must honour the Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike license. See the GitHub page for detailed instructions.

(And yes, if you see other copies of this model on Printables or other sites that do not refer to this original, either through the old Thingiverse page, the GitHub page, or this very page, then they are violating the CC-BY-SA license indeed. But since I'm not the author of the truly first main design either, I won't make a fuss about it and trust that everyone will eventually update their copies with a link to the original source. If you notice a remix without the required attribution, you can help me out by asking the author to update their model description—in a friendly way.)

If you want to remix this:

If you publish your remix on Printables, all you need to do is enable the “This is a remix” checkbox and select this model (46241), and give your remix the same Attribution-ShareAlike license. If you publish it elsewhere, follow the instructions from the GitHub page.

If you see an injection molded variant being sold:

If it does not have attribution (links to the GitHub page), and does not provide their modified model under the same or a compatible license, it violates the license. More details here.
(Also, you can easily 3D print 4 or 5 Rexes for the same price as they're asking.)

Print instructions

The recommended print settings are:

• 0.2 mm layer height
• 3 perimeters (important, to make the links strong)
• 15% infill
• Solid infill threshold 8mm²

Expect about 2 to 2.5 hours print time for a good quality print.

Don't use a high infill value, this could cause it to become unbalanced. For improved stability, you could increase infill on the piece with the feet below it, and reduce infill of the head, but this should no longer be necessary if you print the current model with the above recommendations.

A PrusaSlicer 3MF project file with the recommended settings and a pre-sliced gcode file are provided for the i3 MK3.

This remix is much more robust than Kirbs' original, and better balanced.