The Ruiz Brothers Bring You a Creepy 3D Printed BioShock Syringe

Brothers Noe and Pedro Ruiz put together amazing 3D printing and electronics projects at Adafruit. Now they’ve built a cool, if very creepy, cosplay prop syringe from the game BioShock and its Little Sister characters, who carry the large syringes. The cosplay syringe is made with some copper filament and simple electronics.

The syringe has a built-in trigger that actuates a momentary push button, and the device was 3D printed. Once the button is activated, the syringe creates “an eerie red glow.”

As with all their projects, they’re provided a handy guide to walk you through the necessary steps to create the prop from 3D printing to polishing, soldering, and final assembly.

The pair say the project is aimed at makers who have basic 3D printing skills and access to a 3D printer. They add that the circuit itself is “very beginner friendly” and easy to solder, and that the 3D parts were designed for large build platforms.

Should it be necessary, the brothers say the large parts can be split using Meshmixer from Autodesk, and that they should take up to 24 hours and approximately 100 grams of material to print.

The pair say many of their 3D models being with Autodesk’s 123D Design, and then they proceed to build some wonderful things. Perhaps most important, they also publish some very detailed and instructive posts to let others re-create their awesome projects for themselves.

The Ruiz Brothers, as they’re known on Adafruit, are the creative team behind their design studio, Pixil 3D. The pair’s West Palm Beach, Florida, studio is the hub for the first-generation Mexican Americans who grew up with influences like cartoons, visual effects, and videos games. But perhaps most importantly for our purposes, they’re passionate about technology, the maker culture, and 3D printing.

The brothers say that back in 2013 they decided to shift the bulk of their focus to 3D printing, designing products, and offering 3D printing services, and they work from their home studio when they’re not hanging out at local 3D printing meet ups to present demos and share their work.

They say they “get a real kick out of sharing our designs on Thingiverse,” and they also produce video tutorials about 3D printing on their YouTube channel, and of course, publish their projects on Adafruit.

Noe says brother Pedro discovered Shapeways while still at college, and then the pair began offering 3D printed products on Etsy. After some six months, they say the shop started to take off and they expanded their product line to include a Shapeways shop.

The brothers use a combination of Autodesk Maya, ZBrush, and Adobe Illustrator in their design toolbox, and they promote their work on social media through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Vine.

Noe says they’ve gained inspiration over the years from sources like Nervous System, Bathsheba, Dizingoff, and Joshua Harker.

“We love their work and products because we believe they are an awesome example of people pushing the technology to its boundaries,” Noe told Shapeways. “We think the Shapeways design community as a whole is awesome and we’re stoked to be a part of it. It’s inspiring to browse the products page and discover new designers and products.”

You can find all the details of the Cosplay Syringe project here, and you’ll need items like PLA filament, copperFill, NinjaFlex, a rechargeable coin cell, a 10mm LED, a 6mm Tactile button, and a handful of Phillips screws.

What do you think of the Ruiz Brothers’ projects? Can you see yourself building this syringe from BioShock 2? Let us know in the Creepy 3D Printed Bioshock Syringe forum thread on 3DPB.com.