Forget about the Fallout 4 Pip Boy Edition and 3D-print your own

This was the message Bethesda got from its factories when asking about the possibility of building even more Pip-Boy Mark IVs for its premium Fallout 4 bundle. Bethesda's Pete Hines said, "We reached a point where we'd go back to the factories and they were like, 'Guys, this is it, sorry.'"

So if you didn't get one, that's it, then? You're out of luck forever and will never experience the feeling of having a mostly to-scale Pip-Boy strapped to your arm? Well, not quite.

Thanks to Yvo de Haas at Ytec3D, you can 3D-print your own. And, if that wasn't enough, you can do it right now and have it before Fallout 4's Nov. 10 release date. Here's the 3D-printed version on the left and Bethesda's (sold-out) version on the right:

Pretty good, right? And unlike Bethesda's version, de Haas' will come in three sizes for different-sized humans, though the 100 percent scale "Phone Edition" is the only one currently available. It will also come in an "Accurate Edition." Says de Haas:

Another thing that was a real challenge was getting a phone to fit in this Pip Boy. At E3 it was announced that the collectors edition had a wearable Pip Boy that could hold a phone, and so this 3D printed one also needed to be able to do that. There is only one problem. Smartphones have become bigger since Fallout 3, and this Pip Boy is smaller than the previous one. Bethesda has fixed this by breaking some of the proportions and dimensions to make a smartphone of decent size still fit. In some cases, dimensions are broken by around 1cm (which is way more than it sounds like). For the phone version of this 3D printed version, the proportions have also been broken to make the phone fit.

If accuracy is all that matters to you, the still-incomplete Accurate Edition won't fit a smartphone, but is ready for a custom computer to be installed in it (think Raspberry Pi) ... if that's a project you want to spend time on.

Oh, and it has an actual tape deck up top!

Ytec3D has the full parts list that you'll need to construct your own Pip-Boy 3000 Mark IV, along with the files needed for your printer and some notes on how he built and assembled the piece. He notes that a "general assembly guide" is coming soon. Without further ado, here are some images and a video of the finished product!

[Update: Victor from 3D Hubs emailed to tell us about his company, which gives people without 3D printers (there's a good chance that includes you) access to over 20,000 3D printing locations all over the world. (Example: There are 320 in New York City alone!)]

Thanks to Juan for the tip!