It’s Alive! And Multifunctional!
Zipping through YouTube reviews of tools Michelle and I were thinking about purchasing for the shop, we noticed a lot of gear reviews on a multitool marketed towards outdoorsmen, woodworkers, plumbers, contractors, and do-it-yourselfers. Nothing about artists or craftspeople. But the tool seemed interesting enough for us to buck the system, pick one up, and see if we could make a monster.
The challenge was to replace as many of our usual go-to tools with the Roxon Flex, a customizable multitool that can switch out its tools as necessary. Take out the knife, put in the saw. Take out the saw, put in a chisel. Take out the chisel…you get it. The Flex seemed like it could be a versatile tool, and we wondered if it was something we might just keep on the workbench as a regular item. But first, it had to pass The Monster Test.
Right out of the box, the Flex was a pretty good one-to-one match with a couple of our standard tools. The scalpel was a perfect replacement for the craft knife when we were slicing foam for the stones of the Frankenstein castle diorama. The sheepsfoot blade served as a decent replacement for the utility knife when I was cutting the shapes of the walls into the basswood sheets.
Michelle used a ‘blank’ tool in the Flex to replace a flathead screwdriver we keep on hand to pry open cans of stain, paint, and primer. And we both used the scissors for various tasks — though, to be honest, the mini-scissors on the Flex were more difficult to work with than our standard-size scissors. Still sharp, and got the job done. And they’ll work in a pinch when nothing else is available. But if it weren’t for sticking to this challenge, we’d have both ditched the Flex for the regular scissors. Which brings up another point…
OF COURSE we couldn’t replace every tool we use with the Flex. Certain things just don’t work as a multitool option. The sculpting tools, for instance. The way I use those is way too frenetic and disjointed to have to flip out each tool and flip it back at the frequency with which I switch implements. However, the pliers and wire cutters on the Flex worked well when building the monster’s armature.
And, of course, there are other non-replaceable tools like the airbrush, or paintbrushes, or glue. Look, it’s just an experiment. A challenge. We’re not going to ruin a perfectly good monster trying to smear acrylic paint on a sculpt with a fold-out Phillips-head screwdriver.
Overall, the Flex did a great job and we were able to work around its limitations. In fact, we reached for the tool dozens of times during our process. And, in the end, I think we built a pretty good monster diorama.
Our full review of the Roxon Flex, as well as some suggestions to for future tools to make it more art-friendly, are in the video. And you can see a few more images of ol’ Flexenstein and his palatial estate. Link down below.