The 'Playstacean' is a crab-u-lous PS One mod

A games console modder has revealed a crab-themed PS One creation dubbed the 'Playstacean.' GingerOfOz's real-world remake of an artwork of the same name by Anh Dang, a concept artist on League of Legends, is crab-solutely stunning. It is a fully functional Sony PS One, as demonstrated in the video, but GingerOfOz humbly admits that the claw controllers are "not comfortable to use."

GingerofOZ's regular (crab)shtick involves taking retro consoles like the Wii, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and others and documenting his work in turning these classics into portable consoles on his YouTube channel. The Playstacean is something of a diversion for the modder, though, as it remains a (cru)stationary device designed to be plugged into your TV at home.

GingerOfOz has had the idea to build a real-life Playstacean in his mind for a few months, ever since he first spotted Anh Dang's artwork. As with many similar projects, the starting point was to hunt down a cheap and cheerful yet functional example of the console at the heart of the project—a PS One from eBay.

With the actual console in hand, GingerOfOz started work on 3D CAD artwork, melding the original Playstacean visual with the real-world console's physical form. That's easier said than done due to the compact PlayStation's curvy nature. Other art-meets-reality tweaks to the Playstacean design were caused by the console being thicker than the concept art, and conversely, the controllers needed to be made a bit heftier to fit the thumb stick and buttons and be rugged enough to game with.

The original PS One's motherboard didn't survive this project unmodded. GingerOfOz documents several trims of the ground plane, but nothing major or too worrying.

(Image credit: GingerOfOz, Anh Dang)

(Image credit: GingerOfOz)

(Image credit: GingerOfOz)

After many hours of design, modifications, and test prints, GingerOfOz was happy enough with his Playstacean to call it a day. We think it looks great. If you want to learn more about the concept and process, the I Built A Playstacean video is worth 20 minutes. There's also a bit of insight into using the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon, which our reviewer summarized as "one of the best prosumer desktop FFF 3D printers on the market."

For a wider perspective on the 3D printers on the market right now, our regularly updated Best 3D Printers for Home, Workshop, or Business in 2025 feature is worth a look.