Man builds Monster Hunter switch axe, complete with working flamethrower, because why not

In what we can all agree is a sensible, reasonable decision, a man going by the name Captain Steel has made a fully transforming Switch Axe straight out of Monster Hunter, complete with “elemental charge” that shoots a blast of flame. It’s just what you need to round off a week of Monster Hunter Wilds fever.

The Real Switch Axe Is Complete, Now With ZSD 🙂 from r/MonsterHunter

Captain Steel’s build is made from, mostly, a lot of 3D printed plastic, but has all manner of mechanisms to let it articulate, wheel, and lock into its various forms as sword and axe.

The most impressive part, of course, is that it shoots fire. It’s 90% of the way to what you need to go dragon hunting, except for how the 10% is that it needs to be made of steel and dragon parts.

For the curious, this is a Teostra Switch Axe, made from hunting everyone’s favorite fire-breathing draconic lion that, yes, is a pun on toaster. Because it breathes fire.

Captain Steel says that the most difficult part of the build was, of course, the faux-elemental ZSD phials that let it spit fire.

“I did go through 5 iterations of the ZSD phial system—we don’t talk about what happened to Version 4,” he said on Reddit.

Seeing as it involved pressurized fuel and fire, I think we can all guess what happened to Version 4.

You can watch a pretty complete breakdown of the building of the Switch Axe on YouTube. Spoiler: Captain Steel’s conclusion is that the Switch Axe is a deeply impractical weapon for normal people who don’t use their superhuman strength to go monster hunting.

In a different genre of Monster Hunter Wilds fever, the food looks so tasty it’s driving up sales for cheese naan in Japan.