A tip of the hat to a great mech

When it comes to quality LEGO mechs, builder Marco Marozzi sure knows how to build them. This latest offering, UM Soldat 2 Mech, has a real sense of expensive style about it. The combination of black and gold armor nicely offset the touch of grey from the exposed mechanical parts. Maybe this mech defrays some costs by leaning heavily into corporate sponsorship. There’s certainly evidence of that based on the numerous logos, some sourced directly from LEGO sets and some from UK nail art sticker sheets.

UM Soldat 2 Mech

Lightsaber hilts add texture to the arms, and black ingots give some heft to the hands. Grey ingots also show up on the rear of the mech, hiding those pesky studs on the roll cage.

UM Soldat 2 Mech

My favorite detail, though has to be the mech’s head. This is the first (and possibly last) time you’ll see a Belville Riding helmet used as a mechanical head; the hat’s squatchee really works as a suggestion of an optical sensor. And if, like me, you didn’t know that the button on the top of a ball cap is called a squatchee, well, I guess we both learned something new today.