Of all the possible uses for a LEGO tire, I think my favorite is masterfully demonstrated by Marco Marozzi, who uses them to flesh out his many mech creations. One example is this heavily armed mechanoid soldier, the tire forming the seal around his neck. As he looks to be examining the back of his hand thoughtfully, I have to wonder if either a butterfly has landed there, or he’s thinking about how hard the blood will be to wash out. This solder features a number of cleverly re-purposed minifig and vehicle accessories, like the snowshoe on the shoulder, and this tread for the feet. The use of several older dark gray elements that are off-color really gives the model a well-weathered look.
Tag Archives: Mecha
Half bulldozer, half tank, half robot, and 100% awesome
I have never played Overwatch, but I have purchased several of the LEGO sets based off the game just because they look cool. A little while back, though, I did a quick browse of the different characters to familiarize myself with the ones appearing in brick form. Apparently, there are different roles in the game, one of which is Tank. (This might be obvious to everyone but me, but I have never been a gamer.) Djokson has built a tank, not from the game itself, but inspired by it. Called the Siegebreaker, the mech looks more than capable of doing a lot of breaking, with big scoops up front, a big gun on the back, and additional armaments on the arms. Siegebreaker reminds me quite a bit of Bastion, but cooler.
The visual highlight is the large spring in the middle, giving it the appearance of rugged durability. I love the yellow color scheme; it makes it look almost like a cross between an excavator and Bumblebee from Transformers. The fact that Djokson used Constraction gun elements as part of the base makes it even cooler. Curious about what the sentry mode of the tank looks like? It has one, of course.
Cry havoc and let slip the wolves of war
Steam-driven military walkers are a staple of the LEGO Steampunk building genre, and this one, by Carter Witz, is a great addition to the corps — a spindly tripod affair with touches of dark red in amongst the grey greebles. The functional-looking joints on the legs support a nicely detailed body packed with texture (and armaments).
I particularly liked the evocation of a classic Prussian-esque “pickelhaube” spiked helmet. This is one of those LEGO creations where the presentation adds immensely to the overall effect. The base is simple but well done, and the addition of the figures advancing beneath their mechanical companion gives an impression of scale the central model alone might lack. And dropping in that wolf is a masterstroke — immediately creating a sense of mystery, danger, and otherworldliness. Steampunk needs more wolves.
Mecha model all set to pierce the heavens
Standing 23cm tall, this mighty mecha figure from Marco De Bon is modeled on the Gunmen mechs from anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The figure is well put-together with a smattering of detail bringing some texture to the smart colour blocking. A little custom stickering work brings the mech’s shoulder pauldrons to life, but the large scale face hidden within the torso design is the standout feature.
The model is surprisingly poseable for such a large creation. Here it is, armed with a killer drill attachment…
An extra-mobile home
Ah, the joys of the great outdoors! Nothing like getting out on the road at the weekend with your caravan in-tow. Or, you could take a leaf out of Markus Rollbühler‘s book and take your caravan off-road and into previously inaccessible territory with this insane van-bearing walker setup! This bonkers LEGO creation is wonderful — packed full of nice little building touches. Check out the whips as pneumatic cables, the smart little camping chair, and the shaping on the caravan itself. And there’s a great balance of colour going on in the composition too, with the dark green legs providing a lovely contrast to the pale blue caravan.
A dragon that is also a crane and an excavator and a wrecking ball and...
So I have been building again. This one was quite a stress-free build, inspired by my other recent dragon, Dragon Unit LL-32167. I was struck by a moment of inspiration about a month ago and realized that I have a yellow 24-toothed gear that would work perfectly in the dragon’s neck. The thought process continued with the idea that if I build a dragon using no light gray and (almost) no blue, I could keep the previous one assembled for a longer time. This means that everyone visiting my tiny local LEGO shows/conventions may have a chance at seeing the two mecha dragons side-by-side. I name this awesome construction worker mecha dragon Workhorse.
Click here to read more about my latest build and a comparison with my earlier similar build
Duck duck robot
What do you do if your robot walker develops a waddle? Make it a feature rather than a bug, of course! At least, that’s what I like to think happened in the backstory for Moko‘s latest LEGO creation. This Mecha-Duck is a delight, nicely-built with some cool mechanical details, but also invested with a brilliant sense of fun and character. I’m pleased to see that, like its inspiration, the walker is also amphibious — there’s a little red propeller sitting at the rear, allowing for effective transportation on water too.
Friend or foe, I’d like to know
At first glance of this strangely serene scene by Thorsten Bonsch, it seems this pair of poorly armed passersby facing off against an insectlike robot have bitten off more than they can chew. While it is not clear whether the robot wants to help them disarm peacefully, or separate them from their arms literally, one thing is clear… There is more to this model than meets the eye; It was inspired by Tales from the Loop, a series of illustrations and short stories by Swedish artist Simon Stalenhag.
Thorsten captures the delicate but strong appearance of the multi-segmented limbs, as well as the large industrial elements of the robot’s body depicted in the inspirational source material.
You have 20 nanoseconds to comply
When these cops come to kick your door in, they don’t mess around. Armed to the teeth and itching for a fight, the squad’s tactical mech carries a faint whiff of ED-209 from Robocop. However, Tim Goddard‘s model is a throwback to an altogether different slice of retro cop sci-fi–LEGO’s Space Police theme of 1989. There’s a tonne of lovely mechanical detailing in amongst the black, and the blue panels and red cockpit give the model some striking standout. I love the guns and missile launcher this thing is carrying, but the smaller arms hanging beneath the cockpit are the killer detail, lending the model some goofy character along with its more obvious menace.
Diamonds and gold are a mech’s best friend
The expansion of transparent clear elements over the past decade has allowed for some intricate builds like this glittering mech by Moko, named the MF-10 Diamond Empress. While the frame of the mech is black, it is clad in transparent clear armor formed from tiles, slopes, dishes, windshields, and more. The Diamond Empress lives up to its name with a few parts in rare non-production colors, such as the 2×2 round tile in trans clear. Aside from the build itself, my favorite aspect of this model is perhaps the use of trans clear 12x2x5 tails for the skirting. Meanwhile, chrome gold and transparent red accents provide additional visual interest.
Get ready to rumble with this riot control mech. Or get ready to run
If you are planning on making trouble for the government in Marco Marozzi‘s world, you better be prepared to face the music. And by the music, I mean this manacing crowd control mech, who if you are unlucky and he runs out of ammo, will instead stomp you to paste without breaking a sweat.
Marco is a mech builder who uses lots of amazing mechanical details in his models that root them in the practical world, with joints that feel like they actually work, and this mech is no exception. The back of the legs use the helicopter ski element to anchor several greebly bits to maximize stompiness.
Another highly detailed section is the head and chest, which use the main torso part from many Nexo Knights power mechs to provide a richly textured look. But one of my favorite parts is half of an old hinged claw used as the back part of the foot.
A heavy assault mech for all your heavy assault shenanigans
Have you ever wondered what those S.W.A.T. team hand signals mean as they gather outside your house? I believe a fist hoisted straight up and down in the air means “hurry up” while a hand covering the mouth means “gas”. The rest was sort of lost in a fiery frantic blur but no matter the hand signals, a S.W.A.T. team outside means you’re pretty much screwed. While going out in a blaze of glory does have its appeal, you might instead want to employ the help of of this Heavy Assault Mech built by Mishima to tilt the odds in your favor. Trust me, a light assault mech or even a moderate assault mech will not help in this situation. You will need some seriously huge guns–so huge you wonder how it’s still standing upright.
A shoulder-mounted Gatling gun and a missile launcher rounds out the arsenal, the latter making excellent use of the “nexagon” part. While doing time in the Big House you might want to check out this builder’s other nifty mechs and bots or follow his Youtube channel for an instructional video on how to build this one. In the meantime, all this mechanized firepower ought to hold you over right up until they send in the attack dogs. Good luck!