Marco De Bon has graced our pages with his LEGO mech’s many times but with his new Mecha Beast “B.B. Kong”, he’s approached them from a whole new slant. Most, if not all of his mechs, are completely armored, meaning all mechanisms are hidden. B.B. Kong, on the other hand, is full of exposed piping and other greebly goodness.
Click to check out more of this Mecha Beast
A prolific name in the realm of LEGO mecha is Lu Sim. His mecha present functional articulation, compact cockpits and a ton of character. Each one holds its own in originality and portrays a definite omnipresence. Lu’s latest titled “AL-SPSS-N9 Spessar” is an excellent example. Supported by a predominantly black and dark bluish grey frame, the encasing armour has been completed in a brilliant use of trans-neon/trans orange elements.
See more of this great orange mech
Some mechs are big, bulky and ready to smash through just about everything, obliterating all obstacles and enemies with hugely overpowered weapon systems. Ruby the warrior mech is not that kind of gal. GolPlaysWithLego’s creation is elegant and long of limb, with just enough red coverings to keep things interesting. Graceful curves on her legs leave the eye pleased, yet there is just enough greebling in the middle to make things look realistic. However, she isn’t your stereotypical damsel in distress because one of her asymmetrical arms is actually a gun.
Several features of this mech really stand out, not least of which is the beautiful contrast between the smooth limbs and cockpit areas and the greebled midsection. The splashes of red liven up the whole model, and the transparent light blue canopy (built from a 3 x 6 x 1 curved windscreen and 4 x 4 x 1 2/3 canopy half sphere with handle) complements the rest of the build well. Paint rollers attach two headlights to the mech’s chest, and a red snake head from the Ninjago theme perhaps serves as a sort of antenna. My favorite part, though? The feet, with those curved claws for toes. But from those toes all the way up to her head, this is one mighty fine looking mech.
Some people suffer from arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. Other people suffer from robophobia, the fear of robots. After seeing Jayfa‘s latest build, I think I now suffer from arachnorobophobia, the fear of spider-robots. The Huntsman, or Plague Mech: Pi, takes some inspiration from the huntsman spider, which in some regions can have a legspan of nearly a foot (30cm); the long limbs of the mech clearly mimic that of the leggy arachnid, and the large fangs look capable of delivering a devastating punch of poison.
The mech looks almost like a cross between General Grievous from Star Wars and a Xenomorph from Alien. Neither of those are friendly, and judging by the menacing pose and darkly ominous lighting, this one is not nice either. The details are what really make it unique, however. Minifigure hands give the fingers a grasping quality, and the ribbed hoses add a touch of texture to liven up all of the black. Tiny highlights of red and transparent-red elements make it even more sinister. Clever connections in the arms allow all sorts of poses, making it capable of reaching out to clutch its helpless prey. I am not sure I will be able to sleep tonight with this nightmare of a Huntsman lurking about. How about you?
Inspired by the robotic mascot of MAKE Magazine, LEGO builder Omar Ovalle got down to some making of his own — resulting in a supercute retro-styled robot. The stripped-back colour scheme perfectly reflects the inspiration, with details added through judicious use of cut electrical tape. I love this thing’s chunky 50s-era blockiness. I want to see an army of these robots marching in synchronisation out of the airlock on a Soviet moonbase.
Italy’s extremely prolific Marco de Bon is ready to rumble! His latest creation pits two big bots against each other with an entire LEGO microscale city playing backdrop to their battle.
The black and gray bot is clearly the aggressor, roughing up the skyscrapers while the dark blue Midnight Ranger seems to be avoiding toppling any buildings, planting its feet carefully along the streets. There’s a great energy and enormity of scale on display.
LEGO mech suits generally come in one of two varieties — combat hulks clad in armour plating, or civilian-role rigs, stripped back to their mechanical bones. Andreas Lenander‘s Powerloader Exo Suit is a great example of the latter style — its frame festooned in greebles and mechanical-looking details. All-grey creations can lack impact, but the impressive depth of texture more than makes up for the lack of colour. There’s an obvious nod to Peter Reid’s classic Exo Suit design, but Andreas makes this version all his own with cogs broadening the shoulders, and a fearsome pair of toothed grippers for moving stuff around. Although this isn’t a military mech, you get the impression it wouldn’t do too badly if things turned nasty in the cargo bay.
I was lucky enough to see this model “in the brick” as Andreas and I installed models in the LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery. It looks even more impressive than in these photos, and if you make it to Billund this summer, I’d recommend you seek this out for a closer viewing.
Insects and arachnids are a constant source of inspiration for builders of LEGO mecha, and it is easy to understand why. Between the exoskeletons, the many-jointed limbs, and the way that many of them scuttle and scurry, there is something magical and also terrifying about them. This upright mecha by builder [VB] is inspired by one of the scarier arachnids I can think of, the whip spider.
Not only do the extremely long arms with menacing claws closely resemble its real-life inspiration, but the builder has included some actual whips as part of the mech’s hip section. I also love the use of printed fan tiles for eyes.
The bright colours, cartoony style of pieces and cute anthropomorphic animal characters of Fabuland make for a perfect nostalgic base to build on. And boy do LEGO fans build on it! Here at The Brothers Brick, we have featured over the years fabuland Star Wars, pirates, The Hobbit and even Black Fantasy and Apocalyptic Fabuland. Zilmrud brings another theme to the collection with his over-the-top futuristic military creations sporting the cute characters in completely inappropriate settings. What would Ole Kirk Kristiansen say!
The builder combines cute DUPLO and Fabuland elements with an excessive amount of weaponry, with civilians in the background cheering the armed Fabuland forces. There are many iconic pieces included in the build, like original fabuland doors, windows and even benches! Of course it can hardly be a Fabuland creation without the figures and the bulldog fireman in the tank actually looks like a strangely appropriate choice… The below photo of a bunny mech stealing eggs is especially timely. The style of this one is more tailored to the bunny Fabuland figure than the theme as a whole, but still captures both the feeling of the original theme and what we are used to in mecha. The “chicken’s” nest is particularly inspired, using a DUPLO cupcake cup containing small shrub pieces as the nest’s material.
I always wanted to make a mecha dragon, even as far back as 2012 when I fell in love with LEGO dragons. I always knew it would be gray and greebly, but it almost seemed like cheating. Light gray is the LEGO colour with most the available detail pieces, so it would make finding solutions to building problems easier than I would like them to be. Ironically, this is the most complicated dragon build I have made yet (of which there are 24 now, including some more open interpretations of what a “dragon” is). I working on building this one on and off for 2 months from late December to mid-February.
Click to read about the building process and see a few extra pictures
I am not a miner, but I imagine that it is not quite as fun and exciting as the 1990s Rock Raiders LEGO theme made it look. Nevertheless, I have fond memories of this action-packed adventure theme. My nostalgia was somewhat dormant for a long time, until I had the privilege to write about a Rock Raiders tunneling drone here on the Brothers Brick. The creation made me feel so good that I felt compelled had to make my own Rock Raiders-themed model. And here it is; the “Dolomite Destroyer” (named in the honour of the iconic 4940 Granite Grinder LEGO set).
I have experimented with proportions a bit for this model. Just a simple colour scheme would not cut it for a Rock Raiders build. It had to be bulky and rough. The whole thing started with a Throwbot/Slizer shoulder/hand piece as the mech’s arms and continued from there. The second central part was an Atlantis minifig helmet within the body. I finished the model off with a little crane because I think cranes look so cool and industrial. While this model was fun to build, I will be scrapping it to build another creation in this style later on.
This bulky mech by Zane Houston is called a brawler, and it could not match its name any better. From the large wheels built into the legs to massive shoulder and hip joints, this is one heavy mech. However, this is more than a simple brute of a model, as there are plenty of details worth mentioning. In particular, the mech has several pistons and other mechanisms that ground it in practical construction. Throughout the model, the builder has also added simple repeating details like cheese slopes in the thighs, and canisters in the forearms.
In addition to some fantastic angled structures that would look quite at home in any massive LEGO spaceship, the color blocking is also well-executed. However, I think my favorite detail would have to be the 2×2 round bricks with grooves tucked into several joints, playing off of the more noticeable gears.