…call in this guy. This mech by flickr user Bockaderunner sports some terrific heavy weapons, and looks great to boot. The posing of the mech is awesome, and gives it a much more dynamic presence than a simple at-attention pose.
Tag Archives: Mecha
Ninjago: 70500 Kai’s Fire Mech [Review]
Another of the sets I bought last week is the smallest of the 2013 Ninjago sets. This is the last wave of Ninjago sets before Legends of Chima takes its place as the go-to theme for battling minifig games, and I’ll be sad to see it go.
Now, I didn’t follow the mythos of Ninjago, or watch the show, so I can’t tell you a lot of backstory about the theme beyond the very broad strokes, but it’s sure included some sweet sets, and 70500 Kai’s Fire Mech
The set contains a small mech and two minifigures, and feels like a bargain with 102 pieces and a USD $9.99 MSRP. The mech is basically the little sibling of the previous wave’s Samurai Mech, which is my favorite set of 2012. The mech is built with ball joints, which allow it quite a lot of pose-ability. Add to that the full-fingered left-hand, and this is probably Lego’s best mech of this size.
The gold highlights are terrific, especially since so many of them are weapons, which are always useful. This is also the cheapest set thus far to include the new inverted 2×2 tiles. All of the printed parts except for the minifigs are stickers, which I didn’t apply, even though they do look very nice. The only new piece here is the fire mech’s sword, which is transparent yellow infused with transparent neon orange, for quite a cool effect. Here are photos of the inventory pages, for those who are interested.
The minifigs look great. Kai has a snazzy black and red outfit, which is just generic enough to be useful for other themes.
The bad guy has a fantastic grimacing visage reminiscent of the masks samurai wore to look fearsome, and a red quiver and hat, both of which are new in that color to this wave of sets. Both minifigs have back printing.
My verdict: this set is a winner. If you’re a fan of Ninjago, mechs, or good Lego deals, you should pick this one up. I enjoyed it so much, I’ve already bought two.
Star Wars: 75002 AT-RT [Review]
My local toy store is stocking up on the first wave of 2013 sets, so I’ll be reviewing several in the near future as I get time. Today, though, I’ll start with one of the new Star Wars sets, the 75002 AT-RT.
With 222 pieces, it’s actually quite a steal with an MSRP of USD $19.99, and even more so for being a Star Wars set, which notoriously are more pricey than their non-licensed counterparts.
It includes an AT-RT walker, which 
is basically the Clone-Wars equivalent of the AT-ST “chicken walker,” for those who, like me, don’t follow the Clone Wars cartoon series. In order for it to have something to shoot at, a Droideka and battle droid are included. The box contains three bags, one each for the droideka and figs, the legs, and the cockpit. The construction was extremely straight-forward. If you’ve built a two legged LEGO walker before, you’ve basically built this set. The faceting around the cockpit is pretty cool though, and the blue color-scheme does look fantastic here. And a word about the blue pieces: in the past few years, LEGO has been having issues with their plastic, and some shades seeming more transparent and slightly off-color (blue being one), and thus looking cheaper. I happily noted, though, that the blue pieces in this set look terrific, even to someone as picky as I. There’s a small sticker sheet included, as the only printed pieces are the minifigs. I decided not to apply the stickers, especially since two of them
go on rough-surfaced slopes, which is a terrible idea. Those pieces should always be printed.
The Droideka is some huge version I’m not familiar with, though it is pretty awesome, having what basically amounts to an artillery piece in the middle. I’m not sure how big it’s supposed to be in scale, but it towers over the minifigs.
The minifigs in this set are pretty standard if you’re a Star Wars collector, consisting of Yoda, a 501st Legion clone trooper, and some variant 
battle droid. I believe the clone trooper is a new design, with yet another new helmet style. (I think. I lost track a long time ago.) The battle droid has a single red dot of printing on the torso, which to me seemed like a pretty insignificant result for LEGO to go through all the extra work of sending the piece through a printer.
I didn’t encounter any unfamiliar or new pieces while building it, though there are some useful pieces. It did have an unusually large amount of spare pieces. However, if you’ve got any of the previous iterations the Star Wars walkers, and you’re not a Star Wars collector, I’d recommend giving this set a pass. I’ve got nothing particularly negative to say about it, but it’s really not a terribly interesting set. It is one of the few Star Wars sets with a high piece-to-price ratio, though, so it would be a good one to nab on a sale when it’s even cheaper.
Lovely in light aqua
Ironsniper is one of the builders whose creations beckon viewers to examine their intricate details. This mecha adds to that with a coating of light aqua armor, making it stand above the crowd.
The Way The World Will End (I Hope)
Flickr user OliveSeon has built some of the most impressive large town dioramas I’ve seen. There are lots of people building cityscapes using official sets mixed in with their own creations and landscaping, but rarely are the official sets so well integrated. Additionally, he’s packed them both chock full of terrific details of his own, like a giant gazebo, full depth swimming pool and surf pool, a large factory, and lots of other fantastic stuff.
Here’s the first:
But just building a placid town wasn’t cool enough. No, on his second diorama, OliveSeon has gone for full-out apocalyptic anarchy, old-school style, with Godzilla battling a Gundam across the seaside city, turning what was already a stunning diorama into pure awesomeness. The flame effects are particularly awesome, and very reminiscent of their on-screen special effects counterparts.
Be sure to check out both of OliveSeon’s other dioramas as well, each of which are worthy of their own posts: though untitled, I believe they are Disneyland and San Francisco. A thorough perusal of all the photos will be rewarded, as there are brilliant details to be discovered in every picture.
Hawken assault mech by curtydc
Hola, I’m N.O.R.A!
Jack McKeen (madLEGOman) has built quite a spectacular mecha for the FBTB Mecha Madness Contest. This gargantuan machine of Victor Freeze’s would come in very handy while battling Batman…I also think it would work well for freezing mammoths! And what icy mecha would be complete without the ability to hurl pissed off polar bears??
There are a lot of superb entries to this contest, so please be sure to head over to contest threads to vote:
World-class Sci-Fi from Adrian Florea
In my opinion, Adrian Florea is one of the best Space (which in LEGO terms means Science Fiction) builders around. He’s no stranger to this blog, but his latest two creations are absolutely top notch. Adrian achieves fantastically coherent shapes in his models which belie his abundant use of unusual parts and complex connections. The Vendret Interceptor (below) is built around a core of four tricycle bodies integrated so seamlessly as to be nearly indistinguishable.
And the Dropshell mech shows the impact that careful use of color blocking can have. Look closely at this model also, and you’ll spot oddities such as suitcases and Star Wars headresses, among other things.
The Big Ma.K
Well I think Sean & Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral) win the prize for making me laugh the hardest at any LEGO model! I love a good play on words at the best of times, but you mix that with Maschinen Krieger during Ma.Ktoberfest…and you know I am gonna like it :D
And you simply must watch the commercial!
Well played guys, very well played!!
I would link to the Creations for Charity site for those that may be interested in buying this glorious creation…but too late, I already bought it for myself!
If these are walkers...I want to get old!
So maybe I am a leg man…at least when it comes to ficticious 28th century machines.
Today’s feature is all about delicious stompy goodness. And since Hallowe’en is just around the corner it is rather convenient that in the Ma.K world these also tend to be creepy as well :D
Chris Maddison goes old school with a pod…that just so happens to have a nice sprinkling of Maschinen Krieger thrown in!
The legs go ALL the way up on artpants’ Sandpiper! And at the top is a fantastic pile of parts combinations!
Bartosz superbly puts his unique style on the Raubtier, which is nicely balanced between comical and mildly creepy.
Now the next three are all great examples of the creative twist you can put on a common source material.
Keith Goldman not only provided the official quote of the Ma.K bricks group, but he also built this awesome HAF Ausfseher.
![HAF Aufseher [1/3]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/8061419591_a17489297a.jpg)
A Yates has been producing a tonne of great stuff, but his Nacht-Kafer really stands out for me. The shapes achieved are just fantastic!
![[Ma.K] Nacht-Käfer](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/8061006489_c51d9c15e3.jpg)
Fateheart FINALLY builds some Maschinen Krieger stuff…and I knew he would do it gloriously…his HAFS Super Gladiator doesn’t disappoint…unless of course you are the one that is being shot at :)
Nothing like a bespoke suit...
As Ma.Ktober has progressed, the most wonderous thing has happened…builders from all over have been creating Maschinen Krieger hardsuits of all shapes, sizes and colours. Considering that the hardsuits are the most prominent piece of hardware within the universe, it really isn’t surprising that there have been so many this month. But the quality and creative twists taken is certainly a nice surprise. Here are some of my favourites.
Will Page uses the Rebel Vanguard helmets to brilliant effect on his space-based suit.
_Tiler’s Fatboy is wonderfully adorable, I just want to rub it’s little belly. The fact that it is so shiny helps too :)
Tim Zarki goes to a larger scale to achieve a fantastically accurate representation of the bad to the bone SAFS Snake Eye.
D-Town Cracka also utilizes the Vanguard helmets, as well as, one of my favourite elements (the Bionicle mask/visor thingamajig) to create this AFS Skinhead…wouldn’t want to face this guy in a snowball fight!
Vincent also goes to a larger scale to build one of my favourite Ma.K suits, the Kauz. The slightly odd colourscheme looks fantastic…and I can’t get enough of hearts!!
And last but not least, Nate Decastro produced an awesomely creative design in his SAFS Shogun…and presented it in a very Maschinen Kriegery way…
I really wish I could feature all the fantastic creations being submitted, but that would possibly be the longest blog post ever. So I will instead urge you all to peruse the brilliance in the Ma.K Bricks pool
The beauty of being LEGOLIZED!!!
I sadly have not had the time to neither participate in Ma.Ktoberfest as I had hoped, nor to blog the awesome creations from everyone else. So over the final week of the festivities I will try and make more of an effort to at least rectify the latter by featuring some of my favourites.
First up is LEGOLIZE IT MAN, who has been churning out some absolutely brilliant designs for the build challenge. Both the quality of the models, and the style of presentation have put a huge smile on my face everytime he posts something new.
His latest, the AZ ULF – Moon Bull is wonderfully hulking creation that bristles with a glorious combination of smooth curves and mechanical detail! Delicious stuff!
His Svend Repair Mech is a perfectly haphazard design with some great angles going on.
And lastly, his Moon-Squito has to be one of my favourite models posted this year. It just captures the Maschinen Krieger aesthetic so perfectly!
Please be sure to click through his Ma.Ktoberfest 2012 set to see his other great creations, and alternate views