Blacktron MOC: The Mantis

Over Christmas I was given a present.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Short review:
It was pretty good; I'd liken it to a Tomb Raider/From Software amalgamation
The combat at the highest difficulty was very satisfying
But eventually I wore down because progress was arduous and so I switched the difficulty down to the normal mode and the combat lost its luster at the easier setting, but I got to enjoy the story which I liked quite a lot.  I liked fighting Imperials and hated fighting spiders.
There's a nice looking spaceship in it called the mantis that inspired me to try some stuff with these Vintage 1980's/early 90's Lego sets.

I've added more broken down Lego models to my MOC supply so the 260 originals are sharing space with some more of their friends.

Here are some close up shots of the engine and inner hinge system I employed.  The yellow engine is a Bricklinked piece I picked up loose and first appeared in Timecruisers where it is an exclusive color, I never acquired the theme as a kid and mostly remember admiring it in catalogs.  I picked up the yellow engines specifically for Blacktron MOCing. 

The Blacktron logo had to go somewhere so it went on the engine.  This engine is version 2, during the initial build I slapped something together and hated it so much this MOC was almost never photographed.  But on the third take I specifically rebuilt the engine based on the general outline of my first design, and I'm pretty happy with it.

The wing was the first part of the design and it, along with its frame has survived the modifications mostly intact.  I did add the camera cannons to it when I removed them from the gap behind the cabin's side windows in favor of Renegade's 2x2 striped tiles.  I also added the 8H antenna during the MOC's second incarnation.  I'd broken down another MOC and so it became available.

Here is a closeup of the classic era hinges that push the engine out.  These are the 2x4 over 2x8 variants, and the hinge base terminates into a 1x6 technic brick the engine is pinned onto in the engine's second version... Initially I built the first engine directly onto the hinges.  The printed stripe slope passes between the gap in the frame, and so the design gap is not stylistic invention.  It's there of necessity.

Here's a closeup for the wing.  The tile is removed as with the handlebar plate in Renegade, but in this case it's to let the wing fall.

The technical limitations of the era are no match for a determined swing wing builder!

In back I've got some of the odd shape pieces doing the job of pressing against these inverted slopes so the engine can't swing down past the frame when the wing is locked.  I had a more tightly fitted design that accidentally put stress on the parts so I had to redesign it to hold properly.

Version one of this ship was a solid body and very miserable to build, because I was building on a design with a fragile flopping wing, and an engine that often swung out and upset my balanced grip.

Version 2 started when I broke 50 percent of the ship down into parts and opened up the rear frame to make a technic mount point.  At that point I simply matched the shaping of a new seperated cabin design to stick to it and focused on building a piloted cabin with a large lower window section that would sit between mandibles. 

The first canopy design was Battrax canopy over Renegade canopy as with Space Police 2 stackover method.  But I thought the design should be more sophisticated, so I busted out the trans yellow panels from Cosmic Fleet Voyager and hinged them.  Here's a top down view.

The Lower windshield had a wide open space so I set up an instrument panel so the pilot could look down.  This was a great opportunity for me to use a handful of Classic Space transparencies for the first time so I went to town building a delightful cockpit.

The trans green 1x1 plates are a Blactron element taken from Invader and I wanted to imitate the sort of interior night mode look I inferred from the original design.  Behind the pilot I had some unused open space, so I set in a removeable box.  Initially it was black, but also in Invader fashion, I replaced it with gray to give myself a better photography situation.

You'll notice I use a bit of grey here and there... there is gray in the Blacktron color scheme in trace amounts, and here I took inspiration from the engine in Nautica theme's Dark Shark, which I had as a kid and still have... minus some stickers and heavily played with.

Nautica Dark Shark  This was my first set with black visors and given that I missed Blacktron by a few years as a kid... it had to cover for the accident of a mistimed birthyear. 😉

That's my take on the Mantis.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Sincerely, The Cure-all Pill

MOC: Blacktron Robots

This week in a month in a year I've got a new Moc Post for my readers.

If you follow my Facebook page you'll have seen these models and I apologize, there's nothing new here except my personal commentary.

I built a Blacktron robot

The idea was quite simple.
I have a pirate Lego piece and I must use it.
Yellow Wedge, Plate 8 x 8 with 4 x 4 Cutout - via Bricklink

I also used a Bricklink sourced antenna in yellow since they were never made in transparent red... ahem Lego company... hint hint!  I want some.  (since I started working on this post almost a year ago!!! I got my hands on some... 😄 ...) go to bottom of post.

The model has a bit more grey than your typical Blacktron model and perhaps a bit too much yellow as well.  I was also a bit put off by the leg design I made based off the Alienator walking mechanism.   Which is why...

I built a second robot!

This robot was prompted by a conversation I was having with my brother via text.  I was staring at my Lego and blanking so I asked him for a prompt and he said build a mining mech.

6 hours later I replied back to him.  You will please notice that it is hinged in the back under the large very fancy dome.  It took a while to get that fitted and attached in a satisfactory and balanced looking manner.  I actually started with a different taller wire cage design that didn't pan out.  Think Power Miners but with old Space parts and you've got an idea for this robots abandoned design.

The trans yellow pennant is a spare purchased from Bricklink and the color scheme was started generically.  In the end I built it in the Lego Batman movie colors.  My few yellow bits were a bit tied up on a then assembled yellow submarine and underwater base.

The model is hinged with 2 hinge styles that were very common in the 90's and so can do some fun poses.

 It is a robot design that aims to please.  Charmed no?  But wait there's more !

I did eventually break down my underwater base and submarine to get those little yellow Blacktron bits and redid it in purist Blacktron colors.  I was prompted by a follower over on the Facebook page Futuron of My Youth.

Right as I wrapped up the color swap on my Mining Mech... which is kinda crab like and seems more like a sentry robot I started fiddling with some of my other Bricklink spares.

Vehicle, black Tipper End Flat with Pins -via Bricklink  The first appearance of this bit was in 1969!  But black didn't show up til much later; in 1970.  The part was still getting used when Classic Space showed up but by then it was really just a yellow construction theme piece.  The earliest sets it appeared in were part of the 4.5 volt train collection.  There is still a variant of this piece, without tipper pins, in use today.

I like to build these Futuron of My Youth MOC designs with a heavy emphasis on parts that a kid would reasonably have had a chance to have or have inherited from family in the era they were new or recent toys.  I like to show off how technically sophisticated or aesthetically cool these older parts can be.  This tipper bucket end was only used for tipping buckets and the pins aren't quite as big as average minifig utensils but they fit between 2 studs and would rest in there just waiting to be playfully tipped.  I realized while I was fiddling that they can make a triangle if you tie them together with plates.

Blacktron has triangles... you see where I'm going with this yeah?

So anyways.   I only had 2 so I couldn't make a full triangle, but I could start one and I built a yellow chair to hide behind my two thirds upside down triangle.  And when I'd finished the top I was like... if only lego men had triangle pants.  Not really... I was thinking, now what?

And so I built a robot.  A mean nasty robot who breaks M:Tron stuff!

I took design prompts for the leg chassis from Life on Mars bipedal robots and then went all chicken walker on it with classic plate hinges and technic bits.

So my robot has a claw, a laser cannon with a wrist mounted rocket launcher, tube adjusted arms and pose-able legs.

And it can walk.  I've always had an incredibly hard time building aesthetically pleasing and functional walking robots so I feel very lucky with this one.

It's a pitch perfect balance at rest and essentially leans back ever soo slightly, which works out because it's slightly nose heavy.

It can even continue standing with a raised cockpit, though it will topple if the cockpit travels too far forward.  Oh yes, I also bricklinked some yellow angled window frames to use in Blacktron MOCs... as you can see at the back of the chair.

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It's a Jailbreak!  You can go to Facebook page Futuron of my Youth to see the Full Space Police MOC these robots are attacking.

And with a nod to the greebles I sign off... Have a good day.

Sincerely, the Cure-all Pill
A brief note given my infrequent posting. I mostly finished up reviewing Blacktron prior to 2019 after hitting major blog burnout, all the appreciation I've since been shown for my blog came after I finished my main goal of reviewing these 4 Space themes in full.... The rest of these posts are fun asides until I have another theme ready... I currently don't have another full theme to review.  My Internet access has become much more limited since late 2017 and I've prioritized other uses for it.  My avenues to upload photos from my camera phone also all went away because I'm technologically tied to an outdated platform and all the ways I know to upload from it no longer work.  And speaking of ways, here's THE BIG BAD ONE my backup plan to sit at a local restaurant and upload photos from my phone via my laptop didn't account for Covid 19!!! ... I like this hobby, and I love that a tiny fanbase of this blog has developed and pops in to ask where the new posts are.  This post was finished to answer the prompting inquiries.  Thanks for the enthusiasm!

BEHOLD!!! 4 Transparent Red Antennae... And a Spyrius set remade in the SeaTron Color scheme.

I made some changes to the model based on part limitations of the 260 era... and some Bricklinked bits I like using.