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.