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Friday, January 10, 2025

Unitron MOC designs

Hold up, I thought I posted this one years ago.  Quickly leaving in a sense of the era... (Early to late 2020) I spent Summer and Fall not doing much of anything, so these MOCs are from right around the time I got home internet... aka... before I dropped everything and went doomscrolling for most of 6 months.  I Didn't build anything in the interim; It's been a trying time for a lot of us, and I've been a janitor through it all, soo... y'know... I've developed cramps in my hands from wiping off surfaces with a bottle and rag.  But you're here to read about my photos and ideas and I can still type!  (In the modern day... but he forgot to post)

I started 2020 off with a bang by collecting a lot of Lego sets, and among those Lego sets I picked up three Unitron sets.  Which I have not reviewed here yet, I am missing 6991, and due to its price being astronomical, I probably will not go after that one. 

I had a cockpit idea for the Space panel walls bricklink2466 that can double as windows.  I thought I'd have a cockpit split side to side to get at the minifigure from the top.  It's a rather rudimentary assembly employing the chunky 2x4x2 multistud/tube bricks Brick Modified 2x4x2 with holes on sides and Brick, Modified 2 x 4 x 2 with Studs on Sides that had shown up around the early 90's timeframe.

I chose Unitron colors for it so I could enjoy my newly added Unitron minifigures.









The parts I used to assemble my cool cockpit setup are as follows.

Bricklink 2434 in back with 2 hinges on the windows, 1 BL 6061 in front with 2 hinges on the windows, and 4 BL 2429c01 as the chosen hinges in case you want to try and replicate it.  

So this is what it looked like when opened... pretty nice, pretty good, there was a fair bit of room in there, so I took all of it.















Behold... hidden dual laser blasters on a raising and lowering platform.


I took inspiration from such fines models as 6671 Utility Repair Lift and etc.  My cousin had this when I was a kid and I was soo jealous that he had it, and that he had enough hinges to make the lift... I eventually got enough to do it in Highschool... and shortly after I got a suitable supply the company changed to click hinges, and my ambitions for rising platforms became a relic of KFOL history.  Until now...!  (well, then... 2020 so to speak.)










Finally, I pulled apart all of the Classic Space sets I'de been collecting since 2010 and borrowed elements from 6985 Cosmic Fleet Voyager... particularly the blue Space canopy, the grey console brick/robot body, and the V stripe Nose piece with lots of studs wrapping around it... as I look at this MOC, I realize it's crawling with Cosmic Fleet Voyager pieces... I hadn't disassembled it since I got it in 2015...14, gosh it's been a while... (and even more so) I guess I wanted to make disassembling it worth my while.

Anyways, there's a simple scooter that falls out of the back.  








and yes, that small ship I've been ignoring is a Classic Space recolor of 1557 Scooter... also using blue camera bricks from... Cosmic Fleet Voyager, although I might have gotten them off the other 2 Classic Space sets that have them... it's all the same pile, so who knows?

The Truck has quite a wide footprint given the 8 wide body and 4x2 wide wheels.  It's way too wide, but I love the cockpit and hidden weapons platform I cooked up, so I might try this method again for something else.

Before I go I will also share some more Unitron Moc designs I built in the time spanning 2020 to now.












This pair of trucks were... hmm, well, let's focus on the big one.  THe large truck was designed to merge the Space Police II stacked canopy design with a very ostentatious assembly of drum wheels as one might see done small on the Robo Guardian from Spyrius.  I have to tell you, they're not engineered to easily touch each other.  But scroll to the bottom and I'll have the cross section opened up for you to see what you need to do.














I was struggling to give the back a useful design and ended up creating a trailer that could be a kind of Space work truck in its own right.



















The claw truck has a removeable hover chair for the Unitron Commander.  I really like the Futuron trick of small vehicles in big vehicles... I realize that wasn't Unitron's theme scheme... but I didn't follow the theme scheme with this MOC.











I built this small truck just because I'd acquired my very own small blue tipper bucket and wanted to make it be useful.  











As promised, here's the hidden placement for the drum wheel pin assembly so you can redo it without a lot of trial and error.














But wait, there's more. Before you go, please enjoy a Unitron recolor for Blacktron: Future Generation 6981 Aerial Intruder.


























These were designed to fit within the Unitron Theme scheme... all removeable cockpits on all Unitron sets were able to ride on the monorail.  







That's all I have for today, I hope you enjoyed seeing these MOCs and I especially hope I could inspire you with your own collection of pieces.

Before I go, I just wanted to note that the Futuron of My Youth Facebook page will be deactivating February 1st, I had switched to sharing my designs on the Facebook groups I frequent alongside other great Legoland Space enthusiasts, As I'm leaving the platform, I have rescued my photos from that site and plan to upload them over here.  This post was a mere opportunistic grab to finish up a post I'd left unfinished so I could add in and upload some additional designs I had posted elsewhere.

Sincerely, The Cure-all Pill

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Rebrickable 1st Entry Rickety Ladders

 Good morning everyone, I haven't posted in a while.  I've found as I get older that my attentions are all over the place these days, In 2020 my part/set collecting patterns were a bit interrupted and I diverted back toward modern sets.  I haven't posted much about those here... if at all.  I'm making an exception this time for a modern remake of a classic from 1990.  If I'm doing instructions for my MOCs I'll likely continue to post those here, and maybe someday I'll review another classic Space theme if I have the required sets.

When I was a kid there was an amazing theme called Forestmen.  Basically Robin Hood, but even better... Lego Robin Hood!  My introduction to Lego and Forestmen, and Castle... was none other than 6071 Forestmen's Crossing.  This is one of my Holy Grails... but unlike the Space sets I never picked this one up, it's always been hyper pricey as long as I've had the means... and it's only gotten worse.

Image source via Bricklink: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6071-1#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}










Sadly, Forestmen was only a part of my childhood in my head... like Space, Castle was not really something my parents would get for me, and by the time I could write down my wish lists Forestmen were gone.  Most of this blog has been about Lego I wanted as a kid and wound up getting as an adult.  

Today I still don't have Forestmen's Crossing, or the other classic Forestmen bases; they're very expensive per piece even by my rather aggressive purchasing standards. I did pick up 40567 Forest Hideout gwp with a giant Elsa's Frozen Castle... I'm a big fan of the new satin light blue color in those Frozen sets.  I haven't built anything with the Satin light blue, I'm just hoarding my treasured new color; But that's not why we're here.  Forest Hideout is a true modern classic.  This is my favorite set of 2022, I like it even more than the next one I'll list.

Image source via Bricklink https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=40567-1&name=Forest%20Hideout&category=%5BCastle%5D%5BForestmen%5D#T=S&O={%22iconly%22:0}













I also picked up the Lion Knights' Castle and that was back in January 2022... that purchase killed all my Lego purchasing enthusiasm for the year... and hobby purchasing for most of the year... that is my monster... some people have the Millennium Falcon, or the Titanic... I've even seen photos of houses with all of the largest sets... woah! But for me if I'm picking a giant set it'll be this 90th Anniversary Castle set.  It's got... even more modern Forestmen!  3 more plus a blue peasant with a Forestmen hat in blue.  













I'm somewhat annoyed that all the forestmen in these modern sets all have the same shirt... but I'll live with it.  I decided to take this castle apart because it hit me that I'd have a few extra days off at the end of the year and I wanted to see what I can build with it.  Nothing too ambitious yet... I saw some cool instructions for it on Rebrickable, I might look at those later, I'm pretty new to rebrickable and haven't ever used it seriously.  And I don't think I'm ready to scale up a MOC the size of this Castle set all by myself yet.

I made my little Alternate project off these 2 sets and I liked what I had so I reacquainted myself with Studio 2.0 provided by Bricklink, I finally managed to finish a project on that software.  

For my first outing on the Castle teardown and Studio digital recreation project I made a modern Forestmen's Crossing which I call Rickety Ladders.

Here's all the photography I took of it.  

















The new method I took for the Bridge,  caused some problems in Studio, and the official modern Tree limbs weren't fun either, I also had trouble installing the ladders going up the tree, because I put them on the trunk after the leaves so they kept attaching to the leaves and not the trunk in Studio, so I probably should have chosen a simpler model to start with.  I did finish the project and as a sort of belated Christmas greeting I'm able to provide the instructions.  I think if you have the Forest Hideout and a selection of pieces on hand you can get this model pretty darn close with your available parts so long as you have some gray bricks and green plates, but the Lion Knights' Castle was the basis for me trying to build this and you will find the necessary parts in the 2 named sets.

For your curiosity and use here's a Rebrickable link to the free instructions and I wish you all a pleasant 2024.  







Friday, December 24, 2021

A Spaceship Holiday Special part 2

 I posted this ship on the site years ago now... at this point I do feel like Futuron of My Youth is years ago too though.  

So I made a Blacktron version of my last non Legoland Spaceship I ever made.  This Dark navy blue spaceship has a canopy design my brother showed me that he had done... So... I happened to like it and have come back to do it a second time.  The rest of the Spaceship design is all me.








The main shaping element of all that triangle work is the humble classic hinge plate times 3 spaced 6 studs wide in the front and folded with the third one under the Galaxy Explorer windows in the back creating some weird shapes to handle in an era better known for 90 degree straight edges  Image via Bricklink 

I used to be able to modify the link name... sorry about the ugly link text.  Point is... 

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2429c01&name=Hinge%20Plate%201%20x%204%20Swivel%20(2429%20/%202430)&category=%5BHinge%5D#T=C&C=11  

Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Swivel (2429 / 2430)  

This is the workhorse doing all the geometry shenanigans for this design.  I attach the elements on a 6 wide structure at the front; the windows and rear hinge float over tiles and open gaps to the rear.

The wings are attached beneath the windows and the attachment points aren't terribly strong, so I kept the armaments light while attempting to give them a 'heavy' look.







There is no attachment point for the cockpit, so I create a nice shape that can lock into place and just let it rest in the desired position... This spaceship is more sculpture than toy since it can't fly upside down.




I tried the undercairage engines with available black and yellow elements and couldn't see the defined seperateness between cockpit frame and engines... it took away from the design I wanted you all to see.  and... Invader has a puny 2x2 cylinder rocket... So I gave this railgun looking ship some really big thruster capabilities.  Gotta keep flying forward when you fire the rail you know.  














The Triforce Logo placement sets off against the rakish swept back wing design with geometric perfection.  I'm really proud of it.  Good Job old Lego triforce print... you're doin great work Triforce <--(Now I remember why I thought this seemed funny.  It's my David Lynch playing with a Lego brick impression "You're doin great work brick!").  I feel like I'm looking at a Space Invader, but not a Blacktron Space Invader perse








The snout has a crosshair for aiming down the sight, that was part of my first design and I didn't think I'd be able to replicate it with the older Lego parts... I tried a wrench but it's lopsided and... it was too tall.  Then... I'd given up mostly and all of a sudden I remembered the Classic Space robot arm... specifically the clip end.  It was close enough in height that I went for it.  And I used a control lever as the reticle instead of a Dragon fang/frill/animal claw element.  Slightly older and lumpier instruments but... that's progress I guess.  Blacktron didn't mind... they're all about the warning shots... that's why so many Space Police have Blacktron prisoners and not mounting insurance claims for lost Mission Commanders.




















I'm remembering that I had a bit of fun writing up these old blog posts... I hope you enjoy the written portions too.


Bonus build with less commentary.  I built this ship this past summer and haven't written about it here as of yet.

This design was based on the Bad Batch Shuttle.  But only the cockpit... and only as a loosely interpreted inspiration... and no... I haven't watched the Bad Batch yet, given that I haven't watched Clone Wars I'm not sure if or when I will.









This Model is Futuron based and I spent as much time on the front canopy as I did the rest of the model.

You might say it was a desperate salvage effort to make use of that arcane window shaping... which is why the rest of the ship design is sort of Classic Space box standard.  I tried some mouting tricks for the sail using fences, technic beams, and the 260 era rack and gearbox elements... But that was very easy compared to the cockpit.  My only complaint is that the sail design means the vehicle barely fits so I can't have a crew quarters in the back like I wanted.  The engines on either side are attached via a Technic beam running through the center fuselage and locked in with careful brick placement.  I put the Lego down for a while after this one except for checking out some small Ninjago and Frozen II Princess Book Lego sets.  





















That's all I have as of Christmas Eve. 

I wish you all a very end of the year.


Sincerely, The Cure-all Pill