Kicking off March Mecha Month is a look at a newish Lego sub-line that combines the timeless wonder of creating your own masterpieces with the cynical profiteering angle of OEL-manga. I speak of course of Lego Exo-Force, which I wish had come out about 10 years or more ago before I was old enough to have apprehensions about the social stigma of doing this kind of thing now!

There have been plenty of giant Lego robots in the past, official or unofficially, but they haven’t exactly excelled in making ‘proper’ bidpedal mechs with the exception of the old Blacktron walker that kind of faked it with an elaborate network of swivels for ‘walking action.’ The Kingdom Knights sub-series introduced ratcheting joints for extra poseability and the ability to stand up unattended. For the most part, Exo-Force kits use those style joints and adds grimacing mini-figures with spiky, multicolored hair. Because that’s the ‘anime’ thing to do.

Though I don’t have any of the official kits assembled right now, I have been harvesting the parts for my own custom project, a highly-articulated figure of the titular Gatling Guard robot from my oft-rebooted side comic. Using amassed joints and pieces, I’ve got the bare skeleton down, which has a pleasing amount of flexibility, almost akin to the Revoltech line of figures. I should also note the Gatling guns came off a Bionicle kit. As did the head, sans mask. (Bionicle stuff is kind of cool, but the lack of connectors for regular bricks and abundance of weird curvy parts isn’t as conducive to giant robots.)

I’m not even close to being on the level of the Brickshelf guy (who incidentally, doesn’t even use the clicky-joints as a crutch when building) but it’s a lot of fun to tinker with. I’ll show off some more pictures as the project continues. Though it might work better with the comic actually online/readable in some form to tie in with.