The Energon Pub

I've always wanted to make buildings to go with my Deluxe Megazord toys, but I've had limited success finding papercraft kits for highrises in a good enough scale to work with them. Given that most are in the 1:150 scale ballpark (the original Dino Megazord is 1:143 scale and the Thunder Megazord is ~1:169 scale for example) scales like 1:500 or smaller are too small for most DX Zord toys - save Serpentera - even with as loose as the prop buildings from the shows can be scale-wise.

I started with the brown building from Zyuranger/MMPR Season 1 that the Megazord is often knocked over into. Here's a test build of the kit (some parts are pink because my personal printer is down to the magenta ink and I forgot to set the first page to "print in grayscale"):



Started the test by assembling the rooftop air conditioner box. That went together perfectly.




Then came mounting the walls to cardboard and starting to build. I discovered that the corner tabs I initially planned to join the walls with did not want to cooperate, so I had to dispense with them and rely on the roof.


After I got the third wall (not pictured) and the roof access box on, I decided to photograph it next to the Thunder Megazord for comparison. The roof access box will be mounted to cardstock rather than cardboard for the final building, and have tabs top and bottom to connect its own roof to it, and itself to the main building roof.


You can see the third wall a bit here. And you can also see the reinforcing floor I added to keep the wall joined lower down. As well as the cardboard bodge braces.
I think for the proper build, I'll dispense with that and use strips of cardboard at the edges of the long walls to thicken them there and make it easier to just glue them to the short walls edge-to-edge.


And here's the test build complete. Another refinement to make for the final build: widening the corner cover strips to make them more usable and more effective.

By the way: If anyone else would like to join the project, I will happily send you reference photos. I have several from Zyuranger and Go-Onger, and can readily get them from those, Dairanger, Kakuranger, Ohranger, and Shinkenger.