The Energon Pub

by **Ramrider** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 8:51 am

A few weeks back, I picked up a bucket of Bionicle bits for a few quid, figuring they'd be a handy source of ball joints and other such gubbinry. After looking at all the various components, I saw several pieces that served as inspiration for future projects, and even realised that I just might be able to use the bits as the basis for a scratchbuild or two.

Yesterday, I tipped everything out on the floor and started pottering around, seeing if I could devise a framework for a functional TF. I came up with something, but a lot of the components had inherent limitations. So out with the rotary tool and epoxy resin. After a bunch of sawing and gluing, I came up with the start of a tankformer. In robot form, he's a hair taller than Energon Landmine. Here we go...

Tank mode. The treads are the pieces that really spurred my imagination for this build. You'll see in robot mode what inspired me about them...
The front of the tank folds up behind his head in robot mode. At the moment it's two separate pieces, but they'll become one when I build up the front armour. I'm especially chuffed with the way the feet and front armour line up; that was a very happy accident.

Robot mode. The Tank treads become chainsaw blades in this form. I intend to build the arms up on the inside of the blades (think most of the Micromasters as an example). For the record, this won't be his actual head; it's a placeholder taken from my E-E Ironhide -> Fusion Hound conversion. He's a bit lanky at the moment; I think that's mostly his legs, but I'll be building them up to give them more mass, and hopefully make them fit together in tank mode.

A crouching pose, to give an idea of the articulation he's got so far... I plan to add extra joints above the chainsaw hinge, to give him a twisting joint for the elbow/upper arm.

I'm thinking about giving him these missile launchers, taken from an old War Planets toy...

So far, I've no idea who this guy's going to be, whether an original character (most likely) or an upgrade of a G1 mech.

by **piranacon** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:19 am

wow very nice, i bet you could market those to lego, are you going to post it up on the bionicle sites too?

http://www.bzpower.com/

by **Ramrider** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 9:43 am

Thanks, bud.
I suppose I could post it on the Bionicle board, but frankly, since I'm not a Bionicle fan, it'd probably be the only time I'd post, so it seems pointless signing up.
But if you want to link them to the thread here or something, that could be cool.

Website · by **Skullgrin140** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:20 am

Now that is awsome, Using Bionicle parts to create a transformer. It looks almost like a junkion

by **Azure_Dragoon** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:23 am

That's actually a great idea. Lego makes good frame material. I have an assload of lego that I haven't touched since I organized them all by part type and color and put them in clear tackleboxes. Apparently I don't have the creative flow when I know where to find the pieces I'm looking for.

Anyway the point of that bs was that I have a ton of bionicle all lumped together because I didn't think it was worth a crap for what I do with Lego. I'll have to try something like this. Thanks for the inspiration.

News Credits: 3 · by **Darth Zax** » Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:35 am

wow, can't wait to see the finished product.

by **deejemon** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:39 am

Looks kind of like a latter-day Drill Dasher, except, you know, without the drill.

by **Supreme-Autobot** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:09 am

I've actualy made a transformer out of bionicle parts, and regular legos. it looks very futuristic and cybertronian though.

by **Captain Crooks** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:15 am

^^^^Do you have any pics G1 Fan? I used to love making lego transformers....*sigh*

by **Supreme-Autobot** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 9:32 am

Captain Crooks wrote:^^^^Do you have any pics G1 Fan? I used to love making lego transformers....*sigh*

I destroyed them

but I might be able to remake one of them.

by **Captain Crooks** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:28 pm

Yer, that's the problem with lego - soooo tempting to pull it all apart once you get another good idea....I used to photograph my really good models, but that was a looooooong time ago, and i have no idea what cave those pics would be buried in now...

If you DO make something else, it would be cool to see - lego can be very challenging, but i've seen some pretty cool results!

by **Supreme-Autobot** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:58 pm

Captain Crooks wrote:Yer, that's the problem with lego - soooo tempting to pull it all apart once you get another good idea....I used to photograph my really good models, but that was a looooooong time ago, and i have no idea what cave those pics would be buried in now...

If you DO make something else, it would be cool to see - lego can be very challenging, but i've seen some pretty cool results!

I do have some pictures of an old drilling craft I made. in robobt mode it's almost as tall as E. Omega Supreme.