Have you found yourself looking at 3A figures and Armored Votoms thinking, “Hey, can I take out a second mortgage?” Then maybe I can help.
Now, there may be a few of you wondering what the hell I’m doing starting another build diary before my G.I. Joe Headquarters is complete. Rest assured, I will be getting back to that. The past month has been a difficult one, and I’ve found my attention span and concentration to have been a little lacking of late. Hopefully, as I get back into a more normal routine (or what will now pass for normal), I can focus a little better and get some more things done. This project started mostly as a means of distraction, but I figured you folks might want to see it anyway.
So, like I said, those expensive, beautiful 1:12 scale mechs. Man, wouldn’t it be nice? But seeing as I’m already grumbling about paying upwards of $100 for some 1:12 figures, it’s tough to imagine tripling or quadrupling that, even for something as big as a mech … and not ending up single.
But there’s never a shortage of interesting parts in my storage, and with a trip or five to the thrift store, I can usually find a few more.
Let’s say we want to build a traditional mech warrior-style kit, something with a large pod-shaped cabin and some spindly legs — something not overly anthropomorphic.
The hardest part is getting that cabin and fuselage section big enough to hold a figure. One of my favorite lines to mine for that type of stuff is Playmates’ various Turtles offerings of the last decade or so. Like the Hyper Shell that built my Batmobile, most are built fairly large to house multiple figures. For this build, I’m going to use one of the mid-2000s Shell-Copters (I think). This vehicle was released several times over the relaunched line, I picked up two or three at a closing K-Mart almost a decade ago, and I’ve found a few since in various states of decay at the thrift store. For this project, all we need is the body and canopy, and those are usually easy to get.
Giving it some mobility is the other tough part. In the past, I’ve used larger Transformers, old RC parts, anything with solid ratcheting joints to get something like this on it’s feet. But the clearance aisles are currently full of Star Wars, so that’s an excellent option. I picked up one of the 12-inch Walker sets — AT-TE or something like that? — for $12 at a Walmart. It is very simple, but it has some good sculpted parts and some very tight joints that should support the weight. It’s only articulated at the “hip” joints, but that’s probably helping the sturdiness, and for a bipedal “chicken walker” style, the articulation should be sufficient.
So the first step is pretty simple: join those parts. When it comes to something like this, I generally recommend skipping the glue and go straight to the hardware. Three screws, in pre-drilled spots, will hold something like this together a hundred times better than any amount of superglue will. And it gives you an ability to go back and remove and remount if something goes wrong. To get that mounting to work, I just moved the fuselage around on top of the “basket” of the walker, until I found a position that balanced properly, then drilled and set.
Now it needs some weaponry. The cannons on the base walker aren’t too shabby, so leaving two of them on the lower section make for some decent anti-personnel outfitting. Not being based on anything specific, I’m free to use whatever I find, and for this one a couple of rocket pods from a Transformer figure feel like the right size. Again, nothing fancy, I just screw these into the sides of the body. It can probably do with a little more armament, but we can always come back to that later.
Likewise, the interior is open to interpretation. As I said above, these Turtles vehicles have pretty spacious cabin-spaces, so making one that can fit one (or two, if you really want it) 6-inch figure inside is no problem. I’m opting for a single-seat version here, so I can fill the rest of the space with controls and gizmos and whatever else I want. While the factory bucket seats inside would work just fine, I opt for a slightly bigger extra one I had laying around.
And there you go: one 6-inch mech already through basic assembly. Check back in a week or two, and I’ll figure out some deco and finishing touches to go with it.
