30 replies to this topic

[John Carstairs]

Based on the old 1980s toy line / cartoon Dino-Rders. Dino-Riders were always my favorite non-Lego toys growing up, so this is what my mind jumped to the instant I saw the new Dino line.


Rulon Triceratops Battle Armor - Your play features include two rotating side cannons, a smaller precision turret up top, four missiles capable of being flick-fired if your fingers are small enough, and a brain box to keep your dinosaur in line. Also includes Antor, the evil Rulon with the brick-built head.


The back view shows the... cooling system, I suppose. The pilot can't see back there anyway.


Valorian Raptor Battle Armor - The guns can be raised and lowered, but that's more of a side effect than a feature. This one's pretty lightly armored, but that's pretty true to the original series (And probably why our hero decided to bring her own gun.).


And the back view. It is not especially exciting. Just pretend that thing on the back is the power source for the weapons.

[-zenn]

Love that show as a kid, simply great interpretation of it! Though I think you should take another look at that Rulon fig's head? Maybe one of those Ninjago snake head would be better suited.

Other than that I'm loving it!

[Legocrazy81]

Very cool! It's about time we've seen some Dino MOCs. These look awesome. The raptor needs to have light armor, otherwise it'd be too slow.

[John Carstairs]

-zenn, on 29 February 2012 - 06:39 PM, said:

Love that show as a kid, simply great interpretation of it! Though I think you should take another look at that Rulon fig's head? Maybe one of those Ninjago snake head would be better suited.

Other than that I'm loving it!

Ha, thanks. And I agree on the minifig. I'm already looking through the Ninjago stuff to find the one that fits best. Some of the Atlantis baddies might work as well. I seem to remember there being some sharkmen in the Dino-Riders line...

Here's another while I'm at it:


Another lightly armed one. Don't want to weigh it down too much.


Back view. Don't look too closely or you will notice it was made with parts pulled off the other two. I don't have many bricks with me at the moment.

[Hikaro Takayama]

Heh, I remember seeing the Dino Riders Toys way back in the day (gad I feel old!), and I'm happy to see someone bringing that series to life I LEGO... I was actually planning on doing something similar to the Pterodactyl that I got with the Tower Take Down set (albeit the armament would most likely be a Brickarms MG-42)...

Good work on them, especially the Triceratops.

[Legocrazy81]

How'd you get the guns to attach to the wings?

[Hikaro Takayama]

Legocrazy81, on 03 March 2012 - 01:02 AM, said:

How'd you get the guns to attach to the wings?

If you look closely, he's clipping them on with one of these 1x1 clip tiles:



There's a ridge along the front edge of the wing (representing the bone) that is just about thick enough for a minifig to grip....

[John Carstairs]

That is, in fact, the secret. It doesn't seem like a very secure connection, but my roommate knocked it off my desk and only the stand popped off.

[John Carstairs]

Forgive the double post, but I made another one:

...or reworked the Triceratops one into a mobile sniper platform.


The main idea was to only give it exactly what it needed to do its job. It needed a power source, rifle, and somewhere for the sniper to sit.


The chair can be elevated, rotated 360 degrees horizontally, and tilted vertically.


A closer shot of the rifle.

Like all the others, this was made almost entirely of parts from the previous ones.

[Legocrazy81]

That's pretty cool. I like the chair, pretty clever. It's too bad you keep borrowing parts from other MOCs, I'd like to see a group shot.

[Mothy]

I love these! At first I thought the new lego dinos were neat and great for kids, but I gotta admit I kind of want some now, to make dino-riders with. I had the big brontosaurus, pterodactyl, and the ankylosaurus. Off to bricklink to see what dinos there are now.

[DarkFader]

I remember the Dino-Rider's series & the toys and these MOCs look really cool; I'd love if you'd try to take on the T-Rex.

Edited by DarkFader, 04 March 2012 - 10:53 AM.

[Blacktron]

What a great idea! I know dino riders from the 80s and I like your MOCs very much. Looking forward to see the T-Rex.  

Edited by Blacktron, 04 March 2012 - 01:05 PM.

[JackJonespaw]

This is nice. It's making me wish I had a few Dino sets.

[Si-MOCs]

ha! I love the elevating turret nicely done!


.... awww come on share your secret ... how'd you get the cannons on the wings? we're all here to share !

[John Carstairs]

SI-mocs, on 05 March 2012 - 06:48 AM, said:

.... awww come on share your secret ... how'd you get the cannons on the wings? we're all here to share !

Hikaro Takayama already figured it out, actually. It was a modified 1 x 1 tile with clip slid inwards along the ridge on the front side of the wing until it held. Like I said before, it's actually a lot more secure than it sounds.

[Si-MOCs]

John Carstairs, on 05 March 2012 - 07:01 AM, said:

Hikaro Takayama already figured it out, actually. It was a modified 1 x 1 tile with clip slid inwards along the ridge on the front side of the wing until it held. Like I said before, it's actually a lot more secure than it sounds.

Haha sorry  - it's late, I miss read the post - I thought you said that it WAS a secret vs you said that was (in fact) the secret.
HAHAH
okay bed.

(hope to see more Dinos soon   )

[John Carstairs]

Made a couple more.

I've been planning to make a Rulon version of the Raptor one since I started, but it took a while to get a design I liked that was distinct enough from the Valorian one.


The vent thingies on the sides were inspired directly by the Deinonychus figure from the original toy line. The whole thing looks a little beefier because of them. I'm not a very big fan of what I ended up doing for the brain box, but, as I've mentioned before, I've got a really limited selection of parts. I think it looks slightly less ridiculous in person. Because I was too impatient to wait for one of the Ninjago snake men, I used one of the Space Police III aliens as a stand-in for the baddie.


The view from the back.


A view without the minifigure.

It also took me a while to decide what to do with the Coelophysis, but I still wanted to include it for completion's sake. After a couple of attempts, I gave up on having a rider on the dinosaur itself and made it into a sort of unmanned scout dino. I don't feel this is cheating too much, as there were a couple of smaller figures in the Dino-Riders line in which the "pilots" didn't actually ride the dinosaurs.


Besides the two light blasters, I like to imagine the backpack as containing sensors and such which gather data as the Coelophysis darts around the battlefield...


...and transmits it via the antenna back to base, where the communications officer can relay it to her fellow Valorians. With no dinosaur to protect her, she is forced to defend herself with that oversized pistol if any Rulons happen to slip past their defenses.

The T-Rex may take a while. I need to brainstorm on it so it isn't too similar to the things I've already done, but I also may need some more bricks before building it at all...

[John Carstairs]

So maybe the T-Rex didn't take as long as I thought:


This one has a little more armor than most of the others to go with the extra weapons. Our old friend Antor makes his comeback as the main pilot.


The back view makes it more obvious that it's also the first two-seater. The rear gunner has two medium blasters that rotate vertically in addition to the heavy turret up top with which to defend the dinosaur's backside. Once again using that Space Police III alien as a stand-in for a Rulon. ...I really need to get some of those Ninjago snakemen...


A close-up of the brain box. I kept it pretty close to the design from the original toy line because it was pretty awesome. The lasers on it are, of course, aimed by the dinosaur's head movements.


I wanted to do something with the underside this time, so I went with a little automated anti-personnel turret to keep lighter enemies at bay.


Both the command chair and rear turret rotate horizontally to take care of threats approaching from the sides. The thing between them was meant to be the main power supply for all those weapons, hence the vents to keep it from overheating.


And a profile shot to finish things off. In addition to the parts I used in the other MOCs, this one was made possible by the noble sacrifices of two Spyrius Recon Robots and part of a Galactic Enforcer (Which is probably also where I got the alien's head...).

[John Carstairs]

I just realized I never posted these here, probably because the replies dropped pretty drastically...



A Rulon version of the Pteranodon. I tried to find a different way to attach the wing guns so it wouldn't be too similar to the first one. The brain box was also a fun little problem. ...that's a hatchet holding it together.



And the back. Imagine those round bits as thrusters to help with the extra weight or something.



And an improved Valorian raptor. The original version looked a little under-powered compared to the Rulon version, so I gave it an upgrade. The double-lasers are a bit more faithful to the original toy anyway.



The back. ...astute observers may have noticed the two longer guns are different lengths. I fixed this in the current version up on my shelf, but haven't gotten around to taking new pictures (since that's the only thing that changed...).

More to come later...

[Blacktron]

Very good job, John Carstairs! I like your MOCs very much. Very inspiring and well done. Now I'ts even harder for me, to avoid buying the new dino hunter sets. My favorite one is the T-Rex. This really gives me an 80s flashback, because I've collected the toyline, when I was a child.

Did you buy the dino hunter sets, or did you find the dinos on bricklink? It must have been pretty expensive to make those great MOCs.

[FordoA-77]

I don´t know the show, but it looks really great.

[Hrw-Amen]

Good to see some Dino MOCS, I have been thinking about getting some myself. Maybe these will give me the push to invest in some of the range.

[John Carstairs]

Blacktron, on 20 March 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

Very good job, John Carstairs! I like your MOCs very much. Very inspiring and well done. Now I'ts even harder for me, to avoid buying the new dino hunter sets. My favorite one is the T-Rex. This really gives me an 80s flashback, because I've collected the toyline, when I was a child.

Did you buy the dino hunter sets, or did you find the dinos on bricklink? It must have been pretty expensive to make those great MOCs.

I bought the sets themselves, as there were some of my most anticipated sets in a long time. The Dino Defense HQ, Triceratops Tracker, and Ambush Assault are, to me at least, definitely worth it, although you may want to wait on a sale.

Edit: And if you only want to buy one to MOC with, I might suggest the Triceratops. It's probably the most fun to build on. You've got more room to work with than the smaller ones, and it doesn't have the T-Rex's problem of being high off the ground. ...although the Raptors are pretty fun to screw around with as well.

Now, back to the dinosaurs:



This one was based on the Triceratops from the original toy line, which I believe was always a crowd pleaser. I believe it's got all the main features from the original: the two side turrets, the radar dish, and the two lasers on both the seats. The brain box was an alternate version of the one I made for my very first Dino-Riders MOC.



The back view gives you a decent look at the passenger's seat. It was a bit of a challenge to get on there, as the Lego Triceratops's tail is much straighter than the one from the original toy. Once again, the Space Police III alien stands in for a Rulon because I didn't want to have two brick-built antmen in the same shot.



And much like the original toy, the pilot's seat and radar dish rotate 360 degrees.

Edited by John Carstairs, 24 March 2012 - 11:02 AM.

[John Carstairs]

Eh, found pictures of two more I made last week-ish I believe. Both based on toys from the original line.

Part the First:



This one was based on the Styracosaurus, which was definitely one of my favorite toys from the series (Although the Deinonychus was definitely my favorite dinosaur featured). I mostly liked the asymmetrical design and overall balance of weapons to dinosaur. It was built when I came of with the laser design while screwing around with some leftover parts. and realized it would look pretty good in a recreation of this toy.



A shot from behind.



And the other side, where the rider sits. There's that asymmetry I was talking about. I now actually believe I built this one before the one in the post above, because this harness design became the basis for it and the one to follow.



The back from that side.

Part the Second:



This one was based on my absolute favorite of the toys as a child (That I actually owned anyway...) the Monoclonius. It had the same sort of balance between lasers and dinosaur as the Styracosaurus, but had the advantage of being a bad guy set, which made it much cooler. Its most striking features were the beefy pilot's seat up top and the two different styles of guns it used, both of which I tried to recreate here. It turns out finding a new brain box design that worked was the biggest challenge in making this one.



Back from that side.



And the other side. The gun is basically the same as the one used on the MOC in the previous post because I built it with the intention of using it on this one. I did, however, modify it a bit in the interest of not being quite so lazy.



Back view from that side.



And I later found out that, with only slight modifications, it was pretty easy to fit a Friends minidoll in the pilot's chair. ...if only I had more bricks in the new colors...

Bonus images:

Each reconfigured into the other's layout.