[MOC] Kaneda's bike from Akira (with instructions)

[hachiroku]

The movie was really weird, I didn't understand anything of the third act with those little old-looking kids and Tetsuo-monster, but visually, it was spectacular. I like a lot all the scenes with the bikes at the beginning.

Edited September 2, 2016 by hachiroku

[Mapashote]

It´s incredibly well done and I always wanted to have one in minifig scale, now I can build mine. Thanks

Edited September 2, 2016 by Mapashote

[x105Black]

That's a great minifigure scale version of the bike! Very well done representation of the art from the film.

It's a beautiful movie, and really interesting. I'm glad you enjoyed it, despite having trouble with understanding the admittedly strange and confusing end.

[GhostDog]

.

Edited February 1 by GhostDog

[craggy]

wow. great interpretation of one of the coolest designs ever. I don't have all the parts, but definitely going to give it a try (maybe use an alternate colourscheme.) and if there was ever a MOC to try out GARC style sticker cutting, this is the one!

[LegoCube]

Amazing! Thanks!

[anothergol]

Pretty cool

[r5-j2]

Brilliant!, thank you for sharing!

[Only Sinner]

Yes, the movie certainly is bizarre, but the art style and ideas were very inspirational for other writers and designers who came later. I for one have always wanted a sit-down bike just like the character, Kaneda's. Now I can have one in minifig scale at least! Thanks for your work on this.

[hachiroku]

Thank you all!

I'm glad this is liking so much

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

The movie was really weird, I didn't understand anything of the third act with those little old-looking kids and Tetsuo-monster, but visually, it was spectacular. I like a lot all the scenes with the bikes at the beginning.

The movie was definitely weird (and wonderful) and open to many levels of interpretation—which is what makes it so powerful. At its core, I think the movie is about a modernizing post-apocalyptic society coming to terms with how to control the power of new science and technology, which is pretty much where Japan was at the time the movie was released.

I love your design of Kaneda's iconic bike. I've seen many versions from many different builders, but this is the first one to motivate me to immediately build a copy. I really like the simplicity and cleanness of the build. Thank you for providing YT building instructions. In making a copy though, I did make a couple of small alterations. One is to the seat—I took out the 2x2 plate to lower the seat and added a 2x2 plate behind the seat back to bring it forward. The result is that the driver sits lower (with his eyeline below the top of the windshield, and the seat back sits flush against the driver's back. The only downside is the seat has to be black rather than brown (as there are no brown 1x2 brackets). The second change was to the rear axle, where I have put 4740 dishes on both sides of the wheel. This leaves a stud on the right side (compared to the smooth 2654) but the dish fits much more snuggly against the wheel.

Edited September 8, 2016 by BrickMonkeyMOCs

[BrickJagger]

Nice work. I personally haven't watched the movie, but your build is very smooth and well proportioned.

[hachiroku]

The movie was definitely weird (and wonderful) and open to many levels of interpretation—which is what makes it so powerful. At its core, I think the movie is about a modernizing post-apocalyptic society coming to terms with how to control the power of new science and technology, which is pretty much where Japan was at the time the movie was released.

I love your design of Kaneda's iconic bike. I've seen many versions from many different builders, but this is the first one to motivate me to immediately build a copy. I really like the simplicity and cleanness of the build. Thank you for providing YT building instructions. In making a copy though, I did make a couple of small alterations. One is to the seat—I took out the 2x2 plate to lower the seat and added a 2x2 plate behind the seat back to bring it forward. The result is that the driver sits lower (with his eyeline below the top of the windshield, and the seat back sits flush against the driver's back. The only downside is the seat has to be black rather than brown (as there are no brown 1x2 brackets). The second change was to the rear axle, where I have put 4740 dishes on both sides of the wheel. This leaves a stud on the right side (compared to the smooth 2654) but the dish fits much more snuggly against the wheel.

Here's an LDraw file including the seat and rear axle adjustments for anyone interested.

I was going to use the 4740 instead of the 2654, but I only have 2 in red and I used them in the front wheel. Using 2654 was the second best option.

About the seat, you are not the first one to do that mod. I choose the higher seat because of the colour. It's not only the seat, in yours, the joint between the rear part and the central part is black, and should be red. It breaks the colour scheme too much in my opinion, but that part is covered with the red sides, it so doesn't affect too much.

Edited September 4, 2016 by hachiroku

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

I was going to use the 4740 instead of the 2654, but I only have 2 in red and I used them in the front wheel. Using 2654 was the second best option.

That makes sense. With the 4740 dish on the rear the exposed stud and axle can be capped with a red 1x1 round tile. I've also added a red 47458 on the rear right side, and used a 1x2 plate with handle to fill in the gap under the rear section.

About the seat, you are not the first one to do that mod. I choose the higher seat because of the colour. It's not only the seat, in yours, the joint between the rear part and the central part is black, and should be red. It breaks the colour scheme too much in my opinion, but that part is covered with the red sides, it so doesn't affect too much.

I understand the colour preference, as the 'real' one is brown. The only parts in the center section that I've changed to black are the 1x2 brackets, simulating the top of the seat, so the only difference is that it is a fraction wider as well as being lower.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing a brilliant MOC!

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

I was playing around with this a bit more today and found a simple and effective way to align the 1x1 rounds below the seat outwards instead of downwards.

Updated file HERE.

Edited September 8, 2016 by BrickMonkeyMOCs

[hachiroku]

I was playing around with this a bit more today and found a simple and effective way to align the 1x1 rounds below the seat outwards instead of downwards.

Updated file HERE.

How can I open it? LDD doesn't work.

[Borex]

Oh nice capture of the bike in minifig style. Awesome movie too.

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

How can I open it? LDD doesn't work.

Sorry, it is LDraw, not LDD. Here's a quick pic instead. This is still a mock-up from spares with many incorrect parts/colours, but it shows the mod I was talking about.

[hachiroku]

That's a clever mod, thanks!

I think it could be better if these http://brickset.com/parts/4587212 were in black. But in your first pic, it looks great.

[Kintobor]

I may need to build this thing and stick it on my traveling layout. I love sticking stuff on it that go right over the kid's heads.

The fact the model still looks like the bike, even at minifig scale is a real testament to how nice the model is. Well done!

[arator]

I've build this wonderfull MOC as a present for the 30th birthday of my brother (who is fan of all those japanese films). Thx for sharing

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

This model has been sitting proudly on display next to Chris Hoffman's brilliant Swordfish II at my work desk for some time now, but I recently revisited it to see if grip-able handlebars could be added. It required reversing the stud-direction on the forwards section of the model, but the result is quite good.

LDraw instructions

[Luke Styer]

WOW!  I don't know if I have the parts, but if I do, I definitely want to build one of these.  Maybe more, if I can come up with the parts in a couple more colors.

[MOMAtteo79]

hi, i was thinking about creating this wonderful creation. I was checking in stud.io software tough and it appears that the 3 stud long bar in the front is too long to fit between the red tiles. Is it a tight connection or just something wrong in the software?

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

35 minutes ago, MOMAtteo79 said:

hi, i was thinking about creating this wonderful creation. I was checking in stud.io software tough and it appears that the 3 stud long bar in the front is too long to fit between the red tiles. Is it a tight connection or just something wrong in the software?

The software is correct, but it isn't a problem for the build. You just end up with a slight outwards angle on the front forks.