The Shogun Titan

[Traykar the swift]

Once upon a time, around nine years ago, I was a burgeoning fan of Ninjago, an avid reader of Brickipedia, and hadn't yet made my way to Mocpages. I was in the store, probably Books a Million, where I was flipping through a Ninjago Brickmaster book when I laid my eyes on my first mech.

Not exactly the most inspired build, but was an inspiration to me. I mean come on! It was a Giant Robot, what could be cooler than that! I didn't end up buying the book since I was a child at the time, but my interest in Giant Robots was Peaked. Fast forwarding a few years, after a couple of dodgy attempts to make one with parts from the Toy Story Pizza Planet Truck, I was looking through Youtube to find some cool lego reviews and mocs, I stumbled across this video by Artifex Creation

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtAMGj74Br0

 

Now, this blew my tiny Ninja obsessed mind, I had no idea that Lego mechs could be that big. Keep in mind that most of my time on Mocpages at the time was concerned with bionicle, and at the only mechs released for the theme where the Samurai X mech, the Fangpyre mech, the first Fire mech, and the previously mentioned Skulkin Mech. Unfortunately I lacked any real parts to build something substantial, so I sat on my hands for a bit. But all that Changed once I got my filthy mits on Superman V. Power Armor Lex

 

 

I wanna say that was late 2013/early 2014 since I was really looking forward to the upcoming rebooted season. I mean Come on, they were fighting Robots! So I tried my hand at building some sort of Nindroid Lighting Mech with the parts I had. The only problem? I didn't have any Nindroids, so I ended up making some amalgamation of Final Battle Jay and the Series 8 Evil Robot. He had stolen Jay's powers and color scheme. Cut me some slack guys. Fortunetly, I was about to get some of those sweet Ninja robots with my first Ninjago mech: The Destructoid

This Thing had it all: Choping blades! A Disk Shooter! A Sawblade! Tank tracks! And a sword! This thing was awesome, and it was another in a long line of Ninjago Purchases. Fast Forwarding to 2017, I fully caught up with the show, and excited for the movie, and moreso the sets. We had gotten some pretty goods mech in the past, but it seemed that with the film came a renaissance of Ninjago set designs. Bigger, Bolder builds that sought to do more than what came before it, and that was where my problem began: The Garma Mecha Man. 

 

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with the set, it serves its purpose as an affordable imitation of the onscreen build at an smaller scale. It's well built and fun to mess around with, if a bit chunky. No, the problem came when you compared it to some of the other sets in the wave. 

(Picture taken from the Brickset Review)

The Garma Mecha Man isn't exactly the most imposing build. In the film, it seemed like it could go toe to toe with all six ninja vehicles at once. The Set looks like it could hardly go up against one, so I set out to build one that could.

 

Not my best work, I'll admit. This early design was plagued with poor shaping, weak knees, and a waste that was only held on by four studs, though it could fit a figure inside. It was a rough start, and disassembled soon after, but it was a stepping stone for bigger and better things: Garmagedon

 

Constructed with the parts of The Nindroid Mechdragon, The Destructoid, The Garma Mecha Man, the Iron Doom, the Oni Titan, The Water Strider, and whatever odds and ends I had laying around, and with the Four Golden Weapons plugged into its chest, the mech was almost on the verge of perfection. The only Problems? My attempt at torso articulation left no room for a cockpit, made the build very unstable, and provided very little movement. A rework was in order before I could hope on showing it off, and to help celebrate the ten year anniversary of Ninjago, I got off my butt and decided to get to work.

 

 

 

 

And that brings us to today. Countless reworks, and two extra arms, I'd like to show you guys the finished **Shogun Titan**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I've talked a lot in this post, but I hope that my work speaks for itself. Oh, and sorry for any fuzzy pictures.

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Traykar the swift

[Murdoch17]

This is mind-blowingly awesome! Keep up the Great work!

[The_Fiery_Rooster]

I agree, this thing is stunning! I like how, despite the varied collection of sets that make up this model, that the color scheme is still consistent throughout. I’m also a fan of the smaller details, like the shredder claws and the four golden weapons in the chest. I even like how you reused a lot of stickered parts to good effect, despite the completely different sets they come from. Like you, the garma mecha man set also disappointed me, but unlike you, I didn’t do anything about it, I didn’t even get the set. This, on the other hand, feels like the ultimate Garmadon mech that we deserved! This is fantastic!

[JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)]

I can't say enough how much I love this thing! You've certainly succeeded on what the Mecha-Man has failed to do - creating an insanely formidable opponent for the ninja both in the movie and set. This mech just screams potential for a fight of legendary proportions. Imagine what TLNM could've been if it went onto an entirely different direction with this mech! While the Garma Mecha-Man in the movie is huge and imposing, I can't imagine it emitting an aura of a destroyer and capability of executing some relentless moves like this mech. Hands down the Shogun-Titan would rip the Mecha-Man apart. (Also definitely getting that feeling too with that photo of The Shogun Titan behind Zane's Titan Mech haha!)

My favorite parts of the mech would be shoulders, arms and the head. They are really nicely shaped with how rounded the arms are topped with an imposing shoulder armor. The extra arms are certainly brilliant additions, they completes the silhouette of Garmadon and adds more menacing factor as well. The head completely gives off the vibe of a warrior who will not stop at nothing until its enemies are defeated.

I also gotta mention that I do somewhat dig your first iteration at Garmadon's Mech. While it is not perfection like the Shogun Titan and definitely far from great,, the mech does have classic feel it. The shaping kinda resembles the snake-bitten mech in Episode 3 of Season 1 of Ninjago. The head is my favorite part as it looks like Garmadon gone "mechanized" combined with the nice touch of using a ninjago spinner blade as part of the headcrest.

Again, the Shogun Titan is just insanely awesome, melding both the way of the warrior and monarchical darkness! Thanks for showing there!

Edited March 16, 2021 by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

[Flak Maniak]

Very good work. Not only does it have that proper Garmadon color scheme, but... Your build captures the Lego idiom, if you know what I mean. So many MOCs out there might look good, or detailed, or whatever, but... Just not capture that Lego-style look. But this build does. I love it when builds really lean into looking like Lego.

And, well, I laughed out loud when I got to the four-armed version. That really made me smile!