MOC: Juggernaut's Rampage

[Captain Nemo]

Juggernaut's Rampage

The unstoppable Juggernaut attacks the X-Mansion to enact vengeance upon his stepbrother, Professor X, in this X-Men inspired build. 

The X-Men don't get much love from Lego; we've only received a handful of minifigures many years ago now, and nothing is on the horizon. So, I decided to build my own! Juggernaut is one of my favorite characters from that corner of the Marvel universe, and building him as a figure in Lego was always a dream of mine. Or more accurately a nightmare? About 11 months, countless failures, and around 60 hours designing the helmet--and here you go! Lego Juggernaut! 

 

Aside from the creation of Juggernaut himself, my main goal with this build was to replicate the path of destruction he leaves in his wake. Across this three foot long build are multiple examples of catastrophic destruction resulting from the Juggernaut's charge, and this was something really fun to design and implement. It was also a great challenge to see how interesting I could make an empty lawn look! 

   

The Juggernaut's rampage begins outside the Mansion's grounds, where his colossal feet crack the pavement and sidewalks. He first leaps through the outer wall, flattening the poor hedges behind it, before sprinting across the lawn. Craters implode in his wake; not even the bird bath is spared. Wolverine, who was cutting the lawn before the darn mower broke again, is caught by surprise--but he leaps into action immediately to protect the school. 

And now you're thinking, excuse me Nemo, but Wolverine would not be surprised by the Juggernaut attacking because his superior sense of smell and hearing would alert him to the Juggernaut's presence! ACTUALLY, reader, he would be surprised! Wolverine would NOT hear Juggernaut charging towards him, because he has his noise canceling headphones in and he's listening to popular Japanese pop music! And smell?! Excuse me, but you're not paying attention--Wolverine was just cutting the lawn, and so he's getting nothing but super-wiffs of freshly cut grass, and not the distinct musk of Juggernaut! Well then, ugh, why didn't Wolverine feel the vibrations of the ground when--------Shut up! That's what I say! This is for fun, just go with it! Don't think about it! 

 

I think my favorite detail about all the smashed up bits is the first crater on the lawn. I used brown leaves to create a muddy stamp imbedded in the ground. 

While Wolverine was cutting the lawn, Nightcrawler was planting flowers (because apparently the upkeep on the X-Mansion is rather demanding). Nightcrawler is likewise surprised by the attack, but instead of jumping in to slow the inevitable: Nightcrawler teleports inside the mansion to push an unsuspecting Jubilee out of the path of Juggernaut's destruction. 

  

Creating the smoke from Nightcrawler's BAMFs! was rather fun. They're largely transparent purple and black, but I also used transparent blue vines. These unfortunately don't exist in trans-purple, but I chose to use them regardless for two reasons: they acted as a great way to show directionality (so viewers could understand the story moments visually) and acted as a fun character nod to Nightcrawler's distinct blue tail. For Nightcrawler I used a custom tail piece (from Brickwarriors) and a custom painted hairpiece. Jubilee uses a custom trench coat. 

While the hallway is about to be obliterated, the classroom on the opposite side, is for the moment ok. Here Professor X teaches Mutant Genetics with Jean Grey at his side--which is fortunate, as he'll need Jean's help if they want to stop Juggernaut before he destroys the entire building! The classroom features custom stickers I made, which feature a few nods to the larger Marvel universe. 

  

Some other fun details about this build--there's hidden chewed gum on the underside one of the student's desks, and that bench outside is have just the worst day. So all in all, this is not really a pro-chair build, in my opinion. 

 

 The Juggernaut

I've made many many character builds over the years, and I would honestly say this was one of most difficult ones to design, entirely because of the head. Building character heads is always a challenge and generally it is the most difficult part of a character to design, but this was, just yeesh. Having a partially visible face inside a round dome helmet was just a nightmare!

So it was an arduous process scattered over many months to eventually come off with a satisfying design. I'm actually really really happy with the mouth and chin. The fleshy chin was late addition, but I think it really pulls it together (which is great because I chose to had to buy an entire Lego Mario starter pack just to get those two tile pieces, like now). Also, bit of a behind the curtains story, but you may notice the little gap between the eyes on the helmet. This is unwanted mathematical problem, in that the 1x1 technic bricks when attached by pins (to an internal 1x4 technic brick) and aligned sideways, do not unfortunately perfectly line up--hence the vertical gap. Little math problems are often frustrating when building characters; so if they happen to be unavoidable, I feel it's best to lean in. I used a 1x2 round palate just above the technic bricks (alongside a 1x2 plate) to accentuate the unintentional gap to create an intentional "crack". Or rather the appearance of one, and the story possibilities that come along with it. I hid the gap by putting it front and center!     

 

That said, the head design was a process, but the rest of him went rather smoothly. Most of the body was built in a day, which is sort of how it goes with character building--there's always that first hurtle and then just a nice downhill to the finish line. The really unique thing about this figure is the heavy use of light nougat (flesh) pieces--which is very uncommon. Having the flesh tone was really important to me, so I could bring the character to life, and I used as much as I could...which is basically every piece you see! There's not many pieces in flesh and these are basically all of them. I had no idea that it would work by the way; I was only focused on the helmet, so I didn't design or consider really anything for the body (other than the big-fig arms which I knew I would use somehow) until I had a suitable head. The fact that the two exact Large Figure Pieces that I ended up needing actually existed in light flesh was entirely the work of divine intervention! That was not at all planned, I'm just really really lucky! 

 

This Juggernaut figure is highly poseable and also dummy thicc. He's obviously larger than a big-figure, and larger than he should canonically be, but once I made his giant cute boots I just didn't care! Screw it! He features lots of useable joints at the arms and shoulders, he swivels at the waist, and can move his head left to right and forward and back. Other bits: I did leave off, or rather strategically chose to omit, his third arm band(s)--both because it was super difficult to design something that would match the first two yet still wrap around the bigfig arms, and because it would have seriously obstructed the poseability of the arms either way. Also while heavy he is shockingly sturdy. Aside from the full build where he's attached to the lawn; in every other photo he stands entirely unaided, whether on two feet or one, running or walking, carrying multiple heroes or not.

 

Anyways, that's it. I hope you enjoyed this rambling a bit. And darn it Lego--MAKE MORE X-MEN! Why do I have to do it?! 

 

 

Thanks!

[Vindicare]

This is great! I love all the action. The destruction is well done & looks very natural. The Juggernaut looks fantastic. I can imagine designing him, you nailed the head I think. He has a great expression. 

[Kristel]

4 hours ago, Captain Nemo said:

 

[snip] And darn it Lego--MAKE MORE X-MEN! Why do I have to do it?! 

No, Lego, don't.  Because we wouldn't get those booties otherwise!

Awesome writeup.

 

 

 

[JeanGreyForever]

Wow, I love this! We really do need more X-Men sets. I love how you incorporated Nightcrawler teleporting and the inclusion of Adamantium, Vibranium, and Uru in the classroom.

Edited May 2, 2021 by JeanGreyForever

[Clone OPatra]

Your builds are always stunning Nemo (as is your presentation of them) and this one is so good! I love the very long landscape presentation of it - detailed and yet very very clean. The cross section style of the school building is also very effective and fun, and you can just imagine Juggernaut punching through each section.

It reminds me of the very first Juggernaut story in the X-Men books, which was all about him breaking the perimeter and getting progressively closer to the school.

Your minifigure designs are spot on as well. That Jubilee is instantly recognisable, to the point that she looks like an official figure (or better than one actually)!

My only point of criticism would be, if you bought a Mario starter pack just for the two flesh tiles, why didn't you buy an SDCC Jean Grey / Phoenix? Where is your dedication? 

[Khorne]

Beautiful build and very insightful write-up that goes along with it. I liked reading the design and thought process behind some choices or pieces. Really interesting! My favorite part is Nightcrawler's smoke effect. It's so "simple", yet so effective and immediately recognizable. The "downside" of lacking all pieces in trans-purple is actually a strength, I think. The addition of the blue makes it visually more interesting and makes it stand out more.

[CrazyKreations]

Beautiful, this is just unbelievable the attention to detail. What I cannot get over is the cracks in the stone when the juggernaut Is running over them and that chair. Oh this is amazing, great job Mate.

[TheAbsoluteSt81]

Fantastic MOC! I love the attention to detail

[PavillionDweller]

Absolutely amazing looking, so well planned and executed! Juggernaut's design is incredible (achievement in and of itself at that scale) and I'd sure love to see that BAMF in an official set some day. 

[natesroom]

I don't like the final design, but because it just doesn't evoke the juggernaut to me, However it is a DAMN GREAT build so bar none it is hands down one of the best figure builds I've ever seen.