Maus

First time posting a mod. Let's see how this goes... When I bought the 2014 AT-AT, I thought it was a really good set. It's technic frame makes it really stable despite the high centre of gravity, and for a system-scale set it is impressively large. It is very posable. It has it's problems though. In essence, it's a technic set with some plates tacked on to it. That usually makes for a set with a lot of gaps if you don't get the angles exactly right. It was also very studdy, whereas the "real" AT-AT is relatively smooth. Some of the colour choices seemed very inconsistent (a lot of stray DBL bricks everywhere). And, of course, the cockpit. The sides angled inwards too much, and it could fit only one pilot. Also: it lacked the red view port. So I decided to try to remedy all that, and basically turned a large pile of plates into a large pile of tiles. In the proces I found out that lighting is really important when trying to take pictures of LEGO. Sorry if it's hard to make out some of the details... You can find more pictures in this album.

Great work!

Looks good! I was trying to find what you've changed compared to mine. Apart from the interiors, I can't actually find that many. I see you've changed the feet and your underside might actually be better than mine. Any chance of a picture of that? Or has that bit been disassembled already?

Don't worry, I'm still here. I'm not sure what you mean by how the roof flattens out for the last two stud lengths, but I uploaded some images to this album. I hope they answer your question. You'll also find a couple of pictures of the bottom trapezoid there. The way I attached them won't win any prizes, but it does look ok on the outside - if slightly messy on the inside. They're simply attached with two 2x1 plates with clips and bars. The trick is to off-set the connection by a couple of plates. I hope the pictures will make that clearer. Btw, I ran out of light bley parts at some point, so I had to use black ones in stead. They're a bit hard to see on my pictures. Sorry for that! Could you post some pictures of your son's AT-AT when you finish?

Nice! It's certainly more accurate shape-wise. I decided against doing it that way because of the holes you get on the side the foot. I prefer them more massive-looking. But that's just a personal preference. If the shape is what's important, your way is certainly the way to go. I would guess I added at least 50% to the brick count. All those tiles add up fast.

Absolutely brilliant!

Thanks! Funny you should ask that. I've modded the cockpit so much, it's basically a MOC - except for the way the panels attach. I thought that was ingenious, so I left it more or less as it was. I wouldn't know how to start explaining how it's done, so instead I took some pictures. I hope they help! (Hey! Bonus Hammerhead) If you've got any questions, just go ahead and ask. And if you've got any improvements, I'd like to see those too! If these pictures aren't big enough, try this imgur album.

Yeah, I tried that, but it makes the legs look really fat and bulky. You'd have find another way to construct them to make them look like skinny ATAT legs.

The head took the most modding to be honest. The angles weren't quite right, there wasn't enough room for two pilots, it was missing greebling and a red visor - I wanted to address all these things. The way it's attached to the neck is still the same though. I wanted to fix that as well - it takes up way too much of the cockpit - but I couldn't be bothered in the end. For the whole AT-AT, I would guesstimate that I doubled it in price and piece count. Most of the pieces are tiles though, so if you've got a lot of them lying around, it'd be cheaper.

It's going to be hard to find the time to do some proper instructions for this MOD, but if anyone's interested, I did make an LDD file of the smaller AT-AT. You can find it here: http://dropcanvas.com/jgnio . I had to substitute this part for this part though, because LDD doesn't seem to have it. It works equally well, but it isn't available in LBG.

I see what you mean, but those 1x1 round plates have the same colour and the same function in that set. They don't distract from the overall look. A random 1x8 red plate in what should have been a solid white or LBG surface does distract. And it's not like a red 1x8 or a 1x2 is particularly rare or useful. Wanting to give the buyer some more rare and useful pieces seems a bit backwards to me. If I buy a Skyhopper, I want to build something that looks like a Skyhopper. I'don't want to build most of a Skyhopper plus some random bricks. LEGO is perfectly capable of consistent colour use. Most of the City vehicles for example are actually perfect in this regard. A green lorry is a green lorry, not a mostly green lorry with some random orange parts thrown in just in case you didn't want to build a green lorry. Granted though, the Skyhopper is a pretty bad example. It is a very unpolished set. The colours are all over the place, the detailing is extremely lazy and at some point you're supposed to stick two of those blue pins-with-stud in a technic beam. Without ever attaching anything to those studs. Seriously, they're not used and they aren't supposed to be anything. I suspect the set mainly exists to sell an expensive Tusken Raider. It's the only LEGO set I actually regret getting. I think you're right in that that is what they're trying to do, but it's just not very consistent. In my opinion most of the DBG on the AT-AT's head and feet should have been LBG. And sometimes the use of colour is actually counter-productive: there are 1x1 DBG plates in the feet that actually break up what is supposed to be a continuous arch in the "actual" AT-AT. Not that I think it's a bad set - I really liked it. I thought it was one the better ones from the last wave.

To be fair, the newer sets still can have random colours all over the place. Case in point: the latest T16 Skyhopper. It has seemingly random red, dark grey en light grey plates all over what should have been a mainly white underside. And even LEGO's latest version of the AT-AT - essentially a big mono-coloured beast - switches for no apparent reason from light to dark grey. The different colours don't seem to represent anything and don't really make building any easier. Not that I'm complaining - I enjoy modding the hell out of official sets. It just seems baffling now and again...