Henchmen4Hire

I totally need me a Drill Walker now... Dropship has a cool shape but I don't like all the exposed Technic pieces.

I like how smooth it is overall, def looks like a fancy city truck. It has a finished, official look.

As someone who isn't impressed by 98% of the stuff on shelves right now, I still wouldn't scrap their big money makers. However, I wish all that profit LEGO is making would translate into them experimenting with new themes. I want to see young Legomaniacs exposed to more cool, weird shiz.

It isnt supposed to be an exhaustive list, I think I'd be here forever if it was. Cool shape, I think there was a Space Police 3 vehicle that was similar (undercover ship?). Those anime ships fall under Sky-Fi, which is another theme with many wild designs. I dont mind if the ships in a sci-fi racing theme are all different, like a galactic cannonball run, I'm just trying to think in terms of what would work for mass retail, not just what works for fans like us who love everything sci-fi haha.

Hoverbikes, Vic Vipers, Pod Racers, Redout, etc., those racing machines have an archetypical/recognizable shape. "GARC" racers don't have an archetypical shape, the designs for them are all over the place. For creating a new racing theme, I think it's important to first define the "anatomy" of the new racing machines, create a new archetype. Once that's established, we can start to push the limits of their design, while still keeping the designs coherent enough to look like they belong in the same theme. Of course, that's just my opinion. I wouldn't mind throwing that out the window/airlock and seeing asymmetrical designs, space hogs, 3-seaters, haphazard Mad-Max-in-space style ships, etc. Whatever works. And yeah, having a colorful, non-murderous sci-fi theme is also a big part of why I'd like to see this theme come to life haha.

Like my grandma would say, that's sick as hell

Anyone else got a hankering for some space racing? What makes a great racing machine? What makes it a great theme? If I can use pod racing from Star Wars as an example, without getting booed off the planet: Pod Racers have a, dare I say, iconic design (or notorious, or infamous, whatever word you want to use). They're essentially two massive engines dragging a small chariot at breakneck speeds. An example of their anatomy: Pod Racer design is all about glorifying those big honking engines. Aerodynamics aren't important as long as the engines are brutally impressive, so it opens them up to radical designs. What I'm getting at is I think establishing an anatomy for the racing machines is an important first step to take. ================ What are some racing machine archetypes? (This isn't an exhaustive list, keep posting all the cool designs you can find!) Hoverbikes These are compact single-rider machines, maybe using 4-6 stud wide bodies.My biggest concern with this is that maybe official models wouldn't be stable enough for the Lego company's liking, since they would most likely require using tons of small pieces, although Star Wars speeders seem to hold up well to play. This genre extends to sports like wave-racing. Look up the game "Riptide Renegade" for examples of these futuristic jet skis. Racing Trucks These could be 6-8 wide land vehicles, with a minimum of 3 axles. The fun part here is redesigning a clunky industrial machine to look like it goes really fast. I imagine they would consist of the cab the rider sits in, and some exposed engine parts, bolted to a stock chassis (trucks could share a similar frame to build on). Either the cab or the engine could be the center of attention, depending on their configuration. Flying Wings I think I saw this idea here before. Essentially an engine with a colorful shroud for aesthetic/aerodynamic purposes, some fins for steering, and attach a pair of handlebars to it somehow. There's no seat, the rider holds on for dear life and is dragged behind the crazy thing. I think this could extend to gliders, similar idea, basically an engine with whatever cool wing design you can come up with. Vic Vipers This can be a chance to build striking, jetfighter-esque spaceship designs that aren't all about blowing up motherships. These have aggressive designs, usually with a closed canopy sitting between two separate wing sections that run the length of the ship. Muscle GARCs A specific subset from the wide variety of machines represented in the GARC theme. This is basically what muscle cars would look like if they never had wheels first. They're all about looking cool and being loud, aerodynamics be damned. Super GARCs These are supersonic speed machines, the more elegant, streamlined cousins of Muscle GARCs. You can see them in futuristic racing games like Redout. I imagine they would use elements like wedge plates and streamlined panels as veneer, in contrast to a very industrial-looking chassis underneath. Sky-Fi World War 1 and 2 era airplanes if they were fitted with sci-fi elements; their designs can vary wildly. Dieselpunk is closely related. Leggers There are usually bipedal, but can have more legs. They're basically a pair of mechanical legs that run fast, the driver sits somewhere between them. ============= Feel free to share your ideas and post MOCs of racing machines! I'll try to come up with something.

Thanks bub Studying Metal Sonic's car a little more, it has a big cutaway section around the driver. Reminds me of the Flintstone's car where it's powered by his feet instead of an engine...which kinda makes sense!

I like how stable it is, thought it was gonna explode when you picked it up!

I think it would benefit from speed champions tires so the body doesn't look so chunky. Replace the windscreen with sticks or levers, like @bamsham363 did. I like cramming features into my cars too (I do 8-wide), but at some point the aesthetic of the car suffers.

Is that very light metallic blue? If so, you can try building it with blue, then use VHT Vinyl Dye Spray (Silver) on top. It should turn silver with a blue hue because it's a dye so the under color "shows through"

Thanks bubs Eh, gave Graveler a shot, it turned into the Alolan variant

@RacerRabbit Other than Omega's ride, I'm afraid of tackling the other cars, so many round shapes haha I think if I try the Sonic or Shadow cars they'll end up looking like my usual 8-wide super cars, but I may give it a shot Metal Sonic's car is weird enough that I might get away with using weird pieces

@Damiano Anger Someone already made a kickass Onix, if I made one I would most likely just be following in their footsteps because they did such a great job at recreating the likeness: I brickbuilt the Steelix though! It's missing a few finishing pieces (why does that always happen) but it looks good enough to display. It's flexible and strong, it can be picked up from anywhere and won't break. Turns out I didn't need to brace the guts much, once the plates are attached it's a solid block, but bracing does make it MUCH easier to assemble.

Gave Vespi a try, kinda scary

Crobat and Shuckle almost built themselves, there isn't much I can use at this scale that will look okay. (Suggestions welcome for any of these though)

Sure go ahead, no promises it wont look like an abomination though haha

Cool, but does the Car Wash transform into a burger shop? Haha

Like all these kind of builds, awesome ship, but it would be more awesome to see the guts to see how it's held together

Probs the last one I'll post since there's little interest. Flygon [LEGO Pokemon] by Henchmen4Hire, on Flickr

I wanted to make instructions for my Steelix (800 pieces) in Studio, but I can't figure it out haha. Are there no tutorials for it? I haven't found anything useful. I'll have to go back to my method of just deleting bricks from a model as I build it :[

I don't know what the original model looks like, but that looks good, proportions are alright compared to the reference art. I can't imagine any minifg wouldn't be menaced by that haha Maybe add a plate to the inner thighs so they don't look so flat.

How did he anodize the steel anvil to black without turning it into a hunk of rust? Cool build, those kind of roofs make me think the shingles are gonna flutter way in a breeze!

Added another birb I know the Pokedex says they're only 4 foot tall, but that's nonsense, they should be giant scary legendary creatures haha

Regarding trains being AFOL catnip: I'm in my 30s. I like the scifi/car/airplane stuff. I've never met a person who was into trains, either growing up or now. The only people I see who are interested in trains are people on old Huell Howser TV episodes where they're at a convention full of 50+ year olds tinkering with model trains...that aren't made of LEGO. Based on that, to me, trains seem like a bad investment for the LEGO company (whatever they're called now). Of course, people in different countries may be into different things. That said, I'm sure LEGO has a demographer who decides what themes to put out. And if they don't, they should, every business should. That's how you make sure you release product that interests the largest possible population who has disposable income to actually buy your product.