LiLmeFromDaFuture

Ideally, I aspired to design my AT-AT project as if LEGO would themselves.  Early on, I understood if I stayed true to this direction then I could recreate many details faithfully, so this ambition at the focus of the project even inspired me to explore creative possibilities with the idea of an AT-AT as a transport.  Following closely in the footsteps of LEGO, I modeled the core element of my creation in the spirit of the first official AT-AT set (4483).  

4483 uses sliding benches to store and remove minifigures with great ease, and also space for a Speederbike.  Unlike its successors, 4483 served as the best example of the AT-AT in an abstract, yet fun, way.   To this regard, I took to the idea of implementing 4483's system for storing minifigures quite well and considering my desire to build as LEGO and take a creative approach with my project, it worked perfectly.  With these two factors at the helm of this project, little guesswork remained for how I would fill the inside based on 4483, though what did remain left space for imagination to introduce new ideas along with creative ways to interact with each.  

In the front and rear of my walker stay a small bench with seats for four minifigures, blasters for each, and accessory crates between them.  The middle features a large bench with seats for eight minifigures and blasters for each.

With a larger scale to work with, I knew I could fit at least a dozen and some more minifigures than 4483, though not solely in the middle of the body, and I did not want to require removing several panels to just access the minifigures only to reattach them again when stowing away the minifigures.  If I alternatively planned for a detailed interior, removing panels would not bother so much, as it would allow detailed-observation of the interior, but since I made other plans, this fashion of accessing the minifigures would prove tedious and not fun.  

So with quite the task before me, the immediate solution pointed towards a removable middle section (which I will now refer to as the box), so the troop benches I would place in the front and rear can slide out to the now void middle.  This direction would then lead to a fun solution for how to remove the box from the rest of the walker.  Like I wanted a convenient, manageable solution for accessing the minifigures, I likewise desired the same for removing the box than to grasp it from wherever, leading to possible damages.  So then came 10178.

The motorized walking AT-AT (10178), features a collapsible handle atop its body to move the walker wherever desired.  Though implementing a similar design on my walker may not manage to lift 6000+ parts with ease, the handle allows just what I need for an easy way to remove the box.