Hero Factory IFB Revamp- Evo's "Demo" Machine

[NickonAquaMagna]

Geez... I can't believe how long it's been. Well, here's something fresh off the back burner.

 

 

 

Here's a video about it if you'd rather see that.

 

 

In my little head canon, there are two major builds and three weight classes. Furno's Gunner Machine is a raptor build. They tend to be light and have a pretty basic humanoid shape, zipping around the battlefield for quick rescues and the like. Most of them tend to be in the first weight class, supporting mechs. They're often seen escorting caravans and providing cover fire for frontliners, the second weight class. The second build type, and the most commonly seen in the second weight class, is the bullfrog build. They tend to have a rounder, more beastly shape, with big, reenforced legs supporting their bulky bodies. We'll delve into those more, next time. Evo's Demo Machine falls into the third weight category, the redeemer class. These are the largest mechs, only called in to deal with threats too big for even the frontliners to topple. They're slow and heavy, and most are incapable of flight. If you bring one of these giants in, there's going to be a LOT of collateral damage, hence why they're not used as much as the smaller mechs. As for it's build type, this one a mixed class. While it stands upright like the raptors, it also has some more unique components, and it's too heavy to fly. It is usually carried into battle by an airborne transport and dropped into the battlefield to shake things up, to put it mildly.
 

 

During peace time, this machine was used for both construction and demolition. One day, it would be called in to hold support beams in place while a construction crew welded them together, or to lift large cargo containers out of a truck and things like that. The next day, it would single-handedly destroy a condemned building. Since the invasion from below began, it's been purchased by the Hero Factory and converted into one of the toughest battle machines they have, boasting more armor and heavy duty equipment (and weaponry!) than ever before. Once this thing gets going, it's hard to get it to stop.

 

 

As you can see, the changes go a little deeper on this one than the last revamp I showed off. I liked the original, overall, but it always looked sorta half finished to me, especially in the legs. Sure, they did a good job of holding the thing up, but there was no real articulation below the knees, and, well, I found that unacceptable.

 

 

The new legs have hinged ankles, which have a surprising range of left to right movement while making them sturdier than the tried and true open ball and socket build these figures usually have, and lego understandably wanted to avoid with this one. I also joined the ends of the sockets on the knees with a 3-stud-long technic axle with a ball joint in the middle, to give the next joint somewhere to grab. The added range really isn't much, but when the legs get to be this long, it makes all the difference. At one point, I threw a coupla' ultrabuild sockets in there to re-enforce the ankles, but they ended up looking really spindly and unfittingly open. When I got tired of how bad they looked, I removed them and was surprised to see that this thing doesn't really need them.

 

 

Yes, it's heavy, moreso now with everything I've bulked it up with added on, but it stands up pretty easily. Sure, if I lean it uncomfortably far this way or that way, something's gonna give and it'll fall over, but at least now I can position the feet pretty much wherever I want as long as I keep the top half pretty level. They just feel so much more natural than before and it makes this guy pretty fun to pose. I'm also pretty happy with how the shape of the legs turned out. I may've overdone it in some places, like the knees where just a 4-stud-long shell piece is enough to stop it from collapsing on itself, but I was just trying to make every part flow together in one cohesive mass, and the added knee guards seemed to complete it.
 

 

As for the body, I didn't like it very much, before. Oh, sure, I liked the frame, the shape of it, the idea of it... but it was just so gappy and bare-bones looking, I felt the need to fill in those cracks.  As I kept finding new places to cover up and beef up, I kept worrying it would ruin the structural integrity of the whole thing sooner or later, but to my surprise, the more shells I piled on, the better it seemed to hold together, and the less things just sorta flopped around. Even something as simple as covering those exposed ball joints on the top of the shoulders helped. I'm especially happy with how much of the gappiness is gone thanks to that yellow plate on the back alone. I feel more comfortable picking this thing up around the waist than I did at first thinks to how much more it feels like I'm picking up one solid object, now. Granted, it'll be a little harder for children with small hands to pick up, but... eh. This is just a toy made for me. Evo doesn't have quite as much protection from the sides as Furno does, but at least he doesn't look like he's going to fall out of the seat if he sneezes or something, now.
 

 

As for the arms, these went through the most changes. I tried to keep the left arm simple and light enough that you could see this being in an actual set released by lego. Just a few pieces arranged just right can go a long way. I definitely overdid it with the right arm, though. This thing is heavy, and while the elbow is pretty strong, the shoulder can only hold this up so high for so long. Still, I just really like the way it looks, and the entire front of it does spin around. As much bulk as I added to the body, there's still just enough clearance for it to spin at the waist. It takes a bit of force now that this thing is twice as heavy as it used to be, but it's so darn fun to do now with the new arms.
 
I had to be very picky with which colors were distributed to where. I didn't want there to be too much yellow or gunmetal, and I didn't want to make it look stripey like a bee or something. I wanted the arms to have SOME yellow, so I'm glad I found another place for those shells with the Hero Factory insignias that tie it all together pretty well now, in my book.

 

 

One thing that Aanchir in particular really liked about the first revamp that I found pretty interesting was that I DIDN'T actually change much about it. I just... added a bit to what was already there, throwing in a few extra pieces in just the right spots to make it feel more complete... and that's what I tried to do again here, though obviously on a much larger scale. As many changes as I've made to this thing, I still wanted it to resemble the original set enough to be instantly recognizable as just that. That said, I realize that with this upgrade, I'm really pushing the limits of what Lego is allowed to do with their toys, and I understand if it's just a tad on the busy side for some people. However, I'm sorry to say that the rest of what you'll see from me in the future are not so much light upgrades of what was already there as they are completely new battle machines that don't resemble the original sets much at all. Still, I hope you'll like the new machines I've whipped up.
 
Well, that's it for today. Don't worry, it won't take me another six months to show what else I've been working on.