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Here are some of my LEGO Transformers based on characters from the original G1 cartoon and movie. From left to right they are: Seaspray, Powerglide, Brawn, Windcharger, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, Spike’s Exosuit, and Skywarp. Seaspray and Spike are still waiting on bricklink orders to finish their color schemes and Bumblebee and Megatron are fairly old designs that will be updated. These are just the ones I was able to bring to my dorm, I have a lot more at my parents’ house (I’ll dig up pictures if anyone is interested). And yes, they all properly transform without the removal of parts (with the occasional exception of their weapons).
I am currently working on Reflector, Gears, Ironhide, a Bumblebee update, and a Soundwave update. I’m terrible about sharing my work online in a timely manner, but I’ll to try to post individual photos of everything on my Instagram (Loganfilmstudios) soon.
Okay, I am impressed. Here are my thoughts:
* If I think of these builds as maxifigs, then this changes everything. It’s very possible to build dioramas with figs this size, and the G1 cartoon, set in badlands a lot, with industrial fire bases, yeah, this could be even more impressive at a show. @whitesidewjw does some pretty impressive industrial diorama work. You might want to ask him how he does it, and work with references from the show.
* If you do decide to show, you may want to set a sign near your work that tells the audience that every fig DOES fully transform, and that you’re willing to demonstrate. Encourage the audience to ask. Playability isn’t the main focus at many of our shows, and you can stand out among us this way and provide something different and fun.
* Where are the Energon cubes? Would they fluoresce under UV light? 😀 (I recommend Trans-Medium Blue, the highest fluorescing color LEGO has. This color BEAMS blue when struck by UV.)
* How many OCs have you made? Anything cool about them?
Very nice, especially as they are fully transformable. It looks like all of the vehicles are 4 or 6 wide.
you may want to set a sign near your work that tells the audience that every fig DOES fully transform, and that you’re willing to demonstrate.
Thanks for the feedback! That’s pretty much exactly what I do at Brickfair, I love to show the public how everything works. It’s great to see the kids’ reactions, they always get so excited seeing the transformation process.
As for a larger-scale diorama, I’ve definitely thought about doing those badlands or a scene on Cybertron. My fear is something like that might hinder my ability to show off the functionality of the transformers without ruining the display. I also get really intimidated by larger projects in general, as I’m one of those people who spends too much time focusing on tiny details. I can only imagine how long (not to mention parts-intensive) a build like that would be. But who knows, maybe with a little help and a lot of bricks, a Transformers diorama could happen in the future.
Lastly, here are a few of my favorite Transformer OCs (again these are the ones I brought to my dorm, I have a lot more back in VA). I don’t make them too often anymore, but sometimes its nice to have complete creative freedom with my builds.
There are multiple builders here with experience in larger dioramas of multiple baseplates in size. It is a significant investment in brick, but there are some ways to cheat the process.
Hey @randomdan! Take a look at these small Transformer OCs. Similar to the style of industrial robots you’ve built, I think.
Where are the Energon cubes?
Oh yeah, almost forgot! I dug up this picture of my Brickfair display last year during World of Lights. I used a LEGO-compatible LED I had bought on a whim to illuminate the Energon cubes, but UV lighting is not a bad idea. I’ll have to look into that.
Do you have any more BFVA pics? Earlier this week I spent some time looking through ones from the last couple years, and I couldn’t find any pics of your stuff. Did you use your real name on your MOC cards? I found a tons of pics of Jermaine’s stuff (when I saw him on Lego Masters, I did not make the connection, even though I remember seeing him sitting there with his Transformers during public hours at least once or twice, I didn’t realize it was him until this particular Flickr session), and a handful of other pics of Transformers by a builder whose name is not Logan.
These look great! I am impressed by how accurately you have recreated those small G1’s at such a small scale! Seaspray and Powerglide were a couple of my favorites and you nailed them!
Do you have any more BFVA pics?
Apparently I’m really bad at remembering to take decent photos of my own displays. After a ton of digging, I was able to find this picture my parents took of my Brickfair display from 2018. Now I know for next year’s BFVA (if there is one) that photography matters!
So I figured I’d update you all on what I’ve been working on recently (I guess this is my unofficial building thread now). I’ve completed the designs for a few transformers but haven’t had a chance to Bricklink the parts to get all the colors right yet. For now, I have them rendered in Stud.io so I could get an idea of what they would look like.
This one is G1 Reflector, which for those who don’t know is basically 3 robots who combine to form a camera (I know, the scale is silly). The thing that’s unique about this character is that each robot is meant to look virtually identical, even though they form different parts of the camera. I think I did a pretty good job in capturing this, at least from the front. In the cartoon they are more of a violet color, but I chose to go with dark blue because LEGO really hasn’t made very many parts available in violet or blue-violet. The part I’m most proud of is that all of the toys for this character(s) make it so you have to take off the camera lens when you transform it, but I was able to make the lens fully transform without the removal of any parts. I did this by making it split in half and become the backpacks for the two side robots.
Taking Creator’s “3 in 1” to a different level. 🙂
I really like the proportion of cheese slope to straight line throughout these ‘bots. Color scheme is subdued yet well defined, and the three “identical” ‘bots is pulled off really well.
Success here!
Success here!
Thanks!
The other transformer I finished recently is G1 Sideswipe. This one took a super long time to design because I wanted to make the lamborghini mode as accurate as I could. I also once again got a little crazy with my “no parts-forming” rule, as I made sure the shoulder cannon was included in the transformation without needing to be taken off, which is a super uncommon feature for most Sideswipe figures. With this complete, I’ll be able to do Red Alert soon, because that character is basically a recolor of this but with some slight changes in the arms.
Very nice. I am really looking forward to being able to see these IRL. I tried to build Transformers as a child but the parts just did not exist to make very good joints/connections. Now there are a lot of neat ways to make those work.
The only Transformer I ever owned was Lightspeed. Is this Autobot possible?
If I’m not mistaken, Lightspeed was part of the Technobots team that combined to form Computron. I don’t have any plans to start building a combiner in the near future, but I know my friend Jermaine has done a lot of them, including Computron. He shares his work on YouTube and Instagram under the name “BX Brix”. In other words, yes it is possible, and if there’s any character in particular you’re looking for, chances are you’ll find somebody as already built it and posted it online somewhere. Turns out there are quite a few people online who are interested in building LEGO Transformers!
Been a while since I showcased one of my builds here, so I figured I’d give you all a look at the build I’ve most recently been working on. I’ve been working on this since August to submit to an online LEGO Transformer building contest. I’m proud to report that I was the first place winner! Still, the perfectionist in me says this build isn’t 100% done, as I want to clean up the color scheme a bit and fix a few other minor issues I have with it.
This is an OC I call “Spitfin,” and it is a triple-changer that turns into both a WWII Curtis P-40 Kittyhawk fighter plane and the shark that the plane’s famous paintjob is inspired by! The name was inspired by “Spitfire”, even though that’s not technically what kind of plane this is. This is the first triple-changer I’ve ever made, and boy was it a challenge. I had taken reference pictures of the real plane at the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum in VA during Brickfair (worth a trip if you’re in the area for Brickfair), and so was particularly inspired to get the plane mode as accurate as possible to the real thing. I was able to capture pretty much everything I wanted to with this mode, with the biggest inaccuracies being the 4 prop blades instead of 3 (there just aren’t many great options for 120 degree angles at such a small scale), the gaps in the wings (still working on a solution for this), and the general messiness that comes with a transformer that has 2 other modes. The plane details that I’m most proud of are the guns on the wings and the fully functional landing gear.
I’m gonna share pics of and explain the other modes in separate posts because I’ve had issues in the past with getting multiple pics to publish in the same post.
Wow yeah it won’t even post 2 pics in the same post. Sorry then if this gets a bit spammy. Here’s a look at Spitfin’s plane mode with the landing gear out.
Here’s the shark mode. My goal for this mode was to hide all the major plane parts such as the prop, the windshield, and the landing gear. I was successful on all 3 accounts. The transformation from plane to shark is a little bit more involved than one might expect. The tail flips upside down (with the exception of the topmost section attached to the tailfin, which uses an armature to maintain its position and rotate to make it the shark’s dorsal fin) and half the wing basically folds up against the body, shortening its length to form the shark’s pectoral fins.
Also the shark mouth opens! That makes me happy
Here is the robot mode. I wanted to go for a WWII soldier/pilot aesthetic but that was mostly thrown out the window when I realized how funky the proportions would get. I did manage to maintain this in the robot’s head though, which was modeled after a WWII pilot’s headgear/goggles. One of the coolest details to me is the rifle holstered on the side of his left leg, which gets there during transformation without the removal of parts (though obviously it gets taken off to be put in his hand). Other neat things about the transformation I like are that the plane fins become his feet and the plane guns become his fingers!
Finally, here’s a pic of Spitfin using his rifle, so you can get a better look at what that looks like. Love those newer effect parts, they make for such dynamic action poses!
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