Zok Death Sloop Mark 2

15 December 2000

The cockpit design on my first version of the Zok Death Sloop from Calvin and Hobbes dated back to college, when I first thought of the ship as a MOC. Of course, the Naboo Fighter-type cockpits weren't available then. I have already thought of them as an alternative and someone on LUGNET suggested them after seeing the first version. They show the roundedness suggested by the cartoon better. I also thought the scoops in the first version were too flimsy.

This version has an interior beyond the cockpit. Lacking Zok minifigs, I settled on standard Lego UFOliens.

Hinging the cockpit down the center was the greatest challenge. The cockpit opens and closes on a pair of click-hinges mounted on the nose; the two halves of the cockpit are attached to the click-hinge by brick hinges and reinforced down the length by three plate hinges. The cockpit is relatively sturdy but because of the different radii of the two types of hinges can only be angled so far.

Zok Death Sloop

14 December 2000

The top panel on the left shows my favorite of Spaceman Spiff's nemeses (nemesises? nemesi? nemesim?), the Zok Death Sloop. I've always wanted to build one, and the appearance of Spaceman Spiff on LUGNET, coupled with a snow day for the school where I teach, was enough reason to finally do it.

Ice Planet Designs

These four creations all build on the Ice Planet theme. The first photo shows the Halftrack and the Striker, the lower two the VTOL and the Ice Tank. All date from 1997 or 1998.

The Halftrack sports a large cannon on the right side, hidden under the Ice Planet logo. Its combination of skis and treads allows it to traverse the Ice Planet landscape.

The Striker is a one-man fighter with a good balance of missiles and laser cannons. It is capable of near-orbital flight.

The VTOL is for transporting small groups of scientists or soldiers. Its array of missiles and laser weapons can defend the small craft or clear the landscape of obstacles. The passenger compartment is accessed from panels under the winges.

The Ice Tank is crewed by a single pilot. Advanced targeting systems make it easy for the pilot to hit enemies with the eight missles, large rail gun, and small lasers and while still focusing on maneuvering

Earthscorcher Mech

I designed this sometime in 1994.

This 'mech packs a huge gatling cannon at the end of one arm and a railgun on the other. While heavily armored in the torso and arms, the weak and unprotected leg linkages are an Achilles heel for this otherwise extremely effective walker.

Blacktron Preying Mantis

These constructions are from the summer after my freshman year in college (summer 1993). During freshman year, some of my friends caught a preying mantis which proceeded to lay an egg sac. I became very interested in the preying mantis form and, collecting the last of the Blacktron II sets, devised a preying mantis mech. A walking mechanism for it proved impossible, so I used the space in the abdomen as a troop carrier. In the second picture on the left you can see two Blacktron II shock troopers emerging from the side.

The mantis is facing off against a robot/jet transformable mech (see below). The small yellow creation is a Power Skeleton; the blue ship is very loosely based on the snow speeder from Star Wars. Note the reappearnace of the Space Police motorcycles, this time flying, in the bottom right photo.

Veritech Fighter

One of my favorite childhood cartoons was Robotech. This construction, also from the summer of 1993, was my most successful attempt to build a Veritech fighter from the series.

The arms have to be detached and reattached, and I believe the head does as well. Other than that, the figure is fully transformable. You can see the Battloid mode in photos above; this is Fighter mode, and as I recall, Guardian mode just wasn't stable. The Battloid could stand up unassisted because of the tail stabilizers.

Shuttle Launcher

This was another creation from sometime during high school. A futuristic space shuttle rides the back of a tractor-trailer; the tractor has a command center inside with a communications dish on top, and the trailer has a mechanism to raise the shuttle into launch position. The mechanism was actually sturdy enough to support the weight of the shuttle as it went into position.

Classic/Futuron Space Base

This is the oldest photo I have of a Lego construction; the photo shows a small space base with my entire collection of space minifigs in mid-1989. The base has a satellite dish which can be turned with a wheel on the side and a rocket launch pad that can be moved away from the base. There are two Light-and-Sound units as well.