The New Black - Tim Goddard: Blaze mech

Another of our regular contributors has joined in The New Black parts challenge of their own volition! Today Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) pens a love letter to one single new part released by the LEGO® Group this year. 

Ah, Plate 1X1 Round W/3.2 Shaft (Design ID 26047). I thought I was dreaming when I first saw it but it was real! The semi-circular end is made for rotating, it allows you to attach anything with a clip any which way you like which is just perfect for the legs on my mini Blaze mech.

Before this wonderful piece came out, it would have been impossible to keep the angle of the legs and keep the scale. I am always looking for interesting ways to move away from right angles as it can really bring a model to life, be it a robot, an animal or a spaceship wing and TLG continues to offer us exciting new ways to do that with this new part.

I did not build this model with the express purpose of using this piece but I had a half a dozen sitting on my desk and before I knew it I had used almost all the ones I had at that point. There are two effectively serving as hip joints, one at the back which connects the communications aerial and another one ended up as the optical sensor at the front just because it is so sexy.

In other parts information, this is the first time I have used the dot firing gun (Mini Shooter With Ø3.2 Shaft, Design ID 15391) in a MOC, they serve as very nice legs with a good connection although the feet did fire off across the room a couple of times during building.

The whole thing is attached to a stand using a minifig hand pushed into the hole on a good old fire hose nozzle (Nozzle W/Ø3.18, Shaft, Design ID 60849) this allows it to be displayed in a dynamic pose. Don't push the hand in too far or it might crack the nozzle!... not a legal connection.

I enjoyed the colour pallet and design of my little mech so much I ended up build a warrior family to go with him.

READ MORE: Tim Goddard creates Ice Planet models out of LEGO® NEXO KNIGHTS™ pieces

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