Ahh... Octane. Where do I start ? As a toy, I never owned it. As a character in the G1 Transformers Cartoon, he failed to pique my interest. I kept wondering why I pined for him till now. As a fan of Transformers Triple Changers, Octane is right up there (with Springer/Snapdragon) as my top faves. I guess its because I never owned the toy that caused me to be more intrigued , especially how his transformation went about: From a tanker truck to an jetliner and then robot. The best memory of him would be when I was small, we played with picture cards of various TV show characters (Ultramens, Gundams, Japanese Robots, TFs) , trying to amass as many picture cards as possible of various characters (kinda pointless coz they're sold dirt cheap from the shop with all possible variations:- 10cent each for a cutout of 8x6=48 cards!). From those picture cards, I remembered Octane the most (there are selections of G1 TF picture cards slightly bigger than a stamp with pictures of beautifully drawn TF boxarts). So there.
The "offending" boxart that mesmerised me.
I attempted Octane few years before, but started on the wrong foot. That time , I tried to mimic the exact transformation from it's G1 incarnation: truck front becomes jet tail. My attempt failed horribly on the first day. Then I kinda "abandon" the whole idea. On and off, I was tempted again to restart the project every time I zoomed by a tanker truck on my way to the office (I have a fetish for observing heavy vehicles and their exteriors when I'm driving). At times I just visualize how this MOC is gonna be and its all in my brain. The core idea of having the jet wings sandwich between 2 halves of the tanker was thought out much earlier.
Another thing that advanced my intention is the acquisition of LEGO Toy Story Buzz Spaceship on clearance. This set offered a few purple parts and the big curved pieces which are essential for my build. I'm truly grateful for those curved parts to have technic holes in it to make things easier for me to connect.
About this MOC
Years of building LEGOFormers taught me one thing in particular: Start from the torso. From there, its much easier to balance the size of both the body and the legs. And don't worry too much about the final aesthetics. There are always workaround / justifications on the final outcome. That's why instead of looking earthen, this Octane of mine swayed towards "Fall of Cybertron (FOC)" timeline. I didn't even take any cues from FOC Optimus Prime cab head.
One of the major struggle in my project here is how to fold the robot arms in truck mode. Initially they're awkwardly folded under the truck windshield, with not much space for the hands. So the hands kinda "protrudes" out 2 studs from the truck side headlamps. Even though the folded fingers looks similar to a truck grill, I can't accept such design. It's back to the "drawing board" again, not literally of course. Finally the arms are made to fold to the back of the cab, but at the expenses of not having smokestacks. I can get away with that , right? Cybertronian truck tech doesn't require smokestacks, they ran on energon on their home planet, not conventional earthen fuel.
The jet mode is a dropship, meant to carry Decepticon armies and uhmm.... drop them on the battlefield. Earlier, I initially settled with pretty long wings for his jet mode, but I found out this is just too typical. So that's why I make the wingtips to point forward to make the jet more "alien". One thing naturally lead to another. The hinged wingtips falls into place in robot mode, folded right above the ankles, with minimal retooling/reshaping.
Another fairly frustrating build is the rifle. It has to be securely plugged in both the tanker and jet/dropship mode. However, the handle is built in such a way that it can be pegged onto the robot palm to secure the grip:- this means it can be held on the left hand, but not the right.
Another pleasant co-incidence is.... I can actually fold the rifle barrels down to bulk up and blend into the truck windshield as its frame. I didn't even plan for that initially! Only found out this is possible during photoshoot.
Details Details!
The big quarter-circle/ curved parts not just contain technic holes to help my build, they are also hollow inside,which allows me more room to cram in some pretty nifty detailings. Usually I'm very conservative in using hinges and only apply them when transformation require. But this time around, I managed to sneak in 2 brick hinges to pop up a grill each to enhance the jet undercarriage.
"Special" Techniques
Since my LEGOFormers require many "finger parts" for the obvious robot fingers (usually 6 per MOC), but now I'm using the "finger part" to create hinges with dynamic range (see below). It's plugged inside a technic pin , where the latter is plugged into a technic hole. Pretty nifty huh =)
If you're done enjoying the photos, click below to view the transformation sequence of Octane:
http://alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2013/05/lego-fall-of-cybertron-octane.html
Tanker Truck Mode
Truck with rifle attached
Dropship cum jet mode
Dropship with rifle attached
Robot mode
...with rifle
^ My Favorite Photo from this set!
Don't ask.
And to end it all...
If you're done enjoying the photos, click below to view the transformation sequence of Octane:
http://alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2013/05/lego-fall-of-cybertron-octane.html
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