#brunk

McGundam: original LEGO creation by Baron von Brunk.

This is a bizarre, disturbing creation I've built which blends the imagery of Ronald McDonald with the demonic Devil Gundam from the infamous anime series Mobile Fighter G Gundam. The main focal point of this build is the massive Ronald head for its midsection, which has the appendages sprouting from it to form a mechanical beast.

After conceptualizing the project, the eventual engineering aspect would undergo several changes for structural purposes. In other words, the size and articulation was frequently adjusted, since the heavy weight constantly made the project topple over and break. Extra joints were added to weak spots, which unfortunately limited its range of motion. It was also intended to be much taller, too, but was too large to stand on its own weight. Another thing to point out was that the feet originally had more motion and were intended to rotate for action poses, but sadly had to have their articulation simplified to prevent the whole model from toppling over.

When building this project, I started with the giant Ronald head first, so that I could share the head as a teaser photo on social media. Next I built the legs and feet, before finalizing the chest, head, and spinal section. During tests I had to constantly amend the design and either add or remove sections due to aforementioned weight/stability issues. The spinal column was supposed to much longer and narrower – like a serpent – but had to be shortened and reinforced with Hero Factory parts to make sturdier.

Shooting the photos was also very difficult since the project was having trouble standing upright without falling over, and pieces constantly kept falling off and breaking. Too much of the details and greebling meant that when the appendages would wobble during photo shoots, the pieces would immediately come off and roll off the table, and then require lots of repairs.

Exactly 20 years ago in West Warwick, RI, one of the worst disasters occurred in rock music history. 100 people lost their lives and many others were injured in a careless and tragic concert for Jack Russell's Great White at the Station nightclub.

To commemorate the tragedy, I drove from Manhattan to Rhode Island to shoot video and photos. I recorded lots of GoPro footage for my YouTube video montage, and then shot still images of my LEGO Gibson guitar placed along the memorial.