#exo force

(if youre curious about the random gold elements, theyre placeholders for printed elements that dont exist in studio. so, when i make the wanted list on bricklink to actually part them together, they stand out and i know to replace them with the actual printed elements)

for the past few months i have been re-imagining the four sets in the 90s space theme RoboForce as Exo Force sets. They are both mech themes, so it felt like a natural fit, and this project started like 8 months ago when i realized the robo raptor specifically would fit RIGHT in with the other "animal" exo force sets (the shadow crawler, battle arachnoid, and dark panther respectively)

a big pet peeve of mine when i see people "modernizing" or "re-imagining" or "upgrading" old sets or themes is that they end up doing mainly 2 things: doubling the part count and removing all visible studs. my goal here was to really dive headfirst into the design language of the exo force sets, and replicate it as closely as i could. this included trying my best to use only parts that were available during the themes run and trying to keep each build at a similar part count to the exo force sets of similar sizes. this definitely proved to be a challenge, but, the way i see it, its exactly the same challenge the original set designers faced back in the day: how do you make the most of a limited number of parts

overall i think i did a fantastic job. the builds feel authentically exo force, while still keeping recognizable elements of the original sets. especially when you put them side by side like i have. im so fucking excited to share these this has been MONTHS of work in the making

now all thats left to do is part them together!!! :D they should be done in time for brickfair in baltimore this summer!!!!

Full disclosure: I bought this set purely for the Exo-Force nostalgia because of the Stealth Hunter mech, but I wasn't expecting there to be Bionicle references included in this set as well. I'll consider that a bonus.