Steamboy Legoes
I think it just so happened Steamboy came in to my life right when Bionicles started to get bad, so around that time I made a lot of M.O.C.¹s based on the various machines from the film.
Since most of my legoes at that point were, in fact, Bionicles, I didn't have all that many parts to work with, so many of my builds were quite unorthodox. There's not going to be much S.N.O.T.², short for Studs Not On Top³, here. Also legoes aren't some holy relic that must be treasured above all else, so I cut, glued, and stuck paper on things as I saw fit⁴.
I also wasn't very good at taking photos that were in focus, so you've been warned.
Steam Automotive
This, being the first big crazy machine you see in the movie, it leaves a big impression. Its scene and music are also amazing so that helps.
I made this thing so many times. The gearing on the front wheels was always such a big thing for me, the fact that for it to move forward the larger gear had to rotate backwards was really eye opening for me at the time.
I was really quite inspired by seeing someone else's build of it, it was motorised and ran on tracks and had the monowheel on a rod in front of it. It was really cool, so much so that I'll forgive the fact that when the Steam Automotive was on the tracks it was in front of the mono wheel. I can't find it anymore, I swear there was more Steamboy stuff on Brickshelf at one point.
The way the machine has two drivers, a guy in the back in a more standard locomotive cab and then this guy in a tiny chair in front of the weird vertical second boiler/smoke box(?) with a head on it, its so interesting.
Honestly over this period the legoes I had was pretty consistent, but as I studied the reference materials I had closer and got a more complete idea of how everything went together my approaches changed a lot.
This was the last version I made, and probably the last M.O.C.¹ I made in general. It has a really different structure to the others, but some things have been retained. Sliding tires over 2x2 bricks and technic bushings to make tubes is a pretty good technique I think. Probably heretical in the church of lego purity though.
This model was kept together over my dark ages⁵, if you can call the period of time between when the legoes go in the attic to when they go on ebay that. I did think about keeping it, but there were too many parts from bigger sets in there, and I needed money to buy Rahi.
Note how by this point I'd just completely given up on miniature figures. They're just...so ugly lol, catering builds to fit those blocky awkward giants in was just not fun.
Most of the other builds are all one-offs after this point.
Steam Castle
Except this one. I tried a couple times to give it more texture, but it was hard at the scale. Not really notable at all. Basically only made it because I had enough black connectors to make a circle.
Return of the Steam Automotive
It happened again.
This was basically made right after I watched the movie from memory, so that's why all the colours are off. The gears still work!
And I took a second crack at it. its such a pleasing design.
Aero Corps.
Structure wise this one is really accurate lol, but trying to fit it with a miniature figure just doesn't' work. I was really happy with the custom wings.
Aqua Corps.
I was really happy with the arms. I bet its illegal, but who cares lol, it works. Never even tried to fit a man in this.
Blimp
This was the biggest thing I made, and thus suffered the most from my lack of parts. It should be noted that the bulk of this stuff was built at once, even though I never took a group shot.
I had one wright flyer set and that's where all the tan panels for the tiny fraction of the air sack came from, the curve was just some click hinges but the panels were so heavy they had to be held held up with strings.
The biggest problem was always things with multiple identical components. It was a stretch to make the 6 fingers of this crab thing even with such a simple construction.
Legged Tank and Steam Trooper
I love this tank that appears in like 3 shots and in 1 is getting blown up and in another is dead. Why didn't I use a minifig for the steam trooper? I hear you ask, well, the backpack was more important for me, and I couldn't have a breast plate and a backpack without a major headache.
The linkages don't really do anything productive, except make it hard to rebuild the boxor in 12 years. But they looked cool.
This one really benefitted from me getting the collector's edition of the movie that came with a booklet that featured some concept art and renders. You barely see this thing in the movie, and certainly not from the back.
Flying Machine
I call this one the "I saw someone make this on brickset using revolvers and it looked really good, but all I have are brown muskets because my lego collection is a couple pirate sets from before I was born, bionicles, and the wright flyer".
British Tank
This was the second version, the earlier one was too bad even for me.
I didn't have the stuff to make custom treads so instead I just used the giant chain from the wright flyer and faked the thickness lol. I think that's a pretty good Union Jack for being done freehand on a tiny flat tile with some not very fine tipped sharpies.
Yes the boiler was held together with rubber bands why wouldn't it be.
Say hello to Mr. "Everyone in this movie has a moustache because its 1866 but I only have one miniature figure head with a moustache".
I was quite taken with how the gun was a separate unit that could be detached.
Monocycle
Ray's a part of it, it can't stay together without him. Its all just wedged in there. I got some very used lego once that had some parts of an old police station from the 80s in it, and some of the pieces weren't even broken! So I managed to salvage the back half of a bike from there.
I also made Edward.
Since I didn't have any brown sharpies I just stuck on some paper coloured brown with a marker. At some point I found that the glue I was using to stick the papers on also could rub the prints off so that was cool, saved sanding. Very few miniature figures from my childhood remained.
And this concludes a short look at my dark past. If for some reason you want to see more, there's some more photos of the older ones can be found on this brickshelf.
I wrote a big post about Steamboy over here, if this didn't scare you away.
Notes ¹Short for "My Own Creation". ²Short for "Studs Not On Top"³. ³Often abbreviated as S.N.O.T.². ⁴If the sight of such things disturbs you please leave the post now. ⁵Fans of legoes liken the part of their life when they aren't buying legoes to a period of scientific and cultural stagnation.
