[MOC] Whitetron!

[davee123]

http://www.baseplate.com/davee123/whitetron/

A while back, I stumbled upon someone selling solid-white visors on BrickLink, and it immediately sparked my curiosity. "What would Blacktron figs look like if they were dressed in white? Well, I guess they'd be ... Whitetron!"

DaveE

[Ralphel]

reminds me of team rocket :p

[Windex123]

Whitetron sounds like a brand of toothpaste to me hahaha

[axaday]

I approve

[Immo]

Nice idea, however I'm quite convinced it's a Social Justice Warriors fodder

[___]

Cute - now I'm only waiting he starts to sing something like: "Y.M.C.A.!"...you know

[Junior Shark]

Now let's see some MOCs! Could this be made into a fad?

[davee123]

Now let's see some MOCs! Could this be made into a fad?

After I made all the little "do-gooder" scenes, I kinda wondered if anyone would follow suit with some additional scenes :)

I'd love to see some other people's takes on Whitetron guys helping out!

DaveE

[___]

After I made all the little "do-gooder" scenes, I kinda wondered if anyone would follow suit with some additional scenes :)

I'd love to see some other people's takes on Whitetron guys helping out!

DaveE

Do you mean just switching all the black from original Blacktron sets into white?

[davee123]

Do you mean just switching all the black from original Blacktron sets into white?

Well, that part at least I've covered :)

]

But the scenes I was putting them in are pretty wide open:

So, I was curious what other types of crazy scenarios people might put them in.

DaveE

[Umbra-Manis]

This is a great idea! I'll probably render a funny scene with some of these guys!

[___]

Well, that part at least I've covered :)

But the scenes I was putting them in are pretty wide open:

So, I was curious what other types of crazy scenarios people might put them in.

DaveE

Aha! Got it now (probably) + very interesting usage of Whitetron

[___]

But now it looks more like Futuron...it basically is Futuron now, so I don't know but very nice indeed.

Oh, and how did you do that in that original LEGO catalog page - did you just use original paper and applied some filter(s) in some image editor or did you actually built it (rendered)?

[davee123]

But now it looks more like Futuron...it basically is Futuron now, so I don't know but very nice indeed.

I lamented that as well-- at first I wanted to make them white and purple, but after desperately trying to find various things in purple to substitute in place, it just didn't look good. So I settled for blue.

But funnily enough, after I built them, I realized that I could do an inverted color photo of the original Blacktron sets, and see how they looked. And ... amazingly enough, it was a lot closer to blue than purple! Of course, the cockpit colors should still be some sort of "faint light bluish-purple", but by that time, I was already resigned to keeping the color scheme. I really DID want them to be build-able in real-life, after all.

Oh, and how did you do that in that original LEGO catalog page - did you just use original paper and applied some filter(s) in some image editor or did you actually built it (rendered)?

Oh, I built everything (nothing's rendered)-- and for that spread, I based it on an actual LEGO catalog spread, which I have a hard copy of. I took pictures of each set, attempting to mimic the exact shots that were used in the catalog (mirrored, of course). Then, I scanned in the catalog (actually, it was 2 catalogs-- the Space Police spread is from a 1990 catalog, the Blacktron layout I was copying was from 1989). And the rest was all Photoshop magic (Gimp, actually). I added in the gradient backgrounds, adjusted the sizing, tried to mimic the font and colors, and attempted to make the contrast and such match the rest of the page so that it didn't QUITE look as "dropped in". If I were a true Photoshop genius with a better photo setup, I'll bet it could've been done to make it impossible to tell that it wasn't a real catalog!

DaveE

[___]

I lamented that as well-- at first I wanted to make them white and purple, but after desperately trying to find various things in purple to substitute in place, it just didn't look good. So I settled for blue.

But funnily enough, after I built them, I realized that I could do an inverted color photo of the original Blacktron sets, and see how they looked. And ... amazingly enough, it was a lot closer to blue than purple! Of course, the cockpit colors should still be some sort of "faint light bluish-purple", but by that time, I was already resigned to keeping the color scheme. I really DID want them to be build-able in real-life, after all.

Oh, I built everything (nothing's rendered)-- and for that spread, I based it on an actual LEGO catalog spread, which I have a hard copy of. I took pictures of each set, attempting to mimic the exact shots that were used in the catalog (mirrored, of course). Then, I scanned in the catalog (actually, it was 2 catalogs-- the Space Police spread is from a 1990 catalog, the Blacktron layout I was copying was from 1989). And the rest was all Photoshop magic (Gimp, actually). I added in the gradient backgrounds, adjusted the sizing, tried to mimic the font and colors, and attempted to make the contrast and such match the rest of the page so that it didn't QUITE look as "dropped in". If I were a true Photoshop genius with a better photo setup, I'll bet it could've been done to make it impossible to tell that it wasn't a real catalog!

DaveE

[Forresto]

Whitetron lol what bizzaro universe is this?

[___]

Whitetron lol what bizzaro universe is this?

Hmm, "VillagePeople-like" one...maybe? ANyway I quite like it...I mean that reversed colorisation, not that it is VP-like universe, of course.

[petamas]

I have one of the WhiteTron figures - the torso was in a Chinese bootleg set I haven't encountered ever since. I've been trying to track down more of this torso - do you now any place that sells them currently?

[davee123]

I have one of the WhiteTron figures - the torso was in a Chinese bootleg set I haven't encountered ever since. I've been trying to track down more of this torso - do you now any place that sells them currently?

Wow, no, I didn't even know they made them! Mine were just stickers applied to plain white torsos. I basically took one of these images:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/thelegofreak/Torsos/VariousOfficial/blactrontorso.jpg

And then inverted the colors, and printed them out on transparent sticky paper. I had no idea anyone had ever made printed ones in white!

DaveE

[petamas]

Wow, no, I didn't even know they made them! Mine were just stickers applied to plain white torsos. I basically took one of these images:

http://www.brickshel...actrontorso.jpg

And then inverted the colors, and printed them out on transparent sticky paper. I had no idea anyone had ever made printed ones in white!

DaveE

I misread your original post - I thought you found someone selling the torsos, but now I see you mentioned visors. :D

The torsos were in these bootleg sets:

http://reasonablyblogged.blogspot.hu/2009/03/friday-fail-photo-graph-car.html

http://reasonablyblogged.blogspot.hu/2009/05/daily-fail-happy-aeroboat.html

http://reasonablyblogged.blogspot.hu/2009/04/daily-fail-glider.html

Quality was terrible, but it was White Blacktron. :D

[Space Police XVIII]

These are amazing. I had the same idea when I found the white visors, great job on this! Nice builds and catalog too. The Acquiescent and Befriender made me laugh.

[davee123]

The torsos were in these bootleg sets:

http://reasonablyblo...-graph-car.html

http://reasonablyblo...y-aeroboat.html

http://reasonablyblo...ail-glider.html

Wow! I had no idea. Now I have to wonder why in the world they chose to make white Blacktron figs in all those sets?

DaveE

[danth]

I missed the names the first time. Hilarious!

So you really built all of these and made blue stickers for the Whitetron logo? What fun!

[davee123]

I missed the names the first time. Hilarious!

That was one of my favorite parts, actually-- coming up with "the exact opposite name" for each set. Once I got "Invader" -> "Acquiescent", I had to post it. ... And of course, that's what made me do a full catalog spread, which took a bunch of extra work!

So you really built all of these and made blue stickers for the Whitetron logo? What fun!

Yep!

I've been playing around with displaying them at BrickFair, but I haven't figured out how to display them and convey "the in-joke" well. LEGO space fans would get it, but most people probably wouldn't-- certainly not the public.

I was playing with the idea of having a big "wall" separating one universe from another, and having Blacktron on one side of the wall and Whitetron on the other. Having (say) Whitetron rescuing Unikitty in a tree on one side, and having Blacktron ... uh... do ... something ... to Unikitty on the other side. But I haven't thought of something "evil" that's easy to visually communicate for Blacktron to do. Preferably something mischievous but not downright evil.

If anyone's got any ideas, lemme know!

DaveE

[petamas]

Wow! I had no idea. Now I have to wonder why in the world they chose to make white Blacktron figs in all those sets?

DaveE

I don't know, they do not make any sense whatsoever. But I was really happy when I saw it. :) Also, white visors have cost ~$1 around that time on BrickLink...