[Alt-Build Contest] 76962 Baby Bumpy: Ankylosaurus

[6180HydroSearchSub]

An alt-build of 76962 Baby Bumpy: Ankylosaurus for the Eurobricks Alt-Build Contest, small category.

The contest rules say "Make like it's 1999, and design an alt-build for the back of the hypothetical box!" and when I hear LEGO + 1999, my first thought goes to ROCK RAIDERS. A quick Brickset browse of smallish sets with a good ppp ratio turned up 76962 Baby Bumpy: Ankylosaurus. Although the set doesn't contain nearly enough gray and brown for a proper Rock Raiders homage, all the dark turquoise would be a perfect call-back for a Rock Raiders-inspired alt-build.

Since the set did not contain wheels, the alt-build would of course have to be a mech. A digital build for now since I do not yet have the set, although I am ~90% certain this would work in real life (that last 10% due to some tricky geometry around the cockpit). For some reason, Studio is not rendering the dark tan Slope 45° 2 x 1 pieces on the "shoulders" correctly so I've also added some screenshots of Studio at the end to show what it's actually supposed to look like and how supposedly floating pieces connect.

There were a few design elements that initially came to mind going into this build: (1) digitigrade-style legs; (2) using some of the vegetable pieces; (3) something "cool" with the cockpit design. The digitigrade-style legs because I think they give mechs a more industrial-looking design, like the ED-209 from Robocop (1989) or the mecha in the Metal Gear series, which was appropriate for something inspired by Rock Raiders. I was pleased with how sturdy and industrial the legs ended up looking, and was especially happy with how the shaping and color-blocking around the knees turned out.

Using the vegetable pieces was a criteria partly as a design challenge for myself, partly for the contest's creativity criteria, but mostly because the first thing I did after loading up Studio was to put the carrot, pumpkin, and green piece together and think, "laser cannon." Of course being Rock Raiders-inspired we'll say "plasma drill" (with the lime green and orange pieces a call-back to Raider Raiders' translucent green and translucent orange lasers). The lighting in the rendering is a little dark but I especially like that strip of green peeking out the bottom of the arm/barrel, as if they were the energy conduits that power the plasma drill glowing from behind panels.

As far as "something cool" with the cockpit, I knew I wanted to take advantage of the 1 x 5 plates to achieve a cockpit that was wider at the rear and narrower at the front. The use of round pieces and tile plates would provide the proper tolerances to make the geometry work. The curved inverted 4 x 1 slope pieces also helped to create a mandible looking front to the cockpit with dual laser cannons--I mean, sensors--in between. The use of the medium nougat-colored pieces were also intended to be a callback to the brown canopies in Rock Raiders sets.

The remaining pieces ended up contributing to some design elements I became quite pleased with. The pieces with the triangular anti-studs ended up looking like propulsion thrust/exhaust vents, especially with some additional shaping with cheese slopes. Red round 1 x 1 plates tucked inside the cockpit peek out from openings at the rear look like recessed lights. And with the remaining parts selection was able to make that dark turquoise module on the left side that could be some sort of shield generator or sensor suite (or to be completely honest with my intentions, surface-to-air missiles)--especially since the front side, because of the 4 x 4 plate and 2 x 2 turntable piece, required me to figure out how to have both studs on top and SNOT construction on that face.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading through to the end! Hope you found the behind-the-scenes thinking about this MOC interesting. Final piece count ended up being 312 pieces out of 358 (the screencap says 265 because of groups), so approximately 87% parts usage of the original set. Happy to share the .io file for anybody interested. Thanks again and happy building!

[Mandalorianknight]

Looks awesome! A completely different type of thing that looks almost like it could be an actual set on it's own!

I also think it's very cool you were able to do this digitally. I feel like digital alt builds are always really tricky for me- I like to use it for mocs where I have a full inventory access, but when parts are limited I find it very tricky.

[6180HydroSearchSub]

Thanks, @Mandalorianknight!

I hear you about digital builds being tricky. The trickiest thing about this being a digital build was the cockpit geometry--that would have been much easier to do in real life!

[Max_Lego]

Looks very nice! Building a Rock Raiders mech out af a baby Ankylosaurus was a great idea, and you nailed it 

48 minutes ago, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

The trickiest thing about this being a digital build was the cockpit geometry--that would have been much easier to do in real life!

Totally agreed. That's one of the many reasons why I only build IRL

[6180HydroSearchSub]

Thank you, @Max_Lego! I can only hope one day I will have the space for only IRL builds ... one day!

I also have to say, very impressive Bermuda sloop--I especially like the shaping you achieved on the port and starboard quarters!

[Max_Lego]

3 minutes ago, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

I also have to say, very impressive Bermuda sloop--I especially like the shaping you achieved on the port and starboard quarters!

Thank you for the appreciation!