[MOC] M:Tron Ships, Vehicles and Troups

[Spirit]

This is my collection of custom M:Trons.

As some will notice, I extended the original colour theme:

- dark grey and touches of dark red, to increase the volumes,

- some bits of lime green to underline movable parts and windows,

- gold for motors (although those are usually hidden),

- transparent clear for some lights,

- transparent light blue to depict electronic and energy (usually not directly visible either),

- some transparent red and green for side lights, danger, closed/opened and such.

I also used the transparent bright green along with the transparent neon green, essentially because some shapes aren't available in neon green, and both colours are very close and fluorescent.

So you've been told, this isn't canonical M:Tron. To accommodate with that, let's just say it's a lost M:Tron colony terraforming the hostile planet they crashed on in the neighbourhood of a blue giant after a blacktron attack. ;)

Let's begin with the mandatory Mega Core Magnetizer:

I chose an asymmetric design with the crane on the right, which let me extend the vehicle, add big reactors and a second cockpit as well as other things on the left side.

The main functions were kept, and the three small vehicles are still there. Only the flying one can't be taken out of the truck with the crane any longer.

It can also receive all kinds of containers and compatible vehicles.

For the sake of realism, there's a door to enter the second cockpit inside the truck, but to be honest, it's impossible to put the minifig on its chair without removing the cockpit.

The second is the Exploration Spaceship:

It's really simple and essentially a collection of clichés. It has the Particle Ionizer's rotor, big reactors, a small vehicle attached behind...

And of course it can split and the front ship has deployable wings.

Here's the "Red Scorpion" Drill:

There's once again a slight asymmetry in the design.

The drill can be moved to the front of course (it would be really useless otherwise ), and obviously the cockpit can be opened.

The "Red Riding Hood" Robot:

Asymmetric again, a hand on one side, a magnet on the other.

With a collapsible arm to reach high and low areas.

Next is the Particle Ionizer II D.A. "Goldfish":

While it looks like a submarine and is actually amphibious, its main purpose is to navigate areas of dense atmosphere.

It retains the functionalities and arrangement of the original Particle Ionizer, excepted for the rotor which was already on the Exploration Spaceship. First of all, a small robot:

And of course it can carry containers and other objects of the same standardized format:

The Ore Truck:

It's essentially a modified version of the Space Police Spy-Trak I. It was originally meant as a replacement for the Celestial Forager with the drill of the Red Scorpion, but the drill was way too big. You may also notice it's the only one with a directly visible gold engine, but if you take a close look at the others, you can see them on a few pictures.

The Armadillo-Class Boulder Destroyer "Mighty" (added 2014-08-26):

Here's an armoured all terrain vehicle designed to destroy dangerous boulders in any situation. When he saw it, the boss said "This is... Mighty !" and laughed. He winked and added "Pun intended." Only one other M:Tron actually got the joke, but the nickname was kept. You can't tell the boss he's not funny.

The Mighty is a compact vehicle equipped with two cannons which can be controlled either from the cockpit or from a control panel for better accuracy.

It's designed for rough terrains and has a great stability.

I really wanted to use many wheels on a small vehicle, the cannons seemed to fit naturally. Note that not two cockpits are designed with the same method despite their apparent similarity.

The Vector Chaser:

Inspired by the vector detector, it's only meant to be the "fast unit" of the collection... Despite its apparently defective engine.

The Satellite Relay:

This is a mixed remake of the Lunar MPV Vehicle (1621) and Mobile Satellite Up-Link (1478).

The Autonomous Sealer:

Here with his M:Tron buddy also responsible for sealing off leaks.

And finally, the Elite Troop along with the most fantastic Mobile Toolbox of the universe (or so it's programmed to believe):

After the crash, a few of the surviving Blacktrons who had attacked the Colonial Ship decided to join the M:Trons to survive in this extremely hostile environment. They chose their name themselves, but are really doing their best to protect the base from all threats.

The other Blacktrons agreed to a truce (but only because they were outnumbered 1 to 20, lacking any kind of amunitions and starving) and often work as mercenaries.

More M:Trons will come in the future, along with a base, but that's it for now. :)

Edit: corrected links on 2nd and 3rd pics.

Edit2: added "Mighty"

Edited August 26, 2014 by Spirit

[CP5670]

I love these models. You have captured the style of the original theme perfectly despite the extra colors, and the models look very playable and have just the right amount of detail. My favorite one is the 8-wheeled upgraded MCM. The photos with the grid backgrounds are great as well.

It seems like MTron is seeing a surge in popularity lately. There was a big MTron display at the Brickfair VA show a few weeks ago.

[danth]

Everything here is excellent.

I also love the backgrounds with the grids. That just screams "Sci-Fi" to me. Maybe it's an 80's thing? But I love it. Lego needs to bring that back.

[Backgild]

Very well done! M:Tron was toward the end of my primary Lego playing years, but I have great memories of the Stellar Recon Voyager, and I would love to see your take on it.

[Elephant Knight]

Quite a fantastic collection of M-tron vehicles you have there! I am not sure about the inclusion of all the extra colours (It seemed like a lot when you made the list) but it is mostly subtle, so it still looks like classic M-tron. My favorite is your Mega Core Magnetizer.

EKnight

[Faefrost]

I love all of those. Most especially the Mega Core Magnetizer. Just some wonderful work.

[Spirit]

Thanks :)

Actually I wanted the Mega Core to be *much* bigger, (about 4 times bigger with similar proportions). Unfortunately the "very big one" I have in mind requires 4 MCMs, and I only have 1 and a few bits of a second, they're a bit hard to find here nowadays. So that probably won't happen any time soon.

@CP5670: I've only seen photos of that M:Tron factory shown at the brickfair on the web unfortunately, but the real thing must really look gorgeous.

@Danth: I really liked those backgrounds too. Back then the best 3D we had was wireframe at 3fps, so it's probably related. I felt like the original was a little too outdated though, so I just made my own version of that classic background and imagined an explanation for it: The "Grid" is supposed to be a network of small satellites protecting from the radiations and UVs from the blue giant seen behind. The UVs will make it shine, and the stronger they are, the most opaque each square looks.

@Backgild: It may be hard to believe because I have some parts of it on several models, but I never owned a Stellar Recon Voyager. I'm still looking for a full one actually. So the problem is I don't know what it's like to play with it. For the other ones, I just have to think about what I wanted to do with them, how I wished they were, but it's harder for the SRV.

To me, it was meant to be a huge reconnaissance ship with radars. The vehicle on the front should be inside the ship not just attached there, like the Galaxy Squad Vermin Vaporizer 70704 (but flying), or the Atlantis Neptune Carrier 8075. The back is a big cargo hold with a mobile crane, it should be much bigger. I probably just need to figure out a good way to organize that to make it look good enough.

Those vic-viperish forward prongs don't really help either.

@Eknight: I was extremely reluctant to add those colours actually, but I didn't have all the necessary parts in the right colours or quantity anyway.

Fortunately, excepted for the lime green, the ones I used the most are dark colours, so they're harder to notice than blue or yellow for example.

[LegoMathijs]

Awesome MTron MOCs! Great details. And great functions in the mocs! well done!

[mephistopheles]

This reminds me so much of my childhood. I loved the M-tron - Blacktron sets.

Thanks for sharing these!

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for sharing. Very enjoyable to look at.

I loved M:Tron and Blacktron II as a kid. I just recently started rebuilding my old sets and trying to find cheap deals online. I finally was able to acquire a MCM last month and I was blown away by the size of it. I can't believe I didn't have it as a kid. So I can only imagine the size of yours compared to that! The problem is the trans neon green canopy and the wheels go for as much as I bought my whole set for! I'd love to have more copies of it.

I don't like the color differences with the trans bright green vs neon green, but I understand why you made those changes.

I like seeing updated versions of these sets. I'm glad they include similar play features and everything, even though I don't play with my LEGO

[Spirit]

Yeah, I really blame Lego for the trans bright green. It's a redundant and superfluous colour in my opinion. Those parts would have been great in neon green. You can imagine my disappointment when I opened my Neptune carrier and realized it wasn't the same.

I was relieved however to see it's actually fluorescent as well, which looks very good in the dark with a black light.

As for the MCM's size, it isn't *much* bigger, but even with a few more studs here and there, it quickly became more than twice as heavy as the original. The dimensions are approximately 45x26x27.5 cm, and it weighs 1.95kg. I can't find the dimensions of the original unfortunately, but you have them if yours is built.

[TheOrcKing]

If M:Tron ever made an official return, it would probably look something like this. These are fantastic designs and have great use of all the colors. The secondary hues of dark red and such compliment the primary ones very well. Your Red Riding Hood Robot has the same canopy idea I remember using on a similar mech concept back in the day except that was Ice Planet themed and I haven't seen the technique for the left arm used in a long time. Anyway I really could not pick only one of these as a favorite. I feel the same way as Benny and his spaceship. Haha.

[Spirit]

Haha, who knows. I hope they'd get all the colours right though, especially the neon green, and actually I wish I could replace the transparent light blue with transparent fluorescent blue. You know, fluorescent is just so much better, the Exploration Spaceship's reactors would look gorgeous with those.

I had a "robot" back in the days with a similar canopy as well, though its legs and arms were made of bricks and old school hinges (and it was space police 1). It was so ugly it was almost frustrating after a while.

Anyway, I added this little guy to the list:

The name's Mighty the Armadillo (aaaw seriously!? ), and it's in the first post.

Next one will have magnets, I promise.

[___]

Although not original at all (now I do not mean it as attack, just saying that anyone who really know original LEGO space sets will recognize those originals immediately in most of your work - I always prefer ones own creation before copying something and only changing bits here and there, sorry) I actually like some of them, OK.

[Spirit]

Haha! Well, that's kind of what I want actually.

I'm essentially doing remakes, taking bits and parts of my favourite designs, loosely copying them, mixing functions, etc. With a few exceptions, they're all allegedly direct remakes of specific sets, and when they aren't I still try to make them look like they are so they could almost blend in a classic collection.

But I'm not "only changing bits here and there" at all. Excepted for the steering system of the ore truck, I never used any of the original designs and only have a few things at most that look similar or have the same use on each model. They most likely (I didn't check) all have entirely different structures from the models they're evoking. It's really just the designs that scream "old school" and "space classic", on purpose.

[SerenityInFire]

I am... most impressed.

[Falz-fein]

The super. It is possible to ask the instruction to red scorpion drill?

[Spirit]

Which part of the drill exactly?

It's an extremely simple design so a few detailed photos and/or a list of the most necessary parts should probably be enough depending on which part you'd like to see.

[pombe]

These are all very, very beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[TR3K]

Awesome! M:Tron was the first space theme I remember seeing as a child. I especially like "Red Riding Hood"

[murtaughf3]

Very nicely done. I love this series and I think your choice in MOCs complement the original series very well. Really wish this line up would have lasted longer.