Chunky, slow and highly fuel consumptive, Trailbreaker is not the best Autobot to drive around London in.
About this creation
I actually built this a few months ago - Trailbreaker already appeared in my slightly silly Ramjet MOC but I thought he deserved a page to himself. I decided to build Trailbreaker because he was the only one of the original 10 full-size Autobot cars released in 1984 that I'd never seen a MOC of. Probably something to do with him being a minor character with a not-particularly-cool alt mode. He's sort of a counterpoint to my rendition of Skids in that he's got a really solid, detailed vehicle mode but the robot mode is rather awkward and top heavy. He's fully transformable into a Toyota Hi-Lux Camper; transformation scheme is very similar fashion to the original, except that all the accessories that had to be detached on the original toy, here fold into the back of the van. It was quite complicated so the fact that it works is probably my favourite thing about this MOC!
Robot mode shots first. As you can see, he's a bit of a brick on legs. But then, what do you expect when he turns into a camper van?
Now for the transformation!
Hands fold up and forearms rotate.
The top of the camper opens for his shoulder cannons to fold in.
This is hard to see, but the camper is attached by a double set of short technic liftarms, which means it can be positioned high up on his back (for robot mode) but pulled out and then down for vehicle mode. It took quite a bit of playing around to find that solution!
Open the roof of the camper again, and fold the head back...
...then the camper rotates up on those same liftarms to form the back of the truck.
The chest rotates into position to form the bonnet.
The arms straighten and fold into the sides, with the forearms tucking up into the camper. I could do with just a few more black tiles for the sides there!
Looking at the underside, you can see that the hips are attached to each end of the black axle.
After straightening the feet, the legs slide together...
...which also releases the axle to flip the whole assembly under the van.
Final step: the two modified plates on the base of the feet attach to those clips sticking out from the back of the camper.
Like so! Transformation finished.
A couple of final shots of the van - hope you liked the walkthrough. Please rate and comment!
Comments
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I like it |
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June 9, 2011 |
Amazing job! |
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I like it |
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June 7, 2011 |
It's nice that not only have you done as well as Chris Roach in making a LEGO Transformer but that you've also made a seamless minor character BETTER than Takara/Hasbro did with the original toy, too! Good job, Stuart and keep making MOCs like this, too! |
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I made it |
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June 7, 2011 |
Quoting caelen palmer
really good you shoul make hoist
If only I had a few more green bricks! |
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I like it |
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June 7, 2011 |
Really cool!!! both modes are awesome ;) |
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I like it |
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June 6, 2011 |
really good you shoul make hoist |
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I like it |
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June 6, 2011 |
Sweet! I have been meaning to do this guy too, but never got around to it! You've done a fine job with him! Seamless alt mode! Nice! |
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I like it |
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June 6, 2011 |
Awesome! Didn't even cross my mind that this was a Transformer from the thumbnail. Great job, Dude! |
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More from Stuart More across MOCpages
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