Thrugont Thunderthroat's Mechanical Dragon

 This is a surprise build, and it was one for me, too. A friend asked if I was interested in taking part in a Brikwars game, and I was naturally in. So I needed an army. I first tried to make a very odd one mixing some Atlastis monsters with Pirates gear, but as my pirate figure things seemed to be unavailable by being located in another part of the country, I went with dwarves, the little hairy people, very easy to identify with.

I have plenty of dwarf minifigs. I have several of those Fantasy era sets, couple of Battle Packs and some Bricklinked stuff. I have 50 Dain II Ironfoot torsos from LUGBLK. But I wanted some heavy gear, some hardware, to mess up with. The first idea was an assault wagon with maybe some artillery and a dragon's head on the helm, maybe some TECHIC threads to roll on, but hell, I though, why not a whole mechanical dragon. So I made one.

I wanted to make it something between European and Asian folklore dragons. Some legs, but not very long ones, and no wings; Ninjago Movie's Green Ninja Mech Dragon was one source of inspiration, as well as Glaurung the Golden, the first dragon on Middle-Earth. Finnish folk epic Kalevala also offered some ideas with Smith Ilmarinen's Brass Eagle built to catch the great Scale-Pike.

Otherwise there was lot of improvisation. I began with the head and the horn crown. CCBS armor add-ons were on the cheeks from the beginning, as well as the macaroni pipe exhaust moustache. Those pearl dark grey pipes were one of the main elements here - they are delightful pieces and look great alongside brighter pearl gold. The eyes were different in the version used in the game, but I redesigned them to be round to look, hmm, somehow friendlier. There is a light brick on the mouth, to illustrate the flamethrower that burned down lot of cavalry. On the version used in the game there were another one for they eyes, but I removed it to fit in the more essential stuff.

The neck is pretty basic CCBS, and strong enough the keep the head up. It's connected to a torso with brick-built swivel joint to enhance poseability. The torso and the cockpit grew around two dark brown train side parts, whatever they are called, and two car hood pieces in same colour. Pilot Thrugont Thunderthroat can see all around under the trans-clear bubble windshield, or would if he could turn his head without the hair and beard blocking the vision. Some Bionicle generation II pieces add some mechanical matter to the sides. There is also a waist joint, an important technical bit - as the back part is modulary connected, I was able to abandon it to make quick escape from pirate ship/sea serpent combination about to explode very soon and also killed my nemesis Majisto the Wizard on the go.

The tail is also rather basic CCBS but at least it has a giant machine gun in the tip. I have had that gun lying around for years - it was originally used in very strange Kongu Mahri Revamp back in 2013; four years ago. Seems longer. I never used the machine gun in the war; the flamethrower felt more effective.

The legs are boring, I know, but they are still sort of what I wanted, small limbs on rather serpentine body. I didn't have small armour shells to cover the lower parts, but I quite like them that way, reminding of a lizard or one of those ancient, crocodile-like land beasts from Triassic period.

Game shots below taken by Matoro TBS who also hosted the game. No winner was announced, The Blue Danger was released and spread terror around His World.

-Eero

The Blue Danger standing on a brick of Finnish tobacco.

Mass of your author and artist getting ready for the cavalry charge.