custom Zoid: BrachioTortoise

 This is the story of my seventh Zoids custom.  (completed september 2004)

After finishing my sixth custom Zoid (the BattleBlaster ) in September of 2004 I turned my attention towards a Blox project. I remember seeing Lexthatch's Brachtor on ZoidsFans some months before, and was intrigued by the idea. During the recent KB Toys Zoids clearance sales I had grabbed a Missile Tortoise and a spare BrachioZilla. I used the Missile Tortoise cockpit in my Postosuchus right away, with the idea of doing my own Brachtor someday. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Parts Modifications

Since the overall concept was already set, it was just a matter of execution via the modification of parts. First, I decided to shorten the powerpack by removing the center elbow joint. This shortens the resulting body by two Blox and makes the final result look better. (Tomy could have accomplished the same thing by using multiple contact plugs, but I guess their elbow joint was easier to manufacture). I used a Buster Eagle body Blox to keep the modified motor and battery case lined up while I applied the glue. Next I inverted the neck and tail such that the spine fins are pointing up, and also relocated the spine fin on the tail base. The neck base was shortened, and both the neck and neck base were modified to allow the neck to rotate lower. The main gun is from a Cannon Spider. I removed the two forward Blox pegs on the main gun to allow greater freedom of elevation, and also shaved it here and there for swing clearance. The main Blox plugin that mounts the legs was cut down to allow for the main gun's increased elevation.

Test Assembly

Here is a picture showing most of the above pieces assembled together, along with the fixed blue pegs attached to the neck base that define the leg movement.

Test Walk

Same as above but with the legs and tail added. The fixed blue pegs had to be filed down a bit to obtain a smooth walk. Blox motors will burn out if overloaded. Note how proportionate the shortened powerpack looks, and how low the neck can move now. The shortened powerpack will improve the appearance of a regular BrachioZilla too. If you decide to shorten your powerpack, you should first remove your motor before you make your cuts, or else you may accidentally cut the wires.

Shell

The shell was next. First a cutout was made in the right Missile Tortoise shell to make main gun battery replacement easier. This cutout is concealed by the right "vent" plug-in. The mount for the BrachioZilla twin guns was trimmed to clear the main gun, then glued to the back of the shell. The mount also provides a means for locating and securing the shell to the chassis. Next the front part of the shell was trimmed to clear the front legs, and the front inner web of the shell was notched to fit closely to the powerpack. Two pieces of sprue were glued to the powerpack to provide fore/aft location for this web. In this way the shell fits securely onto the chassis yet can be removed to service the main gun batteries.