Luke_BMM
What would be the best weapon for a frame swooping by on a steep downhill course? Plasma swords, obviously. Capable of decapitating an enemy frame and melting your way out of an avalanche. Presented here in Mountain Dew sponsorship colors.
Blorf
Blorf's "Farmhand" design always lent itself to warfare customization. With it's Tomahawk inspired shape (IMHO) it had obvious mounts for missile pods, while it's harvesting claw and weed sprayer attachments could be renamed without editing. I tried to take it in a different direction with some armsuit-style mini arms and a little sleeker, less industrial look.
Artasid
I really liked Artasid's turtle. The big articulated cargo cage looked like a set of giant robot hands closing up whatever was on top. The big broad cargo area on top could have lent itself to a lot of applications (mobile frame drone airport?), and I really couldn't get rid of it without undoing the entire build. So, I decided this is the sort of thing that could get commandeered for wartime purposes, ditching the cargo cage for some tiedowns and a safety rail.
Vitor Faria
Vitor's VTOL is a great idea I could really see in action, and had just enough Twank architecture that modifying it was already old-hat to me. The rotors attached to a x4 body already pushed the box, so I ditched the articulation for a boxier, less agile look and attached the legs to an upside-down MKIII Tank turret.
Shades_Corvid
Great frames like this almost led me to exlude construction frames from the contest as well, since they so easily lent themselves to wartime use, but I couldn't be such a killjoy. I'm glad I didn't. I really love the Rhino, and could see why Shades felt the need to include a bunch of disclaimers about wartime use. It just looked solid and a battering ram melee system is always appreciated. A little more front armor and some more agile legs was all this baby really needed.
Starflower
This design did such a good job conveying its purpose. It was instantly recognizable as both a tardigrade and a camper. Little details like the awning over the window and the sub legs really added a lot of mileage to an otherwise blocky core. What to do with a frame meant to survive a variety of environments? Just keep armoring it, of course.
EvilGod
WHO WANTS TO DRINK FROM THE FIRE HOSE! Why not go with opposite day? A hose, a nozzle, and a tank in the back could just as easily hold exotic plasma fuel as it could H20. EvilGod's simple frame offered surprisingly little room for compromise due to the lack of attachment points on the "mailbox" piece. I wouldn't have thought of using the handle-plate pieces to make space like this, and I'll have to remember the trick in the future.
Soriansj
"The Question is not if I Can, but Only who will rise to Oppose ME!" Wreck-it-Rob had a lot of good details going for it. The crushing, steam-shovel inspired claw one one side, the wrecking ball on the other. I really loved the canister head (a style that doesn't get enough use), even though I ended up ditching it for a stag-beetle look when I needed more room for the comically oversized shoulder armor. I tried to preserve the basic ideas in the armaments, going with a Skrob "Armiger" fist and a slightly more technical wrecking ball.
Mantisking
Ok so this was fun, though I liked it better when I thought it had a plunger (
). The use of the cleaning brush was a surprise, and I tried to replace its tools with similarish armaments, going with a kusari-gama arm (pull it in, like a vacuum, get it?) and a big huge grinder. Starflower
The R-Katy was a nifty build that had a ton of room to expand, and it really needed to have stuff put in that bay. So I did! A certain lack of technic parts forced me to use weaker connections for the legs, and of course the all glass-front wouldn't do, and I added some vents for the missile system in the back... Ok a lot changed for a lot of reasons, but I'm glad I got to build one.
The Hydromancer
Arms for days indeed. Hydromancer's Scrap Dragon has an almost mixel like feel to its strange combination of industrial machinery and animal architecture. The steam shovel tail, wrecker arms, and billowing stack all combine for an wonderful, "Alice In Wonderland" construction site. I wanted to keep the squared off look of the original arms and add in some needed articulation, so I went with an old fusion-edge design, and with the LEGO Splitter Beast on my desk next to me...
Valtarshol
Valtarshol presented us with a case study in skeletonizing frames with an industrial variant of one of his previous frames. Unfortunately, that also meant it had a bunch of unusual parts I don't have. I tried to keep some of the more recognizable elements without just returning it to a jitterbox design.
Vitor Faria
This is just a seriously cool frame. The simple, understated chicken-walker legs will certainly solve problems for me into the future, and Vitor combines unexpected parts use (the propeller housing) with a strong command of structure and shape despite a very low part count. I tried to mess it up as little as possible to make it into a fighter-bomber styled frame, and I can't help but feel the slightly lower arms detract from the original look. Oh well.
Mercutio
This was an interesting design that prominently used a very strangely shaped piece. I really wanted to preserve the head protrusions, and it made me consider what they could even be for if this were a real-life mech. They'd have to be a sensor system of some sort, to project so far out, right? (...right...?) With that in mind I tried to keep them as a
system by replicating the shape as best as I could with crystals (also Mantisking had just put up a picture of something that used them on the Discord channel, maybe I was primed). Since I had already committed to building around spot, I just went the rest of the way with a light scout design rather than original semi-industrial armed look.Personzz~
Finally, Personzz~ presented us with a theme park mascot. To me the frame read not as an articulated, shark-headed mascot frame, but rather as a smaller frame wearing a shark costume. (The red dot would have been the cockpit "eye"). The shark element and arms were the mecha equivalent of a wacky-inflatable-waving-arm guy... shark. In that vein, I went for a smaller, complete frame with shark styling wearing a big articulated shark attack system that would work something like a scorpion's tail.
