Took a break from building reFrames and did this guy.
Fell in love with the design of this toy a long time ago and always wanted one (the 1/12 scale) but it was just so expensive haha 😛
Build notes:
Started out as a chunky clunky version then got streamlined into what the body is now but was a solid build (no cockpit and gimmicks). Fellow LEGO mech builder Bert Seguinal gave me some tips when he visited and decided to rebuild the whole thing ground up while adding a minifig compartment inside (what it currently is).
While the build isn’t a 100% accurate build, my priority was getting the curves right and using that 4×4 dome for the top. The eye idea actually came from Jan LEGO but he used a different orientation for the eyes (mine look angled although his version was more accurate to the toy – looking straight).
WIP Progress
When I first saw this toy, I immediately loved how silly it looked. When I started my LEGO version of it a few weeks back, the key pieces I wanted to use was a 4×4 dome for the top of the head, and a vehicle car hood for the lower torso assembly.
I’ve seen a few awesome LEGO mech builders who’ve also done their own version of the WeGo, notably JAN LEGO‘s red WeGo and Moko‘s Orange version, but wasn’t happy just rebricking either of those and wanted to build one.
I should note here that JAN’s eye design using the small technic pin with stud was borrowed for my own version although I’m sure he used a 1×2 plate modified with handles to mount the pins and mine uses the 1×2 plate modified with angled handles (more on this later).
My initial build approach was to have a more mechanical look to the build, using these old vehicle mudguard pieces to embed the shoulder joint. Originally decided to not have a minifig pilot inside as I felt that making the compact build was hard enough to pull off.
From the start, I knew I wanted these 2×2 round brick with hole for the hip-leg connection as it had the perfect shape to start the leg design from. The earlier leg design was also longer due to not having the new 1×1 plate with bar piece (I was fortunate to have my good friend Bert lend me 4 pieces to experiment on them).
While I was happy with the lower body assembly, the way I built the upper body, especially where the shoulders would connect from, became problematic. I realized that by placing the shoulder joint underneath the head dome, my shoulder’s vertical placement would be too low compared to the original toy so this was an early attempt at having higher shoulders. The next issue was that these shoulders were not exactly round like the original design >.> but I was pretty happy with the how I did the hands.
As mentioned earlier, I did a little research and found JAN’s WeGO build and saw how he did the eyes (and had a “why didn’t I think of this?” moment). Decided to scrap the oogly huge 1×1 round plate with hole look and go with pins and initially just copied how JAN did his setup. I did like how the eyes were oriented looking straight but didn’t like how I lose the “socketed” look on the eyes so explored other options. I ended up using the 1×2 plate with angled bars connected to clips with bar and socketed the pins on those. This allowed me to have the technic pins angled right at the stud slots of the 4×4 dome which gave it an embedded look.
And that finished version 1. I did like how the shoulder joint looked more mechanical here, having an embedded assembly look to it but this had no other play options except for moving the arms and legs and the shoulder design really bugged me a lot. At this point was roughly 10+ hours of building.
WIP VERSION 2.0
My friend Bert Seguinal decided to drop by for some parts exchange and had to also pick up his mech (that he really needs to post on Flickr!). He lent me a few parts I haven’t been able to get yet, notably the new Plate, Modified 1 x 1 Rounded with Handle. I needed this piece to swap out the 1×2 plate with bar and shorten the legs by a stud to match the original proportions much better. He also gave me the idea of using minifig helmets for the shoulders to get that round look (this was such an awesome suggestion) and nudged me to fit a minifig inside as there was enough room if I hollowed it out and made smarter connections to the appendages (harder than it sounds! but challenge accepted).
After a few hours of rebuilding the 1.0 from scratch in white, I had successfully built the new shoulders, hollowed out the body, and put a minifig pilot inside the WeGo. I couldn’t build the interior exactly as how the toy looks (I’d have to scale up in order to do so, using a 6×6 white dome instead and a technic fig) but I didn’t mind that so much as long as I had a pilot in here.
The new problem was that I felt the shoulders were positioned too far from the head dome and reducing the connection by a plate would have been perfect but this again was problematic due to how I built the hinge of the cockpit / chest area. An earlier solution was to move the body hinge so that it opens from the top instead of the bottom but this was too far from the original design. The picture however does give a really good minifig cavity (A orientation slot lets you fit in a minifig perfectly in there) so maybe I’d reuse this assembly in another project sometime in the future.
I ended up connecting the shoulders from behind where the minifig sat, using lampholders, a 1×1 plate with hole attached to a 1×1 tile clip (where the cockpit door hinges from), the shoulders would connect to the remaining bar of the tbar. That gave me enough to offset the shoulder closer to the dome and have my ideal proportions for my LEGO WeGO version 😀
More WIP pics in the gallery below!
