I was disassembling sets and organizing bricks recently when a couple of parts caught my eye. Subsequently, I began tinkering and a character began to take shape. Pretty soon, I found myself with a roughly Minifigure scale robot. This is the second little robot I’ve designed. I made another one about a year ago as the build prompt for a contest. This time around, I imagined my creation as a sort of exoplanetary scout for my Minifigure population. I equipped him appropriately with accessories. Afterwards, I thought it’d be fun to share my design with all of you. This is how to build a LEGO® robot!
Firstly, let’s chat a little about this MOC. It was actually the leg design that started it all. While I didn’t remember it at the time, I am sure seeing those elements triggered a memory in retrospect. The leg design is actually the same as that seen in the robot from the 2019 Rocket Assembly and Transport kit. I imagine I was thinking of that 2019 space series on some level, because I also remembered that I had the robot face seen in the image above. It was only after the design was done that I looked back at the robot images from that wave of City sets and noticed the similarities.
This build took inspiration from the 2019 LEGO® City space collection.
Since I imagine my robot as an exoplanetary explorer, it needs to be able to move. I built it with legs that move independently, as well as a hip joint that rotates. Since its shoulders only allow the arms to swing, rotation of the hip was important. It allows the robot to still bend over and pick things up. The wrists also rotate, allowing them to orient to whatever the robot needs to lift. Additionally, the robot can turn its head in any direction. It can also balance on its own, or interact normally with a stud-covered surface.
I built a battery/computer pack onto the robot’s back. One side features an energy level gauge allowing Minifigures to tell when the robot needs to recharge. The other side has an antenna so the robot can relay information back to minifigs at a base somewhere and receive mission instructions. The robot also has a light on its chest to illuminate the area while exploring. A cable connects the battery/computer to the robot’s head. In reality, this cable would not be very practical. In all likelihood, it would snag on things easily. However, for the purposes of my story, it relays information from the optic center in the head back through the computer for broadcasting back to the main base. That way, minifigures can observe the robot’s mission from a first person perspective. Like a USB, I thought it could also serve as a charging cable. And I like the way it looks 😉
I tried to imagine what features an exoplanetary exploring robot would need.
As an optional addon, since the robot’s feet are stud compatible, you can add rocket blasts. If your Minifigure exploration base is in orbit of the planet, the robot needs to be able to fly to and from space. I got these particular blast elements along with the Daily Bugle set. However, the element comes in three different colors in 13 different sets if you’re interested in adding the feature. Just remember, firing rockets uses your robot’s battery up faster 😉
INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO BUILD A LEGO® ROBOT
If you want to learn how to build a LEGO® robot, I’ve prepared instructions with a parts list for you for free! Truthfully, you can probably recreate this robot using the images in this article. However, the instructions make the process a little easier.
Click here to download these robot instructions!
If you build one, please share it and tag @truenorthbricks (Instagram or TikTok) so I can see! I’m especially interested to see how people customize their own versions of this robot. Let me know what you think of this design in the comments below or on social media.
Until next time,
-Tom
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