Mechaton: Shorty chassis

My two previous mechs for Mechaton stood a little too tall. The Shorty chassis aimed for a smaller and more solid design. The result works fairly well. The basic body works like so:

One key connection in the torso (where the 4733 stud fits into the center hole of the 4032 plate above it) holds much more strongly than you might guess. Stressing the model (dropping it five feet onto a hard surface, for example) usually knocks an arm off, but very rarely comes apart at that torso join.

Fitting attachments requires a little variation in some key places, replacing a piece with one more conducive to holding the attachment. There are only a few places where this can be done, but you can get a lot of flexibility out of those areas. In this exploded drawing of the Shorty, any of the pink pieces can replace the red one. Likewise, the yellow piece can be replaced by the light yellow and blue bits.

Here are some samples showing some of these replacements (as well as some other part swapping). Each is pictured with a plate containing an indication of how many of each type of dice the mech would use in a Mechaton game. If you’ve seen the game, this should be relatively straightforward. For the red dice, shorter ranges are closer to you, and the optional rules are used in some cases. Transparent pips are d6′s, solid pips are d8′s.

The LDraw file is here. To build the basic shorty, you’ll need these parts:

Part		Color	Quantity	Description
	2429	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Base
	2430	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Top
	2540	71: Light Bluish Gray	2	Plate 1 x 2 with Handle
	2555	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Tile 1 x 1 with Clip
	3022	72: Dark Bluish Gray	1	Plate 2 x 2
	3023	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Plate 1 x 2
	3024	72: Dark Bluish Gray	1	Plate 1 x 1
	4032	72: Dark Bluish Gray	1	Plate 2 x 2 Round
	4070	71: Light Bluish Gray	1	Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight
	4081b	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Light Type 2
	4590	72: Dark Bluish Gray	2	Plate 1 x 4 Offset
	4697b	71: Light Bluish Gray	1	Technic Pneumatic T-Piece - Type 2
	4733	71: Light Bluish Gray	1	Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Four Sides
	6019	71: Light Bluish Gray	2	Plate 1 x 1 with Clip Horizontal
	6141	43: Trans Very Light Blue	1	Plate 1 x 1 Round
	6141	71: Light Bluish Gray	1	Plate 1 x 1 Round
This parts list generated by LDView. Part images provided by Peeron.