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:

Shorty Chassis

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.

Shorty exploded

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.

JumperArctic riflemanArtilleryShoulder cannonDesert brawlerArboreal hopper

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

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

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