Cole Blaq

 Occasionally things take time…

…so now we can finally kick off the results of our collaboration work.

Some time ago Shobrick and I collaborated for this project. Shobrick is a great photographer and director. After an introduction by Nicolas Forsans, Shobrick got in touch with me. He sent me a few images and asked if I can make a mech for a scene he had in mind. Somewhere between Shirow and Kojima. He told me about the setting and stuff, so I could get the vibe and the direction he was heading to.

After a few versions this 6-legged walker tank | Hexapod was finally designed. You can find the stand-alone images of the tank and building notes further down >>>. After attaching some decals to it, the Hexapod was sent to Shobrick.

Shobrick then did his magic. He gathered his crew of set designers (Paul de Laroche, Frédéric Mercier and his son Anton) and other great people help designing, creating and staging the setting. This was great to follow along while the ruins started developing with other details such as the neon signs and billboards. Once the setting was developed Shobrick took the photos at at an impressible high end performance.

And the result is breath-taking!

For more information on the production process make sure to check out Shobrick – Flickr | Insta | Homepage

For Shobrick this was his last project with the bricks for now as he wants to further follow his path of being a film director. I am proud to have been able to work with him.

Enough foreword, without further ado here comes the show:

NEO TOKYO: The Story

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

– image credits and copyright by Shobrick –

And the making-of videos: 1|2|3|4

– Gallery (stand alone mech) –

-Building Notes-

The model needed dynamic posing alongside articulation combined with a plausible and aesthetic pleasing design. Getting the right balance between form and function was the leading light for this build.

The first inspiration led to a direction with a dog or animal like mech. Taking a different direction, the former body was replaced by the Hexapod design later on. Only the head and the color scheme were adopted from the prior version. One reason was that there to be some kind of heavy artillery as it should be a designated war machine, staged in combat scenes. This and a plausible, functional design with ‘play’ features directed the frame to be highly articulated and moveable. The special play feature is the rotating weapons platform which in reverse direction can snug together with the head, giving it a compact and heavy armored feeling. Once rotated the cannon moves into action. Two weapon slots on the front legs allow close range combat, 8 launchers attached to the sides of the platform allow additional performance.

The final image series have been published in the Geek magazine S09E03

Exclusive online coverage by The Brothers Brick