RollerMecha--a spotty history along with some side ranting, fangirlish freakouts, and maybe
even pie...

This whole thing started off a while back when I got a translucent neon green Miru (a rare
misprint mask) from my boyfriend at the time. Ah, geeks in love. ^_^

Anyway, I wanted to make an undeniably spiffy robot to use that mask, and the idea of Cher
Noble, the radioactive rollergirl, popped into my mind. So I took apart a large mech I had
made earlier and used the same torso design. (believe me, this is important.)
One of the features of the old bot was that the chest armor could be opened, clamshell-style,
and I kept that for Cher. When it was all finished, I popped in a little translucent neon green 
gem into the chest cavity as her "core."

Well, that was all fun and wiggy, and I forgot about Rollermecha for a while. Then I got to 
thinking later, after one of my "HOMG ROLLERDERBY IS SO FRAKKIN AWESOME!"
moments, that since LEGO had made basketball, soccer and skateboarding sets, why not
roller derby? Answer: because putting tiny wheels on minifig feet ended up looking dorky.

But I was on to something. I picked Cher back up and relized if I took out the "core," I could
just barely stuff a minifig in there. And Rollermecha was born.

Also at this time, I had a bad joke going of "What do you call communist LEGOs? BolsheBricks!"
and I was thinking of making one BolsheBrick set: The Berlin Wall. Basically, grab all my 
grey bricks and slap 'em together. Hooray for minimalism. And thus, the eventually failed 
attempt at humor: "Here's the Berlin Wall. Here's Iron Curtain rollergirl Berlin Wall AT the 
Berlin Wall. And here's Berlin Wall in her mech, Berlin Wall, AT the Berlin Wall." My sense 
of humor is just...absurd and simple.

So, I got to thinking: Tank treads would look freaking great as skates. I had those two
tread assemblies kicking around after my purchase of the frontally-fantastic but lacking in rear
legs Muaka and Kane-Ra set. I slapped those on, snapped a pair of mismatched robo-
ponytails to a vahki head, and poof. T3h M3ch4 Berlin Wall was built.
And then I made a minifig of her for the hell of it.

Bolshe Vixen was next. The Kakama looked great as a chest plate, but I didn't want to use
another Vahki head.(At the time, I was thinking of a rule storywise, "One Kanohi per mecha.")
So I took an idea from another kid's mech online, and used the three hip
joints and some other gunk to give her an exceptionally minimalist head. I played off of that
and turned out a clawed jammerbot with mecha-hookerboots. I have no idea where that 
hammer-thing came from. If I had my brain in straight at the time, I would have given her
the chained gunai poi thingies and let that be it. But I kind of dig the giant mallets.

I was running out of red pieces by then, so I went to the Vice Squad, and Whiskey Mick.
I revamped her a few times, and finally ended up with this version. not much else to say.

Jezebelle was created solely for the coffeepot. I wanted to do a comic with one of the other
bots leaning in through a door marked "FTW hangars and lockers" and yelling, "DAMMIT,
JEZEBELLE! I told you not to leave your hellfire-channeling coffeepot where I can SIT ON
IT!" So, Jezebelle was worked off of a modified Riiva body type. I tend to cannibalize old
mechs when I make new ones, using the old stuff that worked and tweaking the gunk that 
didn't. I also made a minifig to pilot the mech. The hangar was built shortly later.

Eeka was next, and she was all about the claws and the Piraka cowl. I wanted to give her the
kind of freekish beast-girl look to her that was kind of described in her "official" TRD bio.
I was running out of white parts for the mecha, so I had to improvise with some random stuff.

I can't remember when I built Roxi. All I remember was fiddling around with a new cockpit 
idea using roodaka-style rahkshi-head chest armor. I think I was also trying to build a mech
that could roll up into something vaguely spherical. I don't remember why. But I dig the
samurai-style backflag. I made her minifig a while later when I wanted to depict how the
cockpit assembly worked. And for some pirate-versus-ninja mayhem.

Then I got to the idea of making comics with 'em, and so the great, as-yet-unfinished "Gameday"
folder was created. sooner or later, I'll finish that, with Bolshe Vixen using the Stalingrad 
Special, Roxi and Berlin chatting in the pack about who owes whom drinks post-game,
Jezebelle laying some coffeepot smackdowns, and general razzing of everyone on the
BZPower.com forums during the penalty section of the game. I figured in an IC/FTW 
match, there'd be a VICE girl offering guest commentary, and thus Whiskey Mick was 
Minified. Homie don't do speech bubbles, but everyone has a distinct font style and color
to make them somewhat distinguishable.

Fisti Cuffs and Space Racer were latecomers. I had finished the team intro pictures and thought
just three girls to a team was a bit hard to explain. (that, and I realized FTW had no jammers. 
*sweatdrop*)  But I was severely lacking in parts. So, another platoon of brave mecha had 
to give their lives to create these girls. I used the Medimech torso for Space Racer, and 
Eron's,--which was just a modified version off of Roodaka-- for Fisti. She also took 
the mechamitts off a smaller "redux" version of Mahana Hordika that never saw the light of 
Brickshelf. The flip-up armor panel was added in after the rest of the mech was 
completed--and I saw the first bout of this season, where Fisti gave everyone behind her,
including a slightly WTF'ed me, a good look at aforementioned frilly underpants.

Then I got discovered. Apparently Fisti googled herself and found her mecha, then posted the
entire rollerbot folder on a TRD site.
After a "HO NOES, THEY'RE GONNA THINK I'M A CREEPY
FANGIRL WITH ROBOTS! *runs for the hills*" moment, it turned out that the girls who
had been mecha-fied kind of dug it. Carrie Gunns even asked me to make a mech for her.^_^


For the future, I'd love to make an Elbow Bomb mech, when I get another supply of spare
pieces. I have these positively HUMONGOUS blades that would look great on a set of 
robotic elbows-o-doom. Dot Stoevski would be amusing, if not just for the giant pen/sword
she'd carry. A few Saddletramps mecha might be neat too, complete with mini 
wagon wheels on the skates. Justin TheWay, one of our hard-working referees, will
also get a robot. One of these days. I think I'll also make a few micro-mechs for the kids,
Parkin Violation, Little Red Rolling Hood, and whoever else may be chibi minions of
Roller Derby. If time and parts allow, I think it'd be a hoot to make mecha for me...erm,
"Random Fangirl" and Mr. Number-One Iron Curtain Fan, Che.

it kind of pains me to take apart the mecha I love, but I think making every rollergirls' day is
far more important than parts conservation. in short: EVERYONE'S GETTIN' A MECH! =D
...it just might take a while. ^^;;

But I'm soo tempted to just slap some arms and legs on a can of peaches for Peaches 
Rodriguez...
XD

That, and to paint an Optimus Prime Transformer pink for Kim Sin. (y'know, leader of the
autobots, leader of TRD, it turns into a semi truck, it works.)

So, if I never become a rollergirl, I'll at least be remembered as "That one fangirl with the 
mecha." and I'm okay with that.

Like what you see? contact me with comments/complaints/suggestions/donations at 
amj4@email.arizona.edu!