BioniWars: Tools Of The Trade

The first weapon is a 12″ scale Sith lightsaber, which was going to be my finale post, since I didn’t think I’d be able to get ahold of brown hip-joints by Saturday. This one is a little more in scale than the one included with the TECHNIC® Darth Vader set, as the blade is one section shorter, and the hilt is about three times as long. The shape is loosely based off of the ones used by Obi-Wan (ca. ANH) and Luke (ca. ROTJ), but with a large gold-colored handgrip.

The BatToa Droid uses a BAW E-5 Droid Blaster, which was probably the most difficult to design. I really tried to add the extra pod-like hand-grip below the barrel, but it ended up being way too huge, so I ended up doing a minor redesign of the StormToaper rifle.

Jango Fetoa has one of the largest arrays of equipment in this series, including his twin Westar-34 Blaster Pistols, a pair of Mandalorian gauntlets, and two different jetpacks. Oh, and if you want to see what he looked like during the Kamino escape, check this out.

The Republic CloneToapers’ basic issue weapon was the DC-15 Blaster Rifle, which is probably the bulkiest and most unwieldy looking weapons in this entire series, as over half the bulk hangs out in front of the supporting hand.

Super BatToa Droids have a big advantage over the standard BatToa Droids. Those pesky defense forces can’t pick their arms up and shoot back since their guns are hard-mounted to their right arms.

If you don’t consider a foot to be a weapon, you must have never been kicked in the shin by a droid before. Actually, someone wanted to know how it was attached, and this seemed like the easiest way to show how. It plugs into a #1 angle connector in the TOA pelvis.

StormToapers use a variety of weapons, but the most common is the BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle.

Darth Vatoa had to build his own weapon from scratch, which might explain why he’s so grumpy. It probably also explains why it looks so simplistic.

SandToaper also use a variety of weapons, and since I’ve got three designed, I figured I should spread around the weapons as well. My orange pauldroned SandToaper packs the massive BlasTech T-21 Light Repeating Blaster, and wears the standard issue desert backpack.

My white pauldron SandToaper is based on a custom action figure that I made, and he’s carrying a BlasTech DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle and another standard issue desert backpack.

My black pauldron SandToaper is also based mostly on a custom action figure I made, though that one has a hand-held comlink. Since I figured those wouldn’t look very exciting built out of bricks, and I had a much better idea for some binocs, I gave him some Neuro-Saav Model TD2.3 Electrobinoculars to go with his BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle and standard issue desert backpack.

In TESB, Boba Fetoa had a very green color scheme, and he was cradling the shortbarreled version of the BlasTech EE-3. Mine is dreadfully out of scale, but the look is about right, so I don’t much care. To go with that, he’s got green Mandalorian gauntlets and a green Mandalorian jetpack w/ rocket launcher.

Sporting a better color scheme for ROTJ, Boba Fetoa also had a slightly different gun, with a longer barrel. While my “longbarrel” version is actually shorter than the “shortbarrel” version, it does appear to be closer to the same scale as Fetoa himself. This time around he’s got flashy red Mandalorian gauntlets, and a red, green, and yellow Mandalorian jetpack w/ rocket launcher. One does have to wonder how he managed to retrieve this one after daddy blew it up on Kamino…

Scout Toapers don’t usually stray very far from their SpeeToa Bikes, which pack their own firepower, so they don’t have much use for large bulky guns. Instead they keep a tiny holdout blaster tucked into an ankle holster. These blasters are so small that they only have enough grip for two fingers, which presented a special challenge in the design process, but I did figure out a solution.

While I don’t necessarily plan to make characters for any of these guns, I did feel like trying out some of the more interesting designs to see if I could make them (I did build Leia’s sport pistol from ANH, but I decided it looked too boring). On the left is Zam’s projectile sniper rifle, which she used to shoot the droid that Obi-Wan was hanging onto. In the middle is her KYD-21 Blaster Pistol, which ended up being left on the floor of a Coruscant nightclub along with part of her arm. To the right is Han’s trusty BlasTech DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol, complete with faux-wood grip.

On the left is the BlasTech A280 Blaster Rifle, which was used by the Echo Base Troopers in their defense against the Imperial assault on Hoth. The middle gun was IG-88’s BlasTech DLT-20A Pulse Cannon, and if these two guns look similar, it’s because the DLT-20A prop was just an A280 prop with a new barrel attached over the old one. To the right is IG-88’s Mennotor DAS-430 Neural Inhibitor, which looks suspiciously like a silver Blastech E-11. I could have made it an exact duplicate, but I decided to tweak the design a bit.

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