Too Much Free Time: Lego Transformer Huffer

by: Austin Welch

“It’ll never work; big waste o’ time!”

I got nothing against Huffer.  He’s okay.  He just sorta stood there, in the back of the Autobot ranks.  Nothing too special.  My good buddy Tony, however, always held Huffer in high regard.  It made me scratch my head, but hey, to each his own.

Way back in the 90s, as sort of a tribute to Tony’s unhealthy fondness for the whiniest of Autobots, I made a Lego version of Huffer.  He transformed almost exactly like the original toy, but he was much bigger, and due to the limitations of Lego pieces at the time, he was yellow and  plain blue, as opposed to the orange-and-dark-blue paint scheme of the toy.  I always knew that, when one day I had enough orange pieces, I’d redo Huffer in more appropriate colors.  I still plan to do that, but in the meantime, I had an idea for Tony’s birthday last month.

Tony’s one of those guys that’s hard to shop for.  There isn’t much that you can get him that he doesn’t already have, or can easily get himself.  So I wanted to send him something that he couldn’t buy in stores; something more personal.  I didn’t have a lot of time, and I wanted to challenge myself a bit, so I decided to make him a mini Lego Huffer, something close to the original toy’s size.  My original intention was to mimic his transformation exactly, but alas, the smaller scale proved difficult, so I had to improvise.  Again, the smaller scale provides an opportunity to challenge ones’ self.  I like to think I still captured Huffer’s spirit and basic look.  As with many of my Lego Transformers, I like to think of him as a Generations-style homage, or more specifically, a Legends-class homage.

As I expected, Tony loved it, and showed it off on his Facebook page.  So mission accomplished.  Something tells me this won’t be the last Lego Transformer I whip up for someone’s birthday.

If you missed some of my previous posts, be sure to check out some of my other Lego Transformers below.  Prowl is coming soon!

* Shockwave
* Flashback (original character)
* Wheeljack
* Cosmos
* Beachcomber

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