Sometimes, inspiration comes from the strangest of places. In this case, it came from a singular cutscene in the 2003 video game “The Simpsons: Hit & Run:” At the end of level 2, Bart finally comes face-to-face with the Truckasaurus that he’s been waiting several missions for Professor Frink to complete. A wasp camera is also present, ostensibly not involved in the conflict at all, just watching and recording the whole thing.
Despite this (and the missed opportunity of the game to make this an actual boss fight of sorts), something about seeing these two on-screen together just seems really cool to me, and one day while I was replaying the game again I decided that I wanted to make mocs inspired by these two.
“Argentum Rex”
Since the dinosaur was always going to be the bigger of the two, I decided to start with it. I call it “Argentum Rex” (in quotations for now because I’m not 100% sold on the name yet), and it took a lot of trial and error to get right.
- I wanted to use an Avohkii for the jaw not unlike the Schilvak but I couldn’t figure out how to make that work, so I just used the tried-and-true Onua claw, albeit differently from how Spinax did it because I was too lazy to look up the instructions.
- The torso is built around these two pieces connected to each other upside down, and the Nuva chest plates are connected on some ratchet joints and a tri-axle. Once I found two Onua 2015 weapon parts in my collection, I knew they would be perfect for some thick dinosaur thighs if I could figure out how to secure them there. A 5L stopper axle, a T-shaped liftarm, and several other pieces later, the thighs became easily my favorite part of the build.
- I do plan to change the ankles (not very stable atm) and feet (kinda small looking) at some point.
Alazan
Once I finished Argentum Rex, I moved on to Alazan. I originally wanted to make something more wasp-like, as in an actual animal, but I wasn’t able to figure out how to make a convincing small Rahi build using the Bitil mask (which, despite its wearer being named after a beetle, screams wasp to me). Eventually, I gave up and decided to make a wasp man. Not a whole lot to say about the build. Argentum took me multiple days to figure out, but once I decided to make Alazan a little gremlin instead of an animal, I was able to complete him in about an hour. The only thing I’d really want to do is change those perpendicular connectors on his shoulders from light grey to black (say it with me now: I don’t have those parts in that color).
The main reason I wanted Alazan to be much smaller than he ended up is because I originally envisioned that he could ride Argentum. Not so much using it as a steed, mind you, but like how Blue would sometimes hop on Rexy’s back during her fight with I. rex at the end of Jurassic World. With some difficulty, I was able to get them posed like that once, but since I did not design Argentum with any way to properly mount Alazan, suffice to say this will not be the main way I display them on my shelf. But hey, at least it looked cool when I did get it.
