u/OneFootOneStud

Sometimes, it takes a child to notice an obvious problem. Everyone probably knows by now that the the body of the 2020's Alienator can be detached from the legs to make a spaceship. However, it was only when I saw a child attempting to attach the Alienator to the Renegade that I noticed the Alienator can itself be modified to attach to the Renegade.

So this post proposes an easy fix. Only 14 parts are needed to widen the body of the Alienator, by one stud on each side, to allow it to attach to the Renegade. The photos included show what the body of the Alienator looks like before and after the fix, as well as how it looks attached to the legs or to the Renegade. A photo is also included showing how to modify the Alienator. The fix goes very well with the pin arrangement I wrote about in an earlier post; there is no issue detaching the Alienator from the Renegade. I am not sure how easy it would be to detach the Alienator from the Renegade with the clip system.

Building the Alienator alternative model from set 10355 leaves a large pile of extra parts. There have been posts in the past here and in related subreddits about what to do with these extra parts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/blacktron/comments/1qes4ck/renegade_alt_build/

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/1jj6qdl/blacktron_renegade_alt_spare_parts_build/)

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoSpace/comments/1iy2z4p/blacktron_spaceship_from_renegade_alt_build/

https://www.reddit.com/r/LegoSpace/comments/1p2uz4n/blacktron_renegade_alt_build_spare_parts_only/

From these posts, it appears that the extra parts, though there are many, are somewhat limiting. It is difficult to make something too useful out of them. So I set out to unlock the potential of these parts with an additional investment of about 20 parts, to keep costs as low as possible.

What I came up with is a cargo container with a little car, in homage to the cargo container of the original 6954 Renegade. The extra parts needed are

• a single 1X2 plate in yellow, element 302324
• new connectors (I explain the system of pins I have adopted here, but it can be built with the original clip system or other pin arrangement.)
• pins for wheels, wheels, and tires

The container fits into the Renegade locking and release mechanism. It can also be connected with other Blacktron fuselage components. The container I built is a bit flimsy, but I wanted to avoid using extra parts to make things stronger. The container still leaves a large number of extra parts, but at least it turns a good amount into something possibly useful.

I would love to hear your comments and suggestions for improvement, and I included additional photos for those who want to reverse engineer this build. I want to acknowledge that the container design borrows from u/Afraid-Personality73, whose post gave me the idea of using the fuselage frames upside down.

I am not sure whether anyone has posted on this topic before, but I am writing to present an easy solution to make the Blacktron components from the 1980's compatible with the new ones. First, replace all the top clips on the new Blacktron components with element 6276875, for front-facing sides, and with 3200026, for rear-facing sides. Implement the same, to the extent possible, on the old components. Second, replace all the bottom clips on the new components with elements 6365577 or 6393320, as would fit, for front-facing sides. Then use elements 370126, to the extent possible, or 370026 for rear-facing sides. For the old Blacktron sets, rearrange all the bricks with the pins so that the pins face the front and the holes face the rear.

These changes allow the old Blacktron components to mix and match with new ones. Almost all components will now have a flat surface on the rear, which saves storage space since they can be stored vertically. The double pin on top and the single pin on the bottom are also reasonably strong. As seen in the accompanying pictures, they flex about as much as the fuselage structures themselves flex when unsupported.

It should in principle be possible to use elements 6276875 and 3200026 for the bottom as well, but I have not tested whether four pins would make components too difficult to disconnect. However, such an arrangement might be needed to mix the old Renegade components with the new Renegade components. I do not have the old Renegade so I do not have to worry about that possibility.