By VinceHoffman
Jun 26, 2019
This is another build from years back. Again the online record was lost when Spartan Bloks was hacked a few years ago so I thought it would be worth sharing/archiving here. While the UNSC Cobra was a pretty obscure vehicle type in the overall Halo universe, if you were a fan of HW1, it earned a players respect. When locked down in artillery mode it would make mincemeat of armored attackers. A couple of Cobras, backed up by a couple Wolverines for both air support and their mortars doing anti-infantry work could totally lock down a contested portion of the map.
IMHO Mega Bloks' first official Cobra model was also their most successful “Lights and Sounds” build. The Gauss cannon sound effects along with the two different accompanying muzzle flash colors depending on turret configuration were REALLY COOL! The later arctic camo themed Cobra replaced the L&S turret with a discreet brick-built version. While the stock Cobra build was a little on the fragile side, it featured some really clever construction techniques which accurately mimicked the in-game vehicle's transformation from mobile light anti-armor tank to fixed position heavy artillery armor buster.
While I very much respected the design chops behind both the original and later arctic camo iterations of this model, both appeared somewhat unfinished to me. So out came the spare parts bins. Unlike some of my rebuilds, this one tended towards the more cosmetic as the bones of the build and basic shape were reasonably true to the in-game renders. Upon completion though I felt the sleeker largely stud-free rebuild looked substantially better. Additionally I'd re-worked some of the more fragile aspects of the build like the particularly fiddly rear lock-down struts. I’ve provided pics of both stock Cobra builds and Ensemble Studios’ line drawings so you can judge the improvements yourselves. Let me know what you think.
IMHO Mega Bloks' first official Cobra model was also their most successful “Lights and Sounds” build. The Gauss cannon sound effects along with the two different accompanying muzzle flash colors depending on turret configuration were REALLY COOL! The later arctic camo themed Cobra replaced the L&S turret with a discreet brick-built version. While the stock Cobra build was a little on the fragile side, it featured some really clever construction techniques which accurately mimicked the in-game vehicle's transformation from mobile light anti-armor tank to fixed position heavy artillery armor buster.
While I very much respected the design chops behind both the original and later arctic camo iterations of this model, both appeared somewhat unfinished to me. So out came the spare parts bins. Unlike some of my rebuilds, this one tended towards the more cosmetic as the bones of the build and basic shape were reasonably true to the in-game renders. Upon completion though I felt the sleeker largely stud-free rebuild looked substantially better. Additionally I'd re-worked some of the more fragile aspects of the build like the particularly fiddly rear lock-down struts. I’ve provided pics of both stock Cobra builds and Ensemble Studios’ line drawings so you can judge the improvements yourselves. Let me know what you think.