While building Big Blue I saw a centaur model in an issue of Hobby Japan, a Japanese anime model magazine. I became intrigued at the idea of combining a Gundam torso with a horse body to create a Gundam centaur. I had never seen a centaur in LEGO and decided to try and make one.

Concurrently I had two new LEGO designs I wanted to incorporate into a model. The first was an extension of the hands on Big Blue but with grey hawks as fingers. I thought the beaks on the hawks would make good claws. The second was a to use octagons made of the new ?lick hinges as structural rings and ?kin the eight sides to create a large, light structure.

Next came the design phase. Captain Harlock? spaceship, the Arcadia was always one of my favorite anime ships. I took the skull from the front and incorporated it into the chest much like The Punisher, a comic book character. Then I borrowed the claws from Wolverine, another comic book character. Lastly I took the breathing apparatus look of the Zaku Gundam as it meant I didn? have to make a mouth.

For articulation I kept the same arm design as Big Blue and only modified it slightly. To move the torso I used four ball socket joints allowing the torso to bend and twist slightly. I also wanted the horse body to be able to bend in the middle allowing for a more dynamic pose. Then I used the Throwbot gearboxes for the knees but didn? then have an idea for the shoulder joints on the horse body.

Work on the Gundam torso came along quickly followed by the horse body. I couldn? come up with a leg design able to support the weight of the body as the horse was considerably larger and heavier than originally planned. Eventually I found a Spawn mecha action figure with legs I liked. I recreated those in Lego, but the shoulder joint was still not created. At the center of it all was that a Technic beam attached with studs facing out is oriented 90 off from where I needed it to connect the Throwbot gearbox. If I had connected it ?s is the knees would have bent out from the body not forwards and back.

Finally on a drive home I got the idea of mounting Technic beams on a 40 tooth gear. Eureka! An answer to a daunting design problem. The rest came together fairly easily and ?2 was born. The most fragile part of the model is the shoulder because the legs tend to ?urn out then the click hinges fail and the whole thing collapses into a spectacular heap.

I had planned on simply calling my mecha ?1? ?2? ?tc, but about the same time as 02 was published Brian Cooper released his Dark Gundams. Cooper choose to call his creations ?1 and ?2 thus ending my well thought out and incredibly creative naming convention. He also took away Big Blue's informal title as ?iggest free standing mecha?