When the Kami Nation faction of Sam-Bots needs to send in troops, they like to soften up the opposition with a few high-speed NEZUMI attack vehicles. Highly manouverable and traveling at ground level, they are difficult for any defensive weapon systems to find and lock onto, and the exposed forward wheels are very useful for plowing over enemy Sam-Bots that weren’t already taken care of by the four front-mounted cannons.

This MOC started out with a single piece. I’d gotten my hands on a single front wheel from a TECHNIC® motorcycle, and wanted to do something unusual with it. It spent a few weeks as part of a TOA-scale unicycle, but I was never happy with the results and started looking at other possibilities. Eventually I realized that the 8×8 radar dish fits snugly around the side (not snug enough to clip onto it, but pretty close), and the NEZUMI was born. Nezumi are mythological rat-people, and the overall design of this really ended up with several rodent-ish features. The flag mounted to the back clearly resembles a tail, and the rear wheel reminds me of a hamster wheel. The canopy resembles a rodent head, especially with the BOHROK eyes mounted inside of it, and the stubby wings immediately above it are vaguely ear-like. The wheel housings somewhat resemble forelegs, and the triangular stripes on the upper hull are similar to many animal markings. Well, except for the fact that they’re bright blue, which is fairly uncommon in mammals. The one unfortunate thing about the design is that the large rear wheel binds a little on some of the nearby bricks, so while it does rotate completely without any ratcheting, it requires constant force to keep it spinning. You can push it across the floor, but it’s not going to roll down any hills. I didn’t take any photos of it, but the rear wheel does actually have a fully contoured wheel-well, just because I could make it work.