Ma.Ktoberfest: The Rise (and Demise?) of a Theme Month

Oh, how soon they forget. When I was looking through our monthly BrickNerd contest round-up for October, I noticed that a once-popular monthly building theme was conspicuously absent from our list; Ma.Ktoberfest. Sure, there hasn’t been much buzz or enthusiasm for the Sci-Fi theme over the last few years, but its exclusion is striking.

We made t-shirts, I tell you. T-SHIRTS!!! (designed by Victor Vercesi; Instagram)

I mean, at one point there were Ma.Ktoberfest T-shirts designed for it. T-SHIRTS!!! (And I’m pretty sure it was the first monthly building theme to ever do so). To make matters worse, people are now being gas-lit into thinking that the theme month for October has been Mechtober all along (I blame Simon). Well, as always, we here at BrickNerd are here to set the record straight.

So What is “Ma.K”?

Kow Yokoyama - Creator of “Maschinen Krieger”

Ma.K is the short form for Maschinen Krieger, which is German for “Machine Warriors”. Originally called “Maschinen Krieger ZbV3000” (formerly SF3D), it is a fictional universe created by Japanese artist/designer Kow Yokoyama for a story series that ran in Hobby Japan magazine back in the 1980s. Yokoyama-san built models for his story by “kitbashing” different scale model sets together. Kitbashing is basically taking parts from different plastic model kits and creating something totally unique out of them (you know, kind of like taking parts from different LEGO sets and creating one-of-a-kind MOCs out of them). It is how many concept artists create their sci-fi models... And naturally, the name “Ma.Ktoberfest” is a “kitbash” itself, of the terms Ma.K and Oktoberfest.

The Ma.K Storyline

The stage of the Maschinen Krieger universe is set on Earth, in the aftermath of a global nuclear war that nearly wiped out the human population in the late 29th century. With the Earth’s surface finally deemed habitable again, settlers come back to the planet to recolonize… along with criminals and low-lives looking to capitalize on those efforts. With lawlessness disrupting colonization, the Strahl Democratic Republic (SDR) deploys its military to the surface to bring order to the planet. Initially their presence was welcome, however the colonists do not like the way the fascist SDR governed them with an iron fist. In turn, the colonists formed their own independent government. The SDR tries to put down this uprising, and the independent government hires mercenaries in their own defense and establish the Independent Mercenary Army... Long story short, another war begins.

If you are interested in the long story, however, there is much more about the lore posted in the discussion of the Ma.K Bricks Flickr group. Although Yokoyama-san uses a lot of WWII model kits to create his Maschinen Krieger models, which in turn influenced the aesthetic, it should be stated that the universe he created was never intended to simply be “WWII in Space”.

Armored fighting suits are the main form of combat between both armies (see images above). They also utilize a variety of other larger mecha, hovercraft, aircraft, spacecraft and even tanks. Laser technology is fairly prominent, however the usage of machine guns, missiles and rockets is also commonplace. Anti-gravity technology is developed by the Strahl, but it is deemed too dangerous for humans to operate within close proximity. Therefore they only utilize the technology in A.I. drone units. Eventually the Mercs capture an experimental Strahl anti-gravity aircraft, and through their own experimentation, are able to develop technology that is safe for humans over prolonged exposure. As a result, they produce the Falke anti-grav superiority fighter (the first image in the gallery below).

Ma.K and the LEGO MOC Building Community

The Sci-Fi building LEGO community’s interest in the Maschinen Krieger theme grew in 2011 when TR Brownridge (aka Tromas) hosted a “Maschinen Krieger Starfighter Contest” in the LEGO Starfighters group. TR was a prolific world-builder back then and was always coming up with new building theme ideas for the LEGO sci-fi building community. Another one of his concepts that took off was the GARC space racing theme, which he originally came up with to inspire LEGO building with his children (GARC is a story for another day). TR hosted the contest with Tim Gould (aka Gambort), who was likely the most well-informed LEGO builder about the Maschinen Krieger universe at that time. Tim helped provide guidance on the aesthetics that we would try to emulate in LEGO form.

This was their contest brief to the aspiring entrants:

“… The Maschinen Krieger universe has to have some of the coolest and most unique sci-fi designs out there. The original designs by Kow Yokoyama have inspired countless fan-made creations. The beauty of the whole aesthetic is the integration of so many different genres, and it is this unique mix of sources that gives the Ma.K tech such a brilliant look. However, there is one thing that is not overly prominent, and that is starfighters. Therefore, my challenge to all of you is to design a starfighter in the unique Ma.K aesthetic….”

This was the first time that many of us had even heard of Maschinen Krieger, and as you can see below the contest captured our imaginations. Here are a few pictures of notable entries from that contest:

To commemorate the contest, Pascal (aka pasukaru76) also put together this great “collab poster” placing all of the entrants in the same image… or at least for the ones whose Flickr accounts allowed for downloading of their images.

After such a massive showing in the Ma.K Starfighter contest, people were left energized and looking forward to revisiting the theme again the following year. When another Ma.K themed contest didn’t materialize, interested builders took matters into their own hands and decided that they were going to create more Ma.K themed builds anyway. This is when the idea of holding a “Ma.Ktoberfest” was born.

Ma.Ktoberfest

The first documented Ma.Ktoberfest was hosted in the Ma.K Bricks Flickr group in 2012… but things almost didn’t get off the ground. It was originally proposed that “if you want to contribute, build a Ma.K suit in any scale shape or size, but it must be based on a real Ma.K suit. No Ma.k INSPIRED suits allowed.” How ironic… Even though the Ma.K universe was born out of kitbashing standard model-kits to create something original, there were many builders that merely wanted to replicate the ‘canon’ Ma.K models that Yokoyama-san and others designed.  

Fortunately, after much discussion, folks realized that restricting participation to building replicas in just a few categories would detract participation. As one person put it, “I am against recreating specific Ma.K items. That limits creativity and there's likely to be only so many solutions to the building at certain scales, so I would fear there would be a lot of similar builds.... I say similar to the contest last year, Ma.K inspired. Give us some reference pictures, guiding principles, and then release the hounds!” (I credit Simon)

“Release the Hounds!” they certainly did. Contributions came from far and wide in the sci-fi building community. Pascal created collaboration posters for those Ma.Ktoberfests as well, which I have shared below.

End of an Era?

As you can probably tell from the pictures above, interest in Ma.Ktoberfest started to fizzle out in its fifth year (2016), which was the last year Pascal created the poster. The most likely explanation why is simply that there are always new and creative worlds to explore in the LEGO building community, so the community simply moved on. In addition, many people prefer to create builds for a theme all year round and do not limit themselves to only building them within a dedicated theme month. They want to build when the inspiration strikes them.

Even though the overall interest in the Maschinen Krieger theme has waned, it can’t be denied that its annual creative blitzkrieg generated countless breathtaking models. My goal in writing this article isn’t to rally folks into building for it again, but merely to celebrate its window of unprecedented creativity and document it for posterity. Perhaps another once-famous “Mac”, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, said it best with his famous quote about old soldiers, “Old soldiers never die--they just fade away.”  That would seem to apply to monthly building themes as well. So like the old soldier of that ballad, the era of the Maschinen Krieger now ends, and we let it fade away…

… but before we do, we’ll leave you with few pictures of more recently built Ma.K models by those still striving to keep the building theme alive.

Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published October 19, 2022.

What month themes have you seen come and go in the LEGO community? Let us know in the comments below.

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