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"We, the Marines, will lead the charge into a new world order... with
Metal Gear RAY!" - Commander Scott Dolph
Yeah, that's Raiden in the picture, but Snake is actually the first one to
encounter the monstrous Metal Gear RAY. He finds it in the bottom of a big
oil tanker filled to the brim with both Marines and Russian terrorists.
Metal Gear RAY is less realistic than REX. It has stubs for feet (making
it very awkward as a model), and it is skinny and agile, unlike REX. It
also has a tail, which is good in a way, because my model really needed
something for support!
"I regret to inform you that I have no intention of selling Metal Gear. As
I said, I am taking it back." - Revolver Ocelot
Ocelot walks onto the scene, backed up by Sergei and his terrorists.
Ocelot and his cronies mow down the Marines with ease (I thought they were
the best of the best?) and Ocelot climbs into RAY's cockpit, leaving
Sergei and his troops to their fate as he blows up the tanker.
"You don't have what it takes after all! You're going down, Snake, with
this tanker!" - Liquid Snake (possessing Ocelot)
Before Ocelot can make a clean getaway, Liquid Snake takes over his body
from his transplanted hand (What's up with that? Does Liquid keep his
brains in his hand?) and taunts Snake before bursting out of the tanker
and swimming off. As you can see in the image above, Metal Gear RAY has a
blue laser beam gun inside its "mouth". Ocelot (or was it Liquid?) uses
this to blast his way out of the belly of the tanker. In order to make my
model's mouth open, I had to cut part of the wing flaps off... It's the
only time that I've ever cut up a LEGO part (except when making minifigs).
At the time, it seemed like the only possible solution, but I have since
regretted it, especially because LEGO has come out with many new pieces
that make the mutilation unnecessary.
"The entire thing was planned - the oil spill, the tanker accident that
caused it, everything. The Big Shell was built specifically for the
development of a new Metal Gear model." - Colonel Ames
Yeah, we know, Ames. Everything in the whole game's story was planned by SOMEBODY.
There are so many plot twists in this game that the plot becomes a
twisted up, tangled knot that it takes a considerable amount of skill and
attention to untie... and even then, it might take some cutting. Anyway, two years in the future, Raiden comes along
and finds out that the Big Shell is housing Metal Gear RAY. Big deal,
since we know that the mech is still at large in Ocelot's hands. What we
don't know is that there's no longer only one RAY... Note the missile
launchers on the back of my LEGO Metal Gear RAY in this image.
"That's right... Arsenal. We're talking about an impregnable fortress
carrying a load of a couple thousand missiles, including nuclear warheads-
all protected by a horde of mass-produced Metal Gear RAY units." -
President James Johnson
That's right, now there's a horde of them. As Raiden, you must face this
horde, all alone, with naught but a Stinger missile launcher. Though you manage to damage a lot of them, you can't seem to beat
them. Luckily, Solidus Snake comes sliding in (he always slides around
with a trail of fire) to save your butt, even though he at first said he
was going to let you die. He must be going soft. Then he jumps on the
heads of the RAY units and blows them open with his teeny-weeny
sub-machine gun... and you had been using Stinger missiles. Is something
wrong here? That must be one helluva P-90.
"Damn the Patriots!" - Solidus Snake
The RAY units go haywire and Solid Snake knocks you unconscious.
You wake up with only one RAY looming overhead (it's the one that Ocelot
stole from the Tanker, because it has a full tail, whereas the
mass-produced ones only have stubs), and you (that is, Raiden, I'm sorry
if I insult you by saying that, but he IS the player character here), Snake, Fortune, Solidus, and Ocelot
are standing atop a big metal thing called Arsenal Gear,
which is flowing through the New York harbor to go bomb the living
daylights out of the innocent citizens of America. Fortunately for you, in
another of the game's famous plot twists, Ocelot betrays his supposed
commander yet again and jumps in RAY to blow you all to Kingdom Come.
"Now that I have enough data, all I have to do is retrieve Arsenal... and
clean up the refuse from the exercise." - Ocelot
Even though Ocelot has both taken Fortune's bullet-deflecting gizmo and
shot her in the chest ages ago, she still manages to stay alive long
enough to get up and block Ocelot's missiles with her
psychic powers. I guess this means that she saved the three men, Solidus,
Snake, and Raiden, though I doubt they needed it. Solid Snake is already
practiced at the art of missile dodging thanks to his battles with
helicopters and Metal Gears in the past. Solidus Snake also seems to be
able to do it quite well, since he took out a RAY unit or two with just
sub-machine gun and some Dr. Octopus arms. And, of course, Raiden, as the
player character, has been dodging RAY missiles for hours during his fight
with the mass-produced horde of them. So I guess that Fortune was really
wasting her time, though quite dramatically.
"Take your reward! It's all the payload RAY has! DIE!!!" - Ocelot
Once again, Ocelot's hand goes fat and wiggly and Liquid Snake takes over
his body. We hear Cam Clarke's voice come from Ocelot's lips. Liquid
taunts Solid Snake and then he pilots RAY into the sea, with Snake jumping
into the foam after him... leaving Raiden and Solidus Snake alone on
Arsenal Gear.
"Hey, Snake, you coming?!" - Liquid
Okay, now for some facts about my LEGO Metal Gear RAY. Back when I built
this, LEGO had come out with the multi-positional clicky arm joints in
only one or two sets, and both kinds were more Technic parts than actual
LEGO parts. The one I chose to use was the arm piece from the Evil Ogel
Attack Sub set in the Alpha Team Aqua line. Ray's arms are held on with
this piece, and the tail is made up of it as well. Although the legs,
arms, head, and tail are quite posable, most poses cause the whole
creation to topple over due to the lack of feet. The mouth, of course,
opens, and the head can seat one pilot. The whole thing is way too small
to be to scale, but it works.
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