Friday Night Fights (Round 29)

After a brief hiatus, the Fights return in The Brothers Brick Arena. Join us for another fine night of fancy footwork and flying fisticuffs! Tonight’s matchup is a head-to-head battle of character as Mike Dung takes on Pascal.

In the Red Corner, Mike Dung’s “Kagamine Rin”:

Kagamine Rin

In the Blue Corner, Pascal’s “Claymore”:
Claymore

The winner of Round 28 was the Airwolf with a score of 11-8. Help decide the winner of this week’s challenge by voting in the comments below. Who will take home the trophy and who one will spend the night crying in their beer?

The Crown Knights’ Castle on the Rocks

It comes as no surprise that Kiwi builder David Hensel (Legonardo Davidy) has produced another fantastic castle. I really like the base on this one, as David is perfecting the slope-built rock technique. The wood-plank front door is also quite nice, and the stone walls have just enough texturing to look appropriately weathered without going overboard.

Unique Starfighters are some delicious brain juice.

brain juice (breyn joos)
n.
1. Something awesome that inspires you creatively.
2. Concept art that makes you want to play with LEGO elements

I am continually blown away by how creative people can be with designs of starfighters. They certainly are my favourite subject to build in, but I tend to stick pretty close to boilerplate styling. But seeing designs like these make me want to get more creative with my own builds. So on this chilly Wednesday morning, pull up a chair and sip on these steaming cups of brain juice…

P-Wing by Bartosz Sasiński
P-wing

U-wing by halfbeak
U-Wing Polling Shot

XADHOOM by xiei22
Fly view! "XADHOOM" - Central industries Sky Ruler.

In the Studio With Orion Pax...Literally.

On the various LEGO fan sites, people will often share photos of their build spaces. Well, I think I am going to crown the winner of the absolute coolest LEGO workspace outside Billund. And it belongs to none other than TBB regular Alex Jones (Orion Pax).

Alex recently posted this amazing 360° view of his studio, and of course coupled it with some nice beats. So click the image below and be prepared to be wowed.

Alex told me that 5 years ago he couldn’t imagine himself having a space like this to work in, but he worked hard for a long time to get it. He also added, “Believe in your dreams and all that!” Which I think are wise words.

So now we know where Alex works his magic and creates goodies like his most recent piece…an ode to Snoop.

A Pixelated Bike for a Pixelated Life

I’m not always a fan of the super-pixelated look; I enjoy the challenge of taking the inherently blocky LEGO bricks and sculpting them into smooth forms. But sometimes, someone builds something blockily, and it works marvelously. Case in point is this gorgeous motorcycle by Silva Vasil, which he says is based on a life-sized pixelated bike.

Lego Black Rebel Bike

The little big rig is a zippy RC

Back in 2009, LEGO released two sets (8183 and 8184 ) that got me pretty excited. The reason for my excitement was that these sets contained a car chassis that could be remote-controlled using a Power Functions IR-remote. This would make it relatively easy to build your own relatively compact remote-controlled car. I bought one, but it had about as much directional control as a puppy on a wet floor; it constantly bumped into walls or bits of furniture. It was fast, though.

Little Big Rig

Curtis D. Collins (curtydc) has now used a similar chassis to build his “little big rig”. He too reports that the steering isn’t great, but also that it is a zippy a little RC. I believe that, certainly with those big wheels. I also think it looks pretty cool. Like Barry Bosman’s Monster Masher, it has a certain toy-like quality to it that reminds me of the RC cars that were around when I was a child.