Who says fire engines have to be red or yellow? Leigh Holcombe (worker201) certainly doesn’t. Here’s his 8×8 tactical fire fighting truck, full of hooks, ladders, and all those compartments that make fire trucks awesome.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Girl identifies Star Wars minifigs with her mouth
A girl appeared on a German TV show to identify Star Wars minifigs, not through any conventional way of referencing Peeron or Bricklink but by using her mouth! I’d say that’s a pretty useful skill to have, don’t you think?
Via Boing Boing.
The Sabota Death Ring
My latest creation is a good example of what happens when a builder gets carried away with a simple concept. My simple concept was to use blue bubble domes as microcolonies, which grew into a large mass that I am calling The Death Ring (see story on Flickr).
The large dome is constructed from stretcher hoses that maintain the shape without central supports. The smaller domes contain glow-in-the-dark disks that give off an eerie light in the dark to simulate the glow of the bioluminescent spheres in space. The size of the model may look deceptive due to all the small greebly bits that play with your sense of scale, but the actual diameter is 1.5 feet.
Fredo Houben: More to the brick than meets the eye [Interview]
I recently came across a quote by Ace Kim, the admin of FBTB, who said “a good picture of a terrible model will look better and be more appealing than a terrible picture of a good model.”
To a degree this is very true, which brings us to this interview with Fredo Houben (Fredoichi), a LEGO builder and graphic designer from the Netherlands. Granted, his models aren’t terrible — in fact they’re actually amazing.
What contributes to our enjoyment of Fredo’s creations is not simply the way he puts his bricks together but also his flawless presentation. As a bonus in this interview, Fredo goes through the steps he uses to edit a mediocre photo into a polished image.
The Brothers Brick: What do you like to build and where do you get your ideas and inspirations?
Fredo: Well, I mostly build in the sci-fi theme. Think of starfighters, multiped walkers/mecha and near-future vehicles. Occasionally I step out of that realm and do something else with the brick, but it’s sci-fi that I enjoy the most.
I find it fun and interesting to vary and play with scale, though I don’t make the biggest things out there.
I really like the challenge of building in a smaller scale. As for ideas and inspirations, I have a lot of interest in the design aspects of things like video games, movies, animation and Japanese toys, and that’s basically what gets things going.
TBB: When did you enter the online LEGO community and have you had a dark age? If so, how did you rediscover LEGO?
Fredo: I uploaded my first MOC on Flickr in 2008, since then LEGO is part of my life again. I say again because I stopped playing/building when I was 12 years old. I’m 36 now, so yeah I’ve had quite a dark age. Back then I played with LEGO day in and day out ever since I was 4. I had quite a collection by the time I was 12, but I lost interest in it and other interests took over like my Amiga, music and games. I felt pretty bad about it because I really enjoyed building, so I tried to come back to it a couple of times, but it didn’t feel the same anymore so I moved on.
Fast forward 23 years later, I all of a sudden felt the urge to do something with LEGO again. I work as a visual designer and I love toys and was thinking how I could create my own models and toys. Just do something else instead of design and 3D on screen… LEGO seemed perfect. I got extra motivated when I stumbled on some amazing work from a couple of builders on Flickr. Seeing stuff from Soren Roberts, Peter Reid, nnenn and Adrian Florea really gave me a good look of what you can do with the brick. These guys use parts in such a creative and different way and all have their own visual style. I had a lot of ideas, so I got my old collection from my parent’s attic and bought some new sets and just started.
More of our interview with Fredo after the jump: Continue reading
A leisurely lunch, and then to mail some postcards
Crawling across the Eastern Front
Jordan Schwartz (Sir Nadroj) presents a German artillery hauler from World War II, the Raupenschlepper Ost:
The tracked vehicle boasts working treads and suspension.
Voyager 5
Rodney Bistline (Busterr) can always be counted on for an interesting creation. His space ships usually tend towards the fun, cartoonish side. Today he’s given us something different, instead of a space action hero, it’s a ship from the dawn of man’s steps into the stars.
This thing is half space probe, half fighter. As such, the name is very appropriate, although the Trekkie in me might have preferred “V’ger.” This ship has a fascinating asymmetry, but still manages to feel balanced. I’m probably the only person who remembers the star fighters from the opening of Lost In Space, but this ship reminds me of them.
Workaday commute
I like all the pedestrian details in and around this elevated train and station by NaNeto. Especially the disabled ramp, bench, elevator and parkland. Definitely check out the whole Quimboyu set to see the other angles and how all the elements fit together.
Scenes like this would make a great addition to the Big in Japan display at BrickCon 2010.
Toot toot!
I feel like I should leave this one to Caylin, but I couldn’t pass up this adorable tugboat by Pierre E Fieschi when I ran across it on MicroBricks:
Though on a slightly different scale, Pierre’s recent supertanker is also lovely:
Legohaulic’s walking biped revolutionizes mecha building
Seemingly another well-designed mecha, the Element Commune by Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) features interesting color accents that give it a defining look…
It wasn’t until I watched the accompanying video that I saw it walks! This is the first walking biped mecha that also boosts aesthetics, and to think many of us are still trying to get our mechs to stand up long enough to photograph…
Apoc Story
Kevin Murney (legorevolution) apologizes in advance for ruining your childhood with this disturbingly apocafied rendition of Toy Story. The creation features Psycho Green Car, Gas Mask Woody, and Buzzsaw Buzz. I will not say more, I think you get the point.
Japanese Chokutō
Ken Robichaud built this lovely Chokutō for the Classic Castle Weapons Challenge. I love that engraving on the blade.
