Archive for May, 2011

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What would C3PO drive?

Clearly, C3PO would drive this landspeeder by Luka (kost u grlu). It makes great use of the limited palette of gold parts available. What really kicks this creation up, though, is the interspersing of detail and mechanical bits throughout, much like C3P0′s exposed midsection. The use of the Build a Buzz’s helmet visor as a windscreen is just icing on the cake.

Protocol Droid's Landspeeder

Half-Life 2 Combine Strider by thire5

While most of us have been busy playing Portal 2, Martin Latta (thire5) isn’t one to leave a great Valve game like Half-Life 2 behind!

Martin’s Combine Strider is sure to strike fear into every Resistance fighter, even if they’re armed with rocket launchers.

Half-Life 2 Combine Strider

My new favourite set

I love self-reference and this LEGO model of a LEGO moulding machine is as self-referential as they come. Sadly if you don’t already own one of these (I don’t) then I doubt you ever will. It would appear only 68 were made for the LEGO Inside Tour.

Cars 2 trailer in Lego

Patrick Boivin was commissioned to make the official Cars 2 trailer in Lego, and he did a great job bringing out the personality of the characters through their animated facial features. The rest is some pretty smooth stop-motion action.

Thanks for the tip [Dablackcat]!

Space Shuttle Endeavour launches with LEGO aboard [News]

As we reported back in November, LEGO and NASA signed a deal to release sets like 3368 Space Center and even send LEGO up in one of the final Shuttle missions.

Endeavour launched earlier this week and is now docked at the International Space Station, where astronauts are using a specially built, clear glovebox to build some really awesome LEGO sets — for science! The box ensures that our favorite plastic bricks don’t get lost in the inner workings of the ISS, and — years in the future when the abandoned ISS hangs like a beacon of past glory in the evening sky — jams a crucial gear or something and brings the whole thing tumbling down on Perth.

LEGO space education sets

I like the little Hubble a lot. I’m trying to dig up how the general public can get these models (comment if you know), which were apparently made available to teachers so kids can follow along down here on boring old Earth.

Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo has a nice write-up with all the details.

Microscale World War II planes and armor

I’ve been enjoying Kaptain Kobold‘s fun little LEGO creations for just about as long as I’ve been blogging, and I’m especially enjoying his latest set of microscale arms and armor from World War II.

Alan’s Renault FT-17 tank and Heinkel He 162 “Volksjäger” fighter jet illustrate that you don’t have to put a lot of parts together to make really great, recognizable models.

Renault FT-17 - Side Heinkel He 162 'Volksjäger'

My favorite is this Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, complete with spinning prop and tiny guns.

Messerschmitt Bf 109

1913 Cadillac revisited

The 390 1913 Cadillac set was released in 1975, and may have been one of the sets my dad bought himself that got me into LEGO a couple of years later (I’ve always had several of those big red wheels in my collection of unknown provenance).

Luka (kost u grlu) puts a modern, minifig-scale spin on this old classic.

1913 Cadillac

What I like most about this model is that Luka incorporated smaller versions of the old-style red wheels into his remake. The three-wide cab is quite cool, too.

Open/shut/open/shut

Not only does Ralph Savelsberg (Mad physicist) make nice looking LEGO models (in this case a tiller truck) he likes to go that extra km and add features. In this case a bunch of opening doors and working ladder. For the big kid in every AFOL.

Tiller truck (3)

Space repair part II

Combat Repair Ship - 'Mad Hatter'

Recently Soren Roberts ([Soren]) made a comment on the Goliath alluding to having something similar in the works. Well it’s not quite a docking cradle but it is a combat repair ship so serves a similar role. I’m a sucker for arms on ships but I’ll quote Kyle Vrieze to describe what I really like: ‘You somehow space the components and segments by precisely the right gap to make best use of the negative space’. Indeed.

Edulyoung’s Pegasus automaton soars on alabaster wings

This pegasus sculpture by Edulyoung is beautiful enough to highlight here, but the Technic pedestal reveals there’s more to this flying LEGO horse than pretty white bricks.

LEGO pegasus automaton

This video of the pegasus in motion quite literally took my breath away.

Via Legobloggen.

Free shipping, HP Hogwarts pre-order, Cars 2, Alien Conquest, and more [News]

The last few days have brought enough LEGO Shop news that I’m having a hard time keeping up, starting with 10218 Pet Shop last week and free shipping on orders of $75 or more from today through the end of May.

The new, smaller 4867 Hogwartsicon is now available for pre-order (out on June 1), with seven minifigs.

iconicon

Continuing with licensed themes, the SYSTEM-scale Cars 2icon sets are out, and apparently include a fair number of interesting parts and colors.

iconicon

Finally, the full complement of non-licensed summer sets are also out, including the new Alien Conquesticon space theme, which has a wonderful Vic Viper tribute to nnenn.

iconicon

LEGO Castle fans are rejoicing (myself included) over the release of the latest Kingdomsicon sets, which have new goats and chickens alongside printed pigs and horses.

iconicon

Four fair lasses on a pirate’s bed, but yo-ho-ho it’s The Brothers Brick for me!

Capt. Thomas Foolery lives up to his name with this amusing scene, in which several ladies of questionable character try to lure a pirate away from his online pursuits.

"Come back to bed, Cap'n!"

Ladies: “Come back to bed, Cap’n!”
Pirate: “As soon as I finish reading the Brothers Brick and posting to Eurobricks.”

Yarrr! A wise choice indeed, matey!

Alien Conquest 7066 Earth Defense HQ includes Vic Viper tribute to nnenn

It was just brought to my attention that 7066 Earth Defense HQicon contains a tribute to nnenn. The decal on the Vic Viper ship is the brilliant idea of Mark Stafford who designed the set. This by itself is enough cause for me to own a copy of the set.

Photo by polywen

Goliath docking cradle

If anyone can make red and yellow look so good in a space MOC, then that builder is probably Mike Yoder. Mike’s latest addition to his North Central Positronics theme is a microscale docking station. The fact that it was completed in less than a week is as impressive as the build itself.

1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen by vmln8r

Continuing our theme of German automobiles, Vimal Patel (vmln8r) takes us back to the 19th century with his Benz Patent-Motorwagen from 1886 — an entry for both the April LEGO Technic Challenge and the LUGNuts Autos aus Deutschland challenge.

1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen

Vimal’s car is remote-controlled, with working gears, chains, pistons, flywheels and differentials.