Monthly Archives: April 2012

Microscale Matsumoto Castle by Blake Baer

Matsumoto Castle is an unusual castle in Japan that has striking black walls instead of the more familiar white walls of Himeji or Osaka castles. Blake Baer captures many wonderful details, from the red balcony to the slats on the black walls.

Matsumoto Castle

Thanks to reader Jake for making sure I saw this.

A Classy Car: Mercedes-Benz 540K

Vibor Cavor’s newest model is a fiery red model of a classic luxury sedan, the Mercedes-Benz 540K. The large scale of this model allowed Vibor to do justice to the small details on this spiffy vehicle. I particularly love the way he designed the grill, and the hood ornament is quite perfect. Most impressively, though, he’s managed to pack in a full interior, including engine, passenger, and luggage compartments.

MB-540K-AK views

This mecha is no joke

waka joked on Twitter recently that Izzo‘s sudden activity might just be an April Fool’s joke. Happily, that’s not the case, as his latest mecha — inspired by ABAKAN 2288 — proves.

LEGO mecha

See more pics on Izzo’s blog. He says he’s proudest of the back, and it’s definitely lovely, as are the dark red touches against the gray.

An Explosion of Cuteness

Victor Bartolome (Wafflebottom) calls these little robots “The Exploders.” I call them darn cute. Just by posing the heads differently, he manages to convey different emotional states. I wonder if batteries are included.

The Exploders

Great Visibility!

This little space ship by /ˈɛlˈdiːˈɛm/ really delivers the whole package. It has an interesting shape, sleek angles, and a popping color scheme. What really sets it apart, though, is the canopy. It’s a face mask for Buzz Lightyear, and an odd shaped piece to work with.

Ornj Spaceship [Alt Shots]

Prometheus unbound

Rob (dasnewten) solidifies his place among LEGO builders as the “master of angles” with this excellent microscale frigate inspired Studio Nue and Kazutaka Miyatake.

Picket Frigate Prometheus

Attack of the Show – Rad Jobs With LEGO

G4’s Attack of the Show featured a segment called “Rad Jobs With LEGO” featuring Erik Varszegi.

LAML Radio interviews Andy Hung and Schneider Cheung

Whether you are familiar with Lego podcasts, they provide unique knowledge about the hobby. LAML Radio and A Look At Lego Podcast are two sources I’m aware of that regularly post new episodes and interviews.

I want to highlight the most recent show from LAML Radio containing interviews with Andy Hung and Schneider Cheung, two of the most well known AFOLs in Hong Kong whose works are also familiar to many of our readers. Even though our interactions with the active and talented Hong Kong AFOL community are limited by the language barrier, we seldom cease to appreciate their works in the instances they were featured on the blog.

Click on the image below to download the episode of the podcast.

G.A.I.A. – HMS ‘Relentless Fire’

This microscale combat cruiser by Jon B. (Heiwa71) has a solid balance of colors and details to satisfy a spacer’s cravings for a SHIP (which I have not seen many original concepts as of late). The hangar bays are my favorite spots on this creation. The full gallery can be found on MOCpages.

G.A.I.A. HMS Relentless Fire

Green Goblin’s explosive rampage

Thorsten (Xenomurphy) captures the action from an explosive battle between Spider Man and the Green Goblin. What may be more impressive is the construction of the building, which in addition to the graffiti on both sides, also features tiles used in place of plates to create the texture of a real brick wall. Visit MOCpages for close up views and the technique for the brick wall.

LEGO Marvel Superheroes sets now available [News]

If I learned nothing else at Emerald City Comicon last weekend (post to follow shortly), it’s that I’m much more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. So I’m a lot more excited by the official release today of the LEGO Marvel sets than I was about the DC sets a few months back.

Wolverine is looking pretty awesome with his claws and bike, but Captain America is who I’m happiest to see in LEGO minifig form:

Each set includes a unique combination of minifigs that I’m sure was designed to encourage collectors to buy them all:

Our US readers can see the complete product listing by clicking through the following banner:

NEW Marvel LEGO Super Heroes sets are now available!

In other good news, TBB readers in the UK and Canada can now help support the site by clicking through from TBB when buying LEGO from the LEGO Shop online. I’ll set up the ads on the left to link differently depending on where you are shortly, but in the meantime, you can use the banners below (apologies for the visual repetition — it hurts my eyes, too):

Canada:
NEW Marvel LEGO Super Heroes sets are now available!

United Kingdom:
NEW Marvel LEGO Super Heroes, available now!

Lego Halo Reach M45 Tactical Shotgun

Nick Jensen has used Lego to build most of the human weapons from Halo. His latest LEGO Halo model is the M45 Tactical Shotgun, which took almost 2 months to make. In addition to its realistic looks, the model also has working features such as a sliding pump and ejecting shells, which you can see on YouTube.

Halo Reach M45 Tactical Shotgun

Halo Reach M45 Tactical Shotgun