Yearly Archives: 2009

Lino’s 1960 Chevy Apache will carry inland surfers to the dunes

It’s hard to believe that LUGNuts is already two years old, but the group of LEGO car builders celebrated its second anniversary in October. For the anniversary challenge, LUGNuts co-founder Lino Martins built a 1960 Chevrolet Apache.

The truck is great — with diamond patterns on the interior and a great gas can — but the backdrop is just as interesting. I love the cow’s skull and vulture.

Click the picture to read Lino’s full write-up about his inspiration, and see his roundup of all the entries on the LUGNuts blog.

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When is a “Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical” just a “clippy bit”?

LEGO Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical With shared resources like Bricklink and Peeron, LEGO fans active on the Web today use fairly standard terminology for referring to individual LEGO elements. Whether you’re describing a building technique or drafting, shared language is a key to communication.

An interesting article by Giles Turnbull has been making the rounds among LEGO fans on the ‘net this past week. The article surveys four families who play with LEGO and how they talk about LEGO. In the absence of externally driven standards, it’s interesting to see how these families have developed their own LEGO language.

Read the full article, A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families, on The Morning News.

Announcing Creations for Charity!

I’m excited to announce a new online charity event that has just started! The event, called Creations for Charity, sells custom LEGO creations from fan builders to raise money to buy LEGO for underprivileged children. All funds will be used to buy LEGO sets for the charity Toys for Tots. From now until early-December, there will be new creations listed to be auctioned. Come visit the store to see what we have!

If you are interested in contributing a creation, you can read the details here. Happy holidays everyone!

Dragon Bones

This stunning dragon, by Necromancer7, is incredible. I want one….really bad.

Mini Castle Contest declares its winners!

Dan Joosten’s contest on Classic-Castle has run its course and he’s declared winners in all categories:

Miniature Set: Bartosza6m with his version of 6081 – King’s Mountain Fortress:

Miniature Castle: Chris Edwards with his Castle on the Lake:

Check out the second place, third place, and runner-up entries here! Congratulations, everyone!

Mestrovic Pavilion

Matija Grguric’s rendition of this Croatian landmark is simply gorgeous. I’m in love with the smoothness and sense of grace in this structure.

Wingham Red

Over on Flickr, Space2310 has posted an excellent new ship, the Wingham Red. It’s a little light on description right now, so I can’t be sure if it’s a fighter or racer or something else, but that hardly matters.

The curved shaping on the front of this sucker is just beautiful. Sometimes the gaps created when making curved shapes like this bother me, but this ship manages to look elegant. The sticker usage is also just right, not too many or too few in use.

The excitement doesn’t stop here, either. Check out the launch track for this thing.

This is what you look like...

….to someone not from here. Da Eart, by Cole Blaq, is freaking me out. I keep looking in the mirror to see if this really what earthlings look like. I think I’m getting there.

Here’s your third chance to control the action

Keith Goldman presents his third You Control the Action Contest with a unique twist. The theme of the contest is “a celebration of minorities in sci-fi,” which prompts you to think beyond the ordinary yellow minifig and come up with new situations involving the misrepresented, misfits, mavericks, Mace Windu, and in simple terms – the minority. Click on the banner below to read the details of the contest to see if you’re up to this interesting challenge.

Three-score barrels of powder below / To prove old England’s overthrow

Even though today is Guy Fawkes Day, I do not recommend burning this CubeDude effigy built by Paul Lee (polywen):

LEGO does, after all, give off a rather acrid smell when burnt…

Nightmare, the flaming stallion

It’s not easy to build realistic creatures in LEGO on a small scale, but midnightcat have skillfully created a flaming stallion called Nightmare. I really like the use of the new flame pieces for the mane.

This castle is so big...

…we can’t fit it all in one picture. If you’re familiar with your castle builders, you’ll instantly recognize this as a creation by Daniel Z. As I was looking closely at the castle, I noticed some interesting patterns on the sculpted rocks. Look closely and you’ll be amazed that not everything is studs-up. If you’re wondering what’s on the other side of the castle, you should check out the entire gallery.