Monthly Archives: August 2010

From the unknown chasms of space

…comes my latest creation, a ship called Broken Regret. I strove for an ominous and organic looking craft by incorporating curves and spikes (best viewed on black). The result is something that looks much better in real life than on photos. This is due to the curves of the ship distorting our perception of its true shape and size (I had to do a lot of lens adjustments in Photoshop). Hopefully you’ll see what I mean when I post more pictures and a video in the upcoming days.

On another note, I want to mention that there are some incredible sellers on Bricklink who sent me last-minute parts to complete the ship at practically no cost. I’ve encountered many of you over the years, you know who you are, thank you.

Fice!

Fire&Ice

Aaron Amatnieks (akama1_lego) had a lot of transparent LEGO, a water pump and some light bricks lying around. This is the strangely mesmerising result. I particularly love ‘ice’ but they both look great animated.

Army men assemble!

When Lego released 7595 Army Men on Patrol, Alex Schranz (Orion Pax) saw it as his calling to build something with them. And built he did. This diorama features several cool green vehicles contrasted nicely with the dark tan base.

Cover version Kaneda

BiJ Cyberpunk teaser

One of the advantages of cover version LEGO is that it allows us to blog older models with fresh pictures. Aaron Dayman recently posted his variants on Adam Grabowski’s (misterzumbi) motorbike from the 1988 film Akira. Adam’s version is many years old as are my instructions for it (much older than the 1×1 brick with stud on side).

And it’s entirely possible this was blogged when it was new but that’s a long, long time ago.

3LUG Presents: Total Eclipse of the Xenogenetic Heart

My buddy Nick Kappatos and I once again teamed up to build for BrickFair. We can’t seem to tear ourselves away from crashed alien space ships as a subject, though I think we managed to change things up enough.

This year, we’re bringing the viewer to a bizarre sector of the sea. A shaman stands atop of the island, invoking the mysteries of the sea. Sea monsters emerge, as a UFO crashes into the ocean. Meanwhile, other inhabitants of the island battle to contain a monster escaping from a cage at the base of the mountain.

This year, Nick and I wanted to do something different, so we went to the sea. We also incorporated lights into this display, official LEGO lights which flash behind the eyes of the skull. We’re hoping to open up this sea-based concept as a community build at BrickFair next year, so stay tuned for an announcement with a standard.

3LUG Presents: Total Eclipse of the Exogenetic Heart 01

What’s black and white...

and cool all over? It’s the SmgL-6 Cargo Shuttle by Huib Versteeg (spacie 11). This sort of lack-of-color scheme is something I’ve wanted to try for awhile myself, and it’s cool to see that it works. I’m also digging the shape of this thing (the engine pods are just right), and the excellent detailing in black up front.

The builder has also conquered a major photography obstacle. We can see the detail in the black bits, without the white being completely blown out.

SmgL-6 Cargo shuttle

Brickforge releases Centaurs! [News]

Recently, Brickforge released the latest of their custom “animals”…the mythical Centaur! I ordered some and I have to say that I love ’em. They are available in three colors (Tan, Brown, Dark Tan).

Custom Brickforge Centaur

Custom Brickforge Centaur

The minifigs of Oslo

I’ve got a real soft spot for realistic town dioramas and this LEGO version of a Norwegian city center has realism in spades. Built by members of Brikkelauget it’s had pride of place in the window of Riktige Leker toy shop in Oslo. The walls of the metro are a particular highlight for me. If I were a minifig I’d be pretty happy to live there.

What happens when you mess with the physics of it all?

Sam W. (-infomaniac-) answers that question with a brick rendition of the folding city from Inception. He built the model in three scales to achieve three levels of forced perspective. It’s like the dream in a dream thing but with Lego, yea.

Defeat at Gaza from DareDevils of the Desert

There’s no better builder than Brian Williams (BMW_Indy) when it comes to recreating scenes from Indiana Jones with Lego. This vignette depicts the failed British assault on Gaza in 1917 from The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. The smoke effect is the best I’ve seen at this scale.

LEGO Young Indiana Jones diorama

Build a Minifig-Mobile over at BCN [Contest]

Brick Comic Network (BCN)’s putting a new twist on the excitement over the Series Two Collectible Minifgures! They’re hosting a contest, where the challenge is to build a vehicle to suit the needs of one of the Series Two Minifigures.

All contest rules can be found here. The deadline for entries is 11:59pm CST on September 19, so get those vehicles built!

2020 Vision

SPACE 2020

Geoff Herndon (Tekka Croe) takes us to the near future with these wonderful space exploration vehicles from the year 2020. He “think(s) (he) managed to achieve a pretty realistic feel” and I certainly agree with that sentiment.