This giant Buzz goes to infinity and beyond.
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Actually this giant Buzz, by Johnny Tang is very well done. The articulation, the sand-green highlights, the square-jawed chin. The green army men are just icing on the cake. Woody doesn’t stand a chance against this space toy!
Edit: I posted this earlier and missed the fact that much of the sand-green and lime green is MegaBloks. There may be other MegaBloks that I have missed as well. What is your opinion of creations that use clone brands? Personally, I feel the accomplishment is cheapened. What are your thoughts?
The sand green highlights are my least favorite parts, actually. They look to be Megabloks.
^Dang it. I think you’re right. This builder is known for doing that and I missed it. Good catch.
I, like most AFOLs out there, really dislike the inclusion of Megablocks in most any MOC. Usually that’s because they “cheating” in a way, getting around problems we’d have to face otherwise with clever techniques, etc. I mean there’s also the abysmal quality of the bricks, but that’s another matter. Anyway I actually don’t mind them here. Why? Because they don’t play any significant structural role, they’re for the most part normal LEGO pieces that just didn’t come in sand green. If it’s due to getting around LEGO’s deficient color palette and not getting around structural difficulties then I don’t see any harm in it.
I wouldn’t do it of course, but that’s because you’d never catch me buying the brand in the first place :P
When a new set comes out, everyone says, “Wow, look at (X new piece)! That will be great for (Y use)!”
Do you think its cheating to use newer LEGO pieces? If not, then you’re just being a fanboy.
Fail MOC is full of fail and the crushed dreams of orphans.
I have no problem with off brand bricks being used. Personally I don’t like them, but a toy is a toy. It’s an artistic choice whether to limit yourself to only one type of paint, canvas, clay, film, or ink. Why is the choice whether to limit yourself to one brand of brick any different.
Steve Barille’s Japanese Garden won Best of Show at BrickCon 2009 and it prominently used MegaBlocks for the large stone wall at one end. The rounded, uneven, inconsistently colored blocks made for an excellent looking ancient stone wall.
As a toy, or collectible it certainly makes sense to have brand loyalty, but as an art medium I think it’s silly to view others’ works that incorporate other brands as somehow being less than a purely Lego work.
That said, I do prefer to use only Lego bricks, and I generally prefer creations that are purely Lego. Lego makes a better product and I still remember how disappointed I was as a kid when someone got me Lock Blocks instead of Legos. I think using only Lego forces one to be more creative with how they use the bricks, but when I look at another person’s work, I try to look at what they’ve accomplished as an artist more than what brand of plastic self-locking brick they used.
“Do you think its cheating to use newer LEGO pieces? If not, then you’re just being a fanboy.”
Well Marc, I think there is a distinction there ;) To me, it’s like…say you’re playing a game. The company then releases an expansion that lets you do something you couldn’t do before…unless you used say a cheating device to do it. I think officially expanding the parts available is a great thing (hell I’m very supportive of the LEGO wishlist group on Flickr!), but if we’re just taking parts from clones that really weren’t meant to go with what we’re building and are just a quick and easy way around a problem…then personally I prefer not to.
You have to understand that it’s all personal opinion. And of course there is the fact of quality differences :P
It doesn’t really bother me when people use off brand parts– I can absolutely see why, I had this off-brand tank (maybe MB) that had a little sergeant minifigure with articulated limbs and more easily removable hands, and it was my favorite minifig for years– but in cases where the builder might have used Lego instead, I wish they had done so. It looks like Johnny Tang could have used Lego in this build. I still rank his Hellboy MOC as one of the best Lego maxi-figure creations, though.
Also, about this: “Do you think its cheating to use newer LEGO pieces? If not, then you’re just being a fanboy.” I’d like to say that fans are excited by the new pieces *because* they can be used in the clever techniques that Starwars4J prefers. At least, that’s my view on the matter.
The creation is still neat… but -1 for mixing of brands. I’m a LEGO purist at heart. I don’t mind unusually ways to connect, and I like “customized minifigs”, since I *know* they are customized… but otherwise, I like pure LEGO.
I’m also in the majority who won’t buy MegaBloks, but I own some. When MegaBloks had the Batman license, my then-girlfriend got me one of the MegaBloks Batman sets and I treasure that set to this day — for being both a brick-based Batman and a really thoughtful gift.
But to say, “Hey, he cheated, it’s not all Lego!”? That just seems bizarre. You like it or you don’t, and you’re welcome to dislike it for for using non-Lego bricks, but what if it incorporated non-brick elements, like glued-on googly eyes or something?
And do you think there’s some MegaBloks board where commentators are saying, “Hey, no fair! He cheated by using Lego!”?
I am not a fan of MegaBloks at all. They are a cheap clone brand, and the bricks don’t combine with the structural integrity that LEGO is known for. I loath having all these MegaBloks bricks mixed in my LEGO collection, and as they are a different shade and texture from my LEGO bricks, it annoys me greatly. There are way too many custom elements in MegaBlocks, and it ruins the creativity of use LEGO builders.
This also applies to some recent elements; they also degrade the creativity of us LEGO builders. Take the linear actuator for example; before, there was only systems combined regular gears with worm gears; but then LEGO came out with the custom element, and that prevented builders from using the creative methods.
I am against MegaBloks, but I say that doing it just for the color is not cheating. However, doing it for the shape or functionality definately cheating.
I’m going to go ahead and say something that nobody wants to say, but I think is probably true and needs to be said. It doesnt matter. Josh posted this and praised it and complimented it and then when he found it it used non-LEGO building blocks he said that the accomplishment was cheapened. It doesnt matter. I don’t care how biased you guys are to someone who used something non-LEGO, this guy just built a fantastic, inventive creation and nobody is looking at anything past the, like 20! non-LEGO bricks he used. He could have done the exact same thing with regular LEGO bricks using the exact same design as the one he used with Megablocks.
It’s a well-known fact that Megablocks could never make a new, inventive, design-helpful brick unless LEGO had already came out with one. So what’s the big deal?
Forget the demn megablocks, it doesnt matter!
To get back on topic, I think this is fantastic! The entire thing is well-sculpted, especially the head, which must have been difficult to get right. I also like the armymen, they are…. superb.
^I’m not biased against the person who made this. That’s silly. And you didn’t say something that “nobody wants to say”. There’s no elephant in this room.
Yes, the MOC is very good, but the same effect could have been accomplished without using MegaBloks. This builder obviously feels differently and that’s fine. But I don’t have to like it.
^Perhaps he doesnt own enough LEGO sand green peices and Megabloks was his only option?
^This comment isn’t relevant. Using that argument, we should post every 7 year old and their rainbow creations, since they don’t have enough bricks or years in yet.
The issue lies in giving the same amount of “credit” to something that uses MegaBloks as something that doesn’t. I have no problems with you being fine with MegaBloks. I, however, am not.
^It’s about using what you do have that makes a creation good, and he has Megabloks, which he put to excellent use. However, most of the people here can’t seem to get past that.
….Sigh…
I’m done.