Monthly Archives: September 2013

Herakles, Herakles, Heracles!

One great thing to come out of the collectible minifig craze has been a renewed effort by builders to capture ancient Greece in all its mythological splendor. The latest builder to capitalize on the available cast of characters is mihaimmariusmihu who brings to life one of the labors of Herakles; the rescue of Prometheus from his eternal torture chained to a rock at the foot of Kazbek Mountain. The admittedly few sources I checked indicated that this particular labor was not one of the original 12, but was sort of an extended adventure. I’m sure Hesiod and Aeschylus would agree, however, that this is a great diorama with bold colors and classical details, even if the gang of minotaurs seems a little odd. Unfortunately this is one of the few times I was hoping for a back-story or explanation of some kind, the builder doesn’t have much to say on Flickr. Perhaps this posting will coax him out.

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Tomb of Swords

The title of our next featured model sounds more like the name of a module from Dungeons & Dragons, filed right next to “Shrine of the Kuo-Toa” or “Queen of the Demonweb Pits”….not that I would know anything about such a dorky game. The diorama was designed by lisqr, who really shows a mastery of how to compose a shot here. The purists among you need not fear, the swords are stuck in the gaps between log-bricks and do not appear to be cut, glued, or otherwise mangled. One of my initial reactions was to admire the builder’s choice of having only one minifig present in the expansive scene, it really adds to the desolate feeling of the diorama. You can’t actually see him in this photo, he’s just off-screen to the left, but you can get a better view in lisqr’s full set. This shot just appealed to me the most, even with the ghostly light-switch in the background it’s a critical hit!

Drifting Shield and friends

Anto-nio returns to the Brothership by appealing to my love of all things VTOL, but this time he doesn’t have to share a roundup style posting. Not only is the “Drifting Shield” VTOL quite pleasing to the eye with its broadly sloping surfaces and groovy textures, but the builder has also included a couple of ground vehicles at no extra charge. The jeep is especially nice but the effect of all three is more than the sum of its parts. It almost looks like an entire toy-line based on a summer blockbuster. I would say it looks like an official Lego theme, but there is no incarceration facility or tiny diorama with some kind of trap-door.

Olive paint is in fashion

I’ve seen several olive green sci-fi creations, but this is the first time I’ve seen an olive green house built by Tim Inman. Contrasted with the dark red foliage, it makes for quite a cozy place to live.

“A Belfast Story”

It’s time to celebrate the success of one of our own, constant reader, a 15 year veteran of the hobby known far and wide as Nathan Todd who’s first feature film has just today hit the big-screens in the UK. No it has nothing to do with Lego, but when a cherished member of our tribe makes good on this level I think it is incumbent upon us to raise our collective glass in celebration. I had the good fortune of meeting Nathan at Chicago’s BrickWorld back in 2010; he’s one of those characters you meet at a convention that makes an immediate and indelible impression, so much so that I jumped at the chance to pimp his film. However, in an attempt to appease concerned parties I’ve included a couple of outstanding Irish themed models at the end of this shameless advertisement. IMDB provides the plot synopsis:

“A BELFAST STORY” explores life after terrorism. Set in a city which has weathered hundreds of years of hatred, 30 years of bombs and a war without winners, just victims. A new era brings new risks. There is peace, but that can also be deadly.”

Some of you with proper nerd credentials will recognize the film’s star Colm Meany, but there is also considerable talent behind the scenes. According to Mr. Director:

“We had some amazing good fortune in not only being one of the first projects (in any field) to bring together contributors from the two sides of our war torn city and have them work together, but also had some really amazing Hollywood lads throw in their skills to bring what would otherwise be a very local story up to the big screen. (The crew has 24 Oscar Nominations between them, take a look through the production notes if you want a good laugh about just which high powered lads will give in and help you if you annoy them enough.)“.

The film has not been released in the U.S. as of this posting, so I don’t have an official rating to pass on but given the subject matter and the trailer, it wouldn’t be appropriate for young kids or sensitive mankinder. If it helps your appreciation of the film at all, Nathan did specifically mention that he thought building Lego dioramas payed off while working on the project. If you’re interested in seeing the film and supporting Nathan, head over to the official Facebook page.

Now on to the Lego related portion of the post.

First up is the beautiful “Survivors of Trauma Lego Mosaic” by Alyska Bailey Peterson. According to the builder “based on the stained glass window “Survivors of Trauma” at the St Silas Church in North Belfast, Ireland. The original window was designed by Alice McGuinness of Ogham Gallery. The Survivors of Trauma Center was established in 1995 to assist those affected by the troubles in North Belfast, and help them transition from victims to survivors, empowering the community to become vibrant once again.”

And we end our brief survey with is the stately “Kildare Station” by Dfenz and photographed by Duq.

Best of luck Nathan and congratulations from the tribe.

Goobers

That’s right, Goobers, from our mutual friend Chris Maddison. Here is how it goes: Yellow Goober tells a joke at the expense of Red Goober and hilarity ensues! Welcome to the weekend.

Welcome to the weekend.

Friday Night Fights (Round 21)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another heart-stopping edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout features two hungry SHIPwrights caught in the digital nets of Simon Liu’s month long challenge known as SHIPtember. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from Dutch Moonbase Mission Control…”Psycho” sky4walker and his “Proteus“.

And fighting out of the blue corner, from somewhere between heaven and hell…”Dangerous” Disco86 and his “FB 21 – Freighter Class Botany”

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle of minimalism, David Alexander Smith dispatched his opponent with a score of 4-2. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

Cool Scandinavian Scania

Many European truck lovers have a soft spot for the Scania brand. In some ways its reputation in Europe is comparable to that of a brand such as Kenworth in the US; they’re driven by proper truckers rather than by mere truck drivers. They are also popular among customizers, and Scandinavian custom trucks stand out, with lots of chrome and airbrush artwork. Truck builder extraordinaire Dennis Glaasker (bricksonwheels) has recreated this typical Scandinavian custom look in his latest Scania model.

This behemoth is more than 1.5m (5 ft.) long and remote controlled with Power Functions. The spectacular airbrush artwork, with a Pirates of the Caribbean theme, was made with a custom sticker and Dennis uses non-standard chromed pieces, with a very cool result.

Galidor Returns!

Angus MacLane (MacLane) brings us an awesome hardsuit, with a Galidor twist. He’s combined a great model with one of the worst things ever made by Lego. When he hears that Galidor was canceled, he’ll be crying himself to sleep on his colossal pillow.

Can you outsmart the black box?

Jason Allemann (True Dimensions) has been imbuing LEGO EV3 Mindstorms with a snarky personality in the form of this black box. You’ll just have to watch the video to see what it does.

For those of you who’d like to build your own black box, Jason has provided instructions on his website.

Moko Under a Silvery Moon

I guess September is the month of Moko. He continues his streak of amazing builds with the Silver Moon, a gorgeous mecha covered in silver and gold elements. It’s hard to pull off a complete look when certain colors are limited to a few element types. Well, hard for the rest of us mere mortals, clearly not hard for a master like Moko.

Autobots are go!

Sometimes a model doesn’t need to be hugely complicated or full of wonderfully clever new connections of parts to be great, although there is definitely some clever stuff going on here if you look closely.

If, like me, you grew up watching cartoons in the eighties, the Autobot logo built by Jason Alleman (True Dimensions) really needs no further explanation. If you want to build your own (and you know you want to), you can even download instructions from Jason’s own website.