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Yearly Archives: 2014
Ask a Lemur – “MOCs, LEGO and Prehensile Tails, oh my!”
Hello again, friendly readers! It’s the TBB Intern Lemur here, ready and willing to answer your questions about LEGO, the fan community and The Brothers Brick!
Sorry for the delay. I will be trying to write these posts every Monday morning, if my workload allows. The contributors generally sleep late on Mondays, to recover from the weekend, and that gives me a chance to catch up. Today it was even quieter than usual because Andrew is off on his yacht, doing some research on penguins for the next TBB collaborative build. Oh, that reminds me, some of you asked about his car. Apparently I’m not allowed to talk about Master Andrew’s personal possessions on here any more. Which will be hard because there are a lot of them. He probably won’t be happy that I mentioned the yacht. Let’s keep that between ourselves, shall we? The other reason it is quieter around here right now is that Iain is off on a Wingsuit Tour of the French Pyrenees. He’ll be back in a few days. Anyway, on to the questions! A couple of these are from our contact form and some are from the comments on last week’s post. Here we go!
What is a MOC?
MOC is an acronym that stands for My Own Creation. It generally refers to anything that you make from your own imagination that isn’t an official set. Some people use it as a word (sounds like ‘mock’) and other people just say the letters (EM-OH-SEE). Either one is correct. The catch is that the thing you build has to be made from LEGO. I once made something here in the office and showed everyone my “MOC”. They were not impressed and told me to clean it up. That is when I discovered that only things you make from LEGO are called MOCs.
What is the correct way to refer to LEGO bricks?
There is a lot of debate about this. The LEGO company would like you to capitalize the word “LEGO” and refer to bricks as “LEGO building bricks” or “LEGO elements” and not to use the term “LEGO” as a generic term for their product. Some people pluralize the word into “Legos” and for many hard-core fans this is heresy. No, seriously, they really flip out. You should try it at a big fan convention some time. The LEGO grammar police come out of the woodwork. Scared the MOC right out of me the first time I saw it. Regardless of how you refer to them, we should stop arguing about it and just build with the yummy little things!
Can you build with your tail?
Of course. What else would I use? However, sad to say, most lemurs cannot build with their tails, as their tails are not prehensile. Sorry, but that is a myth! I’m actually the only lemur that has one. Chris thinks it has something to do with my diet of TBB mail, which might also account for the color. Hmm, I’ll have to think about that.
Well, that is all for today. I have other work to do and Miss Caylin is giving me the ‘eye’. Oh, yes, I have news! I have been given some Brothers Brick loot to share with you! If I use your question in next week’s post, I will contact you and send you a little Lemur love in the mail. Don’t worry, no MOCs. Have a great week and remember…the lemur cares.
A. Lemur
Warhammer 40K tank on a roll
In the spirit of that old Imperial saying, Victory is achieved through mettle. Glory is achieved through metal, comes this beast of a tank. The Vindicator will stop at nothing to crush its opponents, and flickr user Slnine has done a bang-up job with this LEGO version. While the builder is careful to point out that he took inspiration from some previous models, his version is still super cool and quite a feat.
Looking sleek in orange and green
Greek Shadow Art
David Smith Alexander has been working on a series of Greek Shadow Art and they are truly unique. While they look simple, telling a story with all black figures in silhouette is not easy. Doing it with LEGO makes it even harder.
Spaceman Blues
Vince Toulouse is a master at building curved shapes out of Lego, a consistently difficult feat. His latest spacecraft combines his curved style with a vertical axis to make something that feels properly alien. The variety of manipulator arms at the bottom cement the otherworldly vibe.
Diplomacy
This lovely scene by Tim Schwalf is packed with really nicely planned details. The wainscotting and trophy heads are a great touch but I think my favorite bits are the hat and scarf on the coat rack.
Can it make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs?
While at first glance this ship by Davor Davor may look like the Millenium Falcon, it is actually a lesser known ship called the YV-545 light freighter. This creation spans 85 x 64 x 20 studs and uses about 3,700 pieces.
Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum
Brother Steven artfully captures the moment a home intruder breaks in and steals the owner’s valuables, before subsequently escaping and murdering the wronged homeowner. I never quite got the moral of that story.
I particularly like the expression on the giant’s face in the picture above, but be sure to check out the full shot for the fantastic details.
Micro-scale 18th Century Flotilla
Nerdvember 2014
Looking for inspiration to build? Want to build BrickNerd‘s Nerdly in fantastical, horrific, or otherwise normal situations? BrickNerd is running Nerdvember 2014, giving you a chance to win some excellent prizes.
I wanted to show you some of my favorites so far:
Nerdly’s Cube by Jimmy (6kyubi6)
Fiesta by Pistash
Spider Nerdly by Gregory Coquelz
Nerdly wears many hats, apparently. And costumes.
Entries are due by Nov. 30, 11:59 pm PST. You can read more of the rules here.
Triumph Scrambler Motorcycle
It’s been awhile seen we seen a bike here, so I was thrilled when Stephan Jonsson built this wonderful motorcycle:
The Triumph Scrambler is combination of off road dirt bike and cruiser, with the beefed up suspensions and tyres. The build is accurate to the source material and is recreated fantastically with bricks. I loved how he’s able to shape body of the motorcycle, while adding just the right amount of details in the engine block. But what really impressed me is that the shell and seat can be removed to reveal the sweet underbody:
