Yearly Archives: 2014

Lucifer’s Advocate – A Hot Rod to Hell

According to Lino Martins, he combined hot rod and steam engine in equal parts and sprinkled in a dash of black magic. When the thunder and lightning stopped and the earth ceased to shake, this wicked beast rolled out of the smoke and up to the curb.

I really dig this one. The locomotive motif, the color scheme and the steam-punk detailing all combine in a most excellent and cohesive way. One of my favorite touches is the open rib-work on the hood, showing off the spinning turbine. This is definitely another masterpiece from the Master.

Lucifer's Advocate

The top of the coach also opens to display the crushed red velvet interior.

Lucifer's Advocate

LEGO Star Wars 75060 Ultimate Collector’s Slave I [Review]

The good folks over at LEGO sent us an advance copy of the new flagship set for the ever-popular LEGO Star Wars line, 75060 Slave I. Ever since I first saw Star Wars Episode V, I’ve thought the Slave I was one of the coolest ships in the Star Wars fleet. A truly unique design for a spaceship (in 1980 when Empire released), the Slave I lies on its back for landing, but stands upright for flight, the cockpit and wings rotating to retain orientation. LEGO has released 4 previous minifig-scale versions of this ship, two for each color scheme from the new and old Star Wars trilogies, plus another five versions in smaller scales. So this new Slave I fittingly is the tenth version of the ship from LEGO, and is unquestionably the best.

iconicon

Make no mistake, this is a big set — a very big set for being minifig scale. The Slave I is a deceptively large ship, and LEGO’s previous minifig-scale versions have not done it justice. The very first Slave I (7144) released in 2000 was almost laughably small at 166 pieces, but I still harbor fond memories of it. The new 75060 Slave I clocks in with 1996 pieces and is almost 2 feet long from tip to tip.

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Ask A Lemur – Sorting, Joining a LUG & the Founding of the Blog

Merry Christmas, Dearest Readers!

It’s the TBB Lemur Intern here, once again, to answer your questions and be your window into the deepest, darkest reaches of the LEGO hobby. Well, that and candy canes, cookies and all the other yummy bits that people keep leaving about. Such a scrumptious time of year! I’m loving everybody! Caylin let me lick the bowl after she made her world famous fudge and Ralph needed a guinea pig for his egg-nog experiment. I said I didn’t know any guinea pigs so he said I would have to do. It was really yummy! Not sure what the experiment was, but as long as he turns out delicious nog, I’m happy.

Oh, I have a bit of news. There is now a Lemur button on the sidebar! If you want to ask me a question, just click on it and leave a comment in the most recent ‘Ask A Lemur’ post. There is also a bit of delay in the Lemur Loot. Once it gets here, the mail room gnomes will gather all the addresses and get caught up on the backlog.

On to your questions!

How do you sort your Lego collection? And what ways of sorting have you found work best for which styles of building?

That is a great question! It is also not an easy question to answer because everyone sorts a little bit differently. There are two main ways though. Sorting by color and sorting by piece. Many fans first begin by sorting their collections by color.

The problem with that is once all your pieces are in bins of the same color, it is really hard to pick out the pieces you need because everything sort of blurs together. So most builders then move onto some version of sorting by piece. The problem there is that there are so many different pieces you can spend the rest of your life sorting your collection in the various pieces.

A good way to start is to do what many call a “rough sort”. Figure out what kinds of pieces you use most and separate them from the mass of pieces you don’t use. Then you can sort those into similar categories. If you have a lot of the same pieces, you might want to sort those by color. Some do and some don’t. I’m sure other readers will chime in and talk about the specifics of how they sort.

Personally, I sort my collection by taste. It takes a very keen set of taste buds but it’s totally worth it.

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Fjollum Great Hall – Inside and Out

This medieval pile has rather unique walls. This technique is most often used for floors but Isaac S. has done a great job of incorporating it into the exterior walls of this hall. But the features of this model do not stop there. Isaac has built a very believable interior into it as well. I really like the cheese-slope mosaic, featuring the coat-of-arms, on the lower floor.

It’s a good weekend for tanks

Christmas is in the air, colored lights and holiday shoppers everywhere… It just makes me want to jump into a 60 ton tracked vehicle and go defend Poland. Forget nativity scenes; all I want for Christmas is a massive diorama of the North African Campaign.

Marin Stipkovic posts this beefy Eastern Bloc design, based on a 1948 prototype;

IS-7

From the same time period but opposite weight class, Intense Potato shares this teensy M3 Stuart;

The East comes roaring back with Nick’s slightly futurized T-90;

T-90

But he runs headlong into Alex Zelov‘s Somers-style Abrams;

Abrams Update

And finally, a blast from the past, Jeffrey Mille shares this adorably twee FT 17 from the Great War;

Minifig Customization – The Purist Way

Pete Reid has decided to show us the actual process behind the creation of the green classic spacepeople! Okay, not really. When I realized that he had recreated the most common tools and supplies for minifig customization all out of LEGO, I had to laugh. It is really well constructed and very realistic looking. I’m super impressed with the cutting mat and the handles on the knife and paintbrushes.

Not just another spaceship

I love this latest by Alexander Safarik (Malydinar), the inaccurately titled Just Another Spaceship. It’s a densely textured greeblefest, with more guns than your average side scrolling shoot-em-up. I particularly like the wide variety of colors; using bright splashes sparingly on an otherwise grey-and-white ship has a fantastic effect.

Just Another Spaceship

Alex has been churning out awesome spaceships lately; here are a couple more that we missed.

Project X

It’s nice seeing some conscious use of studs in a subgenre that’s been inclined toward smooth-hulled ships lately. While some aren’t fans of the ‘Lego-y’ look, it still has a nice effect when used deliberately.

BAC Speeder

Baba Yaga and her Chicken-Legged Hut

Captainsmog presents a wonderfully illustrated scene, telling the story of Baba Yaga and her chicken-legged hut. There are many versions of the fairy tale, and like any good story, the details are where the weirdness begins. Is there one Baba Yaga? Three? Why do all of these stories involve cannibalism?

I invite you to look long and hard at this wonderfully constructed witch’s hut and check out the wonderful details.

Chicken-legged hut

Aerial Arena – The more you look, the more you are drawn in

You have to check out the domed roof on this lovely building by Pete Strege. The curve of the roof is so perfectly smooth, I can’t believe it. So very, very nice. But I also really like the colors of the building and the overall architectural style. It reminds me a lot of Vista House, an observatory that my wife and I used to visit in the Columbia Gorge.

Medieval Mountain Bobsledding

This winter scene, by mrcp6d is a ton of fun. To begin with, the landscaping and snowbanks are perfect. That isn’t easy to do and it gives this model a great foundation. But it is the posing of the minifigs that really sells this build. The grim vikings as they lose, the celebrating of the winners and their fans and the total dejection of the bare-armed woman (isn’t she cold?) as she watches her team come in last really make this scene come alive. It’s too bad bobsledding wasn’t invented until the 1870s because it would have been a great medieval sport!

Mountain Bobsled Racing 2

A Song of Fire and Ice: Houses of Westeros

If there is one group of fans who have mastered the waiting game, it’s fans of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. I was six when Game of Thrones was released; I may be retired before the seventh one hits publication. The epic series asks the ultimate question: who will sit on the iron throne?

Flickr user Omar Ovalle (Omar+Kazumi Ovalle) posted the words and emblems for some of the houses involved in the bloody struggle. These were posted over the summer, and hopefully will help the wait until Season 5 of HBO’s Game of Thrones in the spring.

House Targaryen

Click the links to see some of your favorite house below; just remember to avoid getting too attached. They may not survive the next book.

House Baelish
House Baratheon
House Bolton
House Frey
House Greyjoy
House Lannister
House Martell
House Stark
House Tully
House Tyrell

A Chunky Hunk of Mechanical Destruction

Devid VII is responsible for this hard-hitting, death-dealing exo-suit. I really like the chunkiness of the suit and the color scheme makes it stand out. In the current pose, it looks like one of those rockets might blow off his own arm, but that’s the chance you take, right? Overall, I think it is an outstanding build. Very nicely done.

S.G. Bombardier