Ever wondered what a steampunk SWAT team bust would look like? Well, I think it might look a little something like this charmingly titled diorama by Logan (captaininfinity), “The Grand Arrest of Professor Filius Bertram.” It’s not every day we get a cool steampunk diorama that includes an airship, a tank, and a legged vehicle, all of which come together with the help of copious quantities of earth-toned elements.
Forest King (KingBrick) has finally unveiled his most massive build yet, the 4 foot long Kingfisher. Forest has employed many of his signature techniques to great effect here, with faded white bricks and chunky paneling all lending a sense of extreme durability and resilience. The mix of colors is particularly nice, with orange, red and yellow highlights accentuating the tan, white and grey color scheme and giving an industrial feel to the design.
After over 10 years in flight, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta space probe today arrived at it’s target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And builder Stefan Schindler decided to commemorate the event by recreating it in LEGO! Not only did he do a splendid job on the probe, he even managed to capture the bizarre shape of the comet as well.
Stefan has entered his creation in the ESA’s official #RosettaAreWeThereYet photo contest. So LEGO fans should head over there and VOTE FOR IT NOW! (Entries are piling up so you may have to search for it on the second or third page).
I remember getting a used M:Tron set as a kid and discovering how awesome magnetism is, and how I wanted to learn where magnets came from. Thanks to Blake Foster and his M:Tron Magnet Factory, I finally know the answer:
Not only has Blake created an inspired M:Tron base and stunning landscaped base, but he’s added a monorail and some really impressive movement which you can see in the following video:
I was able to see this incredible creation this past weekend at BrickFair Virginia, where it took the Best Space trophy (check out the time-lapse setup video). I sat down with Blake to get the details on his layout:
TBB: With all the classic LEGO space themes or even other pop culture references why did you choose M:Tron as a theme for your build?
BF: It’s part nostalgia and part obscurity. I loved M:Tron as a kid, and yet it doesn’t get all that much attention from the AFOL community. Compared to Neo-Blacktron or Neo-Classic-Space, M:Tron is a rarity. That obscurity can be a good thing, though, because there are more opportunities to do something original. I really wanted to make something unique, so M:Tron seemed like a good theme to do it in.
TBB: With something of this size, 4 x 6 baseplates (192 x 128 studs), how long did it take you to build?
BF: I started toying with ideas for this project 4-5 years ago. I was in grad school at the time, though, and didn’t have the budget to complete it. I started working in earnest two years ago. By my best guess, it took about 3,000 hours of building, 462 Bricklink orders and I would estimate 100,00 bricks. Here is an early work in progress image of the build:
Read more about Blake’s M:Tron Magnet Factory →
It’s time for some awesome Bionicle. Behold the great green dragon Zaldrīzes by Mitch (Gamma-Raay). He looks like he’s about to leap up into the air and swoop off with a roar.
I like the rear shot above because it showcases the dragon’s white spine, the Ninjago sails, and the sawtoothed tail so well, but the front view of Zaldrīzes is no less formidable. The light blue fringe on the skull also ties in beautifully with the tip of the dragon’s tail.
While we’re at it, Mitch also proves that you can build a pretty awesome spaceship from Bionicle, too! Annapurna is from last year’s SHIPtember (which I’m sure we’ll be hearing about quite a lot over the next couple of months).
Paul T. goes old-school with this brick-built organic tank. The well-known Ankylosaurus may be an herbivore, but with armor plating and built in weapon in its tail, it’s spoiling for a fight. Paul’s clever creation incorporates the new inverted 2×2 dome brilliantly to comprise the armor plating. This is just the sort of awesome creation we want to see at our ChronCon display at Brickcon, where we even have a category for Fiercest Fighting Dinosaur!
Microscale and space colonies are a match made in the heavens. Karf Oohlu’s Colony Base Omega may be fighting for life on a foreign world, but it does so with panache. This slick modular sci-fi outpost looks fresh off the mothership and ready to get some terra formed.
In a city that never sleeps, only one superhero knows how to get things done. That superhero is Unibat! Or is it Battikitty? Well, whatever you call this adorable hybrid by Melanie F., it’s awesome. Built to the same scale as her other giant Unikitty versions (Seasick Unikitty is my favorite), Melanie’s Unikitty army is well poised for Unikitty dominance.
Here, Melanie poses with her original Unikitty for scale.
Last Thursday night, LEGO.com was so overloaded that many of us weren’t able to get through to order the new LEGO Ideas Exo Suit. My own order got stuck, but the good people at LEGO unstuck it without my even having to call them. Nice!
The experience was memorable enough for Rob D. (agaethon29) that he commemorated it with this little scene.
And in case you missed it, we really are giving away a copy of the set, lightly customized by our own talented Simon (your choice of his custom model or the set’s disassembled parts). Head on over and leave a comment to enter the raffle.
BrickCon 2014 is less than two months away — October 2nd through 5th in Seattle. Each year, starting with Zombie Apocafest 2008 and continuing through Big in Japan and Numereji 2421, The Brothers Brick sponsors a collaborative display for our readers. After five continuous years, we took a break last year, but we’re back this year with “ChronoCon 10,000 BC.”
The basic idea of ChronoCon is that it’s a convention for time travelers and time travel enthusiasts. We were inspired last year by the release of the official Back to the Future DeLorean and the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, but the great thing about a convention for time travelers is that it can be held any time! So, you know, we’re not a year behind schedule after all…
Chaos and anarchy are built into the underlying theme, so please don’t expect a lot of guidelines from us — the whole point is to get creative. We do expect intersecting timelines, anachronisms, and paradoxes, so the parking lot outside the ChronoCon venue will likely have multiple DeLoreans and a variety of TARDISes (bonus points for not arriving in a DeLorean or TARDIS).
That said, we have three very broad guidelines that will help pull the overall display together:
Here are the prize categories (subject to change, addition, and our whim):
There’s a ChronoCon 10,000 BC group on Flickr, where you can see photos we’ve collected so far of LEGO models consistent with the general idea, as well as discussion threads.
If you haven’t registered yet for BrickCon, do it now. And then get building!
Lino M. remains one of my favorite automobile builders, churning large-scale cars each month as part of LUGNuts challenges. For last month’s challenge, Lino built a Rolls-Royce Phantom II from the 1930s. The clean, elegant lines look like they’re ready to carry a Rockefeller or Carnegie to an evening at the Metropolitan Opera.
A good indication of a builder’s talent is that he or she attracts the attention of several of our contributors separately. When I first bookmarked this scene by Rickard and Helen, I hadn’t noticed yet that it was the same team that had built the despots and notables (posted by Carter), the South Park characters (posted by Ralph), or one of the top three BRICKNADO winners chosen by all of us.
It’s actually not unusual for a Town layout at a LEGO convention to have a trailer park on the edge (demonstrating that Town builders do, in fact, have a sense of humor), but it’s rare to see such a lovely trailer or range of amusing detail.
