Imagine the finesse of Jerac‘s spaceship building skills applied to a massive model: the result is this over 2 meter long Imperial Star Destroyer. It is the only large model of the ISD built using the SNOT technique. The result is a super smooth design that hardly looks like a Lego creation. Check out more photos on Jeraec’s Flickr photostream.
Check out this amazing edit by Jerac’s friend Migalart
This landscape diorama by Patrick Massey (MassEditor) conveys a foreboding sense of emptiness and silence. The integration of the rocks and the tiered rise of the landscape is very skillfully made.
In the thirties, before WW2, many aircraft were biplanes, powered by propellers and built using wood and canvas seemingly held together with bits of string. Not long after the war, all-metal jet- and rocket-powered planes were flying near the speed of sound. These rapid developments did not happen without a lot of experimentation. Some of those experiments produced decidedly odd-looking aircraft. Lino Martins (Lino M) is mostly known for building slightly wacky cars, but he has now built one of those wacky experimental aircraft instead.
The aircraft in question is the Vought V-173, popularly known as the Flying Pancake. It was built to test the viability of building a fighter aircraft using a low-aspect wing. This was expected to deliver relatively low aerodynamic drag, but with good low-speed handling. The concept worked, but the fighter that it was to lead to, known as the XF5U-1 Flying Flapjack (I kid you not), was overtaken (literally) by more modern jet aircraft. The idea may not have been a success, but as far as I am concerned, Lino’s model is.
At first glance nothing seems out of the ordinary about this modern Japanese tram going about its business on the streets of Sapporo, Japan…
…until you realize it was built from LEGO! Flickr member 1103spa not only went the trouble of photographing the model “on site” in forced perspective, but also did a great job using stickers to complete the illusion. Here’s the reveal:
With Brickworld fast approaching, this means one thing for many of our younger readers: No more school!
While most students say they’re studying, Ordo has been working hard studying how his exams can be brick built. He celebrated each exam with a delightful little build:
Congrats Ordo!
Finding LEGO builds of iconic spaceship Serenity is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel these days. And Evan B (Lego Junkie) admits the same is probably true of it’s diminutive companion, the UCS MF-813 Flying Mule land speeder. Which is why his idea of building it to Miniland scale and adding all the characters is pure genius!
And for Firefly fans who just really wanna see the vehicle, here you go, since I know we don’t cover space stuff on this blog very often…
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada, USA for another round of Friday Night Fights! Tonight we’re going a bit cheesy – cheese wedges that is. Our contenders have been throwing around the cheese all month, posting a build a day using the humble Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3. Let’s go to the tale of the tape.
In the blue corner, we have Grant Davis who gives us a brilliant rendition of Chinese Checkers:
In the red corner, we have Eli Willsea who give us one of the coolest cheese wedge floor mosaics I’ve seen in awhile:
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding who’s the cheesier builder by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, Steampunk Rifles, Monster wins 9-1. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!
Dane Erland (Mechanekton) has been ladling out delicious servings of mecha goodness in a distinctly stubby and bulky style. The most recent of these has a name best not repeated in either polite or impolite company, so I’ll let the picture do the talking.
And harking back to a simpler time (aka four months ago), Dane posted this duo of deadly tin cans brimming with character.
In two weeks, AFOLs from around the world will be converging on the state of Illinois for Brickworld Chicago 2014 – the biggest, baddest, brickiest LEGO convention in the known universe!
The event takes place at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. The private AFOL convention runs from June 11th – 15th, while the public exhibitions are on Saturday 14th (10am – 4pm) and Sunday 15th (10am – 3pm). Tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Kids 3 and under get in free.
For AFOLs attending the event, there is a wealth of fun and games lined up for you as always. But for those only visiting during public hours, don’t be downhearted, you’ll have access to tons of vendors ready to sell you all kinds of sweet LEGO-related goodies (custom parts, custom sets, the list is endless). Or while you’re in the Schaumburg area, pay a visit to the LEGOLAND Discovery Center.
Our good friends over at Beyond the Brick will be on site to film all the action, including builder interviews and a walkthrough of the entire display. If you’d like to get a copy of their DVD as a keepsake, and perhaps score some other one-of-a-kind goodies as well, go support their Kickstarter project right now! $20 is all it takes to secure your copy.
In fact, as a run-up to this year’s event, Joshua and Matthew recently interviewed Brickworld founder Bryan Bonahoom. Check out the episode below to find out about the amazing story behind how the Brickworld franchise got started, and how Bryan and his team pull off four conventions in four cities every year!
The Brothers Brick will also be in attendance at Brickworld Chicago this year. Brothers Chris, Simon, Carter and Iain (that’s me!) will be there to take your abuse. I will also be live tweeting all of the shenanigans and goings-on, for your amusement. And we’ll be giving away some swag! But to get it, you’ll have to find us first, and then say the secret pass phrase ;-)
Amazon is currently having a buy one get one 40% off promotion that includes Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Star Wars and Castle themes. The promotion includes items already on sale. To qualify for the sale, you have to check out with just 2 items in your cart from the qualifying themes. The sale price will show up on the last page of check out. Below are some items worth noting and their sale price with the promotion applied:
LEGO Castle Forest Ambush ($6.39)
LEGO Star Wars Clone Troopers vs Droidekas 75000 ($8.63)
LEGO Star Wars AT-RT 75002 ($13.85)
LEGO Star Wars A-wing Starfighter 75003 ($15.35)
LEGO LOTR 79006 The Council of Elrond ($17.67)
LEGO Lord of the Rings 79012 Mirkwood Elf Army Building Kit ($20)
Lego Castle Dragon Mountain – 70403 ($34.63)
LEGO LOTR Battle at The Black Gate 79007 ($35.99)
LEGO Lord of the Rings 79014 Dol Guldur Battle ($41.26)
For no particular reason, here’s a second helping for today of some great character building from Russia. This time Dmitriy and Anna bring us this neat little model of every gamer’s favorite acerbic aristocratic adventurer, Lara Croft. And since the original game used third person perspective, it makes perfect sense that we get the reverse shot of Ms. Croft too, for old time’s sake.
There exists a small but vocal contingent of the adult fan community who look down upon Bionicle and its descendent Hero Factory, claiming that the pieces are juvenile, not useful, and altogether too different to mix with traditional bricks. I’ve never understood this train of thought. LEGO is about imagination, and the ability to successfully incorporate unusual elements into a model is generally viewed as positive. Besides, there are just so many cool things that can be done with Bionicle pieces, completely aside from building large poseable action figures.
Take, for instance, this wicked cool spaceship by Ricardo Soà. Incorporating both traditional bricks and pieces of Bionicle heritage, it’s menacing and awesome in a way that is fresh and new. It’s a welcome change of pace for a community which frequently sees the same styles again and again.
And since we’ve not featured Ricardo here before, it’s worth taking a peek at some of his other killer spacecraft.
