Another exciting bout of the Iron Builder contest has just concluded over on Flickr. Brazilian builder Gilcelio Chagas and Indonesian builder Kosmas Santosa battled it out to see who could make best use of the chosen seed part: dark blue half domes. Kosmas ultimately triumphed, but both builders churned out some great MOCs during the month-long contest. Below is just a small sample, in no particular order. Can’t wait to see who they match up for the next round!
Well, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a lot of groovy Mad Max Colon Fury Road builds popping up on our radar this week. Here is the “gigahorse”, excellently rendered in LEGO by alex & milo. I wish I could tell you more about the gigahorse, but I haven’t seen the movie yet and wanna avoid running into any spoilers (…and I suspect the longer I put if off, the harder that’s gonna be!)
Build for the Kaliphlin Civil War challenge over the course of four months, this latest breathtaking creation by Guilds of Historica veteran Patrick Massey is called Al Amarj Island. There seems to be something interesting going on in almost every nook and cranny of this diorama. Multiple styles of architecture and vegetation all seem intricately woven together, and the rock archway looks very natural. Outstanding! When can I book my vacation there?
Yub nub! Eee chop yub nub. Ku chana ma hawata. Heranda vototo tesh, horoway mana wattu, Bruce Lowell wassay webba Wicket the Ewok. Ohss va tatta runday Darth Becraft, un chenko vas skeemo kea tuntdy Lowell Sphere. Een mannu machu stupid Jawas con yun num, oo tahbay. Toronto gosh. Master Liu hadt chiminay choo doo. Oto stupid George Lucas a chimany Return of the Jedi, wus nuch Becraft, lemur tiklo carbonite. Un na cachnu goobu sarlaac, oh, cow-oon, kinny chatu tomo monetha. Chaatu…
You’d have a hard time figuring out what iconic Simpsons locations were not included in the spectacular Springfield layout that Matt De Lanoy unveiled at Brickworld last year. But I guess Matt found a pretty significant one in the form of Homer’s gastronomic Mecca, the Lard Lad donut shop. Fortunately, he has now corrected this glaring oversight:
Kiwi builder David Hensel (who appropriately goes by the handle Legonardo Davidy) describes his take on the Vitruvian Minifig idea as a “study in mosaic making, SNOT, minifigure proportion, and endurance – and lots of tan cheese”. And the fact that David has been noodling on this mind-boggling mosaic on-and-off for two years comes as no surprise! I’m sure the Master himself would be impressed…
When, back in 1960, race car driver Paul Frère asked Enzo Ferrari what limited the top speed of his Ferrari 250TR at Le Mans, probably wondering whether the rather large and ungainly windscreen on said car had anything to do with this, Enzo replied that aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines.
More than 40 years later, the company Ferrari built the Enzo, named after its founder. This car’s shape was undoubtedly designed to be reminiscent of a Formula 1 car, with its V-shaped hood and front air intakes resembling a front wing, but I’m sure the designers spent a lot of time fiddling to get the aerodynamics right. A lot of things have changed since the sixties. Getting the shape of his car right has taken Nathanael L. a fair bit of fiddling too. This is his fourth attempt at building an Enzo and it just keeps getting better. I’m glad he stuck with it. I also think it’s particularly neat that, despite the complexity of its shape, just about everything on the model opens and the engine looks good too.
I haven’t seen the new Mad Max yet, but I’m certainly a fan of the original trilogy. Calin (_tiler) evokes memories of The Road Warrior with his Nomad. This thing is the epitome of minimalist, stripped down road-going power. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a stipped-down car rendered in LEGO. The use of flexible harness pieces as a frame is an inspired way to render the look of a simple cage.
Video gaming has become so dominated by ‘shooters’ that Nintendo finally decided to get in on the action. But in a brilliant move they managed to create a family friendly one in the form of Splatoon – a new multiplayer team game for the Wii that takes the concept of paintball to a whole new level! I have a feeling this game is gonna be massive. Weapons master Nick Jensen was so impressed by it that he whipped up LEGO versions of a Splatoon character in both human and “Inkling” form.
Portuguese builder César Soares has recreated his childhood bedroom, and along with it a kind of organized chaos that I’m sure all of us remember well (or as parents, are still dealing with on a daily basis). But far from being just a random collection of objects, there’s much attention to detail in the background of this scene too, from the furniture to the walls and even the floor.
The use of Modulex to represent LEGO bricks is a particularly clever touch. See if you can find anything in this scene that dates César’s childhood in the many wonderful closeup images.
LEGO has finally released pictures and details of its tenth LEGO Ideas set, based on the popular American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The set contains 479 pieces and will be available starting August 1 for a recommended retail price of $59.99 US / EUR 59,99.
Here is the official product description:
Indulge your inner genius and build this LEGO® version of Leonard and Sheldon’s living room as seen in the hit American sitcom The Big Bang Theory! This set was created by two LEGO fan designers-Alatariel from Sweden and Glen Bricker from the USA-and selected by LEGO Ideas members. Featuring loads of authentic details to satisfy all The Big Bang Theory devotees and including minifigures of all seven main characters from the show, it’s ideal for display or role-play fun. Includes 7 minifigures with assorted accessory elements: Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Howard, Raj, Amy and Bernadette.
This foreboding compound represents the end of the road in an enormous post-apocalyptic LEGO diorama created by Swedish LUG Swebrick for an exhibition they held last month. The full diorama is quite impressive, both in its scale and in its attention to detail …and also in the amount of dark tan used! Thanks to Jonas Wide and Christer Nyberg for the photos.
