Letranger Absurde doesn’t just build amazing microscale Moai, he’s also quite the talented builder at several scales of LEGO models. One of my favorites is this super-cute “chibi” bantha. Just look at those lips!
Yes, yes, this was posted back in May. I don’t care — I wasn’t around back then, and I’m now correcting this rather egregious oversight by my compatriots.
We’re having an animal-centric day here at The Brothers Brick (at least so far). A parrot named Princess Yellow Feather sings selections from Everything Is Awesome!!!
Even though I grew up in Japan, my family never owned a game console, and I didn’t really play Nintendo games until I worked for Nintendo of America (its US headquarters are near Seattle, right next door to Microsoft) back in the GameCube and Game Boy Advance era, barely over a decade ago. Nevertheless, I’m still a fan of Mario and all his many compatriots, and love seeing Nintendo characters built from LEGO. Two builders have (presumably) separately built Mario and Bowser, so a post highlighting them together seemed appropriate.
First up, Portuguese builder Tiago Catarino presents several iconic Super Mario Bros. elements, not least of which is a great studs-out, 8-bit Mario himself.
But Mario will need to beware the boss at the end of the level, since American David Pickett has built this highly detailed Bowser, full of great little details like feathers for his flaming red hair.
David also has a video you can watch to learn how to build Bowser yourself.
When I first saw this mecha on Flickr, I thought that Izzo had returned after an 8-year hiatus. While that’s sadly not the case, I don’t think I could give a higher compliment to a mecha builder. Instead, this stellar mecha was built by Filipino builder Lu Sim.
Lu writes that the mecha itself was built around the idea for the rail gun, constructed from 16L train tracks. Nevertheless, he does no disservice to the mecha itself, with excellent color blocking and interesting details on the feet and head in particular.
When I left Japan in 1989, I don’t think I’d ever seen any Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food — though Indian food was certainly popular (and a reliable choice for us vegetarians). Moko has built a kebab stand, though, and writes about it as though they’re on every street corner — as they certainly are in London and Berlin. How Japan has changed in the past quarter century, apparently!
Moko says that kebab shops are most often on the first floor of multistory buildings, but that he was most interested in building the rotating gyro meet, the sauces on the counter, and the sign, so he just built those and moved on. Despite the lack of an upper story, it’s a lovely little shop. One’s eye is inevitably drawn to the excellent lettering on the large sign, but my favorite detail is the striped green awning.
It’s Seafair Fleet Week here in Seattle, and the annual “Parade of Ships” went past my downtown office window this afternoon. Inspired by all those big boats on Elliott Bay, I went looking for a nice set of cool LEGO ships, and quickly found these beauties by Rancorbait.
First up, the “Nova” Medium Assault Cruiser incorporates great brick-built striping and a sporty red fin.
The “Eclipse” Heavy Assault Cruiser is very obviously part of the same fleet, with a consistent design aesthetic, though the Eclipse is a bit larger and has significantly more greebles. The bridge overhanging the white section is an excellent touch.
Finally, though it’s a different scale and certainly isn’t part of the same fleet, I can’t help but love this big red “Warthog” gunship. There are just so many non-right angles all over this thing!
Contrary to what many casual observers may think, building small is the true challenge for a skilled LEGO builder. Letranger Absurde (aka vitroleum) shows he’s up to that challenge, though, with this wonderfully tiny Rapa Nui replete with Moai overseeing the arrival of a European sailing vessel.
The Moai themselves are the “Nice Parts Usage” standout in this little creation, using the new blaster guns as the famous stone statues.
Dan Siskind has been designing a microscale USS Missouri, and he and his Brickmania crew have recently completed a full minifig-scale version that they’re hauling around the country to various events. I’m really looking forward to the micro-scale kit myself, but Eínon couldn’t wait, and built himself his own WW2-era “Mighty Mo.” It’s unusual to see ship models without a big block of bold red under the ship’s waterline. But the subtler dark blue with a range of gray hues suits the venerable and historic battleship — now a museum ship on display in Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i — rather nicely.
In 1968, Polish inventor Antoni Dębski and his colleagues built an underwater habitat and sunk it to 26 meters (85 feet) deep in the Baltic Sea, where they then spent 7 days testing the habitat. Polish builder Karwik has recreated the historic Meduza II from LEGO and presented it in this evocative scene, complete with atmospheric lighting and a shipwreck to explore.
If you’re in Warsaw, you can now see the restored habitat at the Polish Army Museum.
There’s a lot to love about this hardsuit by Christopher Hoffmann, from the spot of yellow on the long arm (a camera?) to the random “50” road sign and excellent color blocking between the white torso and dark gray arms and legs. Christopher says that the AC Research, Inc. suit is “For all of your topographical and biological surveillance needs, from Titan to Ganymede.” Sounds about right.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the models I built for Ma.Ktober a couple years ago was building the discrete bases to showcase each model. Christopher gives the base itself substantial attention and detail, with organic landscaping to contrast with the hard mechanical detail of the suit.
César Soares is one of those builders whose every creation we could feature here on The Brothers Brick as “blogworthy.” His colorful, intricate models use interesting techniques and he varies themes across Castle, Town/City, and pop culture, with a range of subjects from large-scale dioramas to smaller vehicles and vignettes. His latest model is a gorgeous floating rock with beautiful landscaping, the requisite balloon for transportation, and an eccentric building with César’s distinctive curved roof design.
Incidentally, one of the large-scale collaborative displays planned for BrickCon 2015 is floating rocks. Any chance you can come to Seattle this October, César?
Back in March, we had a bit of a frustrating time here at The Brothers Brick, with several days of intermittent server downtime due to a software configuration issue. To have a little fun, I kicked off a brief contest. We got a number of great entries from TBB fans, which you can see in the photo pool on Flickr. Unfortunately, I became gravely ill just as the contest was ending, and I’ve been struggling to catch up ever since — focusing first on my day job (no, TBB is not actually my day job), and only then on LEGO and TBB.
With thanks to all our incredibly patient readers and contest participants (and yes, I do have a few words for the impatient and self-entitled after the jump), I’m pleased to finally share the winners of the contest categories.
As a techie, it was hard not to love these colorful, accurate server racks by Leopold Mao. The plumes of smoke, mice gnawing the cables, and distraught sysadmin, combined with the trans-clear bricks inside the servers, are all excellent touches. This is my pick for the top category. Congratulations, Leopold!
We hope our readers don’t encounter this iconic webpage error too often. Blake Foster wins this category with this simple but brilliant idea — a double-sided 1×2 plate! If only…
Our Lemur has gone AWOL recently, but he was a frenzy of activity back in March, and some of us suspect he may have had a little something to do with the downtime. Our winning entry in this category was drawn by Sayre Blake, who illustrated an amusing scene of A. Lemur eating mangoes & PBJ while swooshing a LEGO spaceship.
We actually had a number of excellent entries in this category, so in addition to the three main prizes, I’d like to extend Honorable Mentions (with a small LEGO set as a prize) to “Server Error 223 – Hungry Lemur” by IamKritch and “A. Lemur is having some trouble pulling up TBB…” by Ashton6460.
If you’re a winner, contact me on Flickr and I’ll get your contact information to send out your prize!
Yup, I have a rant. But I’ll spare most of you and save it for after the jump…