About Dan

Dan Rubin has been an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) since he became an adult. He joined the larger AFOL community on LUGNET in 2003, and that was also the year in which he attended his first BrickFest. Dan largely builds space MOCs, so it should come as no surprise that he is also the Main Admin of the forums at Classic-Space.com. He is also the creator of the Galactic Inquisition space theme. Dan has been a member of the LEGO Ambassador program since the third cycle of the program. Read more about the program here. You can check out Dan's LEGO creations on Flickr.

Posts by Dan

An Exception to Every Rule

I try to avoid posting LEGO creations based on the Halo games; there are simply too many of them around, and I don’t really think anyone wants to see another attempt at a Warthog. This diorama by legomocs. forced my hand, though. The micro scale frigate is nicely rendered, as is the accompanying Covenant spire, but neither is what caught my attention. The shape of the diorama and the angle of the ship combine to give this creation a great sense of motion. It’s difficult not to imagine the continuing flight path of the frigate, after seeing this one moment caught in time.

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On a Wing and Prayer

A wing, a prayer, and psionic energy are the only things keeping this glider by Jack McKeen (madLEGOman) aloft. Jack built this for a competition on FBTB, to be an aircraft themed to accompany the X-Men character Psylocke. I don’t know much about Psylocke, aside from seeing illustrations, but apparently she has psionic abilities. In keeping with her powers, the wings of the plane are attached by translucent beams of thought. They’re simply lovely to look at.

Nice Curves

Tromas says that he was inspired to build this little ship by playing a video game called Phoenix. I think I need to get my hands on a copy of the game, because this looks awesome.

The cockpit is an interesting shape and opens and closes well. The color scheme and shape are pretty unique, and it’s impossible to overlook the ridiculous array of weapons.

Check out these Studs!

Brandon Griffith, who you may remember from his role in the awesome Tower of Orthanc diorama, has a cool new project up on Kickstarter. It’s a set of trading cards, but the subjects aren’t athletes, they’re LEGO builders and their creations. The mock-up photos look pretty awesome to me, and I’m also honored to say that I’ve been asked to be an artist in the series.

Survey Time!

The good people at LEGO have asked us to spread the word about a customer survey they’re running. It’s targeted towards the adult and teen fan communities, and you have to be at least 13 years old to respond. As a fan, I’m happy to have my voice heard by folks inside the LEGO company, responding to the survey seems worth the time. Here’s the word from LEGO, followed by links to the survey in various languages.

Dear LEGO fan,

The LEGO fan community is important to us. To improve and support the LEGO fan community we have partnered with Aarhus University, Denmark, and DePaul University, Chicago, to carry out this survey. The survey is part of a large ongoing research project aimed at better understanding user activities and interactions in communities.

We would greatly appreciate if you would complete the questionnaire (see link below). It will take you approx. 20-30 minutes. Please note that you must be at least 13 years old to take this survey.

The survey ends by May, 17, 2012 (midnight GMT). All responses are strictly confidential. We will share the top line findings (in English) with you once we have analyzed the data (approximately end of June 2012) through the LEGO Ambassadors.

Thank you very much for your help!

Kind regards,
Jan Beyer, Community Operations Manager EU/Asia
James Foulds, Community Operations Senior Manager, Americas/Australia
Tormod Askildsen, Head of the LEGO Community Events & Engagement team

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_German
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_English
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_Spanish
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LEGO_Fan_Survey_Korean

Choose Your Style

There are many animal styles of Kung Fu, each of which was represented by a character in the movie Kung Fu Panda. Jack McKeen (madLEGOman) has built almost all of those characters out of his bricks. I think he’s done a fantastic job of creating expressive faces for all the mammals. The mantis model also captures its subject quite well.

Of the models in the photo, the tiger is my favorite, but I can’t wait to see what Jack does for the red panda, Master Shifu.

Pointlessly Charming

This rover by Luke Hutchinson (Derfal Cadarn) was deliberately designed to be purposeless. The description mentions that it doesn’t have steering, and was built by Fool-Trons. It does however, feature tons of interesting greebles, and a very impressive diorama display.

An Explosion of Cuteness

Victor Bartolome (Wafflebottom) calls these little robots “The Exploders.” I call them darn cute. Just by posing the heads differently, he manages to convey different emotional states. I wonder if batteries are included.

Great Visibility!

This little space ship by /ˈɛlˈdiːˈɛm/ really delivers the whole package. It has an interesting shape, sleek angles, and a popping color scheme. What really sets it apart, though, is the canopy. It’s a face mask for Buzz Lightyear, and an odd shaped piece to work with.

I Pity the Fool!

This little gem by Nathan Proudlove (Proudlove) seemed especially appropriate to post today. It’s also pretty impressive, considering it’s only 4 studs wide. Great job building the iconic stripe at that scale.

Something-Koma

Although I’ve been behind in my blogging lately, it seems like practically everything I add to my “to-blog” list is some form of think tank (tachikoma, fuchikoma, etc.). Crawling out from under my rock, I discover that there’s a contest going on, called Marchikoma. There are some pretty nice entries floating around, and here are some of my favorites.

A Wind From the Past

This speeder bike by Keith Goldman (La Villa Strangiato) may have been built and posted in December, but it’s still worth noting. I only wish I’d spotted it when Keith first posted the lovely shot. The bike itself is quite stylish, but I think we can all agree that the photography and lighting really set it apart. The wake behind the bike, in particular, is just lovely.