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

A couple of cool mecha

Unless the plural of mecha is mechas, I’m really not sure. Anyways, I recently came across some creations that I enjoy by two builders that I wasn’t previously familiar with.

The first is the Wolverine (below) by Lord Dane. It’s based on a Command and Conquer game, which already gives it a step up in my book. It’s also tan, which I’m widely known to be a fan of. Anyways, I really dig the boxy shape and the eye slit in front. It looks like it’s a lumbering early-technology mecha. Check out his QuickStep to see that he can do stuff that’s not boxy too.

In the meantime, Zeessi has built a clean little walker for the USMC. While I’ve seen most of the techniques used elsewhere before, the overall design of the mecha is nice, and looks good, and that’s what matters. The mixing of old and new grays looks quite purposeful, and works really well. I would like it if he cropped his photos a little tighter, though.

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U.R.D.U.

Matt S. (Plasticmatt) has built a cool robot. It’s quite different than anything else out there. I really like the innovative part usage for the head, as well as the transparent stomach.

Brick Throwdown: Andrew Lee vs. Nannan Zhang

A couple of months ago, Andrew Lee (onosendai2600) challenged TBB’s own Nannan Zhang (Nannan) to a building contest.

This was to be an epic challenge of skill, with only two limitations. The first limitation was the deadline, which was the end of April. The second, each builder had to use all of the parts supplied and chosen by a third party.

Derek Schin (dbol39) volunteered to provide the mystery part, and sent each builder EIGHT of the printed radar dishes from the UCS Millennium Falcon. A panel of judges was selected, and the guys were off to the build-tables.

Each builder has now unveiled their creation. Epic is certainly the name of the game with these guys. It’s also remarkable how similar the uses that each builder made of the mystery part are. Both efforts have both pros and cons, and I don’t envy the judges their decision.

Nannan put together a battle (above) involving a massive flying saucer, several small saucers, and a huge-nosed mecha. I appreciate the effort he put in to illustrating an instant caught in time. The energy beam blasting a hole through through the mecha is really cool, although I hate the way the beam abruptly ends. I’m a bit confused by the tile floor at what looks like an out-door facility. It’s amazing what a couple of talented and dedicated builders can manage to put together in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, Andrew built a bustling asteroid spaceport/city. I can’t help but appreciate that there’s a building in the city dedicated to a theme of my own creation. I’m also generally a big fan of bases built into asteroids. I do wish that there was a bit more detail in some of the buildings and space ships, though.

Click through either of Andrew’s photos to see more on Flickr. Nannan assures us he’ll be posting a full gallery and write-up once he’s through final exams later this week.

The Lictor

The Lictor has arrived to guard the alien fleet. The armored carapace of the ship protects the sensitive components that lie beneath, waiting to unleash their power.

This one has been sitting on my build table 90% complete for months, but I finally got around to posting it. I also took the photos of this one the old fashioned way, after all the complaints about my use of HDR techniques making the photos look unrealistic.

The Warhog

Cole Blaq has built another intriguing space craft. It’s covered in fascinating details, and is an interesting shape. Check out his great use of crabs!

Only one man would dare give me the raspberry...

LONESTAR. Or is that Zack (Newright)? He’s built a fun rendition of the Eagle V space Winnebago from Space Balls. While it’s not the first rendition I’ve seen of this craft, and probably won’t be the last, it’s the best I’ve seen in awhile. Unlike some other renditions I’ve seen, it looks small enough to be swooshable as well.

Gary McIntire brings Legoland to Mythbusters

Legoland’s master builder and all-around great LEGO community guy Gary McIntire has helped out the Mythbusters crew with a LEGO related myth. Check out the press release:

LEGOLAND® California Model Builder Helps “Mythbusters” Dispell Myth!

Popular Discovery Channel Show Highlights Family Theme Park in Upcoming Episode

CARLSBAD, Calif. (April 28, 2009) – “Mythbusters” reached out to a Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND® California to help dispel a myth regarding a giant LEGO® ball on an upcoming episode of the popular international show airing April 29, 2009 on the Discovery Channel.

“It was an honor to be included in the project,” said LEGOLAND Master Model Builder Gary McIntire. “I have always been a huge fan of the show so for them to come and ask for my help was really a proud moment in my career!”

Show hosts Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara trekked down to Carlsbad, California from the show’s home base in San Francisco to use McIntire’s expertise on how to build a nearly 10-foot LEGO sphere.

The myth originated with a YouTube video in which Indiana Jones fans reenacted the famous boulder chase scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with the “boulder” being made of five-million LEGO bricks. The boulder is rolled down a steep street in San Francisco, crashes into a car, and remains somewhat intact. The “Mythbusters” team set out to discover if a boulder of that size could really be made entirely of LEGO bricks and still roll so smoothly down a steep hill without breaking apart into millions of pieces. In order to debunk the myth, McIntire and 20 others worked on building the ball using nearly one million LEGO bricks over the course of nearly two weeks.

“We have more than 15,000 LEGO models here at LEGOLAND California,” said McIntire, “and this is by far the singularly largest creation I’ve ever helped to build!”

The “Mythbusters” team spent a day at LEGOLAND California researching models similar to the one they needed to build studying sphere shapes such as the head of the giant 17-foot-tall pharaoh in the Park’s newest area, Land of Adventure and the dome of the Griffith Observatory in Miniland U.S.A.

To discover the results, tune into the Discovery Channel April 29, 2009. Please consult your local TV guide for channel and times in your area.

I was hanging out with Gary this weekend (all this travel has been keeping me from blogging) and he’s really excited about this episode. He said to keep an eye out for a time-lapse video of his hands building the Mythbusters logo. I’ll definitely be tuning in tonight to watch.

Prototype Attack Mech Alpha Zero

The Galactic Inquisition has been busy since the events on planet Cornucopia. Here’s a new mech prototype using technology reverse engineered from the captured alien vessel.

The design for this mech was partially inspired by this drawing. It’s my own interpretation, of course, but I really liked the bulky, overly armored feel from the drawing. The tan bulb on the right arm is intended to be a weapon reverse-engineered from the Emissary’s space ship.

LEGO Photo Room

Larry Lars has decided to show us all how he photographs his LEGO creations. He does so via our favorite means of communication, a LEGO creation.

We can see how he sets up his lights and camera on tripods. We also learn about his very clever technique of hanging backdrop paper from a hula hoop to provide a seamless curve.

Bluud

Cole Blaq hasn’t given much explanation for this space craft, but that doesn’t keep it from being cool.

Simply called “Bluud,” the ship combines various angled pieces into a cohesive and pleasing form. The antennae in front offer just enough detailing to keep it from being an undifferentiated block of dark blue.

Glave and Dart Starfighters

I don’t know if Uspez Morbo was thinking of Krull when he named a fighter Glave (right), but it’s certainly a lot cooler than the film was. The fighter has some nice smooth lines, and narrow shapes combined with some bulky sections to give a nice balanced aesthetic.

He has also posted a fighter (below) that shares some shapes and construction in common with the Glave, but in the Ice Planet 2002 color scheme. Not only does it look cool, but it has an awesome ejection feature.

Thanks to Shannon Ocean for the tip about the Glave.

Steamspace?

Over on Flickr, L.D.M. has posted a very unorthodox space ship. He calls it Steamspace, although I’m not quite sure why, as I don’t see any sort of boiler or steam apparatus. Regardless of how much steam equipment is in this ship, it’s still pretty cool.

The shape is just so different from just about anything I’ve seen before, I can’t help but appreciate it. The color choices work well too (that’s brown, people).