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

Go with the Flo

This model of Flo, from Pixar’s Cars, is just fantastic. Peter Blackert (lego911) has managed to capture the iconic Cars look perfectly. I especially love the way he’s used an upside-down fender piece for the bottom lip. Also, the fact that he brick-built the eyes, rather than using a sticker, really puts it over the top. I’d love to see this built from real bricks, rather than as a render, but I doubt most of the parts are available in this color. If you’re a Cars fan, or a fan of cars, take a look through Peter’s Flickr gallery, it’s chock full of great models.

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The Only Good Mosquito

Is this space ship model built by Legolize it Man. I barely feel any urge to slap it at all. The shape certainly evokes the insect it’s named for, but, moreover, it’s a pretty cool space ship. The bulbous cockpit area provides a great contrast to the angled and spindly landing gear. The background color for this photo is also a perfect allusion to a blood-sucker.

Den-den Daiko

I’ve been seeing a lot of these drums around town, as the Cherry Blossom Festival gets going. Thanks to Gilcelio Chagas, on Flickr, now I can build my own from Lego.

If you’d like to build your own, check out his instructional video (purist warning, involves cutting capes).

By the Power of Grayskull!

Apparently, these custom minifigs were made (rendered?) by someone named Gregos Thomas. Trying to trace back through various blog posts hasn’t helped me find the artist, though. I’d love to find this guy, so I can tell him that these are awesome.

Via Toys Are Evil.

UPDATE: UnderScoopFire has a couple more images provided by Gregos (both presumably renders):

Curvy in All the Right Places

This little ship by Mack Crawford caught my eye this morning. In particular, the white parts creating a subtly different curved area in the center. The color scheme is one that’s new to me, and I think it looks good. With better lighting for the photo, I suspect the colors might even pop a bit.

This Ship Goes to Eleven

Or, at least, it has the number “11” on the side… Unless those are Ls. Regardless, this ship by Nate Daly makes an impression. It’s his first attempt at build a space ship in the coveted 100+ stud class, and I think he’s done a great job.

There are plenty of nice details throughout, and the color blocking is well done. My favorite thing about it, though, is the crew. Many builders, when building a ship this long, declare it to be a battleship, or drednaught, or something else with a huge crew. Not Nate, though, he calls it a frigate, and gives it a tiny crew. Bravo, Nate.

A Sticker is Worth a Thousand Words

At least, that’s how I remember the adage. Halfbeak has posted a creation on Flickr that makes fantastic use of stickers to add contrast and detail. I’m always a fan of checker patterns, and the stripe on the helmet is a great touch. The aesthetic reminds me of THX-1138, while the name (Koma Police) has gotten a song stuck in my head.

The Stuff of Nightmares

Imagine built this little scene for the ongoing Mocathalon competition. He says it’s for the “not so lame excuse” category of the competition, but that’s probably because there’s no “horrific nightmare” category. This little scene does a grea job of expressing motion, as well as a state of mind.

Lego Collectible Minifigure Encyclopedia Pre-Order

It looks like the new LEGO Minifigures: Character Encyclopedia (through series 10) is now available for pre-order on Amazon at a pretty nice price. Ten bucks isn’t bad for a book that comes with a special fig itself (rumor is that it’s a toy soldier). I have a funny feeling that secret figure is going to be highly sought-after, and it will likely fetch nearly the price of the book on BrickLink.

A Mecha That’s Snow Joke

My tag line may be a bad joke, but it’s by far the worst thing about this post. Juzu has posted a pretty cool looking mecha over on Flickr, and taken advantage of his local weather for a change in scenery. The build itself makes fantastic use of stickers to add detail to a form that’s curvy and bulky in all the right ways. The snowy background, and off center composition of the photo, draw attention to the build in a manner that adds a feeling of authenticity to the photo.

The Perfect Ending

These book-ends by Bart De Dobbelaer would make the perfect ends for any sci-fi book collection. In fact, Bart has me thinking that book-ends might be a fun new format to try building.

Bart has done his usual great jobs on these. The technical bits on the bottom have just the right amount of details to look interesting and clean at the same time. The contrast with the brightly colored organic tentacle shapes adds motion as visual interest for a scene that keeps me looking.

Just My Speed

Nate Decastro seems to have a way with speeders. I just spotted this most recent creation on Flickr. I love the baby blue with the dark gray mechanical bits, and the touch of tan on the upholstery. As it turns out, there are quite a few other interesting speeders in his photostream.