About Keith Goldman

See Keith Goldman's LEGO models on Flickr.

Posts by Keith Goldman

Digital Delay

It’s time to check in for an extended stay with our friends in digital space, constant reader to find out what’s new (and in some cases not so new) in their world. The genres are as diverse as the builders surveyed so grab your favorite beverage and get ready for some real refreshment.

I want to grab the attention of readers who are not usually fans of digital builds and this image by Nachapon Sintateeyakorn is sure to lure in the unwary with visions of rare gold minifigs. You covet the gold, don’t you?

Next we’ll take to the skies of old with Brian Fitzimmons and his B-17 Flying Fortress.

For those of you who like your aircraft modern, or perhaps just a little bit futuristic, enjoy the Mi-54 “Oleni” VTOL gunship by Matthew SylvanO. It also fits nicely into TBB’s well known Olive Conspiracy.

More Digital-pure action after the jump!

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“Do you like to watch movies about gladiators?”

Ever seen a 6-wide train naked? No? Well now’s your chance thanks to TBB rookie Alexander (narrow_gauge) who brings some fresh blood to the genre. Alexander quietly goes about his business with calm precision so common to his tribe of builders:

“Power comes from two PF large motors each mounted in a carriage. In between them another carriage carries a battery and IR receiver. With the motors geared down, top speed is a little slow, but reasonable for narrow gauge. There are two designs: one has the motor on its side which reduces the amount of room each side but leaves room to put a 12V train weight above the motor. Tow ball couplings are used between the motor cars – with a simple pivot coupling they tended to derail.

Alexander isn’t averse to showing off his work to the great unwashed masses either, as evidenced by this gorgeous photo from the recent Caulfield Train Show 2013 in Australia. There is some decent video from the event here, although only a small portion of it is LEGO related.

*Edit: Although I’m a fan of the genre, you could fill a teacup with my actual knowledge of Train related action. The stock is actually 6-wide, so my initial posting didn’t make much sense.

“How true, how true said the Sour Kangaroo”

We don’t feature nearly enough Kangaroo action here on TBB and Jeffrey Heuer (Norweasel) is here to rectify that situation.

Fun fact: If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop…but it might turn around and give you the beating of a lifetime.

“This is your brain on drugs”

New-age musical duo Siercon and Coral would like to interrupt your Sunday serenity with this kinetic number they like to call “Fruit Sniper“. In case you’re curious, oh skeptical purist, the non-traditional components are from an official LEGO brand Alpha Team pen. There, you can breathe easy.

D.I.Y. Sunday

If your creative well has run dry, TBB is here to help with a couple of projects to fill the hours before the factory whistle blows on Monday…or Tuesday if you live here in the States.

First up is the deceptively challenging How to build a K.E.W.B. by Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller). The video is easy to follow, doesn’t require a Zhangian collection to build and it even has cool music that will make you feel like you’re in a hip clothing store. The only drawback is that Jacob doesn’t show you how to make his elegant stand to display your K.E.W.B., but we’ll let it slide.

For the advanced builder with LDD experience and a penchant for Sci-Fi, Chief Executive Overlord, Tanuki Corp. and wezra have you covered with a free instructional download of Red Spacecat’s USS Saratoga. I can assure you, constant reader, that the instructions are far easier to follow than my description.

To those of you who take the plunge, good luck! I have no doubt that the builders featured here would be happy to answer questions from you via Flickr if you get stuck. If you have your own D.I.Y. project to share with the readers, leave them in the comments.

Architectural double-shot

It’s time once again for a Saturday exploration into the always fascinating world of architecture. Both of today’s selections are from TBB neophyte Erwin te Kortschot (buildingmaster 1966), who has a very small but high quality stable of models on Flickr. We begin today’s ruminations with an 1898 Art Nouveau structure and National Heritage Site from Rotterdam, Netherlands called the “Witte Huis“. Designed by architect Willem Molenbroek, it is considered the first high-rise of Europe.

Don’t blink, because our tour ends as quickly as it began in Oxford, England, with the Radcliffe Camera designed by James Gibbs in the English Palladian style in 1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library.

If you’re a fan of the genre don’t miss Erwin’s outstanding Aloha Tower from Honolulu Harbor in Hawaii.

“Compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves!”

Riccardo Zangelmi would like to present the disembodied head of Bender Bending Rodríguez.

Feel free to leave your favorite Bender quotes in the comments.

The Battleship Iburi

Although the Battleship Iburi never actually existed, TBB rookie Eínon brings enough skill to the project that is easy to believe that it might have. According to the builder: “This model is the first ship of a new huge diorama that I´m working, with over 20 ships, representing the fictitious Second Naval Battle of Tsushima, between Japan and Russia.” If this model is any indication of the shape of things to come, I look forward to blogging Eínon’s further explorations into “alternative history“.

Maximum Overdrive

I have a confession to make, constant reader, I’m a huge fan of Stephen King; the booze years, the coke years and even the post-accident years (for the most part). One of my guilty pleasures from the coked-out 1980’s was the cinematic gem Maximum Overdrive, directed by the author himself and starring the incomparable Emilio Estevez. The plot is brilliant in it’s simplicity: a handful of strangers find themselves trapped together in a truck stop diner after semi-trailers and other large vehicles are suddenly brought to independent life by an unknown force and proceed to gruesomely kill every human in sight. As anyone who has ever had the great fortune of seeing the King-directed horror flick will tell you, the real star of the show is the Happy Toyz Co. White-Western Star 4800 truck which has the face of the Green Goblin from Spider-Man mounted on its grill. It is without a doubt one of the coolest semi’s of all time and now it is immortalized in LEGO by -derjoe-, who did a wonderful job on both the Goblin-grill and the letters.

Who made who?

すげえ！かっこいい！

The title of this post was stolen from a comment by FateHeart on this fascinating model and photo by 62778grenouille, and I couldn’t agree more. The Japanese text roughly translates, to “dude! cool!” which is exactly the way I feel about this model: enthusiastic but also sort of dumbfounded into an uncommunicative state…which isn’t too useful when blogging.

Some of the translation programs I checked had the text reading “dude! What’s up!”, which also works within the context of this post and my feeling about this model. Welcome to the weekend (週末へようこそ。).

Take the train to Costa del Sol, you’ll be glad you did.

Adrian Marciniak CyberPacket makes his first appearance on the brothership with this outstanding train layout that just about everything a viewer could ask for, from the curving mountain to the steep hill to the chicken-joint down on the dock. When I look at the photos my eye is constantly drawn towards the leaning houses; they are such a refreshing break from the boilerplate Cafe-Corner style buildings that usually inhabit train-centric dioramas. I think it is a safe bet to expect great things from Mr. Marciniak down the road. If you’re a fan of little vignettes that make a diorama of this scale really work, be sure and check out the full set on Flickr that features some fine photography.

Friday Night Fights (Round 19)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another eye-gouging edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout seeks to settle a nostalgic score between ancient and bitter rivals: PCS vs. 3vil. Or, as the suits prefer to call it: Star Justice vs. Space Skulls!. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from dark heart of the galaxy…Mark “The Grand Admiral” Sandlin and his flagship Asmodeus.

And fighting out of the blue corner, from the bacon-scented halls of interstellar justice…Chris “Fazoom” Giddens and his flagship Vanguard.

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, joeluk66 struck a blow for digital builders everywhere with his 6-3 victory. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

About Keith Goldman

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