It floats before you, a bulbous body with a central, unblinking eye, and a large maw filled with daggerlike teeth. Smaller eyes, attached to wriggling stalks, sprout from the top of the orblike body.
Such is the Beholder, one of the most legendary and feared monsters from the annals of the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. This incarnation, brought to us by Guy H. (V&A Steamworks), may look a bit cuter than Gary Gygax had in mind, but is no doubt just as deadly to your party.
As we’ve ruminated here before, microscale design is no mean feat. Capturing the essential details while keeping the scale compact takes a great deal of talent, and some of the most difficult features to achieve at any scale are brick-built domes. Rolli (Moriartus on flickr) has excelled at this with his miniature replica of the great Baroque sandstone edifice Frauenkirche in Dresden, Germany. The real church finished reconstruction in 2005 after being destroyed by bombing during WWII.
If you enjoyed the sweet Gundam by Micah Berkoff (Arkov.) yesterday, prepare for its adorable little brother, the Chibi Gundam by Patrick Biggs. Both employ similar techniques, so the scale difference makes them fun to look at side-by-side.
I don’t find as much time to build now as I’d like, but it sure is fun when I finally get around to finishing a model. My latest inspiration was the Starfighter Telephone Game, a flickr social game. It’s a building game where each participant is mailed the previous player’s ship and then builds an evolution of it to mail to the next player. I’m taking part in the latest round, and when my turn came up, I was excited to receive Aaron William’s sweet yb-E ship.
The result of my efforts is the Eclipse Starfighter. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use the trans-red corner panel as the windscreen, and fitting it into the ship proved to be challenging. Incorporating the rotating wings for landing, which are locked together and pivot when the engine is rotated, introduced me to using worm gears to lock the wings in place. By using a worm gear, the movement is unidirectional, so that turning the engine moves the wings, but you can’t turn the wings to move the engine.
And here’s the ship next to Aaron William’s yb-E.
There exists a small but vocal contingent of the adult fan community who look down upon Bionicle and its descendent Hero Factory, claiming that the pieces are juvenile, not useful, and altogether too different to mix with traditional bricks. I’ve never understood this train of thought. LEGO is about imagination, and the ability to successfully incorporate unusual elements into a model is generally viewed as positive. Besides, there are just so many cool things that can be done with Bionicle pieces, completely aside from building large poseable action figures.
Take, for instance, this wicked cool spaceship by Ricardo Soà. Incorporating both traditional bricks and pieces of Bionicle heritage, it’s menacing and awesome in a way that is fresh and new. It’s a welcome change of pace for a community which frequently sees the same styles again and again.
And since we’ve not featured Ricardo here before, it’s worth taking a peek at some of his other killer spacecraft.
This stately house of drink stands guard above a lovely quayside village market. Flickr user Gary^The^Procrastinator has done an excellent job polishing the diorama and inserting just enough bright colors to make it come alive. It’s always good to remember how important scale is to creating realistic models: an official LEGO tavern would probably sit on an 8 inch footprint, but this model is closer to 30×15 inches. This gives it room to breathe and encompass detail without becoming crowded.
When the neo-Nazi super-secret evil organization Hydra needs to get the drop on Captain America, they might almost have a fighting chance if they use this sweet mech by Eric Druon (Baronsat).
Chris Boen (Mos Doomsday) built this sharp space cruiser. The lines are reminiscent of a small fighter craft more than a monstrous capital SHIP, which makes this beauty stand out all the more. Chris says it’s his first go at a ship of this size, and it’s an excellent entry.
Andrew Lee created this terrific word sculpture, which epitomizes the brick experience for many of us fans.
If ever there were a LEGO creation that looked like it was straight from a landfill, this is it. (And I mean that in the best possible way.) As the second industrialization-gone-awry model this week, Nooreuyed’s creation features some terrific looking brick trash and a great bit of forced perspective.
This weekend at The Sydney Brickshow in Australia, LEGO announced the forthcoming Fairground Mixer set. Obviously a followup to 2009’s popular Grand Carousel, the new set features a mobile amusement park ride, complete with trucks to pack the carnival for transportation. LEGO says the set will be available in June. Below is the official press release.
10244 Fairground Mixer
Ages 16+ | 1,746 Pieces
US $149.99 – CA $179.99 – AU $199.99 – DE 129.99€ – UK £119.99 – DK 1,199.00 DKK
*Euro pricing varies by country. Please visit shop.LEGO.com for regional pricing.Climb aboard the LEGO® Fairground Mixer and hold onto your hat!
Unfold the awesome Fairground Mixer, turn the crank and see it come to life! The fair has come to town and children and adults alike can’t wait to try the rides. Buy your ticket from the ticket booth and climb aboard the Mixer. Then try reaching the golden bell on the high striker or hit the target to plunge the dunk tank lady into the water. As evening falls, the swirling Mixer ride glows in the darkness, before being folded down onto its own trailer for transportation to the next town. This magical fairground is packed with wonderful details that will capture everyone’s imagination. Includes 12 minifigures: a juggling man on stilts, dunk tank lady, strong man challenger, ticket lady, truck driver/ride operator, 2 women, 2 girls, 2 boys and a queasy man who tried the mixer one too many times.
Enjoy the magical atmosphere of the fairground with the LEGO® Fairground Mixer, packed with exciting features and imaginative details.
• Includes 12 minifigures: a juggling man on stilts, dunk tank lady, strong man challenger, ticket lady, truck driver, ride operator, 2 women, 2 girls, 2 boys and a queasy man who tried the mixer one too many times
• Features working Fairground Mixer ride with crank operation, 2 transport trucks, high striker and dunk tank
• Includes glow-in-the-dark elements
• Mixer truck has opening doors, windshield wipers and removable roof to access interior with bed and TV
• Accessory truck holds ticket booth, high-striker and dunk tank
• Accessories include: ice cream, popsicle, lime green cherries, teddy bear, juggling pins and a large and small mallet for the high-striker
• Easily upgrade the Mixer ride with LEGO® Power Functions motors (not included)
• Enjoy the fun of the fair!
• Includes over 1,700 pieces
• Fairground Mixer ride unfolded measures over 11” (30cm) high, 17” (45cm) long and 12” (31cm) wide
Anime-style figure sculptures have become something of a trend these days, and Ruby Rose by Mike Dung is exemplary among them. The key to good figure sculpting in this scale is to balance creating details with merely evoking them. Ruby’s face, for instance, is nearly as simplistic as possible, while the bodice is quite intricate; both, however, meld to create a fantastic sculpture.
Mike’s not a one-hit wonder, though. Check out his other sculptures, such as Snow Miku.
