Right at the time when cold winter months are coming, umamen favours us with an incredibly touching and warming brick-built version of the artwork for Bob Dylan’s 2nd album “Freewheelin”. I have no idea how he managed to enliven this handful of pieces, but the way Suze Rotolo’s figure clinges to Bob’s makes my heart melt every single time. The background is something that takes a moment to notice, but contributes to the whole.
Star Wars microfighters — although being a fine source of minifigures — aren’t always the best in terms of both collecting value and building experience, mostly because of their size and scale. We all know: if you’re looking for aesthetically pleasing models, you should go in for sophisticated UCS-sets. I have been sharing this opinion, but only til last night when my eye was caught by a couple of CHIBI (cute-huggable-idiotic-baby-inspired) spaceships by Kim Do-hyun.
Building large Star Wars ships in such a peculiar scale and style is an advanced challenge in itself. However, Kim nailed it — and not at the expense of elaborate greebling. All the dished and tiles on Millennium Falcon are pretty familiar and look absolutely cute. At the same time, the Imperial Shuttle is genius in its simplicity. It’s just a couple of regular and curved slopes and a wedge at the nose that make the shuttle so recognizable. A slight disproportion in the size of its parts gives the model its totally adorable look.
I just want to take both ships in my hands, embrace them softly and never let them fly away. Full stop. Sorry, ewoks, you’re not my favorite any longer.
Seems like dark blue color is in command on The Brothers Brick this week: not only is it the tinge of time-travelers, but also stands for sapphire. Jaapxaap made a great decision by choosing it as the prime color for his latest Haunted Inn, which was created for this year’s Colossal Castle Contest. I must admit these flat tiles with eye pattern make me feel as disturbed as I do from that “friendly” ghost in the doorway.
Remember Han Solo being proud of his Millennium Falcon — that she made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs? I wonder what he would say about this beauty by Jeo Gan. I’ve never seen a racing makeover of the Falcon before, but Technic panels from the Grand Prix Racer look like pure genius; not only do they perfectly recreate the overall shape of the ship, but also stickers grant an iconic spaceship with a brand new style. Moreover, bent gray baseplates in the background are an unusually designed part of the Mos Eisley Spaceport setting.
Brick-built interior decorations are something for which I have a great weakness. Miro Dudas surprises us with an excellent cuckoo wall clock in the style of a traditional German timber-frame house. You may even think these two collectible minifigures were designed specially for this model – that’s how perfectly they fit in! (They’re actually from Series 8 and Series 11.) The clock-face might be an unrecognizable part, but that’s because Miro has built the clock around a spare working mechanism from a real clock. This makes it a beautiful example not just of a nice-looking model, but also a functional one.
With his latest work, LEGOLIZE IT MAN reminds us how a proper utility mecha should look. As usual, he is at his best with all the exposed tubes, gears and pistons, which create such a plausible industrial appearance. It might seem that this walker is a little bit tired with his job, but, you know, cargo won’t move itself…
Although SHIPtember is already over, some great creations are still reaching our planet. This time it’s a massive 127-studs-long battlecruiser by art_xxx13.
Simplicity (in the best sense of the word) is what I love about this ship. You won’t find much greebling or large solid panels here. Still the contour of cruiser looks diverse – thanks to regular slopes which, for instance, create the main command tower’s rather complex shape. Additionally, there are only three basic colors – light bluish grey, black and a couple of touches of dark red. And they are what make the battlecruiser realistic and credible; I do believe that this is what heavy ships in deep space look like.
Moreover, the spaceship has an impressive prototype. Take a minute to appreciate how accurate the brick-built model is to its concept.
If you’re as afraid of wasps as I am, Piotr Machalski has something to “gladden” both of us with. Just a glimpse at those tiny claws gives me the shivers, but the wings are a thing to die for. And make sure to check out the whole album and have a closer look at all the (unlucky) hunters.
The video game Destiny brought us quite a number of smooth and polished starfighters. Without copying any particular spaceship David Steeves did a great job of capturing all the main distinctive features of those fighters, complementing them with a couple of nice building techniques. I love how neat and solid his Disruptor XC2 looks, not to mention a not so ordinary choice of color for the cockpit windscreen.
When the talk turns to awesome mechs, Simmon Kim has plenty of them. His latest diorama of a desert outpost looks quite thrilling. The combination of tan, olive and dark bluish grey makes a perfect сoloration for a military mecha, while the curved road baseplate is a nice addition to the landscape. You’d better choose another route or get ready to give battle…
