About Rod

Rod likes building stuff, particularly steampunk and microscale. He's built for a number of the Dorling Kindersley LEGO books, including LEGO Play and the Awesome Ideas book. When he's not building, he writes, and has published a trilogy of old-fashioned adventure stories. To pay the bills he works in innovation and marketing for one of the world's biggest brewers, inventing new beers and ciders. This is clearly the best job in the world.

Posts by Rod

Spacetank! Spacetank! SPACETANK!

Norton74 has built a maintenance bay, home to a chunky tank decked out in Classic Space livery. Round here we love it when people build interesting new creations that pay homage to retro LEGO themes. This scene totally fits the bill.

The expected mix of blue and gray, and the trans-yellow windows, are all present and correct, plus there’s an excellent sense of activity with all those minifigs bustling around. However, the undoubted star of the show is the tank itself, and I’m pleased the builder posted a “hero shot” to showcase it in all its glory…

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Terrifyingly good LEGO horror movie scene

Letranger Absurde brings us a great little recreation of the signature scene from The Exorcist.

The diorama is just stuffed with neat building — the dangling bedsheets, the tiny lamp, the door — all good stuff. But it’s the floating bed and the sinister figure at the heart of the scene which command all the attention. The only thing that could make this better is motorised elements making the head spin round.

The builder says this is the first in a series of horror movie scenes. I can’t wait to see the rest.

Space Chefs contest – Winners Announced!

There were some amazing entries cooked up for our Space Chefs contest. It took us a while to narrow the field down to our absolute favorites. But the votes are in, the judges have decided, and here are the results.

First place in the Cosmic Kitchen category goes to IamKritch with his fabulous Intergalactic Sushi stand…

We loved the compact kiosk, the clever use of curved pieces to create a space-age feel, and all the fun and detail — in particular, all the printed tiles and the bin monster!

And first place in the Space Chefs On-The-Go category goes to Ted Andes for his Gruel Wagon…

This made some of the judges laugh-out-loud. It’s a great idea, well-executed. The flow of the gloopy gruel from the hose is particularly good.

Click to see the runners-up & the Master Chef winner!

Little LEGO castle is big on detail

This lovely castle gate from Isaac S. is a smart piece of Castle building. There’s a good amount of texture and detail in the wall, but refreshingly, the effect doesn’t end up looking like a dog’s dinner of parts and colors. The woodwork around the roof, the thatched effect from offset slopes, and the rockwork at the base of the walls are all nice touches.

Isaac is certainly taking a tour of the classic LEGO themes at the moment. We recently featured his excellent pirate port layout.

Well hello sailor!

Mike Dung has built an excellent naval office scene to showcase some of his delightful chibi-style sailor figures. The cute faces on the figures grab the attention, but check out that picture, and the tablecloth draped over the desk. Great stuff.

The characters are taken from the Kantai Collection videogame, popular in Japan, which has players controlling fleets of hybrid battleship/sailor girls. I haven’t played the game myself, but that doesn’t stop me appreciating the wonderful level of cheeky character Mike has captured in his figures…

Rooftop chase across an Eastern marketplace

Maarten W‘s diorama brings us a fabulous slice of Middle Eastern market life, with an added dash of adventure. There’s a great sense of activity and the hustle and bustle of commerce at the base, and then an exciting rooftop chase going on above. I wonder what treasure the stolen map will lead our intrepid thief to discover?

That wall behind the snake charmer is a lovely detail and there’s just enough texture on the fortifications to avoid “big tan wall” syndrome. This is the latest in the recent spate of Middle Eastern-themed creations we’ve covered, including this beautiful mosque, also built by Maarten. I hope this trend continues.

Sinister obelisk dominates the desert

Nikita Lazarev has built an interesting desert scene featuring a sinister-yet-lovely floating obelisk of peculiar design. The lone figure guarding the obelisk is also wonderfully weird. This is one of those models which prompts questions and flights of fancy in equal measure…

Is it alien? Is it sentient? Is it dangerous?

Fuelling the future

justin_m_winn brings us a vision of a clean-energy future with this scene of a Fuel Cell facility running a test. There’s a good mixture of spacey greebling and robots with more ordinary minifigs. This creates a strong sense of everyday activity in a sci-fi setting.

Justin has other images of maintenance and day-to-day work at the facility. They all display the same combination of good near-future design and excellent photography…

Interview with Carl Greatrix, creator of the Caterham 7 LEGO Ideas set

Carl Greatrix‘s Caterham 7 was recently revealed as the next LEGO Ideas set. The announcement was met with almost universal approval, mixed with some surprise that such an obviously adult-oriented and complex model had made it through the review.

The Brothers Brick got in touch with Carl to get some of his thoughts following the announcement…

TBB: So, you’ve got to be delighted about the news. How does it feel to have an official LEGO set coming out?
Carl: I’m obviously super-excited. It means that everyone who wanted one, will now be able to get one. The realization is slowly but surely sinking in — the fact there will be an official LEGO set, available in practically every LEGO shop around the world, it’s quite a humbling thought and feels like a huge achievement.

Click through to read the rest of the interview

ABS APC is A-OK

If you’re feeling the need for some chunky near-future military hardware, Carter Baldwin has you covered. A delicious blend of dangerous angles, muddy colors, and isolated studs for texture give this Armored Personnel Carrier a real sense of grunt. I can just imagine this thing’s engine noise.

The APC is roomy enough to carry a full squad of troops. These guys look serious…

Who ya gonna call on a tiny phone?

Can’t afford the new LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ set? Never fear. Take a leaf out of ObedientMachine‘s book and build yourself a teeny-tiny microscale version. Immediately recognisable, this is a smart little build. I particularly like the small lintel sticking out above the side door. It’s touches like that which make all the difference in a microscale model.

I’ve built some microscale LEGO Ghostbusters myself in the past. I wish my little Ecto-1 had had this firehouse to return home to.

Moon rover suffers from terrible emissions

Although Jon Blackford calls this creation an Eco Rover, its unusual fuel source raises doubts regarding its environmental credentials. Genetically modified cows? Kept in a hermetically sealed dome and encouraged to produce methane? Doesn’t sound very green to me!

However, regardless of ethical and environmental issues, it’s a lovely model. I can imagine herds of these pottering about an airless planet’s surface, pumping methane out to create a runaway greenhouse effect.

Whilst the star of the show is the cow in the rear, the color scheme and greebly details rock. The rover’s cockpit is pretty cool too — check out that chair…

About Rod

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