Here’s a really gorgeous piece of horological gadgetry. Not satisfied with those giant LEGO minifigure digital clocks, Jason Allemann has built a mechanical timepiece worthy of any classy desk. Better yet, he’s made a video showing it in motion and given lots of details on how it works.
Anyone interested in mecha and unfamiliar with Zi zy‘s work should remedy that now by going carefully through his photostream. He is one of the original, and still best, masters of the small mecha. His latest offerings are no exception, ranging from ‘standard’ mecha like below, through to transformers in the same scale. Hot stuff.
In this fun little diorama, Chris (Ironsniper) re-employs two drill part to great effect as the base of a giant mushroom. I also have to commend LEGO for their vast improvement to the horse design.
At the end of December, Kyle Wigboldy (thirdwigg) posted a LEGO Spitfire fighter plane from World War II that has the most functions I’ve ever seen in a LEGO plane.
Kyle spent about six months on his Spitfire, and the finished model has a wingspan of 112 studs and is 96 studs long. Not only is the Spitfire model gorgeous (too many LEGO Technic models are just skeletons in odd colors), it also includes lots of functionality:
The YouTube video shows off all the moving parts.
Read Kyle’s full writeup on Thirdwigg.com, and a more complete review on TechnicBRICKs.
Eurobricks is holding a Micro Sci-Fi Contest this month (the trophies themselves are noteworthy examples of the genre), and at mid-month we’re already starting to see some really nice entries.
Ryan H. (eldeeem) enters the fray with this gorgeous biodome on an ice planet, complete with a resupply ship hovering above.
Notice the Modulex bits attached to the side of the freighter as containers. LEGO produced Modulex as a tool for architects in the 60’s until they spun off the company in 1965. Early Modulex bricks even have the LEGO logo on the studs, just like System bricks.
Over the years, LEGO builders have figured out various connections between the two systems (officially not compatible with each other), and Ryan has collected all of the ones he’s aware of in the following photo:
Post-LEGO Modulex with an M logo continued to be available until fairly recently (the company is a successful signage company today), and it’s always interesting to see what new ways LEGO builders incorporate them into their models.
One of the things I’ll always remember Mike Crowley for was his ability to put LEGO elements together in new and interesting ways. One of Mike’s ideas was the BrickFA, or Brick Figure Articulation (sort of a LEGO version of Stikfas).
As with all of his other innovations, Mike shared his techniques without expectation of reward or even recognition — true open source LEGO.
One of Mike‘s talents included making anything he wanted at all from anything LEGO produced. He’d find the most fabulous ways to integrated some of the strangest pieces and produce something wonderful.
Shottle was one of those things, finding a way to integrate the lid from packaging and create something fantastic!
I don’t think he ever found a piece he couldn’t use. Yes, even Galidor.
One of the last major models Mike Crowley posted online was a new type of brick-built figure, the “BigFig.” BigFigs are built from bricks, but look like large minifigs. Mike showed off his new idea with a recreation of the classic LEGO Pirates captain minifig:
In March 2009, Mike wrote:
Basic features include:
– head can rotate
– face / hairpiece can be customized
– arms are connected with Technic axles to prevent “drooping” when holding objects
– hands can rotate
– torso and hip-piece fronts and backs can be customized
– legs are connected using Technic rotating / ratcheting click hinges, allowing for some rotation backward and full 90 degree rotation forward (into the seated position)
– head, arms, hands, hips and legs all separate in the same places that a regular-sized minifig’s do
– the rear and bottoms of the legs have “holes” built into them to resemble those on the legs of a regular-sized minifig and are spaced so as to fit onto “studs” built 2×2 and spaced 2 studs apart from one another.
In case you’d like to try your own hand at building a BigFig, Mike even posted a breakdown:
Here is a review of 10197 Arkham Asylum Breakout where I talk about the parts and the model while highlighting some interesting building techniques. In summary, while there are only a few new pieces in this set, it is well-designed and features noteworthy techniques such as the stained glass window, sliding jail doors and more.
Sean and Steph Mayo are ever so innovative in their builds. They created a mosaic of Cortana from Halo featuring spinning columns of 1×1 transparent round plates. You have to see the video for the incredible effect. You can read more about this building technique on MosaicBricks.
Here is a video review of 76004 Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase
Jameson Gagnepain clearly has a surplus of those ever-so-useful LEGO game dice. He’s put them to good use for his entry into the Like a Boss contest, resulting in this fabulous display of impossible Tetris:
For an added touch, he’s done a stop-motion version complete with the frustrating anticipation of not getting the particular shape that you need:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameson42/8255394561/