When Andrea Lattanzio (Norton74) posted his Volkswagen Transporter more than a week ago, I decided to pass blogging it. I liked it, but it is a modified set.
However, the Transporter was merely a prop for this fantastically detailed garage scene.
Category Archives: Models
Mr. Stay Puft’s okay! He’s a sailor, he’s in New York...
As excited as we all are to see the very cool Ghostbusters CUUSOO set finally hit the shelves, wouldn’t it be even cooler if it came with a street to drive down, or some ghosts to fight? Korean building team OliveSeon realized this, and they went and did something about it…
Arca: Consummation, Cultivation,and Corruption
Arca is a story told by three builders: Max Pointner, Ian Spacek, and Paul Vermeesch about a dying planet where the inhabitants cultivate a little basket of life – Arca – and created a glittering city only to see corruption seep in.
The overall construction of this build is extremely clever, an upside down Ziggurat with some fantastic transitions between a lush garden zone and dark cubes areas. I am having a hard time deciding if I like the little green house more, or the extremely complicated and interesting corrupted cube structure:
But what impresses me about this build, isn’t the interesting back story that they had developed or the quality and execution of the build itself, but the seamless manner in which three separate builders could create a single uniform build. I’ve had the pleasure of being in several collaborations over the years, but I have never been a part of something so tightly integrated. Though this isn’t the first time the three have collaborated on build – last SHIPtember they managed to some how build 1/3 of a SHIP each.
Thankfully Max has provided a bit of a behind the scenes on how they approached and executed the Arca Project for those looking at joining forces to do a collaboration build like this.
Wet and wild!
This weekend saw the grand opening of the Legends of Chima water park at LEGOLAND California. The layout and design of the park looks awesome. But instead of having to pore over a mere 2D map of the place, wouldn’t a brick-built 3D version be even more awesomer-rer? Well that’s what LEGOLAND master builder Joel Baker thought, so he designed one!
Joel was actually pool-side as he relayed some cool facts to us about the creation:
“This was built in one week by myself and four other master builders. It weighs 60 lbs and has roughly 55,000 pieces. It is currently part of a media tour and has made it’s way through several cities including New York, Boston, Texas, and Arizona. I hope it ends up in the park, as it would be our first brick built map – I believe the kiddos would enjoy figuring out where they are and where they want to go by pointing at LEGO instead of the usual (but still cool) paper!”
The Barqan Dromon
I may or may not be a sucker for pretty ships. So this definitely caught my eye. Can I just say how much I LOVE that custom sail? Frankly, this is just pretty all around: the attention to the waves, the stylings of the hull, the rigging…Yep. Pretty.
Bravo, Gabriel (qi_tah). Bravo.
Friday Night Fights – Steampunk Rifles
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada, USA for another round of Friday Night Fights! Tonight we duel in style with classy 1:1 scale steampunk rifles! Let’s go to the tale of the tape.
In the red corner, we have MonsterBrick with his Blunderbuss:
In the blue corner we have Dwalin Forkbeard with his Rifle:
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this bout by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, Drone Duel, It was a Tie 4-4. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!
When the map is unrolled, the dagger is revealed (圖窮匕現)
The above expression may not be familiar to English speakers, but you might think of it as the Chinese equivalent to “letting the cat out of the bag.” And like many common sayings, this one has a historical origin: In 228 BC, as a last ditch attempt to avoid invasion by its enemies, the nation of Yan sent a man named Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin. Using a map of Yan’s most fertile areas as bait, Jing Ke was able to get close to the King, and as he unfurled it, he pulled out a dagger that had been hidden inside.
Hong Kong builder Vincent Cheung (fvin&yan) has created this fabulous portrayal of the attempted assassination, in a style very similar to his Beauty and the Beast sculpture. I love the freeze-frame action of the characters, and of course the three-dimensional detailing on the map! Vincent was clearly influenced by folk art depicting the event, as you can see from this example:
A Tavern Market for a Fair Day
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.
WRX and Effects
As a Subaru WRX owner, I’m always happy to see one. So, I was quite excited to see this STI model on Brickshelf. In fact, I probably would have blogged it just for being a great looking model of a great car (even though it isn’t blue). As it turns out, it’s far more than a good model, this thing has a four-speed reversible gearbox, awd, and the appropriate boxer engine. Make sure you check out the video too!
Hat tip to Jan for posting this on Facebook!
Yabba Dabba Doo – this car’s for you!
Some cars are just iconic. Karwik, who is better know for his incredibly detailed trucks, turns back the clock with this rendition of first production car – which I believe predates Ford’s Model T by roughly 300,000 years.
This car is fantastic for taking the family to the drive in…. they sure don’t make cars like this anymore…
Over the Moon
Polish builder Michał Kaźmierczak is no stranger to massive LEGO dioramas, and we are no stranger to him either – you can read about his lava-bound space base and Indiana Jones temple adventure right here. So what could be more suitable to a large-scale LEGO treatment from Michał than the epic landscape of the moon Pandora from the 2009 movie Avatar?
I particularly like Michał’s use of the waterfalls to solve the problem of the Pandora’s airborne mountains (which can float due to high concentrations of superconducting Unobtainium ore interacting with the moon’s magnetic fields something something something science reasons). And for scale, the diorama even includes a microscale version of the Dragon assault ship:
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s 007 with Little Nellie
James Bond is well known for his often slightly wacky gadgets. The gyrocopter used in You only Live Twice, recreated in minifig scale by Brian Williams (BMW_Indy), is a prime example. This odd little contraption was nicknamed Little Nellie and in the flying scenes in the movie, it was piloted by its designer, Ken Wallis, who was a former RAF WW2 bomber pilot turned inventor. He died last year, aged 97, and was tinkering with and flying gyrocopters until shortly before his death.
Brian’s model uses a fair few BrickArms parts, which may upset LEGO purists, but in my opinion they are a great addition to the model. It just wouldn’t look complete without its rocket pods. The model is also complemented by some really nice custom stickers.