I guess Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin) wasn’t happy enough his miniland scale bugs a few weeks ago, he comes back like that wascally wabbit with an even more impressive Bugs Bunny build:
Category Archives: Models
Functional Lego Star Wars pinball machine
French Lego fan Jimmy (6kyubi6) made a working pinball machine with lights and working flippers and ball launcher. I’m sure it’s just what the Empire needs to keep all the stormtroopers entertained during downtime on the Death Star. How many points do I get for hitting R2-D2?
Check out the video to see it in action!
Back in the thirties, racecars were beautiful
Yesterday, the Scuderia Ferrari racing team announced their new car for the 2014 Formula One season and it is hideous. It looks like a fat bloke sat on its nose. Of course, what looks right and what is right in terms of aerodynamics doesn’t necessarily match up. What also doesn’t help are stringent rules aimed at keeping the speed of the car down. There used to be a time when things were different though. Back in 1933, the shape of a racecar wasn’t yet determined using wind tunnels and computational fluid dynamics. There were also far fewer restrictions. Ferrari didn’t yet produce their own cars, but raced cars such as the Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza, recreated by bobalexander!. This car won the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, with drivers Tazio Nuvolari and Raymond Sommer.
Just look at the fenders and the boat tail. I’m all the more impressed with this model because it was built in dark red. The number of different parts available in this colour is on the increase, but it is still a lot harder to work with than, say, regular red. The end result is truly gorgeous.
LEGO Melbourne 1972... and a quick message from our sponsors
For the third time (previous ones here and the supremely talented here), Michael Pianta (scruffulous) and I teamed up to present a 1972 era diorama at Brickvention 2014 based on the railroads of the great state of Victoria, Australia.
This time we chose our most urban setting yet in the APM Paper Mill in suburban Melbourne alongside some of its neighbouring suburbia. As usual, our goal was to create as realistic a display as possible, under the limitations of our collaboration (I fly my contribution in) with the specific targets of creating: 1) plausible landscaping, flora and fauna, 2) minimal gridding and, 3) realistic roads and rail. I’m happy enough with it to think we hit the targets.
On a sadder note, I’m using this flagrantly self-promotional post to announce my resignation from TBB as a writer/editor/curator/whatever the latest hip term for it is. After many years sharing my love of LEGO with you all, I need to focus my time and energies on other things. I even hope to start building more models again, although I’m not threatening that too strongly. I happily extend my thanks to Andrew, Josh, my co-bloggers new and old, and especially our readers for the fabulous time I’ve had here.
Friday Night Fights (Round 33)
Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another bare-knuckle edition of Friday Night Fights! They say real estate is all about location, location, location, but tonight’s bout is all about which place is prettier. Let’s go to the tale of the tape: In the red corner, full of marvelous marble greebles valgarise and his Magic House: 
In the blue corner, with some awesome arches Patrick Bosman recreated this building straight from Rotterdam: 
As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the combat of cranes, MAKS proved that size doesn’t matter when you can pack on the details – and won handily 8-2 against liftingbricks.
Kickin’ It Old School with Paul B. Hartzog [Classic]
All right, time for another oldie but goodie. This time, it’s a ship that I’ve been trying to find for years. This was always one of my favourites from my time back on Classic Space Forums. However, over the years I had forgotten who had made it and therefore could not find it anywhere. All I really remembered was the vertically mounted x-pod lids on the sides of the ship, and the little communications array on the top using the minifig jackhammer. But wouldn’t you know it, I was browsing through Paul B. Hartzog’s back catalogue this morning and there it was in all its classic gloriousness.
So enough of my blabbing…I present the Salvage Seeker:
You simply must be sure to click through the entire photoset that I linked to above…this thing is a classic in all senses of the word and despite being 7 years old can easily hold it’s own against anything being produced today. Now that I have finally found it, I am certainly going to study the photoset and be making notes. I mean, just look at that striping! And the greebs!
They just don’t make ’em like this anymore!
Whiskers...on a starfighter.
Whiskers in a sci-fi context always make me think of Seaquest DSV. Now granted this funky little starfighter by Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller) doesn’t really look like a submarine, but then again maybe it does kind of look like some sort of alien catfish. Anyways, I digress…this ship is cool, and the integration of the antenna elements is pretty expertly done. It has plenty of fresh style that is just fun to look at.
…remember Darwin the dolphin? He was awesome!
70708 Hive Crawler – Power Functions Upgrade
I was lucky enough to receive the awesome Hive Crawler set for Christmas from my sons. The thing is simply too much fun to push around with the creepy leg action and hilariously fun catapult. Nannan had done a review of the set back when it first came out.
Well Moritz (nolnet) has kicked up the cool factor big time. He integrated full remote control capability with power functions. Seeing this thing drive around is pure brilliance. Then when I saw the functional catapult action…yep, I totally giggled like a school girl. Check out the video below.
Retro-future is retro-tastic!
Newcomer Dan McPharlin dives into the scene with a stable of mecha and spaceships from a future that never was. Combining the rounded bubbliness of MaK with the vivid colorschemes of ’70s scifi, Dan uses his artistic background to bring these builds to life.
One aspect I appreciate about these builds is the lack of armament on any of them. While I know firsthand how tempting it is to slap some colossal guns onto every applicable surface, it’s refreshing to see a vision for the future where giant mecha are used as explorers rather than wrecking balls.
Love However You See It
I think that no matter where you are in your life, we’ll all see something a little different when we look at this build by Brian Rinker (Âtin). Best enjoyed playing the youtube link included in the picture’s description.
M-Tron M.U.L.E (personal portage bot)
Shannon Sproule (Shannon Ocean) says he was inspired by Petman and other mildly cute, yet creepy bipedal robots. Normally you would see this sort of build with a near-future military vibe, and that just makes me appreciate the M-Tron theme all the more.
…because even the most adventurous space explorer deserves to have his hands free to enjoy an official M-Tron icy pole.
Ridiculously Cute LEGO Star Wars Bobbleheads
Created by Jose Carlos Fernandez, these Star Wars caricatures of Paploo the Ewok and an ill-fated Scout Trooper are simply adorable. If these were a set, I’d buy them.
