Looking more like a movie still than a traditional brick sculpture, I had to look twice at this beautiful image by David Hensel (Legonardo Davidy) to be sure that it was, in fact, completely LEGO. Making wonderful use of his fantastic building skills and some great forced perspective techniques, this is one of David’s best models so far.
Architecture isn’t usually a theme I build in, but I do appreciate when it’s done well. TBB newcomer Adam Hollings (Night Hawk_) has built a really nifty Eco friendly house:
It’s an example of a very nice and clean build, and looks almost too simple… until you take a closer look. There is some really nice detailed styling he accomplished by building studs out creating some nice vertical lines. But the really cool part are the windows. Using levers to hold glass is nothing new, but using technic axles to frame the windows? Now that’s a new trick I have to remember.
More than six years ago, Lino Martins (Lino M) and Nathan Proudlove (Proudlove) started a flickr group for LEGO car lovers called LUGNuts. Over the years they’ve managed to draw in many of the best-known car builders in the online LEGO community. They’ve also enlisted the help of Tim Inman (Rabidnovaracer), Peter Blackert (Lego911) and myself as moderators. I’m pretty sure that many LEGO-related flickr groups fizzle in far less than six years, but LUGNuts is still going strong. The vast majority of cars blogged here are built by LUGNuts members (and not just because I look at the group’s photo pool for things to blog). The group is kept interesting by the monthly LUGNuts challenges. For these, members build something according to a particular theme, which is usually thought out by Lino. He also gives the challenges a snazzy name. We usually don’t pick winners and there are no prizes; the fun is all about participating, being creative and building a vehicle that you perhaps wouldn’t ordinarily build. Here are the challenges and some of the vehicles built for them last year.
We’re now running the 75th challenge, can you believe it? Lino has imaginatively called it the Freakin’ Balls-Out Sweet LUGNuts 75th Challenge Extravaganza!. This one is special. Every participant builds a car assigned to them by one of the other members and there are prizes for the best three builds (judged by the admins/ moderators). To add some extra fun, there are also prizes for the best three suggestions. If you’re into LEGO cars and ever wanted to build for a LUGNuts challenge, now would be the time to do it! The challenge runs until the end of the month.
Barney Main (SlyOwl) takes a page from the classic fairy tales: Goldilocks and the Three Bears with this fantastic family portrait. There’s lots of great details in this build and some clever techniques but sometimes the simplest parts are the best. Barney changes the angles on the hotdog eyebrows just slightly enough to give each bear their own unique expression.
The steampunk spider from Wild Wild West is arguably the most memorable part of an otherwise forgettable movie. Leave it to none other than Imagine Rigney to render it in Lego to add to his collection of gigantic Lego creatures. Check out more photos in the builder’s Flickr set.
A while ago, Nick Sweetman (MinifigNick) built a vignette of a butcher’s shop…
…Two years later, he revisits the idea after obtaining some custom pig heads.
Don’t miss the minifig anatomy poster featured in the vignette!
The Copperhead concept motorcycle by Lino Martins (Lino M) looks as though it is getting ready to kill. Lino himself call it his first steampunk creation, but I’m not so sure I agree. Yes, he has used copper and rust-coloured elements in the build, but it looks too futuristic and at the same time too plausible to be steampunk in my book.
I’m reminded of something else entirely. I used to watch the American Chopper TV-show, before I got fed up with all the drama, but I admire the artistry in the way they shaped metal to follow the particular theme of their builds. To me the Copperhead looks like the end result of American Chopper paying tribute to H.R. Giger.
Mihai Marius Mihu has rapidly become one of my favorite builders. When I saw the ‘work-in-progress’ pics, I was immediately looking forward to the finished build. Even then I was unprepared for how stylish the final creation turned out to be. I’ll avoid the obvious pun and just say that this is one beautiful build.
Chris (Ironsniper) brings us the Циклоп, a strange twisted amalgam of parts that have no business fitting together as well as they do.
And too cool not to mention is the Ravager, a more conventional drone posted by Chris a few weeks ago.
This is also your weekly reminder that the madness that is Droneuary is in full swing! I speak from personal experience when I say that these bite-size bots are much trickier to build than they look.
I can’t say I’d ever imagined blogging a sports-related creation, let alone football. It’s just not my thing. But TBB perennial favorite Iain Heath presents the Beast Quake, referring to the roar of Seattle’s home crowd that registered seismic activity in the region. You know. Typical Seattle stuff.
Anyway, here it is in its blue and green glory.
(For what it’s worth? Go Hawks!)
Happy New Year Fight Fans! It’s 2014 and we have a long season ahead of us. For tonight’s fight we bring you the duel of the dragons. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:
In the red corner, from the literary scene to the big screen we have Jonas (Legopard) and his Smaug the Stupendous:
In the opposite blue corner, from the big screen down to the tv screen we have Stormbringer and his Skrill Showdown:
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 battle of knights vs demons ended with a score of of 3-1 for Moko’s Knight Gundam. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!
Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin) turns to a classic subject I’ve rarely seen in LEGO form before: Looney Toons. The figures are spot on. Now all we need is for Matt to build Elmer Fudd to hunt the wabbit and duck.
