Mark Stafford (lego_nabii) has just posted a photo of an awesome model, built by one of his fellow designers at LEGO, Luis Castenada. Luis built an awesome custom Marine from StarCraft. Obviously, the head is not an authentic Lego piece, and a few parts have been painted, but that doesn’t stop this from being amazing. Here’s hoping that LEGO will wrest the license away from Mega, and release some sets like this.
Izzo‘s latest mech is a fierce-looking combat machine that took some inspiration from District 9. Check out the negative space stripes in the armor that give this creation a distinct look.
From Polish builder Lukasz Wiktorowicz (LL) comes a scene of daring men following in the footsteps of the great Trojan warriors of yore, slipping in under the enemy’s watchful eyes in disguise. Ok, well, actually, it’s just Pintel and Ragetti from Pirates of the Caribbean masquerading as women, but it makes a smashing good LEGO scene, brought to life with clever parts usages and some great forced perspective.
Lately I have been updating some of my older models, but seeing Ghostbusters for the umpteenth time last week inspired me to build something new for a change: Ecto-1. It had been on my to-do list for months.
It’s not the first Ecto-1 blogged here: a minifig scale version by misterzumbi and both minifig and large scale versions by Orion Pax have been featured here before, but I wanted my own version.
I decided to build a largish model, so that I could have working features such as steering and opening doors, which is the main thing that sets my model apart from the others. Ecto-1 in the movie was a converted ambulance built on a ’59 Cadillac commercial chassis. My starting point was a pink ’59 Cadillac convertible I built several years ago. That vehicle has a considerably shorter wheelbase and no roof, obviously, but the front end and the iconic tailfins are the same.
A drawback of the larger scale is that it isn’t suited for minifigs, which is why I opted for brick-built figures. Ecto-1 wouldn’t be complete without the Ghostbusters themselves and a “focused, non-terminal repeating phantasm, or a Class Five full roaming vapor”. You’ve got to love (s)lime green!
70708 Hive Crawler is the largest insect vehicle from the Galaxy Squad line. It will be released in June of this year and contains 560 pieces priced at $59.99.
Here is my summary of the highlights of the set, which are elaborated in the review videos of the parts and the model.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, the Hive Crawler is a surprisingly fun set to play with despite not having the best looks. It is also a great parts pack for sci-fi builders with a satisfying array of new elements. Similar to other Galaxy Squad sets, it falls short in the number of minifigs included although it is the cheapest set to get the new 4-eyed alien commander. It is not a bad buy at $60, especially if you want to start building with the new parts right away or can’t wait to have a crawling menace to combat the space marines.
There is something that’s just plain awesome about LEGO creations that go beyond just looking cool and enter the realm of being full-on functional. In this case, hippotam‘s made the perfect gift for the kitchen-inclined AFOL in your life.
And yes, it totally works:
According to Jacob (Maedhros1980), this ship is a Scouting and Surveillance ship for the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars Universe, and that certainly explains the family resemblance to the ill-fated Tantive IV. But I’m not ashamed to admit that the reason I was drawn to it was its Ice-Planet-esque color-scheme.
I’m not sure what got into him, but .Jake jumped up and built himself a SHIP. The Random Octangent is truly unlike any large-scale spacecraft I’ve seen, mostly because the builder has thoughtfully included a full-service gas station welded to the top. The fuselage faintly echoes the collected works of Mike Yoder, but with Jake’s own asymmetric spin on the design and a classic livery from everyone’s favorite petro-chemical company. If you’re a fan of a good SHIP, take the time to check out the full set, especially the rear end.
See…I like British Sci-Fi. Dr. Whooligans!
Much has been written about how mathematicians, who worked at Bletchley Park in the UK, broke the Enigma codes, thereby playing a significant role in defeating Nazi Germany’s U-boats. However, apart from aficionados of computer history or WW-II buffs, few people know about another part played by the scientists and engineers at Bletchley Park. In order to break the so-called Lorentz encryption, used by the German army, the boffins built the Colossus computer. As part of a series of models about British history, James Pegrum (peggyjdb) has built a scene depicting the Colossus Mk.2, as used at Bletchley Park on the eve of the D-Day Normandy landings.
Even though the project remained largely unknown for decades, mainly because it was classified, Colossus is significant as the World’s first programmable digital computer.
Many thanks to Richard Selby for the heads up.
I can’t think of another licensed theme that has inspired more epic dioramas than Lord of the Rings. You can add one more to the list with GOEL KIM’s interpretation of the battle of Helm’s Deep. The builder doesn’t have much to say, other than the diorama is 90% finished and contains 1700 minifigs. I deliberately selected this photo because although many of the others show the grandeur of the diorama, they also show the garage. It’s a nice garage, I have nothing against it, but it does detract from the grandeur of some of the long-shots. The size of the project makes it inherently difficult to photograph, and I’m sure the final presentation will be improved, but fans of LOTR should enjoy the rough-cut nonetheless.
Even though the product line died out in 2010, there is still a determined tribe of builders who keep the flame alive. Case in point is this fine bio-mechanical death-knight from Bio Master. The model is a kick-ass fusion of System, Bionicle and Hero Factory components, and some top-notch photography by the builder really makes the trans-red accents stand out.
Jason Allemann (True Dimensions) collaborated on this eye-catching microscale model simply titled “Maritime Fishing Village“. Based loosely on the Newfoundland town Port aux Basques, the builders manage to pack in a nice variety of color to help make each building seem unique.
Hopefully Jason will enter this into the pool for consideration for TBB’s monthly Facebook cover photo, as it fits the criteria pretty well.