I’m a sucker for weirdly colored alien landscapes. With his latest creation, A Plastic Infiity has given us that, plus some funky alien technology, and a floating rock. The scales of justice look balanced in the photo, but they feel tipped towards awesome to me. Also, I had no idea those minifig hats came in a purple shade, I’ll be needing some of those for my own funky landscapes.
Browsing for MOCs this morning, I certainly wasn’t expecting to find a new six foot long SHIP, but David Collins (IntronD) had a surprise in store. It’s quite a lovely shape from the angle below, and the medium blue (or is that azure?) and tan color scheme is just a thing of beauty. Truly amazing is that it’s all built to house a hangar for mecha. Make sure to check out all the photos, as it’s packed full of details and lighting effects.
Until now, all of the pictures Davy Linden (Davekuhh) posted of his awesome Volvo excavator were of it sitting either on his building table or on display at LowLUG events in the Netherlands, with lots of clutter and legs in the background. I’ve been following his progress and have been waiting for decent pictures to appear for months, which makes it all the more frustrating that, now that they have and I finally get around to writing about it, other blogs have already beaten me to it.
In any case, this is just the sort of model I like and that I know many of you will appreciate too. I had the pleasure of being able to take in all the model’s details at one of the events a few months ago and I also got to see Davy use a dustbuster to vacuum up the ‘LEGO dirt’ from the base on which he displayed it. This is undoubtedly an effective method, but it makes a sound that fans of LEGO normally do not like to hear!
I don’t know whether it’s the scene, the yellow background or the combination of the two, but Piazza Maria by Andrew Tate has a distinctly Southern-European flair.
In fact, I’ll be a bit more specific. The model wasn’t specifically intended to be Italian, despite the name, but the colours on the buildings are spot-on and the gelateria really do remind me of a square in Udine, where, on a work trip to Italy, I had some wonderful ice cream a fair few years ago. I don’t remember a living statue there, but I don’t mind. It could easily have been there.
Admittedly most of my knowledge about the Toy Story movies is from the LEGO sets, but you don’t have to be a fan to recognise the Train Chase, by Jared Chan, as a neat little model.
The train is simply adorable and it hides a neat feature: it also serves as a piggy bank. I do have some doubts whether it can actually keep your money safe, however, no matter how strong the clutch between LEGO elements may be.
Somewhat to my shame, in my time as a contributor to this blog, I have not been a particularly prolific writer. This was particularly true at times when I was also busy writing things for work or dealing with a lot of deadlines, as I have been for a while now. I think all of us at TBB have been struggling with similar issues lately, as you may have gathered from the reduced frequency of posts. Even our lemur isn’t safe, although, to his credit, the kitchen tiles in the compound are now shinier than ever. Since for me stress-relief is a big reason for building, perhaps surprisingly, the upshot of being busy at work is that I do build lots of new models. This is far easier and also more relaxing than writing.
I’ve been working on a collection of famous vehicles from movies and TV series for about two years now, but by October last year I felt I was about done. However, enthusiastic reactions and suggestions for new ones that I got when I displayed them at the Great Western LEGO show in Swindon (UK) made me decide to continue and to diversify a bit more, by including helicopters. The vehicles in the picture are most of the ones I built since. I already wrote about Blue Thunder and Airwolf, in the back row, but you may not have seen any of the others. The third helicopter is the UH-1H “Huey” that serves as the personal transport for the surf-obsessed and completely insane Lt.Col. Kilgore, from Apocalypse Now. The other vehicles are Korben Dallas’ flying taxy from The 5th Element, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Capt. Nemo’s car from The League of extraordinary gentlemen, the Munster Koach from The Munsters, the GM Ultralite police car from Demolition Man, the AMC Pacer from Wayne’s world and, last but not least, the motorcycle with sidecar from Indiana Jones: the last crusade, all built to the same scale.
To be continued…
Let’s take a walking tour of this gorgeous spaceport, built by Stephan Niehoff. Stephan estimates it took 6 months to build. In terms of parts, he stopped counting after 9,000. Hats off to you, Stephan, because I’m quite sure I would have stopped counting parts at 10.
On to our tour.
You’re going to have to sit down with this and just oogle the gorgeous details, but let’s cover a few of them to get you started:
The Craters: The building style gives some great angles and very smooth lines for the entire display.
Communication Tower: With the dish set to receive signals, the tower is sturdy, industrial, and excellent situated with everything anyone could need.
Landing Pad: I absolutely love the textures from using the up-side-down plates here. It’s a great way to seperate it from the smooth lines of the studs-not-on-top design of the rest of the diorama.
I am particularly delighted by the rocket and launch tower, with all of the access points and the rocket itself.
So! What’s your favorite detail from the Outpost?
We’ve featured a few Pacific Rim creations here, including a kaiju and a couple of Jaegers. Regardless if you loved or hated the movie, you’ve got to admit there’s something completely awesome about the massive robots.
Today, I present to you Gipsy Danger, built by JAN LEGO – complete with cargo ship.
And if you’d like more robot goodness from this builder, I HIGHLY suggest taking a peak at the rest of their flickr stream.
One of the many wonderful things about LEGO is how almost all of the parts produced over multiple decades are compatible. Several years ago, when building a fish & chips shop, I was able to use a parasol, 25 years after I got it as a part of a set that was a gift for my 8th birthday. Another great example is visible on the hot rod built by Larry Lars.
Builders of real-world hot rods often combine an old body with a shiny new engine. Similarly, Larry uses mudguards and brand new wheels from the speed champions sets and recently introduced curved parts with a part that is even older than my parasol: the roof from a Fabuland car. It is a perfect combination.
Pro building team Olive Seon are back it with another magnificent brick-built beauty; this time a theme park. The awesome high-flying roller coaster really ties the model together, and also gives you a sense of scale for just how small most LEGO dioramas really are. As per usual with these builders, there is a lot to look at and loads of fun little details to spy. My favorites are the LEGO Architecture line buildings used for a miniland within the park.
To all of the moms out there, near and far, we wish you a very happy Mother’s day.
We don’t often post Technic builds here, so this is something of a treat. And also awesome. Because I love me some classic cars, and this big red beast is just lovely. Martinj Nab has added plenyy of details into this beauty, including opening doors and folding seats. I mean, just LOOK at the fins on this.
For more Technic car action, I highly recommend checking out the 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II Coupe. Just lovely.
