German builder Disco86 recently completed his triptych of builds focused on medieval Japan, for the 12th annual Colossal Castle Contest over at Classic-Castle.com. And I think it’s fair to say he saved the best for last, with this beautiful and colorful diorama. (Can you spot the lurking ninja?)
By his own admission, in terms of LEGO builds Vibor Cavor didn’t have a very productive 2014, building just one model. As far as I am concerned, however, quality trumps quantity and his new year is off to a good start. His latest model, the 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, has quality in spades.
The Boattail Speedster is a prime example of thirties American luxury cars, with sleek Art Deco styling and high performance to match. I is also rare, with only a few hundred built before Auburn went bust in the Great Depression. Arguably, the original car looks even sleeker and more curvaceous than the model does, but to me it is not at all obvious how one could actually achieve that. With its beautifully sculpted mudguards, angled panels and working steering, this is one stylish build.
While not on the grand scale of Lino’s Hot Rod to Hell that we featured last month, this entry in the recent LUGNuts Steampunk Motorworks challenge by CaptainSmog still manages to hit all the right Victorian notes:
Monthly building challenges seem to be all the rage these days. And they result in a flood of awesome builds …sometimes too many for us to keep up with. Old faithfuls such as SHIPtember, MAkTober and Novvember are behind us now, as is the newer FOODcember. Meaning that now it’s time to focus our attention on… HARDuary!
All this month, builders from around the world will be recreating everyday objects out of LEGO. After pretty much shutting down the FOODcember challenge, Indonesian builder Kosmas Santosa is already knocking it out the park with some killer inanimate objects:
But things just got real, because freshly-minted LEGO designer Carl Merriam has entered the fray. Carl is well known for amazingly accurate LEGO builds of mechanical devices and scientific instruments, and is already showing great form with this old wooden office chair:
So pull up a seat (wooden or otherwise), and let’s see how this plays out!
Jim Henson’s beloved Muppets probably need no introduction, thanks to the international success both of the Sesame Street franchise, and a long series of excellent Muppet movies. But it’s a little harder to gauge how well-known The Muppet Show was. Airing over several seasons in the late seventies, the television show was produced and aired in the UK, as no US network would touch it.
After that, it’s less clear how widely syndicated the show became. But these excellent builds of show regulars Waldorf/Statler and the Swedish Chef by German builder Andreas Weissenburg (grubaluk) suggest to me that maybe the show did gain some international popularity after all!
Oh, and a word of warning: If you ever meet someone from Sweden, please please please do NOT ask them what they think of the Swedish Chef …it’s still kind of a sore point with them!
Internal lighting is always a great way to enhance a LEGO model, and here’s a very creative example. With the application of wires, LEDs, a drill, and a Power Miners head piece, Korean builder Bangoo H has managed to create a pretty convincing Infernal from the game World of Warcraft.
Check out the builder’s blog for plenty of behind the scenes construction photos.
For hard-core Star Wars fans, even LEGO’s latest incarnation of the iconic X-34 landspeeder leaves something to be desired, with all it’s studs and tubing. Over the years, various builders have crafted their own versions, often with entertaining results. But now expert car builder Calin has created probably the classiest minifig scaled version of this vehicle to-date.
At first you’re drawn in by the color scheme, patterning and smooth surfaces. But then the details hit you: the brick-built turbines, the exposed wiring, the front hitch, and the use of a bucket handle piece for the pilot’s controls. Of course, the builder has chosen to keep that sweet curved windscreen piece, for which there’s just no substitute.
If you’ve noticed a lot of ribbed flex-tubing in some of the builds we’ve featured this week, it’s because of this year’s first Iron Builder contest, featuring yet another mind bogglingly difficult-to-use seed part. In the current battle, Sean and Steph Mayo are up against Tyler Clites and our very own Nannan Zhang (…ah well, there goes any hope of impartiality!).
In their latest salvo, the Mayo’s have recreated a scene from the classic Matrix trilogy, which seems like the perfect companion to Tyler’s Zion Dock Defense from a few years back. We wait with bated breath to see how the two lads will respond!
Although the tragic events that unfolded yesterday in Paris were simply the act of a few deranged individuals, they are a reminder to us that – like all members of the visual arts community – LEGO builders should value their freedom of expression too. French builder Jimmy Fortel decided to show his solidarity with the beautiful creation below.
It’s impossible to please all the people all of the time. I for one have had my fair share of negative feedback for things that I’ve created. But I appreciate having the freedom to push those boundaries and make artistic statements without fearing physical retribution. Sadly, that is not the case for people living in some parts of the world today. Yesterday’s incident should serve as a reminder of the freedoms that most of us do enjoy, even when they are being tested.
Nous somme tous Charlie.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts below. But please be aware that any overtly abusive, offensive or disrespectful comments will be deleted.
Tyler is on a roll this past week — I’ve bookmarked each of his last four builds to blog, only to be overtaken by an even better build (or one of our other bloggers). His latest LEGO model is a character called Ignatius Bartholomew Pompus XXXVII, who has a fantastic mustache he should be very proud of, but is apparently the Archduke of Arrogance. Tyler himself is one of the nicest, humblest people I’ve had the pleasure to meet, so I’ll take his word for it.
While your eye is inevitably drawn to the many colorful details of Ignatius Bartholomew Pompus XXXVII himself, I especially enjoy Tyler’s presentation. Tyler has built Ignatius as a bust on a stand, and photographed him from slightly below “eye-level” to heighten the impression of arrogant disdain. Finally, Tyler Photoshopped Ignatius onto an antique-looking background. All in all, this is much more than just an interesting combination of bricks.
Apart from a few manufacturers of exotic sports cars and an assembly plant for Minis, the Netherlands don’t have much of a car-building industry. Things are different when it comes to trucks, however, with the Eindhoven-based truck builder DAF being market leader in several European countries. Dutchman Nanko Klein Paste has built several DAFs in the last few years. His latest is a classic T 2400 DO, which represents an early attempt by DAF at building a truck for the international market.
Versions of this truck were in production until 1975 and when I was a child they were still a fairly common sight on Dutch roads. The characteristic sloped front of the cab is particularly well captured. This classic model is flanked by a modern XF105, in the livery of the heavy lifting company Mammoet (Mammoth), which makes for a particularly nice comparison between the two generations.
If you’ve seen even one of Kevin Smith’s movies, then these two lowlifes should need no introduction, as they appear in just about every one of them. Yep, it’s those wheeling, dealing, cussing 80’s throwbacks Jay and Silent Bob. Brought to you by TBB regular Letranger Absurde (aka “vitroleum” – who apparently has visited this particular stretch of wall before).
We’d invite them to comment on the accuracy of this scene themselves, but that would end up being a long series of asterisks, followed by a long series of blank spaces. Which given their antics and opinions, would probably be for the best. Especially for the executives at Miramax.
