Mangrove trees have a chaotic, almost alien feel to them. In salty, waterlogged conditions, where other trees flounder, they thrive. Tirrell Brown has perfectly captured the majesty of these strange trees in his most recent build. His swampy scene, which was built for Eurobrick’s Guilds of Historica, depicts a hidden croc warrior desperately fleeing a pair of dangerous dark elves. For now, the croc is escaping their notice. Can you spot him?
Since mid-October I have had a pretty crazy time at work, very much at the expense of my blogging and pretty much everything else. I have built a few things, but I told my fellow contributors that I would only write something if it knocked my socks off. Well, consider me barefoot. The culprit is Swiss builder Beat Felber and his AR-1200M Mobile Crane. Tadano is a Japanese manufacturer of cranes and the model carries a Japanese livery, of the Showa Co., Ltd. of Kobe. This already makes it a bit more interesting than your average Liebherr. Furthermore, as you would expect from a builder who goes by the name Engineering with ABS, his model is full of working features.
It uses Power functions for the drive, for steering on all five axles and to extend the stabilisers on both sides, with pneumatics used to raise and lower the struts. The crane boom can be raised, slewed and extended using Power Functions and, of course, the winches are remote-controlled. It also has working lights. The boom reaches a height of 2.15 m (more than 7 ft.) and can be extended even further by adding a separate jib. This is not the tallest crane we’ve ever blogged, but size is not everything. It is gorgeous.
I guess we’ve all missed seeing some impressive Black Fantasy creatures for quite a while. All of a sudden Leonid An, a talented young builder from Moscow, Russia, bridges this gap. His strider is not only remarkable for a wide range of classic build techniques, but also completed with a stunningly landscaped base. Who could knew that typically girlish pieces from Clikits sets could complete such an ominous creature so perfectly.
Custom accessory makers BrickWarriors are having a Small Business Saturday sale starting today, with 22% off through Cyber Monday. Head on over and help support another great LEGO-themed small business.
And don’t miss the other LEGO-focused small businesses we’ve highlighted so far this week:
The Colossal Castle Contest continues and Polish builder crises_crs brings us this perfectly balanced creation entitled Needle Town.
Needle Town is an entry to the Microscale Medieval Life Microscale Castle MOC category, in which entries must be built on a 16×16-stud or smaller plate.
Crises_crs has balanced this entire castle town on a tower of 1×1 light blue grey plates that rise up from an island. I love this unique take on building within a 16×16 plate, certainly an eye-catching entry. In addition, the angled wall that encircles the town has a fantastical feel, like one of Saturn’s rings around the ‘planet’ where Needle Town rests. The coloured houses and touch of greenery gives plenty of detail although my eye is constantly drawn back to that foundation tower of 1×1 bricks!
The 2015 Creations for Charity fundraiser is ending on November 30th and has already raised over $13,000. This is a great time to get a custom creation donated by Lego fans while helping raise money to buy Lego sets for underprivileged children. Check out some of the cool MOCs that’s on sale.
While I share a certain ambivalence about LEGO renders with the Grumpy Old Man contingent of TBB contributors, I have to admit that I’m increasingly impressed with the high quality we’ve begun seeing from “virtual” builders. One of my recent favorites is this LEGO-ized version of M.C. Escher’s print “Hand with Reflecting Sphere” by Gabriele Zannotti. Gabriele used Mecabricks to build the scene, and Blender for the final 3D rendering. Spend some time looking at all the details reflected in that sphere…
We’ve come to expect great things from Jason Allemann, a talented builder who combines strong LEGO engineering skills with a great artistic flair. Back in 2013, we featured his post-apocalyptic Strandbeest and last month jaws all over the world hit the floor with his working combination safe. Jason’s latest build takes its inspiration from Greek mythology, with the cursed Sisyphus rolling that awful rock up the hill throughout eternity.
In addition to the main model, the base itself includes brick-built bas relief sculptures.
You can see the model’s moving features, along with comments from the builder himself, in this video Jason made:
In the Death Note manga series by Tsugumi Ohba, the character Ryuk is a shinigami or “death god” who meddles in human affairs by giving a young man named Light a notebook that enables him to kill anybody at will. While not particularly my style of manga, I can certainly appreciate this LEGO bust of Ryuk by Ilia. Ryuk’s hair and wings (?) blend into the dark background Ilia uses, making his eyes and teeth jump out even more. The character’s iconic apple makes another contrasting splash of color.
The cheap brick just keeps coming, with more Black Friday LEGO sales from both the LEGO Shop and Amazon.com. Here are a few more I hadn’t noticed when I wrote my earlier LEGO sales & deals on Amazon roundup.
60080 Spaceport is $20 off, bringing it below a hundred bucks.
75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter from The Force Awakens is 20% off, at $55.99.
Click here to see more LEGO sales & deals
Not to be outdone by the LEGO discounts on Amazon, the LEGO Shop online has more than a hundred items on sale starting at midnight Eastern (9 PM PDT) tonight through next Monday. Shipping is free on all orders (not just over $75), and you get a free gingerbread house on all orders over $99.
LEGO sent me an early copy of this set, and it’s adorable, with 277 parts, including more cupcakes than I can count and plenty of “brick bricks” and cute printed 1×1 tiles.
You can help support The Brothers Brick by clicking through one of the banners below, or any of the links and images farther down in this post:
Highlights of the various sets on sale at the LEGO Shop include:
All LEGO Dimensions items and add-ons are 25-30% off, including the $99.99 Starter Pack, which is $30 off at 69.99 USD, which is twice as good as the Amazon deal from a few weeks ago.
The Ghost is 20% off at 71.99 USD (a bit more than Amazon.com at $66.31, but you get VIP points).
Mammoth’s Frozen Stronghold is 40% off, at 35.99 USD.
Click here to see more LEGO sales & deals
Star Wars is clearly a hot topic at the moment and Rhys Knight has created his LEGO weapon of choice, Han Solo’s DL-44 Blaster.
The BlasTech Industries DL-44 heavy blaster pistol was a powerful sidearm from the time of the Galactic Civil War. It was the weapon of choice for Han Solo and the Rebel Alliance and also wielded by Luke Skywalker throughout The Empire Strikes Back.
Rhys’ 1:1 model has a raised scope, and he shared with TBB that as the model is primarily black, he wanted there to be a clear separation. He notes that the ‘fiddly’ aspect of the build was the rear of the telescopic sight as it had to be circular, but also flare out. The trigger guard is actually upside down, and is attached to the grip via Part 60470 (1×2 plate with double clips) and attached to the power cell via a simple slot for the guard.
Best part for me — it cocks!
