Seb Toutouille has been posting cute “blockhead” versions of iconic characters for several months now. His latest is Link from The Legend of Zelda, with posable arms and quizzically tilted head.
I also love Han Solo and Chewbacca.
Finally, a wee Yoda and even tinier Artoo.
Be sure to check out all of Seb’s great Blockheads on Flickr.
In the space of barely 20 years, the Internet has transformed human society to a degree probably not witnessed since the invention of agriculture, or electricity. It invades every facet of our daily lives, every corner of our collective consciousness. French builder 74louloute put together this little scene that reflects our new global obsession, and the way that it seems to have taken on a life of its own:
Deborah Higdon brings us this charming set of brick-built bookends portraying seasonal happiness. The little crab shack is just too cute — a perfect use of its parts, the water in particular. Look closely, and you’ll see that even the books are LEGO too.
Over the past week, we’ve talked a bit about some of the influences behind builders’ SHIPs. For many builders, the 2003 video game Homeworld has had a pivotal effect on their building style.
This year Homeworld Remastered was re-released with updated graphics, and many space builders fell in love with the game again. So it’s not surprising to me that we saw a lot of Homeworld and Homeworld-inspired SHIPs pop up in SHIPtember.
But what was surprising to me was that some folks from the actual development team of Homeworld Remastered loved our LEGO SHIPs as much as we loved their game, and reached out to offer a few prizes! So without further ado I present the best Homeworld inspired SHIP, as chosen by those developers, who happen to also be LEGO fans:
The best Homeworld SHIP, which will also receive a copy of The Art Of Homeworld, kindly donated and signed by a group of developers, is Pierre E Fieschi with his Maersk Highliner:
With wonderful technique and controversial part usage, this ship launched itself into the top spot despite not actually being in the game, but heavily inspired by it. Quoting the developers: “We love the layering of details. Panels overlapping one another without it being too much noise. And of course this is just outright gorgeous.” and also “That guy’s concept art and other work is legit.”
Second place, as chosen by the development team is Ryan Olsen (Rphilo004) and his Hiigaran Battlecruiser: 
Again, quotes from the development team: “Nicely executed for the size and detail that you were able to get into it. Bravo!” and “It’s PERFECT. The support ships even rock. I wanna buy this or have one made for myself SO BAD.”
Coming in third place was last year’s SHIPtember winner, Tim Schwalfenberg (One More Brick) with his Vaygr Battlecruiser:
Which the keen eyes of the developers noticed was missing the side tower: “That surface detail. Maybe the tower hit an asteroid?”
The Olympic Games of 1972 in Munich, Germany were the first to feature a mascot. Waldi the dachshund was designed by graphic designer Otl Aicher, who modeled Waldi after a real-life doxie named Cherie von Birkenhof. Even in this simple but excellent LEGO version of Waldi by umamen, you can see the attributes of resistance, tenacity, and agility.
This 1915 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost was modified to carry the first Premier of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. A magnificent example of artistry in auto-making to begin with, the heavy modifications turned this Silver Ghost into a terrifyingly capable machine perfectly suited for the far northern reaches and harsh winters of the Russian homeland. The model here by Karwik well captures that capability by placing it in a diorama climbing a snow-covered hill beneath a gnarled tree.
A life-size, fully functional caravan trailer made entirely from LEGO bricks was presented this week at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, UK, during the 2015 Motorhome & Caravan Show.
[photo courtesy of Guinness World Records]
The trailer set the surprisingly specific record for “largest caravan built with interlocking plastic bricks.” The model uses 215,158 LEGO bricks to faithfully recreate all the functions of a real RV, including running water and electricity. While sadly the heating elements and stove are non-functional lest the bricks melt, the refrigerator is perfectly capable of keeping its LEGO-built food safely preserved. Impressively, even the table folds down into a functional (albeit very firm) bed, just like real caravan trailers. The caravan will be on display Oct. 13-18 at the show, then again at the end of the month for UK’s Brick 2015 LEGO convention.
The model was created by UK’s Bright Bricks, LEGO Certified Professional Duncan Titmarsh and Ed Diment’s company. We’ve featured Ed’s monstrously large military ships many times here on TBB.
Today on Week of Wonders we look at the minifig scaled SHIPs.
For a long time SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment In Parts) had a pretty specific definition. Not only were ships to be 100 studs, but they were almost always minifigure scale with interiors. With SHIPtember some builders have lost sight of the minifigure scale and have built a wide variety of amazing microscale ships. But there’s still something magical about building minifig SHIPs, harking back to our childhoods, where the dream was to build not just a big space ship, but one where there was room to play with our minifigs!
Today we celebrate the minifig populated SHIPs from SHIPtember.
Adam Dodge (Dodge…) has a bit of history of going overboard, from winning awards at cons to doing the infamous SHIPhatTrick – building 3 SHIPs in one month. But his Intercept Invader is the set I would have loved as a kid:
Not only is this SHIP big, it has a full interior and most jaw dropping of all, is completely modular and reconfigurable! That by itself earns Adam big props from me.
Ryan McBryde’s (goatman461) Mercy Brandy SHIP looks smaller than it is:
![[Challenge 2][Cat. B] 3](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20713790788_a14755d46d_z.jpg)
It’s built and textured like a lot of other microscale ships we’ve seen, but it’s deceiving with a fully detailed bridge: ![[Challenge 2][Cat. B] 6](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/20714990559_bf850c2210_z.jpg)
I particularly like the classy brick built Octan logo.
Not to be outdone, Jake (Jayfourke) has jam packed the inside of his Thames-Class Coastguard Patrolboat:
Not only has Jake added a full interior, but he’s managed to have not one, but two vehicles safely docked inside.
I don’t know about other people, but next year, I want to build a big minifig SHIP.
This cyberpunk bike would look right at home in Akira, but is actually from the mind of French builder F@bz. Sitting at 55 studs in length, the large scale gives room for plenty of terrific details, the coolest of which are the brilliant incorporation of the hot air balloon panels as a sleek engine cowling and the stacked 2×2 radar dishes for the rear suspension.
The seventh annual Creations for Charity sale starts today! From now until the end of November, you can buy a custom creation to help raise money to buy Lego sets for underprivileged children. These creations are all built and donated by the fans, and there’s more to come throughout the sale. Anyone can donate a creation before November 15th by visiting creationsforcharity.org and submitting a donation form. Take a look at some of the creations for sale so far:
Dave E. over on the Brickset forums has compiled a fascinating summary of the evolution of the LEGO palette over the past 40 years. Dave wrote an program to analyze the Brickset database, pulling part inventories for the last 40 years’ worth of sets. He says he ignored a few special themes known for their rampant use of unusual colors, such as Duplo and Fabuland.
This chart compiles the colors as a percentage of the total parts produced each year, so while a color’s percentage may decrease from one year to the next, its actual quantity produced may increase if LEGO manufactures more total pieces the next year. This chart also only accounts for a set’s release year, and not the subsequent years in which that set may have been produced, nor the quantities LEGO produces, so it only approximates what a collector would have if they were able to buy one copy of each set in its release year.
Shockingly, it’s been almost three weeks since I last posted a LEGO model of a urinal, so I’ll rectify that oversight immediately with this charming scale model made by Flickr member Ashton6460. I’m not sure what possesses people to build these things, but I’m not gonna overthink it. Enjoy…
