Maelven (Sydag) brings us this gorgeous vision of the future of shipping with the Brynhildr tanker. The clean lines and vivid colors make this industrial ship look as good as any luxury space-yacht. If this is the future of long-distance trucking, then sign me up.
Category Archives: LEGO
Lego Star Wars Jabba’s Sail Barge 75020 [Review]
Lego Star Wars Jabba’s Sail Barge was released in August 2013 and contains 850 pieces. It retails for $119.99 and is available on Amazon. Below is a video review and my remarks regarding the set.
Pros:
- Overall sleek design of the sail barge makes it a great display model
- Includes iconic and unique minifigs such as Max Reebo and Ree-Yees
Cons:
- Model is very small for the price
- The jagged slopes on the front of the barge looks weird, may be better if plates were used instead.
LEGO’s second version of Jabba’s Sail Barge is a neat little model that carries a big price tag. It’s an iconic Star Wars vehicle well deserving of some shelf space. I wouldn’t pay the full price on this model, and luckily Amazon currently has it on sale, and 26% off is a good enough deal. The model’s interior can be fully exposed to allow easy access, but there’s not much room after accounting for Jabba’s presence. The barge rolls on inconspicuous wheels underneath and also features a concealed cannon in the front that’s a hassle to fire. Overall, I recommend this model at a price tag less than $100.
The Great Stone Dragon Awakes
Mushu is almost certainly my favorite Disney character, and this hilarious sculpture by Mike Nieves (Retinence) is perfect. I’m amazed that Mike was able to effectively pull off such a spindly creature while maintaining enough structural integrity for it stand.
LEGO Marshmallow Peeps
Recently, some of us here at TBB participated in a live unveiling of the Iron Builder piece, which Sean and Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral), along with Tyler (Legohaulic) and Michaela Clites (littlehaulic), are using for their competition.
All of the entries have been fantastic–and this one is particularly well timed. Also, it made me laugh. These might be the only Peeps I actually like.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Good planes come in small packages
I think there are definite advantages to building aircraft models on a larger scale, certainly when it comes to details of the shape. However, It’s always a joy to see what Peter Dornbach (dornbi) can do with LEGO on a smaller scale.
Both his P-38J Lightning and his Mitsubishi A6M2 are instantly recognisable and most of the important bits are there. The latter even has folding wingtips.
Cheeky Rafiki
Vlad Lisin ([Rhymes_Shelter]) once again wows us with an incredibly realistic Bionicle creation, this time depicting the characterful Rafiki from Lion King.
Enter the marshy depths of Purity
This alien landscape of a cavernous marshland by Raoul Baldwin features many exotic elements. There are so many aspects of this creation I like, including the color texturing with olive green and dark tan, the vertical raised dark tan baseplate, the rocks in the foreground to add perspective and depth, and the integration of elements of technology and nature. Don’t forget to check out the details of the organic looking alien walker.
Why build one when you can build seven?
I fell in love with Calin’s superb MaK SAFS as soon as he posted them, but while they are an uncannily accurate reproduction of the rounded source material they lacked that sense of excessive viciousness that I love so much.
So, having adopted the core of his model with some small changes, I incorporated spindly arms and digitigrade legs to get something much more sinister. Add in some boilerplate creepy backstory and a name from Native American mythology and voila, you’ve got a monstrous mech and six of his dearest friends.
I feel the need...the need for speed
“How’s it feel to be on the front page of every newspaper in the English-speaking world, even though the other side denies the incident?” Top Gun is so cheesy, it’s like mature cheddar wrapped in a slice of Emmental with some Parmesan sprinkled on top. Yet, when I first saw the movie as a teenager, I loved it. Not for the actors and certainly not for the scenes of sweaty fighter pilots playing volleyball, mind you, but because of the true star of the movie: the wonderful Grumman F-14 Tomcat. I have been a Tomcat fan ever since and have had at least one LEGO model of a Tomcat for at least 20 years.
I have been thinking about building a larger scale aircraft for about two years now. Seeing the excellent 1/18 F-16 by Everblack a few weeks ago, in combination with my ongoing movie vehicle project prompted me to finally have a go. If I was going to bite the bullet, it would have to be a Tomcat and it would have to be the one from Top Gun, cheesy or not.
The process was relatively painless. Building an aircraft at a different scale was interesting. Some of the solutions that I’m used to didn’t really work, so I had to be a bit more inventive. However, the larger scale does have advantages. I had a lot more room to work with, which meant I could incorporate a lot of techniques that I normally don’t have room for. It is 108 studs long, excluding the nose probe, and with the wings in their most forward position has a wingspan of 110 studs. This isn’t small by any means, but it’s also not quite so large that I had to worry too much about structural issues.
I know that there are some readers out there who are of the opinion that I do blog rather many of my own models and, admittedly, I have blogged a fair few. I build a lot more than the ones I blog though and, be honest, do you think the other guys wouldn’t have blogged this if I weren’t one of the contributors?
Junk Trader
I must say this piece of junk by j¤nesy is fantastic:
I’ve actually tried to build one before, but even 4 times as big as j¤nesy’s, I wasn’t able to recreate the distinctive elegance that he has managed to capture with this creation. The use of the old Ninja Sails is nothing short of an epic technique. But it doesn’t stop there – the little details of the rolled up silks in the boat and the fantastic rolling waters just adds the this already amazing build.
Alpha Bandit Kickstarter
The team behind the incredibly successful Mobile Frame Zero is at it again, this time bringing microscale battles into the void of space.
The original game spawned an entire subcommunity around the competing factions of mecha and has brought a number of new builders into the AFOL community through the fusion of Lego, wargaming, and the timeless appeal of giant robots smashing into each other.
Check out the kickstarter here!
Inside Look: The Cuusoo Exo Suit Project [News]
Tim Johnson over at the wonderful blog New Elementary has just published an interesting inside look at the development process of Peter Reid’s Classic Space Exo Suit Cuusoo set. Although the actual design of the suit has yet to be revealed, the logo for the new set has been announced. Reading Tim’s write-up of the extent to which fans have been involved in the development of this particular set has given me great hope that the outcome will live up to the fan community’s very high expectations. The fan involvement for this set reminds me a good deal of my time helping design the original Minecraft set, and it’s heartening to see another Cuusoo project take this route, instead of taking the project to Billund and developing it solely with official product designers, as has been the case with all of the other Cuusoo projects.
Combine the Exo Suit with the forthcoming Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP set from the LEGO Movie, and it’s looking to be a very good year for Classic Space aficionados.
Read the original post on New Elementary in its entirety here.
