I spotted the first of these new mecha by Carter Baldwin ([Carter]) last week, but didn’t manage to blog it then. Fortunately, good things come to those who wait, and Carter has now posted an interesting variant on the first model. They’re both worth checking out, from the ball shaped cockpit and frame that stays the same, to the decorations that make them so different. My favorite is the pink bunny decoration, presumably inspired by Sucker Punch.
Brilliant official LEGO Designer, Adam Grabowski (Misterzumbi), created this minifig scale version of the “Orca” from Steven Spielberg’s JAWS six years ago, and has only now gotten around to sharing it with the world. I’d say the reason he works for LEGO making many of our favorite sets is pretty obvious. Well played Misterzumbi.
I have to start with a confession: I don’t remember ever reading Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, but I did see the animated TV series as a child, I saw the Muppets version several years ago and I’ve actually been in Bristol. Unfortunately, none of those experiences are of much use when describing what is going on in the latest scene built by Matthew Hurt, which depicts the Hispaniola in the port of Bristol at the start of its journey.
So, instead I’m going to focus on some of the details that make it such a great model. Check out the different types of textures used for the roof-tiles of the warehouses, for instance, or the brick-built sails. Then there’s the weathered look of the quay. And finally, the sails cleverly incorporate log bricks that make them look far more like cloth than if they would be built just out of regular plates and bricks.
The summer wave of Lord of the Rings sets are skewed towards the high end of the price-range, with 79007 The Battle at the Black Gate in the middle at $60 USD. It does have a nice price-to-parts ratio, with 656 pieces. Beyond the fact that it’s a Lord of the Rings set, which I admittedly love, I wasn’t too thrilled about this set. After all, LEGO’s Battle at the Black Gate consists of, well, a black gate. And not much of a battle.
The gate has been scaled down nicely enough, though compared to the monstrously large gate seen on the screen in The Return of the King, LEGO’s seems laughably small. Still, that’s forgivable, since I doubt many people would be interested in purchasing a true-to-scale version of what amounts to a big wall (or be able to afford it). The gate is paired with a small tower, and two stone outcroppings which take the place of the mountain shoulders the gate is nestled between.
Inside the box are 4 numbered bags, a bag containing the eagle, and a loose dark bluish grey 6×24 plate. The 2 instruction manuals were pretty crumpled, as usual. For a very brief period LEGO a year or two ago packaged instruction manuals in a bag with a stiff piece of cardboard, and it helped immensely. I don’t know why they decided not to roll that out permanently, as it can be very frustrating trying to follow instructions when the pages keep curling up. For the first time in a long while in a set of this size, though, I discovered that there is no sticker sheet. Since I’m not a fan of stickers, I was happy to see that. In fact, the only decorated pieces in this set are the minifigures and animals, which is also a bit of a rarity these days. All 3 of the named minifigs wear capes, and all 3 capes were packaged together. This decision is of no consequence to me, but it is the first time I recall seeing it. As with most recent, large sets, there’s also a brick separator included, which is a nice trend.
The 4 bags break down into two each for the tower and the gate. The tower has a small postern door in the base which raises vertically with a lever, like an old-fashioned garage door. Both the tower and the gate have a lot of texturing on their surfaces which is accomplished by using mostly small pieces. It reminded me a lot of the building style of many of the adult-fan oriented sets like the modular city buildings, except that here everything is black. The abundance of various 1×1 elements explains the high part count. It’s always nice to get more Studs-Not-On-Top pieces, and this set has plenty. In fact, the tower uses 1×1 Technic bricks in many places where a regular 1×1 brick would have sufficed. The tower is topped with a small single-piece catapult, the medieval equivalent of a flick-fire missile.
The gate is built on a large, almost completely tiled base. It’s two large gate pieces which swing outward; more of a moving castle wall than anything else. They are secured in the back with large latch on a knob. Beyond being covered in the castle-y version of greebles, there’s not a lot to this. The tower, gate, and rock pieces each clip to each other via Technic pins, so you can change the layout, but only slightly. The rock pieces have to go on the ends, so basically the tower can just be on the left or the right.
The Battle at the Black Gate includes 5 minifigs, 1 horse, and 1 eagle. There are two orcs, which are slightly different from one another. The creepy-as-can-be Mouth of Sauron is a natural choice for this set. His helmet is rubbery and packaged in a small bag. No doubt the head with no eyes and a freakishly large mouth will do service in many fans’ horror dioramas.
Representing the forces of good are Aragorn in regal garb and Gandalf the White. Both of these versions are exclusive to this set, and I’d guess that fact will contribute heavily to the sales of this set. The Mouth of Sauron’s mount is a black horse. There is armor printed on the horse’s head, which between that and the beady red eyes will reduce its usefulness. Finally, there’s the giant eagle. The eagle comes in both this set and the $200 Tower of Orthanc, so many people simply wanting an eagle will do best to opt for this set at less than 1/3 the price. The eagle is 3 pieces: two wings and a body. Each of the individual elements are completely rigid and non-posable, though the wings connect to the body via LEGO’s standard clip system allowing them to be positioned. The single-piece body doesn’t do much for me, but I can’t wait to try out the giant wings in various MOCs.
In the end, this is a rather boring set. Despite the high piece count, the final model feels small for the price. The problem here is not one of LEGO’s making; they did an admirable job considering the source material. But when your source is a giant gate, there’s only so much you can do. The build-quality is great; it’s just a boring subject. And it’s hard to have a finale-worthy battle with only 5 minifigs, but I doubt LEGO could have feasibly pushed the price point any higher to accommodate more figs, and making the gate any smaller would have been disastrous. I doubt many people will be interested in buying this set because of the gate itself, so the minifigs are the real selling point here, and they are indeed very nice. If you’re interested in getting your hands on any of the rare or exclusive minifigs in this set, then it’s a must-have. Beyond that, I’d give this set a pass, unless you’re running low on your stock of small black pieces.
Most of the robots featured on this blog come equipped with big guns or giant swords. Cool stuff, without a doubt, but the robot built by Carol Price (Mrs Wobblehead), looks at least as menacing to me, despite its disarming grin and conspicuous lack of armament. I think there’s something a bit wicked about the grin and there’s definitely something fishy about secret underground lairs.
The robot is a large version of the series 6 collectible minifig and, while it may not set the world on fire with super-sophisticated building techniques, the scene has a lot of clever details. I simply love the sense of humour involved in building it.
Zane Houston‘s mechanical version of the iconic Pokemon Charizard adds a new level of ferocity to the beast. The flamethrower tail and the visible mechanical workings inside the belly of the beast are great additions.
I’ve wanted to try my hand at some alternative WWII vehicles for quite a long time. Long enough, in fact, that I originally planned to use sand green, then dark green, then sand green again (as these color became available, or had new parts show up). Of course, when I finally built something, I ended up using olive green.
The idea with this creation is a sort of “what if” scenario. In this case, what if WWII lasted longer, and militaries started fielding diesel driven mecha. Far-fetched, perhaps, but it certainly seemed like fun.
I also tried something new (for me) with this creation, and photographed it only in a scene. I’m hoping this presentation is pleasing to our readership.
Kaname Madoka is a character from an anime television series about a girl being granted a wish in exchange for transforming into a magical girl tasked with fighting witches and despair. LEGO DOU Moko creates another amazing interpretation of an anime character out of LEGO. Most notable in this creation is his masterful posing of Kaname with her knee bent and magical bow drawn.
Andy Baumgart (dtowncracka) obviously has an interest in military equipment from the (former) Soviet Union and its allies. After building his cracking ZSU-23 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery, he has turned his attention to something a bit more obscure: the Cuban T-55 mobile SA-2 Guideline launcher.
The SA-2 Guideline is a Soviet surface-to-air missile developed in the nineteen-fifties, which was exported to Soviet allies all over the world. During the Vietnam war, North Vietnamese SA-2s were used to shoot down close to 200 US aircraft, known as Yankee imperialist air pirates in contemporary propaganda. Before then, SA-2s gained notoriety when they were used to shoot down Francis Gary Powers’ CIA U-2 spy-plane over the Soviet Union in 1960 -an incident which caused great embarrassment to the US government- as well as a U.S. Air Force U-2 flying over Cuba during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
By now the SA-2 is an old clunker. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however, Cuba has been unable to buy more modern and more mobile air-defense equipment. By mounting an SA-2 and its launcher on top of an obsolete T-55 tank chassis, Cuban engineers have managed to come up with a slightly more mobile version. To me it doesn’t look as though it can do much damage except to Cuba’s roads, but it is a great choice for a LEGO model, expertly built by Andy.
February 29, 2020. Anchorage. Knifehead. Category III.
This is the beast that took down the Gipsy Danger. This is the Kaiju that demonstrated that they were learning our defenses. This was the battle of the beginning of the end for the Jaeger program. And it is magnificent.
OliveSeon brings us this brilliant brick-built beast from Pacific Rim, in all its glory. I can’t wait to see what else she has planned!
It was hard to pick which photo I was going to post of Calin’s (_Tiler) sleek BMW rat rod, because as Vaughan James so accurately described, his “photography is like LEGO car porn”. So I will just post a small selection.
I am admittedly not a ‘car guy’, but I do enjoy a gnarly looking vehicle like the best of them. Also the fact that Calin was able to fit an entire minifig in at this scale earns big time bonus points.
Check out the rest of the ‘LEGO Car Porn’ in the full photoset.
