Tyler (legohaulic) brings us a fantastic WWII fantasy creation. Turret Man punches you in the face with awesome! I’m a huge fan of this style of alternate history/science. I even managed to sit through Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, for the vehicle design, Tyler does a great job of capturing that 40s vision of what the future could hold. Check out his concept sketch for the model, too.
A bunch of SEALUG members recently founded a new LEGO club here in the Seattle area focused on architecture and castle models. David Frank (Frasland) has gotten into the spirit with this lovely rendition of the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.
David’s inclusion of one of the Star Wars planets for the structure’s dome is a wonderful touch.
Brian Williams (BMW_Indy) is more typically associated with highly detailed train models and Indiana Jones dioramas, so his recreation of the Friendship 7 launch is a bit of a departure. But I think it’s a happy departure. The LED powered flame effect really adds to the diorama.
After reviewing the Brickmania M4 Sherman and WC54 Ambulance custom LEGO kits last week, I’m going in a bit of a different direction by reviewing something I haven’t managed to build myself — the M2A4 Light Tank in United States Marine Corps livery.
For comparison, here’s Dan Siskind’s M2A4 Light Tank next to the M4 Sherman I reviewed last week, with a Citizen Brick Marine for scale:
The M2 Light Tank was produced in limited numbers in the years leading up to World War II — only 375 left the assembly line — and they only saw combat on Guadalcanal, with the US Marines. Nevertheless, the tank was an important evolutionary step along the way to the subsequent M3 “Stuart” (photo below) and M5 light tanks. (The M2 Light Tank never entered British/Commonwealth service during WW2, and thus didn’t get a nickname like the Stuart, Lee, Sherman, Chaffee, and so on. It was only later that the US military formally adopted the British convention for naming US tanks after American generals.)
For me, though, I love the M2/M3/M5 tanks because they’re so small. Modern main battle tanks like the M1 Abrams or Challenger 2 are like battleships on land, with low profiles that give them a distinctly sinister look. We drove past Fort Lewis on our way from Seattle to Portland recently, and I pointed out an M2/M3/M5 sitting on a plinth near the highway to my wife. “Oh, what a tiny tank! It’s adorable!” she exclaimed.
My sentiments exactly. Yes, the M2 and its immediate descendants were machines of death and destruction no less so than a Merkava or Leopard, but they are just a teensy bit more twee. (The adorably tiny light tank has also influenced popular culture, in games like Advance Wars and movies like Tank Girl.)
So, the M2 Light Tank would seem like a perfect fit with LEGO. I tried building an M3 Stuart a couple years ago, but I failed miserably (though I still have my tablescraps in a little plastic bag). Thankfully, Dan Siskind has managed to fit nearly every detail of the M2 into his custom LEGO kit, at a scale that fits neatly on my 1/35th schematics for the M2 Light Tank in World War II AFV Plans: American Armored Fighting Vehicles.
The Brickmania M2 Light Tank includes a rotating turret with a gun that can move up and down, proper bogies and road wheels, a BrickArms M1919 machine gun, nicely angled glacis armor plating at the front, and even rear engine doors that open and close.
The single-chain tracks work very well for a smaller tank like this, and enable Dan to keep the tank’s height manageable without losing too much detail. The suspension is interesting because Dan has built the first layer of the tank’s body using 1x plates rather than a larger plate, allowing him to attach 2×2 plates with Technic pin holes to the underside using their hollow studs. This creates a half-stud offset that gives the road wheels the correct spacing — definitely something I would never have thought to do.
The angled antenna gives the tank a jaunty look, and deserves a brief discussion on its own. Internally, Dan achieves the angled antenna by inserting a clip/claw into a 1×2 brick with a Technic pin (and then clipping on a telescope for the antenna to attach to). The clip inside the 1×2 brick’s Technic pin is, of course, an “illegal” connection. Apparently, there are actually two different molds for the 1×2 brick element — one with a fairly open Technic pin, and another with much thicker walls on the pin, preventing you from fitting anything inside the pin. Because BrickLink doesn’t distinguish between these two very different parts and Dan sources all the parts for his kits on the secondary market (like all adult builders and purveyors of custom kits), my kit happened to include a brick that wouldn’t accept the clip piece.
I contacted Dan about my problem, we identified the cause, and he promptly shipped out a “service pack” with the correct part. I bring up this minor issue in my review for two reasons. First, I just think it’s really interesting what kinds of challenges a custom kit maker has in assembling their kits in quantity. Second, I was impressed by Dan’s customer service. And it’s not just because he knew I was reviewing his kits for TBB — it’s something I experienced years back when I picked up a couple older kits to review (though my actual review was extremely brief), and when I’ve bought smaller items through his store over the years. Like Will Chapman of BrickArms, Dan is just a plain good guy, and it’s clear that that comes through in his interactions with fellow builders and with customers.
At 473 LEGO elements, this is a surprisingly substantial set for such a small tank — the completed model has a nice heft to it worthy of the name “tank.” It’s also sturdy enough for play, and fits nicely in my hand compared to larger models. If tanks could be swooshed, the Brickmania M2A4 is definitely swooshable. (What’s the non-flying equivalent of “swooshable”? “Zoomable?”) At $150, the price is comparable to other custom kits on the market.
Overall, Dan’s M2A4 may just be my favorite Brickmania kit yet. Going small can be substantially harder than going big, and Dan has pulled it off wonderfully. Ultimately, though, my positive experience with the Brickmania M2A4 Light Tank was influenced as much by great problem-solving and customer service as by the excellent design of the model itself.
If you want a Mr. Gold minifig but don’t want to give your money to someone trying to profit off their luck, you can bid on one offered by the BrickBrats family on eBay with 100% of proceeds going to the American Lung Association in California, which has provided services and support over the years to their son with asthma at no charge. This is a great story of one of the good things brought out by the highly coveted Mr. Gold.
Via Brickset
Ever wondered what it would look like if LEGO made a video game of Breaking Bad? Here’s what Brian Anderson came up with.
Well the month of April has completely flown by and it is already time to pick new winners for our Facebook and Twitter cover photos.
I was lucky enough to do the selecting for this month, and since Andrew’s picks for April were of the sci-fi variety, I thought I would switch things up this month.
For Facebook I chose Legopard’s ingeniously quaint Nano Modular Buildings.
For Twitter, the winner was Tobigo’s epic oil rig which we had blogged last week.
Since this is still a relatively new idea, I am going to copy and paste Andrew’s observations from last month. Once again there were several pictures that were fantastic except for the fact that the orientation would not have worked. Also I was kind of hoping that some of the previous month’s submissions would have been re-submitted as per Andrew’s ‘hint’…but that may just be something that we readdress for future months:
Since this was our first month, here are a few random observations about what worked and what didn’t:
Just a quick announcement.
For the first time in nearly 2 years, we at the Starfighters Group are having a monthly build challenge. This month’s theme was suggested by Shannon Sproule and is quite simple; just build a starfighter based on or inspired by the iconic video game series R-Type.
So if you are interested in partaking in the fun, just head on over to the discussion thread, we’d be happy to have you as part of our Space Corps!
Many of you may have missed it, but it was hard to miss in the Netherlands, my home country: since yesterday we have a new king and queen: King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima (yes, that is the name given to her by her parents). This momentous occasion prompted Paul Toxopeus (P@u! +ox) to build these wonderful portraits.
Considering the limits of the colour palette, these are surprisingly recognisable. Hail to the new King!
Since I’m a sucker for Superman, I’ve been really looking forward to 76003 Superman: Battle of Smallville ($49.99 USD / $59.99 CDN), available now form the LEGO Shop and for pre-order on Amazon.com.
This is the biggest set in the line of licensed sets from Man of Steel, the new Superman movie due out in June.
The 418-piece set features a military jeep with missile launchers and the “Black Zero” drop ship, a Kryptonian fighter ship. There a 5 minifigs included: Superman, Colonel Hardy, General Zod, Faora and Tor-An. At that price point, the set is fairly reasonable, given the part count.
The set comes with 5 polybags of parts, 2 instruction books, stickers and a comic. The first part of the build is the military jeep. It’s simple but nicely designed, employing clever SNOT (Studs Not On Top) techniques. The jeep comes equipped with a pair of flick-fire missiles for its play action. Flick fires are never that interesting in my opinion. The first set of figures are Superman, sporting torso and leg prints based on the movie, and Colonel Hardy, who sports a military-style torso print that might be of interest to military enthusiasts.
The second part of the build is the Black Zero Drop Ship, not to be confused with the Black Zero, which is a gigantic ship in the movie. The minfigures here are particularly noteworthy as they contain a number of new molds. Zod and Faora each have their own styles of body armor, as well as new helmet pieces. Faora appears to have a new hair mold as well. And finally, there is a new blaster weapon.
One particularly noteworthy element is the dark grey bubble canopy. While it is not a new element, the color is new, and should lend itself to some creative uses. Building the dropship is straightforward enough; it only took about 15 minutes to do it. The finished ship is definitely swooshable, and it comes with two spring-loaded missile launchers for its play action. While I’m sure the set was designed to reflect the movie’s look, the end result is largely colorless — it’s mostly dark grey with a few tiny green accents. I somehow get the sense that the designer’s hands are tied on this one, given the source material.
The set is a fair value. If you are a fan of the movie, or a fan of Superman, then you would probably appreciate the set. The set is not a standout in terms of the color design. The predominantly grey palette is a little dull. But my kids, as I suspect with most kids, don’t care about design details. They’ve been playing with the set non-stop ever since we finished building it.
Of course, Chris Maddison is certainly holding his own against Bruce Lowell! This aquarium features a delightful crab, as well as realistic details like the water aerator/purifier unit thingy on the tank.
Sometimes, the simplest scenes are the most charming. Bruce Lowell (bruceywan) is furiously battling Chris Maddison for the title of “Iron Builder,” using the little red cone piece (aka the fez) as the seed part. They’ve each built a number of great LEGO models, but this little scene of a minifig in a HazMat suit trying to work with what I presume is a rod of plutonium is easily my favorite.
