Major Motoko Kusanagi is a cybernetic human employed in law-enforcement in the Japanese manga, anime, and forthcoming Hollywood blockbuster, Ghost in the Shell — 50% cyborg-intelligence, 50% human, 100% LEGO. Builder Grant Masters uses an old Belville figure with coat of paint to show how the protagonist hooks up to a network of systems. The twisted tubing provides a suitably cyberpunk backdrop to the scene, and it’s all enhanced with some nice uplighting.
Taking a little inspiration from Overwatch’s Widowmaker, Djokson brings us a classy futuristic sniper. A diverse mix of LEGO parts comes together to create a model with style, sass, and more than a hint of danger. The goggles with the yellow lenses are obviously cool, but I like the realistic sniper stance too — hips pushed forward to compensate for the heft of the rifle…
Whilst personally I’ve always been a fan of regular System bricks rather than Bionicle/Hero Factory “constraction” parts, I can’t deny the way good builders use these joints and connections to create models with excellent posing potential. Check out the attitude in this shot…
If you’re feeling the need for some chunky near-future military hardware, Carter Baldwin has you covered. A delicious blend of dangerous angles, muddy colors, and isolated studs for texture give this Armored Personnel Carrier a real sense of grunt. I can just imagine this thing’s engine noise.
The APC is roomy enough to carry a full squad of troops. These guys look serious…
I love the verticality to Sam Malmberg‘s slice of a cyberpunk cityscape. The builder mentions he was inspired by the architectural concept of a tripartite structure, which gives an appearance of vertically dividing lower, middle, and upper social and economic classes. A great concept for a cyberpunk scene, and rather well executed too!
There are several small details and scenes that bring this build to life, so be sure to check out the rest of the photos on Sam’s Flickr page.
I’ve made a huge, tiny mistake. You see, back when I was purchasing these LEGO Creator Sets, I just dumped out the contents and threw those cheesy containers straight into the recycling bin. I didn’t even think twice about it. But F@bz on the other hand, sensibly squirreled them away for safe keeping. And take a look at this! Who knew those containers could look so perfect? (F@bz did, that’s who.)
With spot-on sticker use and just the right amount of color, texture, and playability, this truck is a beauty to behold. In addition to the insane NPU (“nice parts usage”), I particularly like the ladder, wheels, and the entire front end. Be sure to check out all of the photos here and remember, every LEGO piece has potential.
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.
Forest King (KingBrick) has finally unveiled his most massive build yet, the 4 foot long Kingfisher. Forest has employed many of his signature techniques to great effect here, with faded white bricks and chunky paneling all lending a sense of extreme durability and resilience. The mix of colors is particularly nice, with orange, red and yellow highlights accentuating the tan, white and grey color scheme and giving an industrial feel to the design.
Forest King (KingBrick) rings in the new year in a big way with his Grizzly Siege Drone. Combining the elegant stride of a Vertical Tank with a menacingly complicated sensor and weapons loadout straight out of a Blomkamp film, this mechanical monstrosity looks well-equipped to tackle any dystopia you care to throw at it.
Forest is also taking this moment to kick off the first annual Droneuary, a month dedicated to our bipedal robot friends both large and small.
A few weeks ago, Brother Andrew took us on a trip through Cyberpocalypse as it was presented at BrickWorld Chi-Town. A few weeks later the diorama was presented in its entirety for BrickFair Virginia, and it is my distinct honor to bring you extended coverage of what is without a doubt my favorite sci-fi diorama to date. Carter Baldwin and BroLUG manage to accomplish what is perhaps the most difficult aspect of collaboration; the seamless merging of diverse builders into a cohesive scene. When looking at convention-driven collaborative projects in person or online it is typically very easy to tell where one builder’s work stops and another begins, but such is not the case with Cyberpocalypse.
The influences for the project should be obvious to any fan of the genre; William Gibson, Blade Runner and Akira to name just a few, but I was surprised to learn that BroLUG also cites Kowloon Walled City as a major inspiration. Who knew the Bro’s were so literate and talented at beer pong too? Instead of me rambling on about the wonders of collaboration, I will provide excerpts from the Cyberpocalypse exit interviews conducted earlier this week.
Carter Baldwin is the somewhat reluctant Captain of BroLUG, a non-geographical club which seems to be equal parts RoninLUG, KeithLUG and a high-school Lacrosse Team. Carter (he’s the one in the photo with the nerdy Firefly shirt) was still loopy from the weekend’s shenanigans but with a little coaxing he was able to focus long enough to share his thoughts on the whole cat-wrangling endeavor.
“Throughout this project there were three things I found indispensable; concept art, caffeine, and noise rock…This display was definitely the most ambitious Lego project I’ve ever undertaken. Considering how poorly it could have gone, I’m beyond pleased at how well it all turned out. As much as I like to think that I run the show the real stars are all the contributors. I want to give particular props to Nate Brill and his builds inspired all of us to push our boundaries.”
Read the full article after the jump!
One of the most spectacular collaborations unveiled at Brickworld 2013 was a cyberpunk city full of tall buildings lit up with working lights. I had the privilege of providing a bit of input on the Japanese signage (a lot of which is very, very silly), and I was overjoyed by how wonderful the end result was.
Like all great collaborations, the display involved many builders — Carter Baldwin, Chris Edwards, Nate Brill, Kyle Vreze, Forest King, Ignacio Bernaldez, Sam Wormuth, and Alex Valentino.
It’s beautiful in the dark, but you can see a lot more of the detail in the light.
Some of the signage is built from EL (electroluminescent) wire, though there’s plenty of brick-built lettering too. Carter saved my personal favorite for himself — a big building in the background that says “Foreign Girls” in giant red letters.
Chris Edwards’ main photo has links to lots more photos.
Flickr user Dryvvall had teased us with some quite stunning creations last May, and then slowly slid back into the shadows. Well I am happy to see that he is posting again.
The recent posts are chock full of fabulous designs, but this shot in particular caught my eye and tickled my funny bone.
As Dryvvall explains:
A corporate Fenrir takes on an MBT. This tactic is known colloquially as the Ghetto Stomp or the Tank-Spank. The crafty ‘mech has denied the tank its main cannon.
It also appears that we missed this fantastic dropship from last August.
Please be sure to peruse through Dryvvall’s full photostream…he is certainly a builder to keep an eye on.
Disclaimer – This post is more about why I love the online community than it is about the model itself…that being said I do think the model was cool enough to share :)
I think the online LEGO community influences and affects people differently. For me it means a great deal and is on par with sitting at a pub with a group of friends discussing general geekery. The interaction with people from all across the globe has a major influence on how and what I build. I am constantly being inspired by other’s work and by the discussions I take part in.
A perfect example of this, is the cyberpunk Nissan Transporter that I just built with my son Tate. It all started a few days ago while geeking out with Carter Baldwin (& others) about the vehicle design within Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I was just finishing up the series, so as a result was/am in a huge cyberpunk kick. That night I was playing LEGO with my sons and Tate asked if we could build a police van. I told him we could, but asked if he would be ok to make it an undercover van with a deployable minigun…he said that would be fine as long as we also included flip up police lights. Have to say I am proud the little geek’s creativity! Two evenings of building with him resulted in this van.
Some people say that the internet and technology takes parents away from their kids. I am happy to say that in my case it has introduced me to countless friends around the world, inspired me creatively, and gave me more excuses to play with my boys!
