I’ve got a real soft spot for realistic town dioramas and this LEGO version of a Norwegian city center has realism in spades. Built by members of Brikkelauget it’s had pride of place in the window of Riktige Leker toy shop in Oslo. The walls of the metro are a particular highlight for me. If I were a minifig I’d be pretty happy to live there.
Nothing quite brightens my day like a little bit of Greek history. And since Jojo‘s creation’s do such an excellent job illustrating European history, it’s no surprise that his rendition of Agamemnon’s homecoming is so lovely.
Here’s another creation that I don’t understand the name of. For whatever reason, Andrew Lee (Onosendai2600) named this mecha the Snake Charmer. Regardless of the name, I really dig this creation.
While the mecha itself is interesting, it’s the base that really makes this creation stand out. The base and plant life really add some great context to mecha. We get great contrast between the bright blue livery of the mecha and the burnt orange soil, with its strange alien plants.
Brian, AKA Hound Knight, takes over no man’s land in this little vintage scene. I love the use of ice cream in this. Great Scene, Hound!
Immediately after the start of the Normandy invasion on D-Day, Allied forces began a battle for the strategic port city of Cherbourg that lasted more than three weeks. My diorama highlights the aftermath of the battle, when townspeople begin emerging from the rubble, while Free French partisans hoist the Tricolour above their safe house.
The diorama features an updated version of my M4 Sherman tank:
For more photos, check out the photoset on Flickr, and you’ll be able to see this in person in just over a month as part of the Operation Bricklord collaborative display at BrickCon 2010.
Better late than never. Nate Brill (Shuppiluliumas) and PennLUG debuted this wonderful container ship and port at BrickFair2010. RAILBRICKS have already written at great length about it so I’ll spare the details here but I will add that I’m a huge fan of the old rundown port next to the much more modern one. Lovely!
While we wait patiently for How to Train your Dragon to come out on DVD/Blu Ray, Taylor Baggs (Unitronus) helps us out by teaching us to identify the various species of dragons in and around.
The Gronckle, seen below, is a fairly small, portly dragon that prefers masticated rocks as projectiles.
BrickFair 2010 took place last weekend, and I’ve now finally had a little bit of time to recover. Like any LEGO convention, it was a blast! There were a lot of fun times to be had hanging out with other LEGO builders. There were also some great sessions, including a presentation by LEGO designer Jamie Berard (which culminated with the unveiling of the Tower Bridge set).
People have also had some time to put their photos online. This works out well, as my wife had both of our cameras in the Galapagos, while I was at BrickFair. You’ll all have to wait for more photos of the latest award-winning display from my compatriot Nick and I of 3LUG. In the meantime, I’d like to highlight some of my favorites from the con.
The above is part of a diorama depicting the battle of Fort McHenry, the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner. This diorama incorporated some great detail techniques, including smoke from the cannons, and wall-shrapnel. The builder chose to depict the ship in cross-section, which was a fascinating bit of extra detail. The most amazing thing about this creation, though, was that, according to the MOC card, it was built by a thirteen year old!
I also quite enjoyed the display above, by Jordan Schwartz. There’s some lovely detail work in the railing, and the columns are nice as well.
Once in a while, Fedde (Karf Oohlu) applies his humorous use of unusual Lego parts to larger creations. This diorama depicts colored parts being fed by robots to a hungry recycle machine. This creation has definitely made the best (and perhaps the only) use of the Crystal King‘s head.
Classic-Castle‘s current 32×32 Building Challenge focuses on the three primary colors–and Harry Russell has risen to the occasion beautifully. His contribution focuses on Red, and the whole atmosphere is simply haunting.
I love the usually exotic vignettes by Crises. This one features a carnivorous plant, but what makes it interesting is the use of the Clickits cord for the plant’s tongue attacking an unsuspecting visitor. I also like the technique of using control lever bases to prop the glass panels.
