Tag Archives: LDD

LEGO fully discontinuing LEGO Digital Designer in favor of BrickLink Studio

Today LEGO has announced that it is finally and completely sunsetting LEGO Digital Designer (LDD), the company’s digital building program that was first introduced in 2004 as a consumer version of LEGO’s internal design software. While LEGO says it will continue to use a version of LDD internally, it is putting forward BrickLink’s Studio software as the officially supported digital building program, which LEGO acquired in 2019 when it purchased BrickLink. Studio supports most files created in LDD, LDRAW, and some other formats, and supports features such as automatically populating a BrickLink wanted list. Although LEGO announced way back in 2016 that LDD would no longer be supported, over the past few years it has continued to receive infrequent updates and even a selection of newer elements. However, the company now says it plans to remove the download page altogether. Users who have installed the program already will be able to continue to use it, and LDD will continue to be available unofficially from third-party download sites.

Click to read the full press release from LEGO

LEGO Digital Designer officially defunded and unsupported [News]

LEGO has announced that LEGO Digital Designer (LDD), the company’s proprietary virtual building program, will no longer be updated. New parts may occasionally be added, but LEGO is officially defunding the platform.

LDD Welcome Screen

Read more about this announcement

This car belongs to Bond... James Bond

The Aston Martin DB5 is famous for being the most recognised cinematic James Bond car, and builder Peter Blackert has released his latest creation, the DB5 Volante, from the garage just in time for the new Bond film.

Aston Martin DB5 Volante (1963)

The Aston Martin DB5 is a luxury grand tourer released in 1963, made by Aston Martin and designed by the Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera. The DB5 was first used as Bond’s car in Goldfinger in 1964 and was destroyed in Skyfall in 2012.  I haven’t seen the new Bond film Spectre yet so I don’t know if Bond’s DB5 has recovered to make an appearance, though it is confirmed that Bond will drive a brand-new DB10 which was designed specifically for Agent 007 by Aston Martin.

At first sight Peter’s DB5 appears luxurious with chrome detailing, a soft tan leather interior and maroon bodywork. Look closely and you will see ingenious use of minifigure accessories such as  ice-skates used as door handles and registration plate holder, or binoculars for the exhaust.

Aston Martin DB5 Volante (1963)

“Out of my brain on the five fifteen”

At the sound of the whistle its Train Time again, constant reader and fortunately for all of us Sérgio Batista (SujiroLegoTrains) can feed our mutual craving for the rails. First up is the “CP1900” Portuguese Railways diesel locomotive all decked out in a Halloween color scheme.

CP1900

And since Saturday nights are made for double-shots, let’s also enjoy the charming “Sintra´s Tram” whose title I initially misread as “Sinatra’s Train“. I like to think the Chairman of the Board would have liked this tram, it has style.

Sintra´s Tram

“If the tanks succeed, then victory follows.”

Time to go digital with a mind-blowing tank called the “Ûbârrek-Âssoi Remîv ÛâR – 57/6” by Edmonton’s own Ian MacDonald (ABS doohickies). This brutal looking war machine was inspired by the Valdor Tank Hunter from the Warhammer 40k franchise and I have little doubt that Heinz Guderian would approve of its style and features. While the vocal tribe of purists might complain that most of the parts used are not actually available in dark-tan, we try to have a wider view of things here at the big blog. I included a photo of the back-side because the level of detail and clever parts usage is simply too stunning to miss. BOOM SHAKA-LAKA!

Ûbârrek-Âssoi Remîv ÛâR - 57/6

ÛâR - 57/6 Back

Friday Night Fights (Round 22)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another rope-a-dope edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout features two maritime maestros dueling for the honor of Poseidon and of course, your voting pleasure. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from the Land of the Rising Sun…”Dangerous” Dak yuki and his “Aegis Ship.”

Aegis Ship

And fighting out of the blue corner, from the digital side of the tracks, Matt “The Bomber” Bace and his “Mini Inland Ferry“.

Mini Inland Ferry

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle of the SHIPwrights, sky4walker disintegrated his opponent with a score of 7-4. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

“We’re not going to Moscow. It’s Czechoslovakia. It’s like going into Wisconsin.”

Matt Bace (mmbace) takes us back to 1981’s “Stripes” and one of most bad-ass RV’s in cinematic history, the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. “That’s a fact, Jack.”

EM-50

Digital Delay

It’s time to check in for an extended stay with our friends in digital space, constant reader to find out what’s new (and in some cases not so new) in their world. The genres are as diverse as the builders surveyed so grab your favorite beverage and get ready for some real refreshment.

I want to grab the attention of readers who are not usually fans of digital builds and this image by Nachapon Sintateeyakorn is sure to lure in the unwary with visions of rare gold minifigs. You covet the gold, don’t you?

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Next we’ll take to the skies of old with Brian Fitzimmons and his B-17 Flying Fortress.

B-17 Flying Fortress

For those of you who like your aircraft modern, or perhaps just a little bit futuristic, enjoy the Mi-54 “Oleni” VTOL gunship by Matthew SylvanO. It also fits nicely into TBB’s well known Olive Conspiracy.

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More Digital-pure action after the jump!

Sunday Sci-Fi Roundup

“Pop a top, my friend” and enjoy your visual buzz before yet another weekend slips by and it’s back to the spice mines of Kessel, smashed into…well…who know’s what? . Tonight’s topic is science fiction and it’s many splendid forms brought to you by builders who run the gamut from obscure to famous.

We begin our journey through the ABS cosmos with in the good ship U-740 from TBB regular F@bz.

U-740 (1)

Then we slip momentarily into digital space for a run-in with the Crusader DropShip by Blackout (Kylie).

Crusader DropShip.

Eventually we have to make planetfall to continue our explorations and we’ll be employing this trio of Alien Moonstalkers by onosendai2600.

So I heard you like Alien Moonstalkers?

Of course we’re bound to encounter some alien creatures along the way, like this Blue Bloodworm by A Plastic Infinity.

(Blue) Bloodworm

Even a weekend exploration of the Sci-Fi genre would not be complete without a model inspired by a film, and filling that role to perfection is the Elysium inspired ADS-64 JACKRABBIT by ∞CaptainInfinity∞.

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We might need something to step on that Blue Bloodworm so we’ll keep this untitled mecha handy from Freedom01.

Untitled

Our journey has been arduous, and we find ourselves in rough shape and in desperate need of a little…enhancement, courtesy of spook and his League of Privateers “Iron Warmonger”.

League of Privateers "Iron Warmonger"

let’s end this thing with a bang from M.R. Yoder who didn’t stop building until he had an entire fleet.

First Expeditionary Colonial Fleet

Friday Night Fights (Round 18)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another low-blow edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout pits traditional vs. digital styles in an all out struggle for supremacy in the ring. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from The City of Roses…Nathan “The Knife” DeCastro (nate_decastro) and his XV-1011 EL-AHRAIRAH.

XV-1011 EL-AHRAIRAH

And fighting out of the blue corner, from somewhere deep inside the MCP cone, Jackhammer-joeluk66 and his Anubis.

Anubis -4-1

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, Iron Builder Rematch, FNF history was made as the judges called the bout a draw. Maybe a highly acclaimed panel of turbo-nerds really is the best way to decide The Iron Builder, or maybe this was the closest IB competition to date. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

Digital High Adventure!

“Antarctic Snow Cruiser” is the latest project by bigboy99899, and it looks like a great deal of fun. Not only is it a big burly-man vehicle suitable for all manner of high adventure, it also has some outstanding play features. I was wondering how the figs were supposed to get the plane down, but fortunately the builder has a good answer: “To get the airplane on or off the Cruiser, a ramp of snow was to be built-up to meet the sloping aft deck of the “Turtle”. Apparently the set is a Cuusoo project if you’re into supporting such ventures.

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The very angry grasshopper

It’s time to get digital again, constant reader and check out the “Grasshopper light mech” by Hungarian builder Matthew Sylvan. One looks great, but how awesome would a cloud of grasshoppers look? Food for thought builder Sylvan, food for thought. Az óriás robot kiemelkedő! (Google Translate don’t fail me now).

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