Tag Archives: Marchikoma

Smile for the tachi-camera!

A problem I sometimes have when building with LEGO is that I think too much. Not about life in general – I have a slot in my schedule for existential crises about the struggles of modern life already. What I mean is when I started building something for Marchikoma (the LEGO think tank-themed month), I was thinking about the practicalities of what I was going to build. Will it be armed? Should the legs be armoured? How many will it have, for that matter? And what will I do for the head? Well, for that last one, I came across some smiley faces from a Dots expansion pack. And suddenly, my only criteria became ‘smiley face and big gun’ – which was much more enjoyable to make. Sometimes, it’s better to turn down the brain and let a silly idea lead the way!

Smileykoma & Tinykoma

This think tank will steal your tank engine

We’ve just had a whole month of themed builds in the form of Febrovery, but now we’re in March we’re going straight into another one. It’s Marchikoma! And who better to kick things off than Cole Blaq? This particular tachikoma (or think tank, if you prefer) draws inspiration from Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky, with a microscale city on its back. The link to the viaduct is particularly neat. Either this city exists as a massive turntable to turn the trains around, or it lies in wait for trains to stop before stealing them. In that sense perhaps it’s a bit more Mortal Engines than Studio Ghibli. Either way, it’s a great way to kick off the month. Why not have a look at what previous Marchikomas have brought us while we wait for more?

Old V.I.C.

A mighty mech, using the smallest pieces!

You’d be mistaken for thinking we have a gargantuan LEGO build here from Cole Blaq.
Instead, we have an excellent example of what can be achieved using a selection of the smallest parts.
The feet show how versatile LEGO weapons can be and their various connection points too, used here to add a real mechanical look to the feet. I like the horn on the underside of the leg suggesting a hydraulic movement to mimic a natural crab-like crawl across the terrain!
The new 1×1 modified plate is also put to good use connecting the feet to the torso. From here, Cole has employed great knowledge of parts to complete his build adding subtle detailing with well-placed tiles in the design, along with a gas mask and the recent black minifig accessory add a nice touch to the head design of the mech. A mightily impressive smallscale build!

Red J

Grab the bug spray!

It’s been a few months since builder Oscar Cederwall gifted us with one of his LEGO creations. Everyone deserves a break and this winter has been particularly worthy, however his latest creation reminds us that summer is on its way with a vengeance. Thankfully the swarms of flies we’ll be dealing with won’t be quite as formidable as this Wisp Scout Tank. As usual, Oscar shows off his detailing skills with the greebly legs of this flying menace. The interesting wings are swords from the Exo Force Sky Guardian Mech from back in 2007. Though it might be the oddest piece amongst the build, the literal standouts are the bright blue Modulex pieces featured in the turrets. The contrast was both a design choice and a color limitation since, as Oscar puts it, “Modulex colors are a bit odd because they mostly don’t match any other LEGO System colors.” Thankfully they make for great accents on some already intricate turrets.

Wisp Scout Tank

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Spider-bots of the apocalypse!

“Not much still stands of the dead cities, but the twisted ruins make for good cover and even better hunting grounds.” That is the tagline provided for this LEGO render by _Regn. There’s a lot to love here. The dilapidated arching structure is particularly striking and there’s the post-apocalyptic guy doing post-apocalyptic stuff in the background there. The mech-tank-spider though…that’s going to haunt my dreams for a while. It’s just your typical stuff that goes on in the mind of this particular builder. Upon further inspection, there is really nothing typical about this builder at all. They’re new to us here at The Brothers Brick but with creations this imaginative we’ll surely keep all eight eyes in their direction; poised and ready to pounce on what they may do next.

Subservience

What will you do with your AI multi-purpose shell?

March is nearly at an end, and that means the end of another fun month-long building challenge known as Marchikoma, where LEGO fans build tributes to the semi-autonomous spider bots from the Manga/anime franchise Ghost in the Shell. When I saw this entry by Oscar Cederwall (o0ger) I was blown away. Not only does the model capture the aesthetic of the source material in a unique but instantly recognizable way, there are some great part usages to call out.

Personal AI Multi-Purpose Shell

The ice skates make perfect details on the feet, and the microphones used as the primary eyes are spot-on! Also, check out the hands made from Hero Factory minifig arms. But one of my favorite parts is used as the top of the head: it’s a Bionicle armor element that was used on the legs of the Star Wars constraction figure of the Range trooper from Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Rain or shine, Space Police get their man

After yesterday’s foray into Classic Space, Chris Perron (thebrickbin) must have known that like a SpaceVampire – I needed more! So magically this jaw dropping atmosphere masterpiece popped up:
SP1KOMA

It’s a gritty scene where the brave men and women of the First Space Police patrol some cyber-punkish district. I’m not sure who they’re looking for, but with that heavy duty SP1Koma Think Tank backing them up, these boys and girls of the black, blue and trans red are well looked after!

And as a second bonus link, this beauty by Moritz (nolnet) was in my blog queue for awhile it’s just so damn fun and cool:
Neo Space Police I – 6895 Redux

The model itself is top notch, but what turns this from awesome to #BennyAWESOME is the remote control action:

Castle Koma

March is Marchikoma month in the Lego Flickr community, resulting in many variations of think tanks. Chris Maddison‘s variation on the theme is far out of the ordinary, and he attributes it to listening music from Howl’s Moving Castle while building.

Castle Koma

Olive a good Think Tank

We may be guaranteed never to see official Ghost in the Shell LEGO models, but that doesn’t stop LEGO fans from building their own Tachikoma, Fuchikoma, and other “Think Tanks” during what is now the annual Marchikoma challenge.

Chris (Ironsniper) puts the new olive-green LEGO elements to good use with his own entry, full of great shaping despite the limited parts palate.

Orībuchikoma

The light and dark grays Chris uses for the non-olive portions are a great example of using different shades of gray to mimic different types of real-world metals — a subtle type of color-blocking missing from less-sophisticated builds.