What better way to wrap up today’s green-themed posts with a character inspired by Hayao Miyazaki, whose movies remind us how beautiful and fragile this world is.
Here’s a great little Totoro by Kevin Guoh (Flickr):
The leaf on his head makes this LEGO Totoro adorably perfect.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso never saw theatrical release here in the United States, and since it was released after I left Japan, I had to wait 13 years to see it (when it was released on DVD in 2005). The movie was worth the wait, and I just love Uspez Morbo‘s interpretation of protagonist Porco Rosso’s seaplane.
See lots more pictures on MOCPages, including the highly detailed cockpit (complete with foot pedals!). Great stuff.
(Via YSAB.)
Future Boy Conan was an animated Japanese TV show in the late 1970s that helped solidify the reputations of renowned Studio Ghibli animators Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
Luís Baixinho has created a beautiful plane inspired by the Falco in the TV series:
I’d love to see Luís’ take on the gunship from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Regular readers of The Brothers Brick probably know by now that my favorite movies by Hayao Miyazaki (maybe of all time) are the ones he released in the 80’s, including Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. I’ve certainly enjoyed his more recent releases, such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but they don’t compare to my childhood favorites.
Still, Miyazaki’s latest film, Howl’s Moving Castle is a wonderful movie (which I just got on DVD for Christmas). Moko has created minifigs of the three main characters, Howl, Sofie, and Calcifer:
Danny Rice presents a wonderful little ohmu from Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind:
Most readers probably know by now that my favorite anime director is Hayao Miyazaki. It should be no surprise that I’ll pretty much blog anything Miyazaki-related.
First up, here’s pero’s small round Totoro, or “Totoroll”:
Next, Poizunn-05’s Cat Bus:
Finally, no post of My Neighbor Totoro LEGO creations would be complete without Todd Kubo’s ginormous Totoro:
Search Brickshelf and discover even more!
First, the video:
Dave DeGobbi of Burnaby, B.C., Canada attended NWBrickCon 2006 over this past weekend, and stole the show (well, at least the steampunk section) with his Goliath airship:
Naturally, the Goliath won the Best Steampunk prize for the show! Inspired by my favorite movie of all time, Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the airship includes many cool features:
Dave says it took him about eighty hours to build, based on three years of parts collecting. The movement is powered by seven regular LEGO motors and one micro-motor. He estimates that Goliath includes over 7000 LEGO elements, which he spent more than $1000 CDN to purchase. (Multiple Yoda sets on clearance helped with the tan.)
Those of you who transport large LEGO creations may also be interested to learn that Dave included a 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ x 4′ Brazilian cherry beam in the Goliath, which makes it strong enough to survive long trips. As an added bonus, it makes the airship strong enough to hang from the ceiling. Here’s a picture of the DUPLO cradle and straps he uses to secure the Goliath:
Be sure to check out the full photoset on Flickr for lots of detailed shots. Dave’s awesome airship has been showing up in lots of Flickr photostreams, so you might see some new details in other people’s photos as well. Thanks for sharing this info and sending me the video, Dave!
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Try as I might, I can’t think of a better way to build Princess Mononoke minifigs than the way Moko did. With San and Ashitaka out of our reach, the rest of us mere mortals are stuck building minor characters, as Andrew Horvatits does:
Horace Cheng continues his series of creations inspired by Hayao Miyazaki movies with princess Nausicaä’s “mehve” (or “möwe,” which means “seagull” in German), from the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (click for gallery):
Horace also puts a beast from Star Wars to good use as a “bird-horse”:
Horace Cheng puts his Laputa minifigs and flappters to excellent use in his first vignette (via VignetteBricks):
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Inspired by anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Horace Cheng presents a great set of “flappters” with excellent minifig passengers:
Horace has a fleet of four flappters, so be sure to check out the gallery to see them flying in formation!
And here’s the crew of the air-pirate zeppelin Tigermoth (inspiration for all steampunk airships since):
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I’ve been subscribed to Japanese builder Ken Takeuchi’s blog for some time. (Ken goes by “Ken-Tucky” online.) However, it wasn’t until Soren Roberts mentioned Ken’s creations as a source of inspiration for his recent “Heavy Missile Cruiser” (Blocklog post) that I took the time to explore Ken’s Web site, LEGO Works.
Since 1998, Ken has been posting fantastic LEGO creations. (And it’s interesting to see his building style evolve over the last eight years — integrating newly available parts and new building techniques.) With an English version of his LEGO pages, exploring his site is well worth your time. To whet your appetite, I’d like to introduce a few of my personal favorites.
One of dozens of micro-scale vehicles in his “L.E.G.O Force,” here’s an awesome “Armed Starfighter Carrier”:
Demonstrating that Ken’s not just a Spacer, here’s the bathouse building from Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away:
A whole fleet of micro-scale World War II planes:
A camel Ken built while participating in the LEGO King Championship TV show:
