Is of course in a decked out, all-terrain Land Explorer, like this monster from Luis Baixinho. I love the way the treads pull up under the vehicle to give it maximum clearance over rough terrain, but then lower to afford easy egress for some pedestrian exploring and surveying, via an awesome retractable ramp. Plus it’s got an easily removable roof to give it lots of playability.
Custom-painted Lego creations are rare due to the labor-intensive process but more so due to its blatant violation of purism. But when done properly, it can look gorgeous as demonstrated by this Maschinen Krieger inspired hovercraft by VolumeX.
If there’s ever such a thing as a SHIP on wheels, then this is it. Pierre E Fieschi spent the last six weeks constructing this Capital Planetary Deployment Unit for the colonization of distant worlds. Despite the unusual shape of this vehicle, it looks very functional from the right balance of details and distinctly colored components.
Bart De Dobbelaer is back in story-telling mode again, but this time he’s doing it completely through un-captioned pictures. His news series is called the Hive and begins with an extraterrestrial excavation scene. Check back at Bart’s Flickr photostream to see the story unfold.
I think it is a safe bet for me to say that Erik (Lemon_Boy) is one of my favourite builders on Flickr. I have an odd fascination with his work. Perhaps it is his complete lack of fear towards studs, or possibly his courageous use of colour combinations, most definitely his affinity for realistic scale…and his mildly sarcastic descriptions certainly do always give me a good chuckle. But the fact of the matter is, I feel he is a builder that really doesn’t receive the props he deserves. And I am one to talk because I don’t comment on his photos nearly as much as I should…I bloody well spend enough time browsing his stream :D
So to make up for my lack of effort in giving praise, I figured I would feature some of my favourites from his recent works.
So if you haven’t already, please peruse Erik’s photostream…it is thoroughly good!
Mike C (BloodRedDragon) built a comically styled starfighter that was just too well done to pass up!
Mutant giant bunnies beware!
Mark Stafford‘s new Cyclopian: Cyrana ship shows off the potential of Hero Factory and Bionicle elements. It’s swooshy and bad ass! I hope this is the birth of a new meme. Time to dig out those Bionicle bits!
Speaking of builders whose photostreams you should spend time perusing, I’ve had VolumeX‘s whole photostream bookmarked for a while now, unable to decide which of the widely varied LEGO creations — everything from realistic spacecraft to steampunk — to highlight here. I still can’t decide, so here’s a bunch.
Twenty minutes of my evening well spent, I think.
It’s not clear to me why we’ve never featured anything by David Steeves (SuperHardcoreDave), a very talented builder whose LEGO models span the range from funky alien spaceships to big stompy mechs. Well, we’ll fix that with this disturbingly odd, vaguely insectoid “Inter Atmospheric Fighting Pod” called Wisp.
David’s photostream is well worth a lengthy perusal.
Via YSAB.
This expressive vignette by Chris Maddison shows how much effect some simple posing and a bit of ingenious landscaping can impart. This scene reminds me of a re-imagining of Wall-E, featuring a fantastic humanoid robot. Good stuff.
Jeffrey Matthews (Jeffykins) proves that you can take a relatively simple build and put it over the top with finishing details.
The ship itself is a great little swooshy starfighter, but the sticker work and play features make this all the more awesome. In particular, check out the subtle use of small bits and pieces on the wings for antennas and sensors…not immediately noticeable, but absolutely genius!
Be sure to check out the photo set for all the nice little tidbits!
EDIT:
I knew this thing looked familiar! I was just browsing around Peter L Morris’ older stuff, and came across his Zarfly. It is always cool to see an awesome build expanded upon! Especially when done to this degree!
I recently took advantage of the free shipping going on right now to pick up 21101 Hayabusa, the second project to receive the necessary votes and become an official LEGO set through the original Japanese version of LEGO CUUSOO.
Given the space fever I currently share with many of you, I thought I’d let you know what to expect if you order it yourself.
The instruction booklets for both of the LEGO CUUSOO sets I’ve bought (the other being the Shinkai 6500 submarine — the very first successful CUUSOO project) have included lots of information about the real-life vehicles that inspired the sets. The Hayabusa booklet is bilingual (English & Japanese), and available in several additional languages from the LEGO CUUSOO page.
As I learned from the LEGO Hayabusa booklet, the real Hayabusa was a Japanese sample-return spacecraft launched in 2003 that rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. Five years later, Hayabusa returned to Earth carrying particles from the asteroid. The spacecraft sported ion engines — you know, like TIE fighters! The mission’s project manager was Junichiro Kawaguchi, who made it into the set as a minifig.
One of the things that’s so interesting about the LEGO CUUSOO process is seeing the differences between the original LEGO fan’s design and the final design as a LEGO set. According to the press release earlier this year:
The original Hayabusa model on LEGO CUUSOO was built by Daisuke Okubo and achieved 1,000 supporters on the Japanese-only version of LEGO CUUSOO in the spring of 2011. LEGO model designer Melody Louise Caddick designed the final model, refining earlier concept models based on Daisuke’s original project.
The final model does look very different from Daisuke’s original design (above). I have to admit that I do appreciate the details and overall shaping introduced during the official redesign, proving that a collaboration between a regular builder and a professional designer can yield great results.
The build itself is fun though fairly basic, but what innovative techniques can you really expect from source material that’s basically a box with wings? My greatest disappointment is that the spacecraft’s body is built from yellow bricks rather than gold — the only (pearl) gold piece is the radar dish that serves as the reentry vehicle on the front. Then again, I suspect that chrome and pearl gold might be expensive colors to produce, given their overall rarity.
I recommend this set as a display model for collectors; this isn’t a set that you buy for the parts (I certainly don’t intend to take it apart and sort the pieces into my collection). Nevertheless, I think 21101 Hayabusa is a must-have for any fan of realistic LEGO spacecraft. The set goes for USD 49 from the LEGO Shop, and includes 369 pieces.