According to Jonas, the Flying Erwin is “a kiosk traveling from town to town to supply the citizens of 1880 with all odds and ends.” Built together with Brick Vader, this lovely balloon has a long tonne of amazing details, from the cow’s skull on the awning and the weathervane atop the balloon to the steaming boiler and adorable crane.
Like the green and gold marvel we highlighted last week, Jonas and Brick Vader’s colorful build proves once again that steampunk need not be all brown and gray.
Although describing indie video game The Swindle as both maddening and brilliant, Belgian builder Gregory Coquelz was so inspired by the satisfaction of completing this steampunk cybercrime caper, that he recreated this scene from the game featuring one of its larcenous characters:
Captain Smog is one of my favourite steampunk builders. His models always provide classy and colorful relief from the endless sea of brown and grey creations which can sometimes fill up the LEGO Steampunk Group on Flickr. I’ve been guilty of “brownification” myself in past clanky creations, but I’m now firmly of the opinion we steampunk builders should get our act together and start using some of our more colorful bricks more often.
Anyway, enough ranting and back to this model. It’s a cracker, a lurching mechanical beast of an electrical cannon, WITH A LOVELY COLOR SCHEME THAT IS NOT MOSTLY BROWN.
Click through for more photos of this mechanical marvel!
Ninjago’s new theme for 2016, called Skybound, takes us to the air in an epic duel between sky pirates and our intrepid heroes, the ninjas. We’ve already reviewed 70603 Zeppelin Raid, and now thanks to LEGO we are able to get our hands on the literal flagship for the theme, 70605 Misfortune’s Keep. The set includes 754 pieces, and we expect it to retail for around $80 when it debuts in the coming weeks. Included are the main airship, a smaller flier for both factions, and six minifigs and a monkey.
Read the full review after the jump!
The Steampunk-inspired January 2016 wave of Ninjago will soon be available, bringing airships and balloons and epic Pirate-versus-Ninja fights. The first set in our review tally is 70603 Zeppelin Raid, brought to us courtesy of LEGO. It features a small airship held aloft by a balloon and piloted by a pair of sky pirates; one a snake and the other skeleton. It also includes one of the eponymous Ninja heroes flying a small craft. We can’t confirm the price yet, but the set has 293 pieces, so expect it around the $30 USD mark.
Read the full review after the jump!
We’re finally able to bring you high-quality images of the next wave of Ninjago sets. With a decidedly Steampunk flair and the Ninjago heroes facing sky pirates, you’ll be able to answer the age old question of who’s better: Pirates or Ninjas? No definitive word on pricing yet, but this wave should be available in January. Check out all the images after the jump.
Stage an aerial conflict between Doubloon’s Raid Zeppelin airship and Zane’s flyer. The Zeppelin is armed with a firing front cannon, 2 stud shooters and has a trapdoor function to drop barrels of dynamite (and captured Ninja warriors!). Retaliate by firing the flyer’s elemental ice stud shooters and battle for the special Djinn Blade with trapped Jay’ element.
Mashups are everywhere right now. So it’s strangely unsurprising (but still quite entertaining) to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting crime in the Victorian period. Karen Quinn has built a charming steam-powered Party Wagon. In addition to everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic turtles, this build includes Guru Splinter, Casey “Sheer Luck” Holmes, Dr. April O’Watson, and Jack the Shredder. Perhaps next time the heroes in a half shell will travel even further back in time, to say, oh I don’t know, the Renaissance?
Once again demonstrating his unique mastery of small-scale Steampunk vehicles, Swiss builder captainsmog presents the “100 HOURS OF STEAM” automobile race, a collection of contraptions from such well known Steampunk nations as Francia, Indria and Russilia. Check out the full album to see them all, and many other steam-powered Victorian wonders.
Eero Okkonen built this dreamy scene for the Finnish LEGO club Palikkatakomo‘s summer building contest, themed “Finding, Discovering.” Featuring a lovely twisted tower and an underwater walker, the scene defies categorization into the conventions of “steampunk” or “dieselpunk.” Then again, the hats worn by the divers are rather hilariously twee.
You can read more of the backstory for this scene on Eero’s blog, Cyclopic Bricks.
Most LEGO builders draw inspiration from history, movies, books, concept art, and their own imaginations. But for several years now, a talented group of builders has been toying with the idea of a new medium for inspiration: music. We’ve highlighted their Symphony of Construction several times. A new collaboration shares roots and some builders with the Symphony, though this time the builders are constructing a common world around a rousing set of music by Ian Spacek.
Be sure to check out the full gallery of images, as the Isles are populated with a great number of lovely little vessels and majestic structures by a host of brilliant builders.
César Soares is one of those builders whose every creation we could feature here on The Brothers Brick as “blogworthy.” His colorful, intricate models use interesting techniques and he varies themes across Castle, Town/City, and pop culture, with a range of subjects from large-scale dioramas to smaller vehicles and vignettes. His latest model is a gorgeous floating rock with beautiful landscaping, the requisite balloon for transportation, and an eccentric building with César’s distinctive curved roof design.
Incidentally, one of the large-scale collaborative displays planned for BrickCon 2015 is floating rocks. Any chance you can come to Seattle this October, César?
I’m a sucker for weirdly colored alien landscapes. With his latest creation, A Plastic Infiity has given us that, plus some funky alien technology, and a floating rock. The scales of justice look balanced in the photo, but they feel tipped towards awesome to me. Also, I had no idea those minifig hats came in a purple shade, I’ll be needing some of those for my own funky landscapes.
