Rod Gillies writes:
In 1877 the tracked vehicle “Endurance” was to carry its designer and driver Cyril Neveu to victory in the first of the famed Paris-Dakar Rally Races.
Read the full story about Endurance on Empire of Steam, and check out more photos in Rod’s Flickr photostream.
Flickr’s LEGO Steampunk group is hosting a contest to build steampunk variations of the LEGO Agents theme. You can create a steampunked version of any Agents vehicle or set and even free build your own. The contest runs from January 1st to February 28th. Check out the details and prizes here.
V&A Steamworks just posted a terrifyingly awesome Steampunk Crab. It has no name, as yet, but they are asking for suggestions. Go check it and drop off a few.
This incredible Steampunkish Vic Viper is pure win! Mark Stafford has outdone himself. There is so much awesome goodness here, I don’t know what to say. I’ll just shut up and let it speak for itself.
Besides being a special effects artist behind some of your favorite movies, Guy Himber recently entered into the frenzy of LEGO building after an inspiring BrickCon experience. I’ve not seen fans come out of their dark ages with such stunning creations.
Above: a giant steampunk automaton and a fantasy victorian pipe organ, both in minifig style.
I really like Guy’s innovative combination of Bionicle elements with standard LEGO bricks. To him, these parts are reminiscent of “the NeoVictorian flavor with their small pistons, mini rivets and swooping/rounded shapes.” Also interesting is the repeated use of the blue bubble canopy, which seems to mimic an energy source and adds a nice touch of character to his style.
Below: an underwater boat and a steam carriage.
If you’re a Flickr user, you can add Guy as a contact by clicking here.
A few days ago Adrian Florea (Olog) posted a motorized steampunk battle machine, one with aesthetics blended into a clever mechanism inspired by Theo Jansen’s walkers.
See it in action!
Its been awhile since we’ve showcased any Steampunk. Check out this sweet monoplane by 2 Much Caffeine.
What do you get when you cross an old Civil War ironclad ship with a tank? Nathan Proudlove’s Bone Rattler, a uniquely-shaped attack vehicle that Nathan says “was one of those builds that one might have in the back of ones mind for a long time and then one day, after nearly 12 hours straight building, it practically falls together.”
I really like the design of the smokestacks and the use of the triangular Knight’s Kingdom swords.
(Yes, I actually do post once in a while. :P )
Reminiscent of the planes from Crimson Skies, Scotty‘s Glenflight A-450 “Buzzard” looks almost microscale, but it actually fits a minifig:
SlyOwl’s latest creation combines two of my favorite themes into one sweet little ship. Crammed with all the fun details we have come to expect from this builder, this pirate ship sets off on its quest to plunder the Steampunk world!
Linking to Jamie “Morgan19” Spencer‘s Brickshelf gallery in my last post, I realized that I’d never blogged his fighter/reconnaissance craft, the Obenwolken:
Obenwolken has a “state of the art onboard photographic recording system” to survey the steampunk battlefields of 1862, and is armed with a pair of repeating cannons. The always-excellent schematics reveal even more details (click for full resolution):
Cagerrin‘s poor Bionicle frog must have lost a leg, but Cagerrin is a kind soul, so now the frog has a mechanical leg:
Since the leg is apparently steam-powered, this is our first post to contain the word “frogpunk” (though not the first reference to the concept). See Cagerrin’s Brickshelf gallery for delicious froggy goodness.
Thanks to Jamie for the e-mail, and BioniBlog for the reminder.