Our second and third LEGO Vic Vipers of the day come from NoVVember co-creator Peter Morris.
Here’s his SC-5 Ramius, with gorgeous dark blue and orange highlights almost reminiscent of the color scheme from Ice Planet 2002:
And a very different ZR-15A Widowmaker:
I wonder if the creators of Gradius back in 1985 ever imagined people would still be paying homage to their game more than 20 years later…
McZargald of CATpit construction has posted a couple of really great Vic Viper fighters for NoVVember. The stripey one above is called Moorish Idol after a fish. It doesn’t have the traditional pronged front of a Vic Viper, but I think it’s way cool.
Crusade is equally stripey, with nicely sloped jet intakes:
Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) joins the Vic Viper “NoVVember” fun with his Rusty Saber:
The cockpit has an arthropod-like look to it, and it’s definitely my favorite part.
One sure way of attracting my attention to your LEGO model is making it look bigger than it is. HAZEL-Fantasy (HAZEL-頑張ります!) has created a version of the Gears of War APC that’s well-crafted, detailed, beautifully curved and small. I’m quite blown away. It’s also nice to see a model of an APC that isn’t the (very cool) one from Aliens.
Two-pronged starfighters are my favorite sort. NoVVember is already off to a good start with lots of great entries in the Vic Viper pool.
Let’s get this roundup started with Ronin VV by Fredo Houben (Fredoichi):
I can’t stop staring at the nose on Kuzma’s Mother, a chunky entry by Horace Cheng (Squinty Eyes):
Lukas goes skinnier with Soleil L4 Atmospheric:
Check out the Vic Vipers pool on Flickr.
Will Chapman from BrickArms took the summer off from work to try focusing exclusively on custom minifig accessories.
Starting with BrickWorld 2008 in June, each LEGO convention has revealed more and more new products and prototypes.
Thanks to the extra time he has now, Will has been churning out more prototypes in his garage than we can count — particularly for those of you eager for World War II accessories.
For your Allied minifigs, the Bazooka M9 (with M6 rocket) will pack a serious punch:
On the Axis side, the German Panzerfaust 30 anti-tank weapon and MG42 machine gun will complement the MP40 SMG and C96 Mauser:
One of the most intriguing new prototypes is the U-clip (“U” for universal). The U-clip can connect any two objects that can fit into a minifig hand.
The potential applications seem infinite, such as attaching a bayonet (also a new BrickArms prototype) to your Lee-Enfield SMLE, a Combat Knife (again, new) to your M4 Carbine, or simulating an M203 grenade launcher with a black LEGO lightsaber handle:
Between our earlier coverage and the Zombie Apocafest, readers should already be familiar with the Lewis gun and Combat Shotgun:
The current Lewis gun prototype solves a minor issue with the earlier version (the drum tended to pop off fairly easily) by attaching the drum to the gun with a clip-like stud. This does make the drum more secure, but it resembles T-21 blaster from Star Wars a bit less with the drum removed.
A couple of the more unique new weapons include a game-inspired gunblade and a Derringer:
The MGL (multiple grenade launcher) will enable your minifigs to take on Decepticons and Predators alike with ease:
Finally, fans of Western movies get two iconic pistols — the Colt Navy 1861 revolver and the M1917 revolver (which looks a lot like the Colt Single Action Army “Peacemaker”):
For those of you wondering when we’ll see all this great stuff in production, here’s the final word from Will:
The next mold (in black and/or bley) will include the Combat Knife and Combat Shotgun for sure, and most likely the MGL, Lewis Gun, and Paintball Gun, but the lineup is still being decided. Look for that mold in early 2009, perhaps even by BrickFest 2009 in Portland!
The swords and Colt Navy will most likely be added to a silver mold, sometime soon as well. I’m still coordinating the layout for it. The other items may be limited-edition “garage releases”, as time permits. All will eventually see production.
Did he just say swords and paintball guns? Yes indeed. Look for a preview of those in the next few days from Josh. ;-)
Vidgamer838 has recreated the Rat’s Nest multiplayer map from Halo 3, complete with the trio of UNSC Marines voiced by Firefly and Serenity cast members — Alan Tudyk (Wash), Nathan Fillion (Mal Reynold), and Adam Baldwin (Jayne Cobb):
This is an entry for the August-September Contest in the LEGO Halo group on Flickr (click pic below to see entries):
LEGO Batman: The Video Game was released this past Tuesday. I’d hoped to play the game and write a review, as I did for LEGO Indiana Jones: The Video Game, but I won’t have time to do that for a couple weeks.
McDonald’s has of course had Happy Meal toys inspired by the game available for a while (very funny photo by FiddybobiddyFiddy):
William Eng has a bunch of pictures from the LEGO Batman launch party, including this cake by Elisa Strauss:
Mariann Asanuma contributed this mosaic to the launch event:
LEGO Batman: The Video Game is available on the following platforms:
Keith Brogan [Send us a link if you’ve got it. -AB] used a NextEngine 3D scanner and modo software to build a 3D mesh of Nintendo icon Mario, to which he then applied an array of brick-sized shapes.
Finally, Keith built the large-scale Mario out of real LEGO bricks:
Don’t miss Keith’s post on Luxology Forum for more details on how he combined high-tech with ABS.
Via Gizmodo, with a nod to reader William. ;)
Although I wasn’t there to see it, Dene Quest‘s gigantic MS-06S Zaku II won the Best Mecha award at BrickFair this past weekend, and rightfully so. A humble man, Dene has not shared much regarding the creation, but the pictures speak all about it.
