Tag Archives: Zane Houston

Red Bull Racing mech gives you leeegs!

Zane Houston is something of a LEGO mech expert (a mechspert, if you will. You won’t? OK, fair enough). So after getting his hands on a couple of LEGO’s new Speed Champions F1 cars, the only natural conclusion was an epic racing mech! The long, spindly legs just ooze speed, and the wheels at the base are a nice touch. Zane has made deft use of the myriad printed and stickered pieces as well. Some replicate their original function – the rear wing elements, for instance – while others, like the nose cone, find a use in some futuristic-looking shaping. It doesn’t feel right to call something like this a walker – a runner feels much more appropriate!

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Touch this poison dart mech and you’ll be sorry!

When we last checked in with Zane Houston, the builder bowled us over with a colossal Dr. Robotnik mech. Maybe the Zane spent too much time in the head of Sonic’s nemesis, as now he’s sticking cute animals inside military-grade machines, just like Eggman. On closer inspection, it’s the tiny poison dart frogs who are calling the shots here. The mech shares the bright colors of toxic tropical amphibians, mixing teal, black, and bright light orange. Those triangular missile pods pack a serious punch, but it’s hard to take this mech seriously with those tiny forearms holding a minifig revolver and the pilot frog looking like a clown nose. Uh oh… I seem to have upset the frogs and now they’ve sent out a pair of chibi tanks to get revenge.

Zane’s mechs never cease to inspire with their dynamic design and top-notch presentation. This Nintendo Switch mech remains an all-time favorite build.

Dr. Robotnik sends Sonic scrambling with his epic Eggscruciator mech

After multiple waves of LEGO Sonic playsets, poor Dr. Robotnik must be getting pretty sick of the blue hedgehog and his pals smashing his ingenious machines. With an epic assist from builder Zane Houston, Robotnik is back with a towering LEGO spider mech guaranteed to stop the blue blur in his tracks. Revealed at Brickworld Chicago, where it was awarded Best Mecha Creation, Zane’s Eggscruciator mech was assembled over 7 months and hundreds of hours from many thousands of bricks (including three Rock Raider drills!). It’s an incredible accomplishment, not just for the character design, but for the pixel-perfect 16 bit terrain.

Grab a gold ring and spin dash under the fold for more pics and designer insights!

Magenta Haunter is the belle of the Shadow Ball

A wildly good Haunter appears courtesy of LEGO Pokémon master Zane Houston. Just thinking about making a huge ball in LEGO using just an uncommon color like magenta would make a Sobble (#816) cry, but Zane makes it work with a deft jigsawing of wedge plates. Haunter’s floating hands grasp its special Shadow Ball attack. Creating this erratic form must have made for a bumpy ride, especially considering every non-white surface is covered in studs. The erratic shaping of the energy ripples framed by purples is brilliant and hearkens back to Zane’s electrifying Pikachu model from last year. During the build process, Zane experimented with brick-built eyes, but his solution of using T pieces for the tiny pupils perfectly captures Haunter’s ghostly gaze.

Super smashing Pokémon partners in LEGO

Ivysaur, Squirtle, and Charizard, the starting trio of the Kanto region in various states of evolution, are some of the most iconic and beloved of the ~~151~~ 1025 monsters in the Pokédex. They’re also the swappable characters used by Pokémon Trainer in Supers Smash Brothers Ultimate. LEGO Builder Zane Houston pays tribute to this fighting tag team with a Miniland scale ensemble. Zane does a phenomenal job capturing each character’s colors and personality in the Miniland aesthetic that celebrates bricks and studs. My favorite has to be Ivysaur with leaves built from green cheese slopes and the judicious use of whips as the only non-brick element. This isn’t Zane’s first Pokémon or Nintendo tribute. We loved his shocking Pikachu model, and his clever twist on the Nintendo Switch hardware still makes us smile. For more LEGO pocket monsters, catch ’em all in our Pokémon archives.

A Pikachu’s thunderbolt, recreated in LEGO

From my childhood days spent playing Pokémon Red and my countless hours in front of the TV watching Ash Ketchum fulfill his quest to be a Pokémon master, there has been nothing more indicative of that great video game franchise than the electric-type pocket monster known as Pikachu. And here LEGO builder Zane Houston has captured the little, yellow ‘mon using its signature move, thunderbolt. The powerful blast of electricity emitting from Pikachu’s red cheeks is captured with an interesting studs-out technique, layering white plates vertically on a column of medium azure bricks. Pikachu’s body is similarly built with studs facing outward, away from the center of the character. It helps to give the Pokémon almost a fuzzy, static-y kind of look, quite befitting given its current attack.

It’s a chert-y job, but someone has to do it

Sometimes LEGO can be educational in the most unexpected ways. For instance, I had no idea that chert was a type of sedimentary rock until I espied the aptly-named Chert Chewer by builder Zane Houston. And, boy, does this Rock Raiders mech know how to chew! Equipped with 6 chrome drill bits, there’s no stopping this beast from taking down it’s quarry. The whole thing is a beautiful balance of color, occasionally allowing bits of turquoise and yellow to pop out from behind its gray skin. And I appreciate the inferred articulation with joints and pistons all over the hulk, frozen in place as it scoops out another handful of rubble. But the base it stands upon is by far the highlight for me! Those clean striations in the brown rock set the perfect scene for when the chert needs to be chewed.

While you’re away, the Switch will play

Seemingly inanimate objects coming to life – we’ve seen it before in movies like Toy Story or Transformers; now we’re seeing this notion come alive in LEGO form with this Nintendo “Switch Imp” model by Zane Houston.

My favorite part of this build are the imp’s Switch controller arms in their iconic blue and red color scheme. These brick-built arms mainly utilize common elements such as bricks and slopes in various sizes constructed by way of the SNOT (studs not on top) technique. The buttons on the controller arms are rendered by black 1×1 round tiles while the joy sticks are cleverly composed of black round 1x1s with bar and pin holders, 2×2 round plates with an open stud, and 2×2 plates with round bottoms. The rest of this mythological mashup is comprised of a menagerie of black slopes, bricks, and tiles with a couple white cheese slope pieces serving as teeth thrown in. Better watch where you put your things, judging by this build you can never really know what your household items are up to when you’re away – they really could have a life of their own.

A truly grotesque bonsai

We’ve been seeing a lot of unique LEGO bonsai creations since the introduction of the official LEGO Botanical Collection 10281 Bonsai Tree set, thanks no doubt to the awesome variations displayed in the back of that set’s instruction manual. But this one by Zane Houston still stands apart from the crowd, as it’s not really even a tree. It’s a weeping stone gargoyle* with spouting wings that form the leafy branches of a bonsai tree. The gargoyle’s body is made of a fascinating hodge-podge of plates–mostly wedge plates–that give it a unique, knobbly, rough-hewn look. My favorite part, however, is the basalt base upon which it stands. Now I want to add basalt bases to all my creations.

*technically, gargoyles have drain spouts, or else it’s simply a grotesque–but that’s for architecture. The dictionary is oddly silent on how they’re defined for bonsai.

Don’t let the name fool you, this termite is mighty

While big things often come in small packages, sometimes they come in big 2-person demolition mechs, like this hulking mass of de-construction by Zane Houston, which sports some very clever details. At first glance, many of the pieces look a lot like some smaller LEGO elements but are actually larger, brick built versions. For instance, check out the curved vents on each forearm that resemble the black spoiler element. Between the vice-like pincer hands, piston-driven cutters and the chain coiled around the base of the chassis, the Termite Demolition Mech is ready to break it down and break it down again.

This chunky mech is more than just brute force

This bulky mech by Zane Houston is called a brawler, and it could not match its name any better. From the large wheels built into the legs to massive shoulder and hip joints, this is one heavy mech. However, this is more than a simple brute of a model, as there are plenty of details worth mentioning. In particular, the mech has several pistons and other mechanisms that ground it in practical construction. Throughout the model, the builder has also added simple repeating details like cheese slopes in the thighs, and canisters in the forearms.

In addition to some fantastic angled structures that would look quite at home in any massive LEGO spaceship, the color blocking is also well-executed. However, I think my favorite detail would have to be the 2×2 round bricks with grooves tucked into several joints, playing off of the more noticeable gears.

Mecha Charizard, I choose you!

Zane Houston‘s mechanical version of the iconic Pokemon Charizard adds a new level of ferocity to the beast. The flamethrower tail and the visible mechanical workings inside the belly of the beast are great additions.

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