Details: This large minifig-scale battleship has a number of nice details and a removable engine room. In one shot, you can see where a disobedient subordinate minifig is doing push-ups. In another, you can get a good look at the precise railings and at the ladders that make various levels of the ship accessible. Normally I'm not a fan of mixing the older tones of gray with the newer "stone" or "bley" tones, but it adds a nice weathered look to this craft. You get the impression that it's been in battle and then been repaired. The final version of the engine room even features staffers with some equipment handy - and the use of one-piece engines and various sizes of LEGO® steering wheels was an inspired choice too. The hull, on the other hand, keeps it simple by using a large amount of large plates. There aren't that many pictures of this one, but they're all good shots that show lots of action.
Details: At first glance, this castle doesn't look too exciting. Look again, though - there are some nice details in here. The facade of the building makes use of parts from horse armor, Islander hats, and the frilly tops of some minifig castle armor. The roof off to the side makes use of a plate with grill piece to add some texture. There are, of course, also plenty of nice slopes and arches here, and the tree also looks great. It just seems silly to mention techniques that have done many times before when there's an axe holding up a flag. Don't miss the hall of spears either. The only thing this little castle really needs is some people!
This 'bot is also loosely great ball contraption-themed. I'm not sure if the use of non-LEGO balls affects the performance of this machine, but that seems beyond the point with all of the interesting stuff going on in the model. There is a functioning conveyor belt made with tread links (which, as mentioned last week, is not easy to do), and then there's the large drum that tosses the balls about and every so often picks up a ball with a chrome light-holder thingie (or whatever that part is called). I have no idea how the parts for the drum were done, but the whole thing works well. The use of non-LEGO string for elevators isn't a bad idea either - it certainly keeps you from having to use gear racks in bulk.
Sorry to feature another GBC-style model after last week's GBC model, but this is exciting enough to justify bending the rules a little - and it does seem to be the best thing in LEGO robotics this past week.
Details: The main attraction here is the large house with the gated yard, but both smaller houses do a good job of packing in architectural details too. The landscaping on the large house is great. The use of spears for a fence is a good touch, and the shutter pattern for the windows is interesting (although I'm not sure what technique was used).
Details: Elmo (of Sesame Street and Elmo's World fame) has been perfectly captured in this sculpture. Obviously, the sculpted curves on the face and torso are done in the usual style, but the eyes and nose were done with studs-not-on-top elements to allow for more curvature on the sides. There's a good close-up of the eyes at the link above if you want to get a feel for how the geometry works out here.
Details: This train engine is excellent. There are quite a few great features here - while normally the studs-not-on-top sections might steal the show, the rails surrounding the engine actually turn out to be far more impressive. Sure, it looks simple enough once you recognize those silly Life-on-Mars theme arms, but then there's that angle where the railing moves up - how did he do that? Well, look closely - there is a pair of black minifig hands in there. Oh, and for all you train fans out there, this is a 5-wide cab, so there must be some offset stuff hiding in there somewhere. If only there were more pictures...
Details: Here's another studs-not-on-top tour-de-force. There are no studs showing on the outside of the model, but the gray bar is probably the most immediately surprising studs-not-on-top effect. I'm pretty sure that the gray bar uses 1x1 studs-not-on-top bricks in the places where it's covered by the white parts. There's a lot to take in here - I'm still not sure how some parts of it were done.
Details: Here's a take on the MGB roadster. I'm pretty sure it's the roadster, anyway, since it's the convertible model. There are quite a few nice details here but the hood really caught my attention. The two sides are both done with the studs facing the front of the vehicle. The wheel-wells are made with 1x2 slopes and inverted 1x2 slopes. I'm pretty sure that the middle of the hood is using 4 1x6 curved slopes. The combination of that with the studs-not-on-top sides looks great (although the original does have the headlights more set in). The seats look great here too - the almost-all smooth look is very classy. The side windows and rear view mirrors show off some nice techniques with clip-plates too. I'm not sure exactly which part that is on the fenders, though - it looks too thin to be pneumatic tubing, but I'm not sure what else would bend that way.
Details: This gorgeous shrine is a spectacular representation of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock in microscale (click on the link there to read about the original on Wikipedia). If you're like me (and most other Americans), Islamic architecture probably goes right over your head, but I'm sure you can still appreciate the details in the model here. That dome on the top is not just sculpted - the bottom halves of dozens - hundreds maybe - of minifig switches are used to make it look even rounder. There are a few weird geometry things in here too - the bottom looks like it was done with hinges, the top just connects bricks at odd angles (and uses some mosaic techniques to get the look just right anyway). The lower walls use clip-plates, cockpit-hinge tops, and turntable bases to get other details. The color scheme isn't entirely true to the original (which was built over 1300 years ago and probably has had its colors fade a bit over the centuries), but this still looks amazing.
Details: If you're like most Technic builders, you've noticed that none of the tread parts work particularly well as conveyer belts. They look great, actually - the problem is that it's just not practical when you want a machine to really work. This model gets around that problem by using dark grey pegs (which have half-brick length on one side, allowing them to snap into treads easily). The builder provided instructions for this GBC, too, so if you wanted directions to make your own, there you have it. Of course, I'm pretty sure the exact type of treads being used here are a fairly new part...
Details: This gorgeous castle almost looks like a life-size castle instead of a model. It's hard to pick a favorite part here - the drawbridge looks great, but so do the towers and the landscaping. Make sure to look through some more of the photos - there's a hefty amount of interesting architectural details that aren't visible at first glance.
Details: Here's one for a belated Valentine's day: a small sculpture of a heart - with building instructions. The directions are at the link above. This was made with only basic bricks, but if you look at the parts list, it looks like quite a few unusually long bricks were used. You should be able to substitute smaller pieces in if you want to try this one out yourself.
Details: The Arvo Brothers have taken on the Volkswagen Beetle, and as with all of their cars, it looks excellent. Most notable about this one, though, is that it provides a bit of a contrast with the set that will be coming out later this year (I'm having trouble finding a link right now but there is definitely an official Volkswagen Beetle set coming up soon). This one makes use of a wide variety of sloped parts - in the typical Arvo style - whereas the official model has more of a sculpted look with a variety of LEGO® plates. I'm also digging the more modern look of the yellow parts here compared to the special shades of blue on the official one (it's always great to get hard-to-find colors in a set, but it's not exactly a must when designing your own model).
I was hoping to catch up on this today, but I'm not feeling well. I'm hoping to be back to blogging for Thursday. I'm going to just skip the days I've missed here so that I don't have to try to do a full a week in a day or two.
Details: This building is an attempt of a physical version of an online forum used by this LEGO User Group. Things to catch here:
The outer walls are not just made out of hard-to-find brown bricks, but they're actually all 1x2 plates. This gives it a great brick-and-mortar look, but it's very expensive and time-consuming.
A large collection of clear windows was used to make the front facade. Some studs-not-on-top methods were used to make the parts fit together.
Details: Freebee posted a nice set of custom train cars. The hopper makes use of Technic parts for details. The design looks great, but it's the type of thing you can't build without tan 1x1 Technic bricks. The locomotive features some studs-not-on-top effects that are very well done. There's even a custom coupling mechanism.
Details: This gorgeous Indian Fort was made with lots of special-ordered parts. The details are staggering, and the builder's use of various colors to accentuate different parts of his creations is brilliant. You really have to see this one for yourself.
This large minifig-scale battleship has a number of nice details and a removable engine room. In one shot, you can see where a disobedient subordinate minifig is doing push-ups. In another, you can get a good look at the precise railings and at the ladders that make various levels of the ship accessible. Normally I'm not a fan of mixing the older tones of gray with the newer "stone" or "bley" tones, but it adds a nice weathered look to this craft. You get the impression that it's been in battle and then been repaired. The final version of the engine room even features staffers with some equipment handy - and the use of one-piece engines and various sizes of LEGO® steering wheels was an inspired choice too. The hull, on the other hand, keeps it simple by using a large amount of large plates. There aren't that many pictures of this one, but they're all good shots that show lots of action. 
Those of you who follow the toy industry may be aware of Toy Fair 2008, which is a major trade show currently underway in New York. This year, the LEGO company is stealing the show with impressive new sets, large cut-outs for photos, and a series of character sculptures based on characters from the 
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