Posted by
Dan
at
12:20 AM
| Name of Model: 1959 model based on an Impala - Shown here as driven in the unfortunalley infamous danish series Olsen Banden |
| Created by: misterzumbi |
| Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=402163 |
Details:  It's no secret that misterzumbi's cars are amazing. This time, he ups the difficulty level a bit by trying to make a weathered vehicle instead of a new one. Naturally, trying to make LEGO look aged and worn is not easy - bright colors don't lend themselves to this, and a certain amount of chunkiness always comes up. Using brown and sand green bits here mixed in with the black seems to do the job here without sticking out too much - it feels like just the right amount of rusty texture. The details, as always, are great, but it looks like the car wheels might brush against that front fender. No matter - the great techniques here make up for any flaws it might have. Levers for windshield wipers and the unusual construction of the headlights are exciting enough, but the roof rack (made out of the hook hands from Pirate minifigures and some flex-system casing hoses) steals the show. If that didn't, the front fender's chrome-lightsaber-holding-chrome-knives technique would. A subdirectory shows off some variations on the model. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:24 AM
| Name of Model: Chevrolet Now we are talking pure fifties - grab Yourself your Elvis CD and enjoy - This here is a 57 Chevrolet Bel Air |
| Created by: misterzumbi |
| Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=179848 |
Details:  If you've poked around a LEGO store or LEGO Shop-at-Home recently, you may have seen the 2011 calendar they currently have for sale. To a seasoned LEGO fan, most of the images on the front of the calendar look familiar - they're largely recent kits, recent promotional items, and recent collectible minifigures. There's also a spiffy-looking red car with more chrome elements than we've seen in a set in the past few years. Where did that car come from?
The answer is that it's based on this earlier model by misterzumbi. Occasionally, when a builder from the AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) community is hired by the LEGO company to design kits, you'll see some of their older models reflected in the projects they work on for the LEGO company. This is clearly one such case. The design appears to have been simplified for the calendar - perhaps to reduce the amount of connections that the LEGO company does not consider to be firm enough to use, or to make it easier for kids to build. Yes, I am absolutely trying to start rumors about them trying to make this a kit, because I know I'd buy (at least) one. It's difficult to get details in a car this size that make it clearly a particular make or model, and this one is an astounding success, using offsets of various fractions of a stud alongside studs-not-on-top trickery. Even the updated version looks great, even if it is a bit dialed back. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:52 PM
| Name of Model: LEGO Store Opening Promos |
| Photos by: Reasonably Clever Chris |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reasonablyclever/sets/72157624865263569/with/5004695355/ |
Details:  I'm not sure who actually designed today's model - it was a promotional kit for a LEGO store opening just outside Detroit. Every time a LEGO store opens, they have a different limited edition one-day-only first-so-many-people to spend $35 set to promote the store. Usually, there's also a child's size t-shirt for the event on the day without the event kit, and LEGO generally schedules a Master Builder build event for the weekend of the store's grand opening as well. LEGO has an official page for this new store, and if there's a LEGO store opening coming up near you, make sure to check out the opening weekend so you don't miss out on these goodies!
The model itself features some mildly clever techniques - note the use of steering wheels as wheels on this model, and the use of a 1x1 brick with studs on all sides with some clear cheese slopes to make the lamp. While this isn't quite minifig scale (those seats are much too small for that even though this does come in at 6-studs wide), the wheel and lamp techniques are definitely worth "borrowing" for minifig-scale creations. Since this uses mostly common parts, you can try building your own with the instructions posted on flickr by Reasonably Clever Chris - who, by the way, is still running his popular Reasonably Clever webcomic (although with an unusual cast and plotline this week).
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