Posted by
Dan
at
7:06 PM
| Name of Model: LEGO Mech Reindeer |
| Created by: Mitsuru Nikaido |
| Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/142497481@N02/albums/72157676942777796 |
Details:  This year, Santa's got a new ride. Someone ought to make a movie about this model and use that as the tagline.
There's lots to love in this modernized interpretation of Santa's sleigh and reindeer, but even with all the space-y greebles and twists, it's still faithful to the sleigh-and-reindeer formula. Santa's throttles (in place of reins) round out his one-seater carrying a bag of toys - which also seems to have a thruster of its own beyond the reindeer pulling it. At this scale, a few long Star Wars blasters make for great antlers, and a pair of pearl gold 1 x 1 round plates with holes mounted on what looks like minifig handlebars make for excellent eyes.
Other great details include the use of wheels as hooves, a white Technic wheel to represent the fur around the neck, a minifig ski for the top of the reindeer's head (not to be confused with the larger skis used for the front of the sleigh), and a plate with a tooth for the gold trim on Santa's sleigh. Make sure to check out all of the photos - the Reindeer Mech can be posed in a surprising amount of ways (probably more than are shown).
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Posted by
Dan
at
6:11 PM
| Name of Model: Gingerbread House |
| Created by: Parks and Wrecked Creations |
| Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/legoland-bill/15849719540/in/photostream/ , https://www.flickr.com/photos/legoland-bill/15850940389/in/photostream/ , and https://www.flickr.com/photos/legoland-bill/16036296492/in/photostream/ |
Details:  This beautiful gingerbread house is chock-full of an overwhelming amount of candy-coated details. It looks like the house is dark orange underneath the thick coat of candy, but that almost doesn't matter with all the other goodies packed in here. There's only three photos here, but they're clear enough to zoom in and get a good look. Some of the highlights: a mix of 1 x 1 and 1 x 2 plates with teeth to create icing-style cornice work, 2 x 2 tiles as Necco wafer-style roofing (I suppose they could be intended as a different candy, but it's definitely a great roof), swirl signal paddles on 1 x 1 round bricks and 1 x 1 round plates with open studs to decorate the railing posts, stacked 1 x 1 round bricks to make candy-cane lesenes, curved slopes for the icing snowbank, the standard 1 x 1 round plates as small candy trick, various reddish brown and dark brown tiles to make the chocolate bar door, and hypno disks and another printed 4 x 4 dish to represent swirl candies. Perhaps the best technique, though, is using trans-yellow bricks behind the windows to give the glass a sugary look when the building is lit up from the inside (visible in the second photo).
There are even a few details here that are not immediately obvious in how they were built. Note how several flowers are sunken into the model so their stems don't pop out at you - these must be attached to something deeper inside the model. Then there are the 2 x 2 plates seemingly attached to fences - presumably there's a Technic axle behind those 1 x 1 plates connecting the 2 x 2 plates to something behind the fence.
Also perfect: the inclusion of Gingerbread Man collectible minifigures and Mrs. Claus from the Santa's Workshop set.
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Posted by
Dan
at
3:41 PM
| Name of Model: HAPPY EASTER DAY 2012 |
| Created by: Schfio |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schfio/6902015022/ |
Details:  The reigning champion of cutesy Easter models is back to one-up last year's impressive model. I do wish we could see a different angle of this bunny's face - the minifig helmets used for eyes look pretty good from this photo, but I'd love to see how it looks from the side. The egg cart is priceless, continuing the studs-out approach and even including wheels built out of plates instead of using regular wheel and tire parts. The best detail may be the necktie, though, making use of two red plates with clips attached sideways to get the double-sided plate effect - it's not a difficult technique, but most people wouldn't think to have made the middle of the bowtie sideways facing outward so that could work.
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:00 PM
| Name of Model: Happy Easter 2011 |
| Created by: schfio |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schfio/sets/72157626422017053/ |
Details:  You may have heard that it was Easter this past weekend. For the occasion, this builder created this spectacular sculpture of a baby chick with easter eggs. Although the building-in-all-directions technique is still fairly novel (and frequently done with the aid of a computer), this builder has started making it a main part of his style and incorporated elements that can't easily be specified in a computer-generated design. Note how the little wings are attached by a clip instead of being sculpted on. The use of round eyes and a nose pushed between studs perpendicular to it are also great touches (which also serve to emphasize that this design is more than just a computer-generated pattern). |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:00 AM
| Name of Model: Failvent Calendar |
| Created by: nolnet |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolnet/tags/failvent/ |
Details:  You may remember nolnet, a clever guy who we've featured a few times before. Recently, he decided to take a new spin on the "advent calendar" craze by featuring various failed ideas from over the years. Some of them are a bit goofy, and others are clearly failures, but most of them feature interesting ideas that'd make a good start to something larger. It's oddly inspiring even though you can usually spot where things went wrong. There are 25 photos here, covering a wide variety of material.
The photo above is from day 24: "The Win-Turned-Fail-Over-Time", for reasons that are entirely understandable if you're aware of how phones have changed over the years. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:20 PM
| Name of Model: LEGO LUG Showcase Model for Rockefeller Center January 2011 |
| Created by: notenoughbricks |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notenoughbricks/sets/72157625591250103/with/5311001736/ |
Details:  It's hard to believe that 2010 is coming to an end. We've shared one model here for each of these past 365 days, and it looks like we're good to go for another year. I'm sure that most of my readers are familiar with the popular New Year's ritual of watching a large object dropped near a crowd in a large city - you may also be aware of the annual TV special that features the "ball" dropping in New York City's Times Square. Here we see the best part of that captured in LEGO form (sorry, Justin Bieber fans - most of us only tune in for the countdown). The "ball" here looks great, thanks to the mix of clear plates and translucent 1x1 round plates - apparently it's a variation on the design that Legohaulic provided instructions for. This model will be on display in the Rockefeller Center LEGO store for the month of January, 2011. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:35 AM
| Name of Model: Hot Cocoa |
| Created by: NaNeto (Nelson Neto) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/naneto/sets/72157625523006203/with/5281707574/ |
Details:  I know it's after Christmas (and that this model was posted to flickr on December 22nd), but let's be honest: most of us are still just starting to get back to "real life". Having snow in many places that don't usually get it doesn't help. You might not have a Snow Trooper over for hot cocoa, but otherwise, this probably does look pretty familiar.
I just want to know why we don't see more 16 x 16 sized vignettes. The extra space really captures the setting - the mix of a sculpted snow look alongside slopes is perfect, and the fireplace, gifts, and curtain really round this out nicely. Even the floor looks great! |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:35 PM
| Name of Model: A Minifig Christmas |
| Created by: Nannan Z. |
| Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/241320 |
Details:  I'll keep this short since this is already fairly well-explained at the links above. The basic concept was to make a callback to the classic winter catalog covers that featured LEGO characters from various themes giving gifts to each other at some sort of holiday gathering. Here, the idea is kicked up a notch with collectible minifigures (not to mention Max!) and a gingerbread house. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:58 PM
| Event Info Found At: http://www.nasuhai.co.jp/event/lego.html |
| Photos by: kelvin255 (Kelvin Lok) |
| Photos found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelvin255/sets/72157625566538544/ |
Details:  It's Christmastime in Japan's Nasu Highland Park. The LEGO pavilion there has a few seasonal displays up now, but apparently the Tokyo miniland layout (which features a bunch of landmarks, although some have been made a bit generic) is a semi-permanent exhibit. Another highlight is a large Clone Wars set-up, and there are also several large sculptures. This appears to be like a small LEGOLAND park - apparently there are LEGO-themed rides here for most of the year as well (although these photos focus on the models on display). |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:13 PM
| Name of Model: Santa's Boat House |
| Created by: monstrophonic |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40348469@N05/sets/72157625624892252/ |
Details:  LEGO focus groups most of their models with young people. At some level, that's fine - it's their main demographic. However, "those people" like different things than adults do - while kids always want more boats, racecars, police/fire/rescue sets, and other easy-to-play with models, the serious hobbyists invariably complain that they have too many wheels, boat hull elements, and goofy single-use parts. This is one of those models that makes great use of parts we frequently hear cannot be used.
Obviously, the biggest stand-out technique is the use of rowboats as small dormers and the use of a viking ship hull segment as a larger dormer. Continuing the nautical theme, we see a pirate ship's steering wheel over the door, and just above that we see the newer fish element used as a decoration. Over the first-floor windows (themselves a classy tan surrounded by plates with rails and headlight bricks with tiles), we see 3x4 leaves with cherries on them. That great Christmas tree out front? Look closely - those are upside-down palm tree leaves. The use of some white strings with grips for strings of lights rounds out the tree.
Of course, what I really love about this is the polar bear hiding between the Christmas tree. I didn't mention the great use of color or the texture on the side walls either! |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:18 PM
| Name of Model: 24 Days of LEGO Christmas |
| Created by: brick_a_brad |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickabrad/sets/72157625352594180/ |
Details:  It's hard to believe, but another year is slipping away. Every December first, people start counting down the days and getting into advent madness. In the LEGO fan community, the advent calendars are ubiquitous - between the people eager to photograph everything in the official advent calendar kits (sold out already this year) and the diehards who actually build and photograph a new model for each day, there's usually a bit too much advent action (well, if you keep as close an eye on these things as I do, anyway).
While our usual suspects in the original creations categories seem to be off to a slow start, this model has taken things far enough to kick off the season with a bang. This whole building is one giant advent calendar. You can peek ahead by zooming in on the overall photo, but new close-ups of each room are being posted - one room per day, from now through the 24th. Since this one is only revealing detail shots over the next four weeks, we won't be revisiting this advent calendar closer to the 24th - but truth be told, it's already worth a good look. This was part of an even larger project for a few toy store windows, and you can see some behind-the-scenes photos and photos of the other parts of the displays in this photo set. You can see much of this model already, and there are also some bits in LEGO Digital Designer showing the design process for this model and the ski lift scene. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
1:24 AM
| Name of Model: Snowflake ornaments |
| Created by: Model Gal(Mariann Asanuma) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/model_gal/tags/snowflake/ |
Details:  Although it's easy to fall into thinking that LEGO parts can only be connected in something of a rectangular grid, it's actually quite easy to attach them at angles to create more unusual shapes. Here, we see small white and blue pieces (primarily blue 1x3 plates) used to create 6-sides snowflakes. Most of these are about as "high" as one brick, but are meant to be displayed sideways. These are actually sturdier than you'd expect, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt that these were glued to be used as seasonal ornaments.
As recently announced on her blog, these are now available on Etsy.
| | This is Saturday's model of the day |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:57 PM
| Name of Model: Haunted House |
| Created by: Legohaulic (Tyler Clites) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/legohaulic/tags/haunted/ and http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=449848 |
Details:  This gorgeous haunted house is perfect for Halloween. I think this is the first time I've seen someone use dry ice to get a smoky effect in their spooky photos. There are, of course, surprising building techniques too: check out the slanted bit of siding (all of which is tiles attached sideways, with a mix of old and new grey that achieves a perfect aged effect), and the windows that use tiles wedged between studs to create smaller panes. Then there are those roof lines, made with plates and wing elements on hinges. The use of claws and skeleton legs to make the various railings is another great touch. It's a masterpiece just in time for Halloween.
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| This is Saturday's model of the day |
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from 
as one of the characters, in the elf's hand at the moment is an 
). These have been part of a River Park "Photos with Santa" booth next to a Macy's in Fresno, California, USA since Black Friday (No word on how long this will remain open to the public, but I understand there are other models in the display as well). 
