Angry Bird

Name of Model: Angry Bird

Created by: Sam Knavel

Found at: http://mocpages.com/moc.php/276140

Details: The birds are angry. The pigs don't stand a chance. Particularly if the other birds are also built out with studs facing every direction. The eyebrows are actually adjustable (the joys of mounting a 1x2 tile on top of small plate), but the really angry look captured here seems to capture the feel of the popular game surprisingly well.

A "War Machine"

Name of Model: War machine

Created by: Pjurkovi

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47343879@N08/5880270395/in/set-72157626941434660/

Details: This "war machine" is something of a giant crossbow on wheels. Somehow, though, it feels almost too realistic. Even though it comes in near miniland scale and features immediately recognizable LEGO elements, it feels more like a die-cast replica used in tabletop gaming. Maybe that was the point. In a way, I actually don't want to know how this was constructed - tying the difficult to work with LEGO string around the very sloped dinosaur tails could not have been easy. Getting either side's string-tied-to-a-tail to stay put instead of sliding off must have been a difficult feat, and getting the string to appear taut as well is enough to make this seemingly simple model suddenly become an impossibly difficult "don't try this at home" model.

A "Starfighter" in Atlantis colors

Name of Model: Eridan starfighter

Created by: thire5

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=476699

Details: This beautiful spaceship accomplishes something many people think is impossible: it uses a bunch of very specialized elements to create a seamless and original look. Many of the pieces - not to mention the red and trans-bright-green color scheme - come from the 2010 Atlantis kits (speaking of which, the 8075 Neptune Carrier, which is where that cockpit piece comes from, is currently 30% off at Amazon). The way the slopes for the nose are combined is already surprisingly sleek, but then you notice that Technic/Bioncle element hiding under the tip. There are quite a few great details and uses of parts here, but don't miss the landing gear and greebled underside - which makes great use of a Bionicle Krana Holder, chairs, and a cargo train windscreen.

NXT-Based Pancake CNC

Name of Model: Pancake Bot

Created by: Miguel Valenzuela

Found at: http://makermig.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-pancake-bot-works.html

Details: This 3-axis (well, two axes plus a batter squirter) CNC prints pancake batter. The batter lands directly onto a griddle. Full details are on the website linked to above. I'll let you watch instead of spoiling the video for you.

Part and Set Patents

Name of Model: various

Created by: Erling T. Dideriksen

Found at: http://www.google.com/search?q=Erling+T.+Dideriksen&hl=en&tbo=1&tbm=pts&ei=_dLvTcK8HNT3gAfkx-iUDw&start=0&sa=N&biw=1440&bih=785

Details: Here's an interesting inside-look at the design process for new LEGO sets and pieces. Over the years, Erling T. Dideriksen designed many classic elements for the LEGO company. There are many parts, kits, and portions of kits that have been patented over the years for LEGO, but not all of them came to fruition, and of those not all have lasted for years. The patent for the 2x2 turntable was filed in 1977 (the same year that two-part element was released) and remains with us to this day (although LEGO started packaging it as two separate elements instead of one pre-assembled part years ago), but the motorcycle (filed for in 1982, released in a different form in 1983) hasn't been seen in a kit since the early 1990's.

BrickWorld 2011 Round-Up

Name of Model: BrickWorld

Found at: http://www.brickworld.us/

Details: BrickWorld 2011 has come and gone. Here's a round-up of some photos: Bill Ward's recap part 1 Bill Ward's recap part 2 Bill Ward's flickr photo roundup When lost in.....'s flickr photos marc_buehler's flickr photos martiger's flickr photos Joe Meno's flickr photos the rest of Joe Meno's flickr photos sidersdd's flickr photos Bisonfuehrer's flickr photos Alex Eylar's photos on MOCpages BrickWorld pool on flickr

LEGO Sets Designed by Mark Stafford for the 2010 line

Name of Model: 2010

Created by: Mark Stafford

Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/245506

Details: LEGO set designer Mark Stafford was kind enough to create a public portfolio of some of his work. The links above are for his contributions to the 2010 line, although he's also created similar pages for his contributions to the 2009 and 2008 lines. Although LEGO occasionally selects new designers from the LEGO fan community, they generally focus primarily on people with professional design or engineering backgrounds. Mark Stafford is one set designer who did come from the community. He has helped push LEGO towards ideas that are more attractive to adult fans as well as the kids who end up with most of the new sets. Many of his designs feature unusual parts and techniques that can expand the possibilities of what we can build. In a few cases, you can actually see trends from the fan community sneak into some of the kits he has designed.

Alternate Models for Set 5867

Name of Model: (various, but they are all alternate models for set 5867)

Created by: NK DeSign-er

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32900512@N02/tags/5867/

Details: Remember the alternate models for set 4100? How about the 4939 Cool Cars alternate Oldsmobile? That same builder (and former LEGO kit designer) has struck again lately, creating alternate models for set 5867 Super Speedster - 11 of them by my count. One thing I particularly like is that there is a variety of sizes here - 8-wide and 10-wide are well represented, and each race car chassis comes in around 6-wide, and the truck comes in at 14-wide counting the side-view mirrors. Even though these are all cars, they show a good deal of variety.

A brief note about the current state of LMOTD: posts will be intermittent for the rest of the month, and we'll be getting back up-to-speed come July

A Bionicle Vic Viper

Name of Model: Ormurvík Space Superiority Racer

Created by: Patuara

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=474910

Details: This beautiful mix of Technic, Bionicle, and "System" elements makes a startlingly convincing vic viper. You can sort of tell where parts begin and end (with how much you can spot likely being a direct function of your level of Bionicle knowledge), but the parts gel together in a way we rarely see with elements that don't usually connect seamlessly. In those few places where a piece would normally create it's own gap, smaller pieces are used to fill those gaps. Don't miss the underside, which shows more traditional elements holding the craft together, providing greebling, and giving us sturdy landing gear.

8-wide Maersk Locomotive

Name of Model: Maersk locomotive

Created by: Mad physicist

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/madphysicist/tags/sd402/

Details: Here's a new take on the Maersk set released recently - a wider version in a different color. Unless you see them side-by-side, it can often be difficult to tell the difference between Maersk blue and medium blue - which can be used to your advantage if you want to use a wider variety of parts to get the exact look you want. In this case, the issue was size. The builder is very passionate about scale. "Minifig scale" is an inherently nebulous concept, and LEGO's habit of throwing minifigs into things at wildly different sizes makes it even murkier. Having decided that 8 studs wide is appropriate for a train, the next challenge was to work out the details (such as the brick-built lettering on the sides). Many of them are essentially unchanged from the design in the set, but elsewhere - such as on the windows - things look much better.

My apologies about the gap in lately - it's been a rough few weeks for me personally (a death in the family) and I haven't been able to make blogging a priority. We're trying to get back up to speed now. I won't be making up the missing posts.