Details: This large gothic cathedral - built entirely in the rare shade of light grey discontinued in 2003 - is simply stunning. The imposing size of the whole thing (it's quite large even though it's built to roughly "minifig scale") is impressive, but the architectural details are just as spectacular. The techniques here aren't generally too difficult to grasp, but if you're interested in a good look at how this was done, you can look at some of the other folders Romas has uploaded to Brickshelf - he uploaded many work-in-progress photos during the 3 years it took to build this. A brief interview (in Portuguese) with the builder recently found its way online - here is an English translation (courtesy of Google).
Details: The Colosseum is one of the most recognizable landmarks from ancient Rome. It's also one of the most famous round buildings in the world, making it a bit of a challenge to build in LEGO form (which is why you don't see as many Colosseum models as you do, say, Parthenon models). A large collection of plate hinges does the trick here - the angles used are a bit small so the building maintains a fairly solid appearance from a distance. This model captures the present-day ruins of the Colosseum fairly well, using colors and lighting to majestic effect.
EDIT 12/31: In spite of actually linking to accurate information about the original, I still managed to get the location wrong here. Serves me right for rushing this post up and not preparing it further in advance. It's now been corrected, thanks to eagle-eyed readers who notified me right away.
Details: Ralph "Mad physicist" Savelsberg is still building fantastic miniland-scale vehicles. This time around, he expanded his set of Dutch Emergency Vehicles (I've linked to the full collection above) with a Fire Engine. A neat mix of studs-not-on-top (SNOT) trickery and mosaic-style siding, it ends up being immediately recognizable. Of course, that's not enough for a detail expert like Savelsberg - he's also made working doors, including rolling doors, so that every hatch on the vehicle operates realistically (and of course, every one actually contains miniature equipment for the miniland firemen to use). Don't miss the clever tricks used for the front wheel-well, which boths looks great and actually splits so that the tilt cab can be raised for maintenance. More details (and information you'd probably be interested in that I'd rather not blatantly cut-and-paste here) can be found in the gallery above - each photo's flickr page has more information about the model and/or the source material.
Details: Color sorters aren't exactly new, but I think we all knew that the newer version of the NXT kit (the 2.0 kits include a color sensor) would lead to more designs, some of which would inevitably improve on what we've seen before. This one, with it's zany (but somehow perfect) angles and fast linkages, may be the fastest NXT-based color sorter possible. There are some clever mechanisms here for splitting the stationary set of balls into a stream of individual balls and for changing the ways that the balls fall. The video here is pretty exceptional at really capturing the details (I'm sure we've all had enough of Technic-related videos that don't show you enough to see all of what's going on). Building instructions and code (both NXC and NXT-G) are available from the link above.
Details: I felt a need to share these older photos taken by the late great Eric Brok. These photos showcase some older LEGO window displays and the way some parts of LEGOLAND Billund looked at the time. He's already highlighted some details for you - I'll keep this post short since there are so many photos to see there.
Details: Bionicle might not be the most natural looking thing to most people, but this lobster looks surprisingly realistic. When building animals like this, there's always a certain trade-off between realistically adding movable limbs and trying to squeeze in the most accurate appearance possible. This lobster looks like a good balance to me.
Details: Modulex bricks are really little bricks LEGO manufactured for architects. They're now something of a rare collectors item - LEGO long ago outsourced their production, and has since given up on the Modulex brand entirely. They also come in strange colors that don't match normal LEGO colors. Another interesting feature is that they're reasonably scaled to be bricks that minifigures can build with. Oh, and did I mention that they make nice Christmas trees? The same builder has also built a larger tree and provided instructions on how to make this simple tree design.
Details: While the sleigh isn't visible in this model (based on the title, I think we're supposed to assume it has been stolen), this is an interesting new twist on the traditional "Santa's workshop" theme. The "elves" here are a fairly clever mix of parts - those torsos are from 1980's Forestman sets, the legs have only started showing up in sets these past few years, and the little hats are from the 2009 Venice Canal Chase kit (which, by the way, appears to be on a promotional offer at Amazon at the moment - that set has a generous amount of parts for $40, so at $34 it's a pretty great deal). While the elves and gifts make the scene, the interior lighting is what makes this piece a winner - check out the photos of this workshop in the dark. Another detail with looking out for is the door behind the elves - notice how it has been built out of bricks. That rounded section at the top is actually made from this curved arch brick, which has some space underneath. The space was filled with plates and tiles to get this effect - which is a tight enough fit to hold the other plates and tiles in straight.
EDIT 9:17 PM: Word from the builder is that the door technique was borrowed from a similar door built by Noddy.
Details: Landmark builder Arthur Gugick decided to take on the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia some time ago. Like most of his landmarks, they stand as a masterpiece. When this model's inspiration was originally constructed in Malaysia, the Petronas Towers were the tallest skyscraper in the world. They've since been overtaken by Taipei 101, which longtime readers will recall has also been rendered in LEGO form. While I doubt that these LEGO towers are breaking any records, I'd say that the look of the 88-stories-tall Petronas Towers was captured well here. Even without many of the clever techniques we've seen in other buildings (particular in this small scale), this is still instantly recognizable.
Details: Eric Harshbarger hasn't been building too much lately (although he was the first to make a living entirely doing LEGO sculptures and mosaics on commission, he decided to leave the field a few years ago) - but he did make these mosaics of popular board games. He's posted four game boards here (the two visible in this post are for Scrabble and Monopoly, the other two on his website are for Clue and Chess or Checkers), and all of them perfectly capture the essence of the original game board's design.
We here at LMOTD would like to apologize for the slightly off-kilter ad-heaviness of this post. Amazon and Blogger unveiled a new feature together recently with the goal of making links much easier for bloggers like ourselves, and we're trying to experiment with it without adding off-topic posts to the blog (I do genuinely love the game board mosaics featured above and mean no offense by discussing them in this manner - I just wish there was more to be said about how perfect they are).
This large gothic cathedral - built entirely in the rare shade of light grey discontinued in 2003 - is simply stunning. The imposing size of the whole thing (it's quite large even though it's built to roughly "minifig scale") is impressive, but the architectural details are just as spectacular. The techniques here aren't generally too difficult to grasp, but if you're interested in a good look at how this was done, you can look at some of the other folders Romas has uploaded to Brickshelf - he uploaded many work-in-progress photos during the 3 years it took to build this. A brief interview (in Portuguese) with the builder recently found its way online - here is an English translation (courtesy of Google).
at the moment - that set has a generous amount of parts for $40, so at $34 it's a pretty great deal). While the elves and gifts make the scene, the interior lighting is what makes this piece a winner - check out the photos of this workshop in the dark. Another detail with looking out for is the 
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), and all of them perfectly capture the essence of the original game board's design. 
