Details: Microscale cities these days tend to be of the micropolis variety. It makes sense, really - it's a large, easy to manage standard that is great for building city blocks, and it's the only way I've seen to manage a collaborative microscale layout. Before micropolis, though, there were still plenty of people building microscale cities. One that attracted a bit of attention was Shannonia, a sprawling resort town. Since there are a large amount of photos available of the various incarnations of Shannonia available at the links above, I will leave it at that.
Details: LEGO geometry is deceptive. So many people assume that the LEGO world is boxy, a sort of 3-D pixelated reality. Of course, we can easily break out of that by using specialized elements or hinges, and LEGO proportions aren't actually square (a standard 1x1 brick actually has a 5:6 ratio of width to height) - but this post isn't about the geometry of LEGO parts. Sometimes you just want to use LEGO to show off other geometric shapes (you never know when an unusual shape will come in handy, but there's no need to have a model in mind when experimenting). I've previously blogged about some simple LEGO polyhedra before, but never anything as complex as today's model - today's pick is one that you've probably never heard about (and are unlikely to hear about in the future) in a school geometry class. This is a perfect small rhombicosidodecahedron. The technique is similar to the one used for simpler shapes - which means that this polyhedron is actually easier to build than to pronounce.
Lest you think this is easy, check out the full Wolfram Alpha list of 62-faced polyhedra. Leave it to irregular polyhedra to make it difficult to blog about LEGO.
Details:
I've previously expressed my love for pneumatic walkers, but they have a few limitations. Pneumatic walkers can't steer, and they can't be controlled by sensors or programmable bricks. This walker used an NXT and three motors to make a walking robot that can be steered in either direction, respond to light, and sense distance. Construction details are pretty clear in the video above, but there's also a flickr set from the builder showing still photos of the walker.
I've featured my fair share of Castles (and even other entries from previous Colossal Castle Contests), but I barely touch most of the excellent castles out there. The latest Colossal Castle Contest brought some of the best castles I've seen yet. The categories are listed on that website, along with builders' credits and links to additional photos. This would easily be over a week's worth of "of the day" models here, but in the interest of not just establishing a backlog of phenomenal medieval creations, I'm featuring the winners as a group for today's Sunday edition.
Official information about the new Grand Emporium kit (which had briefly appeared on the Shop at Home website without any real announcement last week) has been scarce. International prices are still hard to pin down, and we still have no idea when the official release dates are. Strangely, though, in spite of the lack of information or fanfare (don't they know how excited we are about this kit?) the kit has surfaced for sale at LEGO Brand Retail locations in the UK. Brick Street over at Brick Town Talk was able to buy the kit at the Milton Keynes location for £139.99. He's been building the kit and reviewing it online as he builds it. There are tons of interesting details just in the box art he posted, and the pictures of the set's insides are even better! My search for 10211 (the Grand Emporium's set number) seems to be the best way to pull up all of the review posts at once.
Details: Some LEGO elements are seemingly overly specialized, but actually are still able to be used at a variety of scales. For example, the fish element that came out last year in a variety of kits is a large fish when used with minifigures, but next to Belville, Scala, or Miniland people, it suddenly appears to be more proportionally correct or even small. The technique that really makes this model also will work at any of those scales - a very small piece of flex tubing has LEGO string tied around it (Oddly enough, regardless of context, I generally use fishing line instead of proper LEGO string most of the time anyway - it's much sturdier and harder to accidentally break) to make it look like the fish has been hooked at the end of the fishing rod. Another technique worth noting here is the use of 1x1 round bricks in tan with brown light saber blades (LEGO can call it a "Bar, 4L" all they want, we all know what it really is) to build typha (also known as "cat tails"). The plant life helps to make the model look more realistic (not that any of former LEGOLAND Master Builder Mariann Asanuma's work needed the help in that department...)
Details: Did you catch that the new Buzz Lightyear kit (7592 Construct-a-Buzz) comes with a new, rounder clear dome element? It turns out that this new element makes a pretty nice biosphere, handy for all your 8-stud by 9-stud microscale space colony needs (two of the outer section, anyway - the inner section isn't used here and is designed to move upward in the set). That trick, a few nifty buildings, some gorgeous landscaping in dark orange, and a clever 12-tooth-gear-on-levers satellite dish are all it takes to make a surprisingly powerful Martian scene. I've previously enjoyed this builder's work even though I have not featured him before - you can see additional spectacular microscale space creations under the same flickr tag.
Details: This one's for everyone who thinks you can't build a "girly" creation without pink. These purses modeled after Louis Vuitton designs are very mature and effective, and yet still decidedly feminine. You might recognize the large quantities of dark tan 2x2 tiles and pearl gold elements as parts we saw come out in the Indiana Jones sets. The dark orange ribbed hose used here as a handle only came in one Bionicle kit. See? You can make something clever, creative, and "girly" even with all of those instruction-based, adventure-(You Control the Action!)-packed "boy" kits.
Details: In the book and movie of To Kill A Mockingbird, most of the action takes place inside of the Monroe Country Courthouse. Here it is, rendered in LEGO form, roughly Cafe Corner scale with an open back corner so we can look inside. The gothic structure includes an interesting rotunda and dome on the roof. Don't miss the angle work either. A clever design (built on commission) coincidentally perfectly timed for Black History Month here in the USA.
Details: If you have the 8263 Snow Groomer kit (which I highly recommend - I only own three of them and I find that's not enough), you've probably seen the alternate model that The LEGO Group calls the "Arctic Tracker". Like most alternate models in the Technic line these past few years, you'll have to download the instructions online if you want to build the Arctic Tracker (although they're hosted on the official LEGO website, it's more convenient to search Brickset and find directions through their cross-reference). Why stop there, though? This builder has gone a step further, adding an NXT to power the treads and steer the vehicle around. It travels decently in the snow, but properly sensing obstacles in the snow seems to be an unsolved challenge for us Mindstorms fans - light sensors have to deal with glare from the snow, and snow absorbs the signals sent out by the ultrasonic rangefinder.
Microscale cities these days tend to be of the micropolis variety. It makes sense, really - it's a large, easy to manage standard that is great for building city blocks, and it's the only way I've seen to manage a collaborative microscale layout. Before micropolis, though, there were still plenty of people building microscale cities. One that attracted a bit of attention was Shannonia, a sprawling resort town. Since there are a large amount of photos available of the various incarnations of Shannonia available at the links above, I will leave it at that.
and 
of 
