Details: There are quite a few interesting challenges one can take when constructing a large building out of LEGO parts. You could try making it in Space with unusual size, with certain types of artwork or architectural details...the possibilities are endless. In this case, we have a large, well-designed art museum in Space. Naturally, there are plenty of interior photos showing the various pieces of "artwork" that have been carefully constructed with little LEGO pieces. You can guess from the photos how to assemble the various works, but most of them aren't terribly sturdy - they're just laid into place to get the right image to appear. There are some other interesting techniques to pick up here as well - get a look at the front railings, the picture lights, the sideways floors (in most of the photos you can see smooth floors that are actually the sides of bricks) with benches built into them, and the zanysculptures.
Details: Minifig-scale furnishings can be difficult to create, so it's not unusual to see ideas recycled from one builder to the next. These candy machines were first built with zanier parts that provided specific varieties (such as the gumball machine - that "dome" is originally from a Spongebob astronaut set) [see image on lower right], and later they were built with more common parts (except for the candies themselves, which are the hard-to-find cherry part) and techniques that would still fit nicely but be a bit easier to build with parts on hand [top left image]. I would never have thought of putting loose smaller pieces inside of a clear 1x2 brick to make the front of a machine, but it works perfectly here. All of these candy machines are great examples of how to build candy machines at this scale, but I wanted to show both at once to highlight how we improvise while borrowing ideas and techniques. While I try to avoid sticking too closely to AFOL (Adult Fan Of LEGO) specific ideas, I think this idea is important at all ages (and even with small collections of parts). There has been a bit of controversy within the LEGO hobby about how much credit should be given for simple but noteworthy techniques like the ones shown here. If you're up for reading an adult-oriented discussion on the topic, you should read the recenteditorials and comments over at TBB.
I've generally tried to avoid posting about the history of this blog, for the obvious reason that we're called "LEGO Model of the Day" but haven't been truly daily in any consistent manner until fairly recently. From time to time (especially at LEGO events, which I've been increasingly active at since starting this blog), I've been asked about how long LMOTD has been around. As of right now (I've scheduled this post in advance to be live exactly 3 years after my first model post), LMOTD is three years old.
It's been an exciting couple years. At first, I wasn't really sure if I could truly add something insightful to another LEGO model every single day. I've brought in help to keep the blog going, I've experimented with the format a bit, but in the end what made the magic happen was some changes in my personal life (I was a college student and a "LEGO community outsider" when I started LMOTD, now I'm a cubicle dweller and regular AFOL). The looser formats I've experimented with kept this blog going in leaner times, and I'm happy to say that 2010 is the first year that we're on track to truly deliver a fresh post about a LEGO model every day.
LMOTD hasn't been a runaway success story. I'm happy to have roughly 500 visitors per day (even if most of them are search engine hits), and I do feel like I've created something of value to LEGO fans. If nothing else, LMOTD has created a library of easily searchable models and techniques that is appropriate for all ages. It's thrilling to try looking up a technique, and then find that this blog is the only place where it was described well enough to turn up in a search result (although most of the pictures are hosted elsewhere and other people discuss many of these models, few people write in as much depth as I do here). I had originally hoped to be more than that, but as other LEGO blogs grew, disappeared, came into being and otherwise changed over the years, I've found that all the voids I wanted filled have been filled.
Thank you for a fun three years - let's hope there are many more to come!
Details: While there are many great "supercar" themed models out there, I thought this one was worth featuring because of a few of its fairly unique features. For one thing, this car is a convertible - you can see several shots of the linkages in motion. There's also an animated version of the action, which works flawlessly. Secondly, this car uses an interesting trick to control the transmission from underneath the specialized transmission gear components - allowing the vehicle to have the stick shift in an unusually low spot (which in turns allows the rest of the cabin to be fairly low to the ground). You can see in the undercarriage where the small liftarms connect to both the stick shift and the transmission. It's not a particularly complex technique, but I hadn't seen it before and it looks like a great idea.
Oh, and did I mention that this was a snazzy looking car with realistic opening doors (no gull-wing goofiness here!), front wheel steering, four wheel independent suspension, powered rear wheels, steering geared to the steering wheel and a separate knob, a V-10 motor, headlights, and studless body work? There's a reason we call these models "supercars" (and it's not entirely due to the legacy of set 8880).
Details: While most of us are used to seeing sculptures built out of LEGO bricks in a straightforward manner, I think it takes a bit more effort to build with the studs facing in every direction. This technique gets much better resolution, allowing for round shapes to look rounder. It also is very effective on smaller creations - after all, the idea is to capture the likeness of something, not to show off how many pieces you have. This model of Hello Kitty perfectly captures the character. The studs-out-in-all-directions technique is difficult enough (and used to great effect here), but what really makes this Hello Kitty is the way other parts were used for details. Levers make perfect whiskers, and the 1x1 "cheese" slopes make the frill of the dress. Elsewhere, curved slopes round ears, arms, and even legs. Even the angled 2x2 corner plates and round 2x2 plate that make up the bow stand out as a great use of a technique.
Details: Building ships can pose a bit of a challenge - building hulls from scratch can quickly get parts intensive (and thus expensive), but using the large hull elements from the various boat kits makes it difficult to expand the size of the boat. Sure, you could just buy more copies of the kit to make the boat longer, but eventually the proportions just get a bit too out of whack (and realistically, buying multiples of the same Pirate ship just for hull mid-sections can quickly get very expensive). This model strikes an interest balance - there's definitely hull sections from more than one kit, but extra height keeps the proportions in check. The front section shows an excellent use of slopes and sideways plates to expand the shape of the ship. Extravagant detail work makes the ship look elegant enough to be an important part of the imperial fleet.
Details: The Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots game involves moving mechanical switches to make "robots" punch each other. You know you've won when the other player finds that you've "knocked their block off". It belongs squarely in the world of fantasy violence that we've all decided is fine for kids to play with. Naturally, it gets that much more exciting when you build it out of LEGO parts. There is a slightly reduced range of motion here (you can't rotate the bots), but that's made up for by the ability to see more of the mechanical goodness going on. The heads are cleverly assembled by using a rubber band to hold plates onto Cyberslam missiles so that they actually pop off properly (and easily snap right back into place for the next game - just like the "real" thing!)
Don't forget that you can use the "All Sizes" button on flickr to zoom-in - it's a must if you want to get a good look at the linkages that make the arms work just right.
Details:
We've seen attempts at automating current Technic sets with an NXT before, but that's never the first challenge when it comes to adding an NXT to a set. Before you can start experimenting with sensor input and automation, you need to actually build in the motors and test out the functions. Here's an example of that part of the process based on set 8258 Crane Truck. A combination of NXT and Power Functions motors are used, along with the third-party NXT-IR adapter to let the NXT control the Power Functions motors. Of course, while IR doesn't work natively with the NXT, bluetooth does! A bluetooth connection to a cell phone allows the builder to control the vehicle remotely.
LEGOWORLD is currently underway right now in Denmark. Naturally, photos are slowly starting to find their way on to these "intarwebs" of ours. There are plenty of exciting original creations from LEGO fans on display, and the LEGO company brought back a few of their own popular displays as well (The giant version of 8880 Supercar is back out on display!)
Photos from LEGOWORLD 2010 (I'll be updating this post as I find out about more): Ken_1974's flickr photo set Coverage from TheNXTStep marcus-e's flickr photo set gerth6000's flickr photo set
On another note, some of the LEGO parts and creations stolen from BAYLUG President Mark Benz have been found and returned. While about a third of the models have not been recovered (and many of them were disassembled), at least this makes up for some of the monetary loss. Unfortunately, because they were recovered from an unattended vehicle, the thieves still haven't been caught.
Finally, some housekeeping: The book review post of I LEGO NY was supposed to appear on Saturday morning, but was inadvertently published early. I've decided to leave it where it is, but that's why there was no model featured yesterday.
Available at: Amazon (Disclosure: LMOTD received a review copy)
Details:
You may recall that about a year ago, a New York Times blog post featuring sketches in LEGO form of various things (focused on New York city) became something of a viral phenomenon. That post is now coming out in book form, with 13 new illustrations added to the 17 included in the original article. I recently received a review copy and was surprised to find that the book is printed as a small board book - perfect for withstanding use by kids. While none of the sketches are particularly exciting from a technical standpoint, many of them are surprisingly effective at matching the captions. Scale is treated as a non-object, with some pages intentionally referring to things as being at very different scales for comedic effect. Beyond the zen-like simplicity of the illustrations, I think that this book could serve a purpose as a kid-friendly idea book. LEGO hasn't published an official idea book in years (the life cycle of a LEGO set is too short now for that to make any sense - it's no longer safe to assume that a special part will still be available in 6 months, never mind a few years later). While there are many ideas and model photographs online in various venues, I haven't seen anything else that attempts to take very basic (and common) parts and challenges you to see them as everyday objects, people, and places at various scales. Parents who aren't comfortable letting their kids loose online but still want to give their kids LEGO-related ideas will love this (I'm sure it will also help that you could build your own version of anything in the book without more than a handful of parts). While the book is fairly New York-centric, only 6 of the pictures are specific enough to be confusing for non-New Yorkers.
While I'd generally point people interested in LEGO and New York towards more advanced models like Sean Kenney's creations, this book might be a bit more appropriate for youngsters (and parents) trying to figure out how to make something evocative with very few parts.
There are quite a few interesting challenges one can take when constructing a large building out of LEGO parts. You could try making it in Space with unusual size, with certain types of artwork or architectural details...the possibilities are endless. In this case, we have a large, well-designed art museum in Space. Naturally, there are plenty of interior photos showing the various pieces of "artwork" that have been carefully constructed with little LEGO pieces. You can guess from the photos how to assemble the various works, but most of them aren't terribly sturdy - they're just laid into place to get the right image to appear. There are some other interesting techniques to pick up here as well - get a look at the front railings, the picture lights, the sideways floors (in most of the photos you can see smooth floors that are actually the sides of bricks) with benches built into them, and the zany sculptures. 
involves moving mechanical switches to make "robots" punch each other. You know you've won when the other player finds that you've "knocked their block off". It belongs squarely in the world of fantasy violence that we've all decided is fine for kids to play with. Naturally, it gets that much more exciting when you build it out of LEGO parts. There is a slightly reduced range of motion here (you can't rotate the bots), but that's made up for by the ability to see more of the mechanical goodness going on. The heads are cleverly assembled by using 
(Disclosure: LMOTD received a review copy)
