Details: These excellent miniland-scale characters have partially jointed arms (check out the other two pictures in this photo set to see some surprising expressions) and several evocative techniques. The groom's tie makes excellent use of a metallic gold colored 1x2 tile - a fantastic way to use a piece in a rare color that you might otherwise not be able to build with. The formal attire is recreated perfectly thanks to various studs-not-on-top elements. You really get a sense of a separate suit jacket hanging on the groom's figure, and the combination of curved slopes and wedges on the bride's dress creates a unique form that could be a real wedding dress. The back even includes tails on the suit and a train on the dress. The use of black studs-not-on-top brackets for hairpieces works much better than I would have expected - it really adds dimension to these figures. These figures actually outdo some professional LEGO wedding cake toppers!
Details: We've seen plenty of control systems that use cell phones, computers, or various LEGO-built joysticks, steering wheels, and other traditional set-ups, but we haven't seen that many creations that use form-fitted input devices. This "robotic hand" copies the movements made by someone wearing a "sensor skeleton". Three RCX's translate the sensor input into motor actions on the hand. That makes it a nice little project, but as an unexpected twist, there's a very organic and unexpected mechanism for controlling the fingers: two degrees of freedom are controlled by a "tendon" made out of flex system casings. I feel a need to build my own copy of this to determine how well this sort of system can handle lifting heavy objects.
Details: The official, full-fledged Maker Faire event happened in San Mateo, California on May 22nd and 23rd. As always, the local LEGO Users Group and LEGO train club (BayLUG and BayLTC) were on hand to represent the LEGO hobbyist community. Their set-up featured large layouts, small models, and even a free build area.
Details: .eti has created another brilliant scene - this time, a fully landscaping minifig-scale mountain full of hikers and hijinks. This also has a bit in common with the other model I've mentioned today - note the use of differing scales, forced perspective, and a mosaic background in this model. This model will be on display (among hundreds of others) at 1000steine-Land 2010.
Details: Revisiting Tuesday's model for a bit, here are some behind-the-scenes photos of how it was done. It's a bit revealing, but there are plenty of surprising techniques that you can learn from here.
Details: We've seen a few remote-control LEGO boats before (even one other that eschewed common "really floats" parts), but never one that used Bionicle canisters as a flotation device. Yes, kids, you can try playing with floating LEGO creations even if you don't have one of those big expensive "floating boat" kits (We do not recommend that anyone puts electronic LEGO elements near water. Experiment at your own risk). Although this set of photos is only named "boat", it looks like there are photos of multiple boats there - more inspiration for how we could use these plastic canister packages to win those competitive boat races that are increasingly common at LEGO fan conventions!
Details: The world of neo-Classic Space is alive and well, and people are still building new spaceships for it on a regular basis. Believe it or not, people are still coming up with original ideas to work with the limited amount of trans-yellow cockpits out there. This model in particular makes great use of greebling techniques. The "wings" are another fairly unusual feature - they're not solid, and are built entirely out of hinges and greebling. The overall effect is an imposing presence even with a fairly small body to the spacecraft itself. The links above include a larger gallery of 140+ photos of various neo-classic space models in addition to the four photos of today's model.
Details: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was cancelled 11 years ago today. As with most of the Star Trek franchise, the show has maintained a lively following over the years that hasn't let go of the series. This is the main space station from the series, in microscale. Want to build your own? You're in luck! The builder has posted various in-progress photos on Brickshelf, and you can also download instructions in LDraw (MLCAD) and PDF format. Although most of the links above show computer renderings of this design (I'm pretty sure that the snazzy photo I've used for this post is actually just an exceptionally good digital render - but I didn't even notice at first glance!), a photo of one physically built with honest-to-goodness bricks can be found on Brickshelf.
Details: Forced perspective is a difficult thing to truly do right in LEGO. This photo is how it's done. There's just the one picture of this model, but it's so perfect that you don't really need a second photo (and there's likely an issue with the model not looking as good from other angles anyway). The idea behind the forced perspective technique is to mix scales in a way that makes some things look further away. In this case, we see a cockpit that is built at about half of actual size, with microscale planes and missiles in the distance that are about one hundredth of regular size. The mountains on the backing mosaic are at even smaller scale. Even though the different parts of this model are very close together, they look like they're fairly far apart. More importantly, this looks more realistic than most first-person plane-driving video games. The illusion of screens is created by using old dark grey inlays inside of frames built in the newer dark bluish grey color. Additional studs-not-on-top trickery with small lime plates creates the details on the screens. A similar technique is used for the mountains in the background - the snowy mountaintops are surprisingly complex, and the rows of peaks in the front are brought out by using an older shade of grey, and some brown in front of that. Even the dark green plates for foliage turns out to be spot-on. Most of the techniques have already been picked apart in notes on flickr, so if you're still curious, check out the link above (you can also "embiggen" further).
Details: I would write more about this GBC, but I'm still spending time studying it. The video quality is a bit lacking, but the modules in this one are spectacular. Lots of brilliant stuff here - pneumatics, Mindstorms, trains (the train is controlled via RCX to stop and start in the right places to load/unload), an all-around great variety of both classic and very original sorts of mechanisms. There are even Spacewarp-style sections with loop-de-loops, a base 5 ball counter, and color-sensitive sorters to tell the basketballs and soccer balls apart. I'm not sure exactly where this layout was setup or how many people participated in constructing it, but I'm suitably impressed with all involved.
These excellent miniland-scale characters have partially jointed arms (check out the other two pictures in this photo set to see some surprising expressions) and several evocative techniques. The groom's tie makes excellent use of a metallic gold colored 1x2 tile - a fantastic way to use a piece in a rare color that you might otherwise not be able to build with. The formal attire is recreated perfectly thanks to various studs-not-on-top elements. You really get a sense of a separate suit jacket hanging on the groom's figure, and the combination of curved slopes and wedges on the bride's dress creates a unique form that could be a real wedding dress. The back even includes tails on the suit and a train on the dress. The use of black studs-not-on-top brackets for hairpieces works much better than I would have expected - it really adds dimension to these figures. These figures actually outdo some professional LEGO wedding cake toppers!
has maintained a lively following over the years that hasn't let go of the series. This is the main space station from the series, in microscale. Want to build your own? You're in luck! The builder has posted 
-style sections with loop-de-loops, a base 5 ball counter, and color-sensitive sorters to tell the basketballs and soccer balls apart. I'm not sure exactly where this layout was setup or how many people participated in constructing it, but I'm suitably impressed with all involved.
