Audrey Hepburn Mosaic

Name of Model: Audrey Hepburn

Created by: Henry Lim

Found at: http://www.henrylim.org/AudreyHepburn.html

Details: This is another stunning mosaic made by Henry Lim. You might remember him from the Beatles mosaic that was featured here in April, or maybe from his famous Stegosaurus sculpture that was featured in March. This model was Lim's first mosaic experiment, and it's based on the Funny Face (link coming soon) photograph. You can tell from the picture that this model was built as a wall (so all the studs point towards the top of her face). This must be pretty sturdy but also pretty heavy! A few more details are available at the website above.

This is Tuesday's model of the day

Robotics Monday: Slot Machine

Name of Model: Lego NXT - Slot Machine

Created by: lv0404

Found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig-TadseEFA and http://www.bouwvoorbeelden.nl/home_eng.htm

Details: This spiffy model went up on Sunday - and it's a winner. The video here is pretty self-explanatory. I think I'll have to watch it a few more times, though, to completely convince myself that there are really only 2 LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT units in there. Obviously, cheating was used for the fruit symbols on both the key and the rolls - and those 10 and 20 c Euro coins aren't made of LEGO either - but I think we can look past that on this one. There is a catch, though - winnings are capped at 2 Euro per turn. Photos, a brief write-up, fruit images, and code are available at the second link above. Oh, and on the non-robotics side of things, you have to admit that that case is pretty awesome. I love the sculpted Euro symbol on the side and the way that slopes were used to make the NXT's screen look like a custom screen. The use of hinges for easy-to-use doors to start the machine and repair it was a great idea too.

This is Monday's model of the day.

Estuary Stronghold

Name of Model: Estuary Stronghold

Created by: The Late Great Eric Brok

Found at: http://www.ericbrok.com/legomind/projects/stronghold/index.htm

Details: On 11th June 2007, Eric Brok passed away. I remember coming across his website back in 1996 and being in awe of a number of his creations. In the years since then, his work has been enjoyed by LEGO fans the world over. It's sad knowing that we're now without him. Today, I'm featuring a Castle he built. A full tour of this castle is at http://www.ericbrok.com/legomind/scripts/pictshow_stronghold.htm?pic=I00 - there are 63 great views to see.

This is Sunday's model of the day.

LEGO Transformer

Name of Model: Transformers GALAXYFORCE Vector Prime

Created by: YOGURT

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=222533

Details: I'm pretty sure that this one is self-explanatory.

This is Saturday's model of the day.

Technocracy Upholder Fighter

Name of Model: Technocracy Upholder Fighter

Created by: Nabii

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=254594

Details: I love the color scheme on this (it's retro and reminiscent of the classic LEGO Space sets), the way that modern studless Technic parts are used closely with more traditional LEGO elements, the wine goblets for weaponry, and that clear stand. This model may look a bit "normal" on first glance, but it's simply a masterpiece for the way it was constructed. The way the Technic parts come in is just beautiful, and then there are the details - look at that trash can in the back!

This is Friday's model of the day

Clever Mecha

Name of Model: OB-01

Created by: izzo

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=260483

Details: It seems like every part of this mecha uses a different bizarre LEGO element in a clever way. See if you can spot the shovel, the binoculars, the minifig hands, and the bananas. Yes, there really are bananas.

This is Thursday's model of the day.

About Today's Robotics Monday post

I am still attempting to catch up from last week when there were no posts. If you are interested in seeing a Robotics Monday post today, make sure you've seen the one I posted for last week but didn't have up until a few days later.

Conan O'Brien's Head

Name of Model: Conan O'Brien

Created by: Eric Harshbarger

Found at: http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/conan.html

Details: A few years back, the Today Show commissioned a sculpture of the head of late-night television host Conan O'Brien. The website listed above documents the results.

This is Wednesday's model of the day.

F-4 Phantom Plane

Name of Model: F-4 Phantom inspired MOC

Created by: drclark1

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=259492

Details: This snazzy plane makes great use of some upside-down sections and hinges. The wings fold up, revealing weaponry (I believe it's weaponry - I should probably research the subjects of these models before posting them more often than I do) underneath the wings. The landing pad here is a great touch too - and of course, there's matching landing gear too. I love the way that large wheels were used as jets here. Does anyone know where those hollow gray parts on the front on either side of teh cockpit are from? I don't think I've ever seen those before.

This is Tuesday's model of the day.

Robotics Monday: The Great Ball Contraption

Name of Model: The Great Ball Contraption

Created by: various

Found at: http://www.teamhassenplug.org/GBC/

Details: I'm actually not entirely sure why this is called "The" Great Ball Contraption and not just "A" Great Ball Contraption. From what I can tell, this is a collaborative project that resurfaces in a new arrangement every so often. I believe that this video is from 2004 (it claims to be the first), but the most recent incarnation is at BrickWorld 2007.

This is Monday's model of the day.

Axiocersus

Name of Model: Axiocersus

Created by: kcaster

Found at: http://flickr.com/photos/kcaster/sets/72157600077690432/

Details: As any serious LEGO builder knows, a project can take a long time to complete, and if you don't think of every little place where things might come loose, you're likely to have to re-build parts of it even after spending all sorts of time building a model. This model created waves in the AFOL (that means Adult Fan Of LEGO) community when a picture of the AXIOCERSUS on the floor in pieces surfaced the day after the model was completed. It has since been fully repaired. Of course, this is a Sunday model, so there are quite a few pictures to look at at the link above.

This is Sunday's model of the day.

Medieval Observatory

Name of Model: Medieval Observatory

Created by: DARKspawn

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=257398

Details: The towers in this gorgeous observatory use grey 1x1 round bricks to great effect to create unique architectural details. There's some more nice sculpted features for the ground, and some greenery by the water. Check out the wine goblets used for the railing at the top of one of the towers. There's also some great assembled trees and some sweet detailing on the building's side (although, this doesn't look too sturdy to me). I can't figure out if these side walls are angled or hinged, but they look great, and I love the way slopes and archs work on the sides. The two telescopes looks like a hoot great too. Because all of that isn't enough for this builder, there's even a vignette of a man being pulled out of a well.

This is Saturday's model of the day.

Batcaves

Name of Models: bats and batman1

Created by: book316

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=184468 and http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=211057

Details: Somebody made some batcaves for the Batman characters. They look pretty good, if you ask me. I'm always a fan of sculpted "rocks" and caves in minifig-scale LEGO models.

This is Friday's model of the day.

Tulips

Name of Model: Tulips

Created by: pepa_quin

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepa_quin/492105748/

Details: I think it's pretty clear how these beautiful tulips were done, but I have to admit it's a pretty clever design even if it does look easy to copy. Of course, that's assuming you have the parts - I know I don't have the dark red ones. I love the upside-down palm trees here.

This is Thursday's model of the day

Large Mecha

Name of Model: Zat

Created by: Bubbaben

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=259610

Details: This mecha is a nice blend of newer parts with some more traditional LEGO building. From what I can tell, TECHNIC bricks are being used to attach BIONICLE-era ball joints and worm gears to more traditional looking sections. Since the ball joints are doubled up in a few places, they look like they'd be much sturdier but function more like hinges - but then again, you don't get this sort of control when you use regular hinges. This mecha stands nearly 2 feet (0.6096 metres) tall - which makes it the largest non-sculpted mecha I've seen yet (but maybe this has something to do with not being too much of a mecha fan myself...). I love the use of some of the "arm" parts from a handful of older AQUAZONE sets as fingers here. The use of a grey-black-red-dark red color scheme works well too. Does anyone know what parts were used for the "jets" on his back?

This is Wednesday's model of the day

Computer failure

Tuesday's post and the rest of the posts for this week will be up late due to a laptop's sudden inability to charge. Updates should be dodgy for the rest of the week as I continue to work out just what happened to my regular computer. Another computer has been secured and posts are being added for the past few days.

Cafe Corner

Name of Model: Café Corner

Found at: Amazon

Details: Today's model is actually a LEGO set available from the LEGO company. This is one of several newer models made with fan involvement and featuring quite a bit of details and nifty tricks. There's also some awesome modular components to make building larger models with multiples of this set easy. Some details are available on The LEGO Store's page for this model, but it would help this blogger out if you bought it through Amazon - for $20 less and free shipping, if you're willing to preorder!

Today's (Tuesday's) post is up late due to a laptop's sudden inability to charge. Updates might be dodgy for the rest of the week, but they should be up-to-date soon.

Robotics Monday: "Dog" with instructions / News: RoboGames

Name of Model: RoboDog

Created by: Laurens200 (additional LEGO pages by Laurens at Brickshelf and YouTube

Found at: http://www.freewebs.com/laurens201/robodog.htm

Details: Laurens200 is an impressive kid I found on YouTube who has a real knack for LEGO robotics. I'll probably be featuring some of his/her other 'bots in the future (and some of them are more exciting than this one, but hey, I try to pace myself). This bot is a simple walker with a whimsical wagging tail. It's quite elegant, and there's video, Brickshelf photos, building instructions, a full write-up and the original program available online. Laurens is a master at documenting his/her creations, and thanks to the sheer amount of detail written about this efficient and simple design, this is one you can try at home with your own LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit.

As reported by The NXT Step, the 4th annual RoboGames event is this weekend and will feature two LEGO robot-related challenges - the "Lego Challenge" and the "Lego Open".

Geodesic Dome

Name of Model: The Shpleem Dome

Created by: kumazemi

Found at: http://flickr.com/photos/bumcrush/sets/72157600332330093/

Details: I think you can figure out why this one is interesting. From the site given above: The Shpleem Dome covers 16 48×48 stud baseplates. The dome itself is about 2.5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The base is made up of 8 columns which each can have up to 2 corridor connections for a total of 16 potential corridor connections for other moonbase modules to hook up to. When you go to a LEGO convention typically the larger models get most of the attention. Not good or bad, just the way it is. I wanted to make something large to take to shows that used the smallest amount of parts, so a geodesic dome sounded right. We've been promised a "dome how-to soon" - I'll let you know if I see it.

This post brought to you by the Brothers Brick

Sculpted Tugboat

Name of Model: Tugboat

Created by: pjotr

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=154348

Details: Most of us have gotten used to the idea of just using large ship pieces when we want to make a boat of LEGO parts, but this builder decided to go the old-fashioned route and use traditional LEGO bricks to build the ship's hull. The effect looks great for a ship of this size. A closer look reveals some details that involve other parts. Note the use of tires and string (presumably official LEGO string) on the sides of the boat. The rudder looks much the way the ones in official Pirates sets do (although this one does not appear to be connected to a steering wheel). The rails and flags look great here too. I love the use of bendy Space parts to make an upper railing outside of the cabin too. I have a feeling that the inside isn't furnished at all, but all the doors and windows and other such details on the outside look great. There's even a lifeboat ready to be lowered in case of emergency!

Video Game Controller

Name of Model: Lego: Video game

Created by: Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Chile Executive Creative Director: Cesar Agost Carreno Creative Directors: Sebastian Alvarado, Nicolas Lopez, Felipe Manalich Art Director: Sebastian Alvarado Copywriter: Felipe Manalich Illustrator: Ricardo Salamanca

Found at: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/lego_video_game

Details: I think this very-late-in-the-day Friday model is fairly self-explanatory. It's a nice sculpture, though, even if it is just for an ad campaign. Heck, you could put that in any modern art museum and easily convince millions that it's an ironic statement about the history of popular modern playthings.

Space Rover

Name of Model: rover (not entered in contest)

Created by: Aaron Sneary

Found at: http://flickr.com/photos/aaronsneary/524564329/

Details: It takes a minute for this model to soak in. The first thing you notice is the sculpted Martian background. Then that "vintage" minifig stands out. After that, you spot those amazing wheels. A brief description of how the wheels were done is at the link above. For those of you who haven't seen that new (newish anyway - it came out in 1996) part in the middle of the wheels, it's this piece on peeron. There are other nice details too - note that pneumatic "T" element on that engine block, and those antennas - but the wheels steal the show. This model appears to have been built to promote a new space rover contest at http://www.classic-space.com/ . As far as I can tell, it's open to anyone who wants to give it a go and signs up for that website's forum (which means that this looks like it's open to everyone over the age of 13 who is willing to post their real name on a LEGO fan site, but it looks like they might let kids in if you ask nicely :-) )

Microscale Crane

Name of Model: Tadano AR-2000M all terrain crane in clickbrick chitose original model contest 2007

Created by: shinyafujita

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=239276

Details: This beautiful microscale crane makes use of the top of a regular-size crane so that it can really work. The details on this one are really clever. You have to see it for yourself. Make sure to check out the vignette of this model in a construction scene as well. In this picture from the vignette, for example, you can see the use of poles and binoculars to support the underside of the crane.

Stephen Colbert Mosaic

Name of Model: Stephen Colbert Mosaic

Created by: laura m.

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nofactzone/531758769/ and http://www.nofactzone.net/?p=1641

Details: This is a beautiful studs-up mosaic that depicts comedian Stephen Colbert, who you may know from his stand-up work and his work on the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. There's some great stuff going on in this mosaic - note the red, white, and blue color scheme that symbolizes Colbert's character's extreme American patriotism, and take a close look at his hair and ear to see where bricks are sticking out to add more dimension to the picture. There's also some nice work with plates in there for a bit of a high-res effect in some spots, but hey, you've seen that sort of thing before. I don't know if any computer software was used to simplify this one, but in any case, this is impressive. UPDATE: The creator of this mosaic has stopped by to tell us a bit more about how this was done.

Robotics Monday: NXT Rubik's Cube Solver

Name of Model: Lego Rubik Utopy: NXT Rubik's cube solver

Created by: Daniele Benedettelli

Found at: http://daniele.benedettelli.com/LRU.htm

Details: I know I have previously featured a Rubik's Cube Solver, but this one improves on that idea quite a bit. The design of this robot is much simpler, much trendier (note the all-studless LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT base) and much more efficient at scanning and solving a Rubik's Cube. There was no cheating used here, either. This is just a beautiful design and a well-thought out algorithm. The write-up offered here is quite thorough and well-worth a read, so I'll just leave this post at that and let you read about it firsthand.

Ford GT40

Name of Model: Ford GT40

Created by: arvo

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=256810

Details: This is yet another amazing car made by the amazing Arvo. This time, he tackles Ford's GT40 - and it's another phenomenal success. The clever use of various slopes to get just the right shape works as well as always, and if I'm seeing this correctly, there's also a classy (but non-moving) rear engine on this. No write-up is available for this model yet, but if you've been following along here you should already know that Arvo is a sort of God when it comes to making cars. There may be a write-up (in Spanish, of course) at some point in the future, and I'll post it here if I find out about it.

This is Sunday's model of the day

Sean Kenney's Google Logo

Name of Model: Google Logo

Created by: Sean Kenney

Found at: http://www.seankenney.com/portfolio/google/

Details: When Sean Kenney was commissioned by Google to create a mosaic of the Google logo out of LEGO, he decided to do something a bit different with the idea to make a more whimsical display. Look closely at this one and make sure you scroll down - there are quite a few bizarre things going on here. Most obviously, the mosaic is made out of a variety of LEGO parts and not just standard bricks. Further than that, though, parts are used to create shadows that give the illusion of a more curved appearance. It's like the great impressionistic painters' technique - it looks like lots of little random bits up close, but it looks like a traditional painting from afar. Oh, and there's studs-not-on-top details and a few actual rare colors thrown in there too.

This is Saturday's model of the day.

Giant Pirate Ship's Mast

Found at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=458709&in_page_id=1811

Details: Since there is pitifully little written about today's model, I'm quoting the article I've found in its entirety: Visitors to a piratethemed [LEGOLAND Park display] in California at the weekend helped to construct the world's tallest tower of Lego bricks. The 94.3ft-high pirate ship mast was made with 465,000 bricks, breaking a previous record of 93.43ft set in Denmark last year. A "treasure" made of gold, yellow and clear Lego bricks was placed on top by Legoland pirates. UPDATE:Someone involved with the event has blogged about it.

This is Friday's model of the day.

Apologies

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This blog will be on hiatus through Monday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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