Details: This creation pays tribute to Lewis Carroll's classic poem with a brilliant MOC based on Tim Burton's Jabberwock. Not only does it capture the source material extremely well, it also uses fantastic parts usage and shaping to make a surprisingly complex MOC look sleek and whimsical. I highly suggest checking out the MOCpages page to fully appreciate the great design. This was made as part of a VirtuaLUG layout at Brickworld. It is also the most maxome creation I think I've ever seen.
Details: In a bit of a retro/deco-ish feel, this pair of Cafe Corner-standard buildings gives us something we don't see enough in this modular style. It's easy to get wrapped up in the time period that we see in the official sets, but these feel a bit more 1950's or 1960's. Many of the techniques used are what you'd expect (the cinema in particular seems to borrow a bit from set 10184 Town Plan), but there are some great surprises. Plates with rails give the diner a surprisingly convincing impression of texture. The mix of three different styles of mosaic-based lettering gives a realistic feel, breaking up the impression that you're looking at something whipped up based on one person's preferences - the combination of blocky letters for the "Galaxy" sign and curvy letters on the "Empire" sign is a brilliant touch.
Details: Using Technic and Power Functions parts (plus non-LEGO lens, lamp, and reels), this projector can display movies as seen in the clip here. Sadly, this clip seems to be it for first-hand documentation of this model. The rewind transmission feature shown is pretty nifty, but I think I speak for all Technic nerds when I say I want to know how the geneva mechanism was implemented here.
A brief note about this past week: between recovering from BrickMagic and the Blogger outage, we didn't stand a chance at actually getting posts up in time. In the interest of not staying behind, we'll be skipping that week and picking up again with today.
Details: At Klodsfest 2010, this minifig-scale recreation of the inn from the movie Nights in Rodanthe won fourth place in the "building" category. It's not hard to see why, with the amount of detail packed into it. The building itself has a surprising amount of texture (particularly for such a monochromatic structure), and the subtle landscaping is also top-notch.
Details: It feels a little strange to throw that "(Unofficial)" up there in this post's title. After all, it's already been announced that LEGO is doing an official line of Pirates of the Caribbean series, and LEGOLAND parks have featured characters (both officially licensed and otherwise) in miniland for years. It's surely only a matter of time before these Disney pirates wiggle their way in to the official LEGO miniland displays. The master model builders who create those for the company will have a hard time competing with the rendition of Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa pictured here. I suspect that they won't be allowed to use a Technic rubber band to properly define the edges of a hat. The angle work on the torsos is stunning and a bit unexpected - usually you see a few slopes used when that is tried, but here we see tiles and plates attached at odd angles. On Jack Sparrow, the space created by the angle leaves room for minifig hands to clip onto a plate-with-railing in front of them. We see similar clips used in a few other places - the Jack's hair and hands use variations on the same technique. The legs on both figures look great, but use the same sort of non-production parts that are occasionally special-made for the LEGOLAND Model shops (existing parts, but in colors you can't find in a set). On second thought, are we sure that this guy DOESN'T work for the company?
Details: It's a real shame that LEGO has been phasing out chrome-colored elements recently. Sure, the process of manufacturing those parts is expensive, but the effect is fantastic. Just a few short years ago, you could get the UCS Naboo Starfighter, which came with tons of chrome silver elements - including the wings you see used so well here. The metallic silver color we see instead isn't all bad, but it just doesn't have that reflective sheen that you need when trying to build mirrors. This magic mirror (think Snow White) looks stunning.
Details: Disney's Mickey Mouse in fully articulated form might not seem like an easy thing to build - but this design came quickly after the builder realized that a round ball could easily be turned into Mickey's head. There are some great techniques here - the legs connect to the torso by use of Bionicle ball-and-socket joints (good thing that the Technic ball joint element is actually made in red!), the mouth is made from a flower, and the thumbs are made from signal paddles. It helps that Mickey is one of the few characters with wiry enough limbs that the tentacle-like click hinge elements actually suit him well. Perhaps the best detail, though, is the rather mundane use of two tan 2x2 round plates near the top of his head - they perfectly capture the iconic "windows' peak" look of Mickey's face.
Details: As seen in Zwolle recently, there is a new LEGO Mindstorms NXT-based version of Wall-E. This version tries to be strictly purist and true to the NXT system - not only does this not use any third-party robotics components, but this doesn't even use Power Functions motors (unlike the first great Wall-E we covered)! 8 NXT motors and 3 NXT programmable bricks were crammed in here to get this realistic and surprisingly expressive range of motion. While it doesn't transform, it seems to have every other Wall-E behavior down. Color sensors were even used to allow his eyes to light up in different colors. Don't miss the second link above, which has some photos of the internal mechanisms.
Details: It appears that someone has discovered an awesome new monowheel technique that makes use of those obnoxious tread pieces some of us have too many of. To top it off, he then built this droid/mech inspired by a similar servant droid character in the second Star Wars prequel. The result is surprisingly charming and well-balanced.
Details: Remember those scenes in Wall-E when the robotic protagonist adorably "transformed" into a little box? They've now been captured in LEGO form. How, exactly, the 3 NXT motor outputs were multiplexed into 5 9V motors, I don't know, but I think we can agree that the final effect is fantastic. One motor for each set of treads drives Wall-E around, while the other motors handle the head and arms. The process for folding the treads underneath is particularly great - three worm gears in series drive a system that actually changes the placement of the sprockets for the treads on the way underneath. Making that process one smooth mechanism is no small feat, but it works very well and adds a surprising amount of realism to this Wall-E. What makes this trickery with the tracks so realistic is that cutting-edge rescue robots that need to travel over rubble today. Being able to move the treads closer together like this allows a robot to turn around in a smaller amount of space - making it easier to navigate unpredictable terrain.
Figures that I can't find a good link to a non-LEGO robot that does that uses just two sets of treads and changes its steering geometry now, doesn't it?
Details: Since Star Wars builders tend to re-build the same scenes and vehicles over and over again with different scales, colors, and techniques, we don't tend to feature them too often here. If you're not that excited about Star Wars, there's really only so many times you can get excited at seeing yet another model based on the same source material. However, today I'm directing you towards a round-up someone has compiled of top-notch recreations of TIE Fighters. They're all great, even though they cover two different types of Star Wars ship and a variety of scales.
Details: The latest Transformers movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, has inspired a fresh round of builders attempting to create LEGO versions of the Transformers characters that actually transform. This one is modeled after Bumblebee, a yellow Camaro that befriends the main character in the first movie. Additional photos and video at the site above.
Details: Let's face it - it's an incredibly difficult to build a true MOC (My Own Creation) in the Star Wars theme. Everything tends to be a minor modification to make things "more like the real one" even though the "real one" is part of a fictitious movie universe. To the extent that we see "civilian" characters in a Star Wars set-up, it's because the diorama that shows off the realistic true-to-the-movie vehicles, creatures, and other elements is so large and full of landscaping that it needs filler. Many an impressive Star Wars themed diorama is actually just a display setting for sets (not that there's anything wrong with your giant layout of Hoth or Endor - but you could certainly put those snow and forest building skills to more creative uses). What we have here today, though, is that rare model that exists in the Star Wars universe but doesn't try to tether itself to a specific movie/comic/video game idea or claim to merely be "inspired by" something. This is a nice-looking landspeeder in a rare color showing off some original greeble-work. Sure, at some level it's similar to the Luke's Landspeeder kit. It's not Luke's, or any other major characters', though - it's somebody else's. It's not easy to try to parallel a kit but still come up with a unique creation (using whatever parts you have on hand in a rare color makes it even more of a challenge), but this model succeeds on that front.
Normally, I'd delve into techniques here a bit, but this model's actually not a difficult build (again, if you actually have the parts). Well-placed jumper plates, 1x4-1x2 brackets, and 1x1 bricks with Technic holes are really all it took. In spite of all the time I spend talking about crazy techniques, sometimes a model can turn out well even if it is fairly simple to construct.
Details: This is a very small (just 5 studs wide) version of the Delorean from the Back to the Future movies. It's a little out of scale for the minifigure in the photo (I'm afraid there's only the one image for this one - but you can make it bigger!), but still an excellent rendition. Notable techniques include string for wheel wells, elastics for the trim near the ground, levers and nozzle/gun elements for window edges, and a ridiculous amount of studs-not-on-top stunts. At this scale, it's even possible to use sideways "cheese grater" 1x2 slopes as seats!
Details: One impressive but seldom attempted appropriately topic to try building is Transformers. See, before "Transformers" became a big movie franchise, they used to actually be cool toys that had to conform to the laws of physics when they transformed. Sure, they weren't actually functional as vehicles, but they looked great as mecha and as vehicles, and they could transform without anything needing to be added or removed. As LEGO hinges, Bionicle joints, and tiles become easier to find, we're seeing more and more people give building transforming models a shot. The builder we're featuring today has created a series of original creations and established characters that are simply excellent.
Details: This model has been blogged everywhere. But I can't resist the chance to feature it here. I just can't get over how awesome this whole scene is. Now I want to take a "Trip to the Moon" ("Le Voyage dans la lune," in French.)
I'm too busy geeking out on the details - see, I'm one of the few other crazy people who've actually bought up that many 1x4 gear racks. I could build this! I just might, too...
Details: Another movie-based model (just a coincidence!) - this time a microscale version of the building from the X-Files. I know we've all seen nice microscale buildings before, but this is an interesting choice of source material, and I honestly can't recall ever seing a microscale building that can light up before. I'm not entirely sure if the lights used in the "at night" shots are done with LEGO lights or just ordinary lights, but either way, it's a great effect. Last time I featured a model by this builder, LED lights were used to illuminate a microscale ship - perhaps that's how it was done this time as well (it's mild cheating, but it's hard to argue with how well light-emitting diodes generally work). I'm also liking the way horizontal hinges were used to angle the walls here - I don't think I've ever seen that pulled off at this scale before.
For extra fun, a few interior shots of the building and characters were done at minifig scale (those pictures are in the same flickr set).
EDIT: Once again, we have an update from the builder (three for three this week!):
Hi. I built this and for the record I used LED's instead of the lego lights. I chose them because it was easier to fit them into the building, are brighter and tend to last longer.
The building is meant to be the FBI building, its name being the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Mulder's office was in the FBI building as far as I could tell. When his office caught fire in one episode alarms could be heard from Skinner's office so I assumed it was inside, even if it was in the basement.
The building does have an open courtyard. Thanks to Google Maps for that one.
Details: This brilliant LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robot actually talks! It says lines from the Terminator movies. I believe that that would make it a robot from the future, and we should go with it if we want to live. There are videos, photos and quite a bit of docmentation at the site above. I'm not sure how many NXT units or motors were used to do this, but the amount of motion this head has is impressive. It's not easy to get all those angles in, either - making something like this sturdy is definitely a feat for Technic builders. Most surprising, though, is that the sound files played by the NXT programmable brick (bricks?) were recorded and programmed at the syllable level - this isn't just a simple playback of movie clips, we're actually hearing the NXT string the sound files together to simulate speech. Another neat trick - the light used are not the ones from the Educational Edition of the NXT kit - it's actually the light brick from the 4998 Stegosaurus kit.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Terminator movie franchise (they are rated R, after all), the movies are action/sci-fi flicks about a man who invents a network of robots - and the robots that travel through time to try to control him as a kid (before he builds his inventions).
Details: This creation pays tribute to Lewis Carroll's
classic poem with a brilliant MOC based on Tim Burton's Jabberwock. Not only does it capture the source material extremely well, it also uses fantastic parts usage and shaping to make a surprisingly complex MOC look sleek and whimsical. I highly suggest checking out the MOCpages page to fully appreciate the great design. This was made as part of a VirtuaLUG layout at Brickworld. It is also the most maxome creation I think I've ever seen. 
won fourth place in the "building" category. It's not hard to see why, with the amount of detail packed into it. The building itself has a surprising amount of texture (particularly for such a monochromatic structure), and the subtle landscaping is also top-notch. 
) looks stunning.
in fully articulated form might not seem like an easy thing to build - but this design came quickly after the builder realized that a round ball could easily be turned into Mickey's head. There are some great techniques here - the legs connect to the torso by use of Bionicle ball-and-socket joints (good thing that the Technic ball joint element is actually made in red!), the mouth is made from a flower, and the thumbs are made from 
when the robotic protagonist adorably "transformed" into a little box? They've now been captured in LEGO form. How, exactly, the 3 NXT motor outputs were multiplexed into 5 9V motors, I don't know, but I think we can agree that the final effect is fantastic. One motor for each set of treads drives Wall-E around, while the other motors handle the head and arms. The process for folding the treads underneath is particularly great - three worm gears in series drive a system that actually changes the placement of the sprockets for the treads on the way underneath. Making that process one smooth mechanism is no small feat, but it works very well and adds a surprising amount of realism to this Wall-E. What makes this trickery with the tracks so realistic is that cutting-edge rescue robots that need to travel over rubble today. Being able to move the treads closer together like this allows a robot to turn around in a smaller amount of space - making it easier to navigate unpredictable terrain.
, has inspired a fresh round of builders attempting to create LEGO versions of the Transformers characters that actually transform. This one is modeled after Bumblebee, a yellow Camaro that befriends the main character in the first movie. Additional photos and video at the site above. 
kit. It's not Luke's, or any other major characters', though - it's somebody else's. It's not easy to try to parallel a kit but still come up with a unique creation (using whatever parts you have on hand in a rare color makes it even more of a challenge), but this model succeeds on that front.
movies. It's a little out of scale for the minifigure in the photo (I'm afraid there's only the one image for this one - but you can make it 
. I know we've all seen nice microscale buildings before, but this is an interesting choice of source material, and I honestly can't recall ever seing a microscale building that can light up before. I'm not entirely sure if the lights used in the "at night" shots are done with LEGO lights or just ordinary lights, but either way, it's a great effect. 
robot actually talks! It says lines from the 
. 
