A Clever Dragon

Name of Model: Dragon

Created by: takamichi irie (legomichiiiiii)

Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/legomichiiiiii/24578934281/

Details: takamichi irie (legomichiiiiii) recently built this awesome little dragon - it's short enough for a minifig to pet, but definitely fearsome enough to terrorize a microscale kingdom. The head may look a little familiar - it seems to take after an awesome build of Nessie that Sean and Steph Mayo built last year (which I probably should have blogged at the time), but that horns and binoculars technique still works very well. The torso really speaks to me - it's a brilliant use of the thick-pin skeleton torso, with a lightsaber hilt for the neck, four skeleton legs for the legs, and the gargoyle collectible minifigure wings as the dragon's wings. The wings don't look to be swooshable to me (minifig neck accessories tend to have looser connections), but that'd be easy enough to fix with a 1x1 round brick (that's how I'd do it, anyway, but it probably looks better the way it is). The head and tail demonstrate another technique - using clips in askew connections that are sturdy, but wouldn't be considered "legal" in an official set or LEGO Digital Designer. I think I spy a minifig hand holding that tail in place, with the end that normally connects to a minifig's arm crammed into the skeleton torso (another "illegal" but very useful connection). The builder recently started a blog in English and Japanese: http://blog.livedoor.jp/legomichiiiiii/

Oversized Rubber Band Holder

Name of Model: Nnenn: Never to be forgotten

Created by: jamesuniverse

Found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesuniverse/17013314661/

Details: The latest addition to the exciting world of scaled-up LEGO elements made out of standard LEGO elements is this incredible rendition of the classic rubber band holder, a much-derided "useless part" that was seemingly inescapable in sets for about a decade. This particular build is about 8 times the regular size of the part, and makes great use of the 4x4 macaroni element to portray the Technic pin holes in the part. I'm also enjoying the use of curved-top arches and 1x3 curved slopes to capture the curvature at the edges of the part. What elevated this part to a more beloved status was a joke by one LEGO fan about how "cool" LEGO pieces don't get named after builders who use them frequently anymore. Surely the LEGO fan community has been around too long and we'll never name a great piece after someone who used it well again. Nate "nnenn" Nielson figured that if a piece were named after him, it would be something like this rubber band holder (unfortunately, variations on this story have been told so many times in tribute to the man that it seems to no longer be possible to find his original quote in a quick search of the web). After Nnenn passed away, the decision to refer to this part as a "nnenn" was unanimous. The title and description offered on Flickr for this model make it clear that this was intended as a tribute to nnenn (the man, not the part). The definitive (and most detailed) current tribute can be found at The Brothers Brick.

HAK Utrine

Name of Model: HAK Utrine

Created by: gordangrguric

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49091484@N07/sets/72157624197803980/

Details: We first had a look at this model back at BrickMagic 2011 - where it easily won Best-in-Show. The unusual technique used makes the building mostly hollow. The walls are built with substantial sideways sections, allowing the model to more accurately reflect the look of the original. No detail was spared - door pulls and light fixtures are carefully recreated. Every 1x1 round plate in the roof garden is carefully arranged and attached in just the right place, and the inner atrium appears in perfect detail. Some careful BrickLink purchases got just the right colors and pieces to make every detail exact. Look closely at those doors on the top floor - fairly rare medium stone 6 x 6 tiles were used to ensure a clean, accurate, consistent look, unmarred by the more distinctive textures that 1 x 6 tiles or some combination of tiles would leave. Photos really don't capture all of the details of this model, but it's a masterpiece of architectural reproduction.

LUGNUTs' "For the Ladies" Roundup

Name of Model: New Ford Territory 2011

Created by: lego911 (Peter Blackert)

Roundup found at: http://lugnuts-cars.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-ladies-round-up.html

Details: The LUGNUTs have been at it again - this past month, they had a theme loosely based around the Valentine's day holiday. "For the Ladies" brought out the usual interesting and impressive mix of vehicles. My personal favorite is this 2011 Ford Territory, which I actually had to check to see that it was made out of LEGO bricks. The curves of this one are almost too believable, and it looks like the doors even really open. The actual offset techniques here are things we've seen before, but the application is spot-on and really sells this design.

LUGNUTs - By Random Appointment Roundup

Name of Model: 1937 Bugatti tipo Cinquantesette Atalante

Created by: r a p h y

Round up found at: http://lugnuts-cars.blogspot.com/2011/01/by-random-appointment-roundup.html

Details: For December's LUGNUTS challenge - "By Random Appointment" - members of this elite club of LEGO car builders randomly swapped assignments to build specific vehicles. While you can always count on LUGNUTS to collectively come up with some great designs, this particularly challenge required people to commit to participating before they were assigned a car to build - which brought out some different approaches than we've seen in the past. Case in point: the model I've pictured here, built by someone who generally builds in the 4-wide "Tiny Turbo" scale. That the jump to minifig scale worked at all is impressive, but this is actually a classy-looking 1937 Bugatti that'd fit well in any minifig-scale town. Elsewhere, we can see some more welcome improvements in the variety of models showcased - while "Model Team" style models are common in the group, it looks like Technic builders are finally starting to make serious inroads into LUGNUTS. You should, of course, check out all the models you can from the links above.

Large Light Yellow Katrina Cottage

Name of Model: Katrina Cottage-inspired Wisconsin Home

Created by: SoftaRae .

Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/244127

Details: I'm actually breaking my "no WIPs (works in progress)" rule with this one, but since this model is substantially done and already incredibly impressive, I think it's justified. The only things left to do are adding furniture and patching up the roof. Inspired by a Katrina Cottage design originally by Marianne Cusato, this light yellow (!) house adds a basement, fireplace, and loft to round it out to more of a full-size family home - specifically of the sort you might find in Wisconsin. The faithful-to-the-original architectural detailing and spectacular use of that rare color would have been enough to impress me, but there are also some fantastic interior details: floors covered in tiles (with a different pattern in each room to capture different textures), a largely furnished kitchen and bathroom, staircases, and the insides of the windows.

Elves Making Toys

Name of Model: Two Lego Elves

Created by: Carlmerriam

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39069854@N07/sets/72157625405179248/with/5182766967/

Details: We would have posted these earlier if we were more on top of things, but I was only informed at the last minute that there was a merry-making holiday coming up (and then got caught up in some merry-making of my own). First up is this pair of toy-making elves, which I believe to be actual size. The toys being made on the table are figures in various scales - you may recognize the miniland-scale Bender from Futurama as one of the characters, in the elf's hand at the moment is an R2-D2 minifigure). These have been part of a River Park "Photos with Santa" booth next to a Macy's in Fresno, California, USA since Black Friday (No word on how long this will remain open to the public, but I understand there are other models in the display as well).

Andy's Room From the Toy Story Movies

Name of Model: Andy's Room

Created by: Pepa Quin

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepa_quin/sets/72157625451218566/

Details: Once again, time for the "obligatory cool thing everyone is talking about" - sorry if you've already seen it. This time, it's an enormous diorama of Andy's room from the Toy Story movies. The full view is shocking, although it takes a minute to get a grasp on the sheer size of this thing. The room is large enough that the minifigs of the toys are roughly in scale to be the size of Andy's toys in the movies. Normally I'd go through a bunch of interesting techniques in the model, but in this case a few of them are a bit fiddly and not something to recommend trying. The bed, for example, has several elements that are only attached in one place and aren't sturdy - the top of the footboard and headboard are both only attached to the center pole of each. Using the printed LEGO Nintendo DS cover mosaics as posters was an inspired choice, and the brick-built mosaic on the bedspread is a great touch. Most of the furniture looks pretty great, and the shelves of other toys really sell the scene - the full set of 30 photos is well worth a look.

This is Friday's model of the day.

Another Tower Bridge

Created by employees of the LEGO company, rediscovered by 62 Bricks

Found at: http://62bricks.com/lego-revisits-the-tower-bridge/

Details: Long before LEGO announced the official Tower Bridge kit, they'd actually already designed a LEGO version of the tower bridge that could be built by anyone. Featured in an idea book in 1964, this actually pre-dates the LEGOLAND parks (which feature landmarks in a "miniland" scale, compared to the microscale of this design or the current kit). Sure, the color palette wasn't as broad in 1964, but the old design is larger and is surprisingly convincing considering that it only uses basic parts.

This is Friday's moment of the day

War Has Come: A Study in Forced Perspective

Name of Model: War has come!

Created by: Skalldyr / Valentin

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skalldyr/sets/72157625182392624/with/5089208359/

Details: We've seen microscale and "nnenn scale" before, but I don't think I've seen the two combined for forced perspective like this before. The Greco-Roman architecture comes off perfectly - and as a new technique, we get to see a fire ladder used to make columns for the building in the distance. A large fire coming out of temple in the back is another nice touch. The landscaping makes use of a decent variety of plants - note the way the leaf elements are interlocked.

Snoopy and Woodstock

Name of Model: Snoop

Created by: "BrickLove" Martijn van Bachum

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bricklove/4999865554/

Details: I'm not sure quite how to describe this scale (it's definitely larger than minifig scale), but this Snoopy (from PEANUTS) is adorable. As some of the flickr commenters pointed out, the part selection could have been better - but that's besides the point, since this is part of the builder's attempt to build and photograph a new small model every day. It's hard enough just to write about a different model every day, never mind building and photographing a fresh one! In an apparent effort to completely show me up, the builder also pointed out three earlier Snoopy LEGO models for comparison's sake.

Large Strawberry Sculpture

Name of Model: Fruit

Created by: aresze

Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=445423

Details: There aren't enough fruit sculptures in the world. Particularly of the giant variety. While I'm always a fan of small-ish sculptures, this one kicks it up a notch by being both small and super-sized - and then, for extra whimsy, the builder throws in a chef minifig attempting to put this giant berry on a plate.

This is Friday's model of the day

An Open Book

Name of Model: blank pages

Created by: blinq

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blinq/4637102226/

Details: Here is a very simple and elegant design. While I'm not sure this scale is particularly useful, it's a surprisingly recognizable book. Built on a 4x6 plate, and using two of the Slope, Curved 2 x 4 x 2/3 No Studs piece for the middle of the pages, this entire model uses only 8 pieces. Since this is apparently "LEGO book" day here at LMOTD, we'll all be trying to build a few of these.

Up-sized 2 x2 Brick and Other Elements

Name of Model: Just some old tablescraps.

Created by: bradkwiatek (Brad Kwiatek)

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradslegoroom/4897792377/

Details: These LEGO pieces are scaled up by a factor of three (3). The scaling isn't quite perfect (which isn't a slight against the builder - mathematically you just can't do this scale precisely enough on these elements without cutting LEGO pieces), but the parts still clearly look like their regular-sized counterparts. The use of curves near the top of the 1x3 slopes work surprisingly well. I don't believe these stack, but for obvious reasons that feature is difficult to work in when trying to build some of these elements at a larger scale.

Miami Children's Hospital

Name of Model: GFLUG '08: MCH LEGO Project

Created by: mhuffman with a few other GFLUG members.

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwhuffman/2231304721/in/set-72157603826473961/

Details: Back in 2008, the Miami Children's Hospital contracted a few members of the Greater Florida LEGO Users Group to build them a LEGO version of the hospital. Coming in at about half of minifig scale, it's both tiny and sprawling. Techniques to note: bamboo leaves used as palm trees and 2x2 tiles hung diagonally on the side of the building.

Ancient Lady's Museum: Dwarfing the Cafe Corner

Name of Model: Ancient Lady's Museum

Created by: marcosbessa

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45092539@N02/sets/72157624545840324/with/4812544383/ & the same photos can also be found on Brickshelf: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=438981

Details: Premiered at this year's Arte em Peças event, this gorgeous show-stopper is actually in scale with the Cafe Corner and ready for minifigures. It's not truly to the Cafe Corner standard, though, since the back is wide open. Of course, if the back wasn't open, we wouldn't be able to see the fantastic interior work. Highlights include leathery couches, mosaic floor patterns, a pair of grand spiral staircases, a variety of minifigures on display, detailed curtains built upside-down (in dark red!), and ornate window decorations on the outside. You'll need to use the "View All Sizes" feature on flickr to zoom in and see the original photo size in order to see some of the details. You can also see a set of Work-In-Progress (WIP) photos of this model on flickr. One of the highlights is a look inside the column technique. Additionally, the builder is now selling instructions for LEGO Digital Designer for another model I've featured from him:

This is Saturday's model of the day

TIE Fighter Round-Up

Names of Models: TIE Bomber and TIE Advanced

Created by various builders, credited at the links above.

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejudeabides/sets/72157624324044237/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejudeabides/sets/72157624315403307/

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. Photo used above is of a UCS-Scale TIE Advanced by Walter Kovacs.

Robotics Monday: Monster Chess

Name of Model: MONSTER CHESS

Created by a team of Mindstorms experts (full list at the link above)

Found at: http://www.teamhassenplug.org/monsterchess/ and a few additional details are at http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2010/06/monster-chess.html

Details: It's a bit hard to grasp the scale of this enormous chess set. Each piece is actually a large Mindstorms NXT robot. The base of each one is fairly standard, but the top of each one actually looks like a particular chess piece - some of them are even animated (note the kicking front legs on the knights). The 38 NXT programmable bricks here are controlled by a laptop through Bluetooth - which requires that the laptop is constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to the "brains" in each chess piece. A project of this scope is beyond the reach of most NXT fans, but since a few of the builders involved with this project have worked with the LEGO company before as part of MCP, MDP, and the BrickWorld staff (according to their bios on the BrickWorld site), I'm guessing that the cost of this (roughly $30,000 retail) was partially subsidized by the LEGO company. This is fully functional as a chessboard - you can play against the computer, play against another human player, watch the computer play against itself, or watch the chess robots act out a saved game. To see this in motion, you have to check out the two videos of this game in action at the site above. Alternatively, you could go to BrickWorld this upcoming weekend to see this in person when these robots make their LEGO convention debut.

From the Cockpit of a Plane...

Name of Model: Furball Bullseye 190, 31

Created by: -Mainman-

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mainman/4653947426/

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).

Treats from Miniland at LEGOLAND California

Highlights from Miniland at LEGOLAND California

Created by various LEGO Master Builders, photographed by Bill D700

Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/billd700/sets/72157623906072989/

Details: We interrupt your regular model-specific blogging for this delicious serving of miniland goodness. Miniland is the name for the special scale and style used for the miniature scenes at LEGOLAND parks. The larger, more consistent scale makes it possible to build people as carefully posed characters with a wide variety of motions instead of just the ones that minifigures can achieve. Buildings become more parts-intensive (a non-issue for the LEGO employees who build these models), but can be far more detailed than buildings recreated at minifig scale. These 45 photos from LEGOLAND California are mostly detail shots (which we apparently cannot zoom in on) of some of the interesting scenes in miniland.