When our workers first dragged this creation from Adam Dodge into our office, we thought that it was just another smushed Elf. Then we realised that it was a fantastic mash-up of Star Wars and a monster theme. Adam has built this version of the 6206 TIE Interceptor, called “Blinky”, for a “Monster Mash” contest at his Lego User Group. We wish him good luck with the judges and have great pleasure in presenting this blast from the past.
It’s a cheap day at The Lego Car Blog editorial offices. Smarties are made in neither black nor white colours and so we were unable to reward the Elf who brought in RGB900‘s Police Off-Roader. This stylish, futuristic vehicle looks perfect for all terrains and riot control too. It’s one of a series of 5-wide trucks from this Taiwanese builder. We found a rather nice fire engine in RGB900’s Flickr Photostream, so it’s a red Smartie for us!
This year’s Febrovery kicks off with a vehicle from Shannon Sproule that harks back to the days of Victorian motoring, mixed with NASA and Classic Space aesthetics. What do you mean, “It’s still Ma.Ktober?”. We’ve got a chicken transporter, complete with its own wattle, by Angus McLane to post too. One of these days The Lego Car Blog staff will finally understand sci-fi…
Normal service will now be resumed.
The darkening skies outside The Lego Car Blog’s skyscraper can mean only one of two things. 1) The Elves have opened an apocalyptic portal to Hades again or 2) it’s autumn and time to brace ourselves for various sci-fi themed building months. The TLCB editorial staff are renowned for our lack of comprehension of sci-fi. We would actually be more comfortable facing a hellish hoard, armed only with Mr. Airhorn (our Elvish research team is pretty hellish and we deal with them on a daily basis). However, we have a duty to our readers to bring you the best of what internet Lego has to offer. So we’re girding our loins and proudly present our SHIPtember 2015 Review. SHIPs tend to be long and pointy, but we thought that we’d focus on some of the more unusual SHIPs from this year’s Flickr thread.
At the top of this post is Pico van Grootveld’s massive EVE online custom Scorpion battleship. Coming in at 130 studs long by 120 wide and 70 tall, this SHIP is a real departure from the typical long & thin configuration. Click the link to see more photos of this monster, include one of Pico attempting to “swoosh” all 22lbs of it. Also going wide was Matt Bace with his Klingon D5 Deuterium Tanker. It’s unusual for us to feature a virtual build but the quality of the details on this SHIP, especially its wings, warrants its inclusion. From reading conversations on Flickr and MOCpages, Matt has also thought carefully about making his Klingon ship structurally sound, which can be lacking in some LDD models and Klingon starships too.
Bob Hayes went down the retro route with a SHIP right out of Dan Dare and covered in studs. Patrol Ship 014 comes complete with a crew of six minifigures, a cargo bay and one of the smoothest hulls in SHIPtember (Bob says that he thinks of studs as smooth, a bit like Nick Barrett does).
Looking like Blacktron’s version of Blake’s 7’s Liberator from Hell, Josh Derksen’s “Demon’s Maw” is an impressive piece of design and engineering. This SHIP is approximately 112 Studs long and 50 studs in diameter and contains two Power Functions XL motors, plus a load of lights from Brickstuff. It’s worth clicking this link to see the working star drive and appreciate the scale of this build.
Possibly the most graceful SHIP in this year’s collection was Michael Steindl’s “Mikajo”. Michael used brick-bending type techniques to create the compound curves of his SHIP’s wing in just three days. This was a real contrast to his other SHIPtember build, a huge, thuggish Blacktron Missile Boat.
Lastly, TLCB regular F@bz, came up with this eye-catching use for all of those brick separators that accumulate at the back of your Lego collection. His Juuken Spaceship was built in a day a features 36 of the orange tools.
We thought that we’d finish this post with a contrast to the SHIPs with their thousands of bricks. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again on this blog: it’s not how many bricks you use but how you chose to use them that counts. Featured below is Simply Bricking It’s “Shiptober”.
The Lego Car Blog is often a loud and noisy place to work in, largely thanks to our Elfish workforce. It was therefore with some trepidation that we exited the executive express lift this morning and found the office in total, complete, peaceful silence. Rounding the corner of the reception area, we came across the sight of 3,284 Elves staring up in rapture at a strange glowing object, hovering above them. What was this strange apparition?
It turned out to be Alysa Kirkpatrick’s wonderfully original contribution to this year’s SHIPtember building month. Coming in at over 100 studs length in all direction, weighing over 17 pounds and comprised of over 20,000 parts, this has to be a SHIP in anybody’s book. Click this link to see Alysa’s WIP photos, which give an even better idea of the impressive scale of this build.
The calm in our office didn’t last for long and soon scuffles broke out over who had found the model and how many Smarties bonus such a giant creation was worth. Mr. Airhorn soon dispatched our fractious workers back into the internet, questing for more SHIPs for our SHIPtember summary, which we hope to publish soon.
The Elves love finding models of Mercedes-Benz’s ubiquitous Unimog. Firstly, the models are usually packed with working features. Damian Z.’s has a very nice Hiab crane mounted behind its cab. Secondly, the models are often built in orange, meaning that the lucky finder is rewarded with an orange Smartie, which are the best sort. Click on this link to Damian’s album on Flickr to see more details, including the neatly attached air intake pipe.
This buggy has been built by Chris Perron. It seems to have been built for the Lavtron faction of Lego space explorers, whose name instantly had our Elvish workforce giggling and snickering. The Elves have a very low sense of taste and humour. What appealed to us was its curved bodywork, with studs at a 45 degree angle, which also looked robust and strong. At the back are some nicely subtle stripes, a chunky engine and some serious weaponry. Click this link to Flickr to see more.
This particular tumbler isn’t the Dark Knight’s latest set of wheels, it’s the work of Vimal “vlmn8r” Patel and Peter “Mahj” Kreuger. The “Bugroll” zooms along and then performs an acrobatic front flip. Mahj has a history of building cars that move in unusual ways and we featured his “Cadmium” lowrider earlier this year. Once you’ve watched the YouTube video below, click on this link to Mahj’s Flickr Photostream to see the details of how the car works.
Flickr’s David Hensel has created this rather nice rover, based on LEGO’s Mars Mission theme. It’s equipped with black, Technic tracks and some cleverly attached headlights. Another interesting feature is its curve of four windscreens and the protective bars on each side. These look to be very effective for fending off bouncing Martian rocks or marauding TLCB Elves. The Elves’ favourite feature was the massive keg of what David describes as, “Tangy Orange flavoured Spaceman-ale”, which reminded us of our favourite TV adverts from the 1990s. Click this link to David’s Flickr photostream to see his vehicle in close up.
Graphic designer, Pico van Grootveld is the design and editing brains behind a sci-fi collaboration called “Mining Frenzy“. We featured one the builds, Clayton Marchetti’s “Goliath” on our rather spacey Sunday. Pico’s contribution to the collaboration was a ship from his Tequilatron faction but he also built some other vehicles, which didn’t find space on the poster.
At the top of this post is his Magnaloader and below is the ‘Roidjumper Mech. Pour yourself a drink and then sit back and click this link to enjoy Pico’s work.
How did you spend your Bank Holiday Monday?
Here at The Lego Car Blog Towers, some of the Elves returned from the Flickr account of František Hajdekr, hoping to collect an orange Smartie (they’re the best sort). This MOC does feature a working, Technic, single-cylinder engine but it’s not a vehicle of any kind and so we were unable to blog it. No Smarties we awarded.
The enraged Elves then ran amok, demonstrating the Brush Cutter’s working features on their terrified colleagues. Eventually the miscreants were blasted into the Elf cage by Mr. Airhorn and disarmed. Fortunately, we discovered that you can glue Elves back together with Pritt Stick and so the editorial team spent our Bank Holiday gluing our workforce back together. Now that they’re all back in one piece*, the Elves are once more ready to scour the internet for the best vehicular Lego creations. That is until they’re eaten by a small dog or smushed by a Power Functions dumper truck…
*We had 3 right arms leftover and have put them in the filing cabinet as spares.
Ever since they discovered this build by Tyler Sky on Flickr, the Elves have been splashing around in the TLCB Executive Jacuzzi, making engine noises. Inspired by his wife’s present of mini-figs and seagulls, Tyler has built a super-fast Octan catamaran. We can tell it’s fast, thanks to the brilliant, brick-built rooster tail which he has created. Click on the links to see more details, including which of the twin pilots isn’t enjoying the ride.
Our Elves almost missed this charming creation from Galaktek, on Flickr. Unusually for a sci-fi build it isn’t covered in guns & missiles and our workforce has a proven penchant for such things. This delivery lorry could easily be from the near future of Lego’s “City” range and features some very neat “wheel” units. Click on this link to see how Galaktek made them.
