If the Michael Bay ‘Transformers’ movies were directed by the people that make ‘Bob the Builder’, the result might look a little something like this.
Replacing angry alien robots with, er… cute alien robots, Angus MacLane has optimised the adorability of the leader of the Autobots, and there’s more to see of his charming ‘Sub-Optimus Prime’ transforming truck on Flickr.
Click the link above for the cutest robot in disguise you’ll see today.
Chibiformers. Another weird internet-based trend of which we know absolutely nothing. Still, despite our ineptitude when it comes to any nerdy fad, we do rather like these two neat ‘Chibi’ Transformers from TLCB debutant Hoyin Lau. Each model cleverly transforms between truck and robot mode, and there’s more to see of each build in both modes at Hoyin’s photostream via the link in the text above.
*Yes, we’re still at the musical puns for blog post titles. This one was a bit of a stretch…
What if Optimus Prime was really, really cute. We’ll he’d look bit something like this, Sam C.‘s diddy ‘Chibi-Prime’. Sam’s tiny Transformer really transforms too, and he joins a few other Chibi-Formers at Sam’s photostream. Click the link above to take a peek.
Both we and the Elves are big fans of the Unimog, here at TLCB Towers. We’ve blogged various shapes and sizes of Mercedes’ classic 4×4 utility vehicle over the years. Small, Technic, official and cute have all featured here, to name but a few. We also all know that orange Smarties are the best.
You can therefore imagine the excitement throughout the executive editorial penthouse when a hoard of frantic Elves rolled in with their latest discovery. There were celebrations! There was joy! There was pandemonium! There was chaos! There was the first ever deployment of our Judge Dredd style riot foam. Happily this meant that we got to eat all of the orange Smarties whilst we freed our immobilised workforce.
Click this link to Flickr to see more of this, and other excellent vehicles in the series, on Gene 3S’s Photostream.
Neither Brains nor Lady Penelope but the United States’ Airforce aerobatic display team feature in this model from Jme Wheeler. Whilst other militaries use lightweight trainer aircraft to equip their teams, the USAF and the US Navy have traditionally used front-line fighters. At one point, both teams displayed using the large, heavy McDonnel Douglas Phantom II, a machine not exactly noted for its manoeuvrability.
This model is neatly chibi version of the current mount of the Thunderbirds: the Lockheed-Martin F-16. Jme Wheeler has captured the shape of the Viper in compact form, including its chines. He’s made a good choice in the big, bubble canopy that has allowed him to squeeze a minifigure into the cockpit too. It’s all topped off with a suitably abbreviated version of the Thunderbirds’ distinctive markings. Sadly, a group of Elves has got hold of the model and are busily trying to fly it across the TLCB offices by launching it from a high shelf. To get a view of the ‘plane when it was still in one piece, click this link to Flickr, where you can see more of Jme Wheeler’s Lego cars and ‘planes.
Like Ma.K, here at TLCB towers we’re a bit unsure about what exactly “chibi” is. Wikipedia defines it as a Japanese slang word for a short person or a small child. It goes on to say that the word has been conflated with the “super deformed” style of anime characters, so it sounds worrying similar to The Lego Car Blog Elves. The Brothers Brick have no such worries and have launched a competition for “chibi” builds, which is generating some excellent, small vehicles.
Rob Gillies is the creator of the first two builds featured in this post. He has created a nicely balanced pair of MOCs, with a man who is afraid of flying* in one and a flying car in the other. The Elves particularly liked the combination of flippers and a snowshoe for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s front wing.
Next up are two builds from the builder known as P. Andrei, on MOCpages and Vitreolum on Flickr. He has recreated Jim Carrey’s “Mutt Cutts” van in shiny Lego, with some NPU for the tongue and the second flying car of this blog post, the “Spinner” from Blade Runner.
You can see more “chibi” creations by clicking this link to the competition’s Flickr group.
*”I ain’t going to no airport fool“, the TLCB Mr. T sat nav voice is useless for going on holiday.