Tag Archives: Microscale

Boring in Space

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Amazon just sent Katy Perry to the edge of space to promote her new album or something. Which shows we’re pretty close to space travel becoming as banal as flying to Bakersfield for a business conference.

Of course we know why Amazon sent Katy Perry into space; because it takes it one step closer to plundering its riches. Space’s, not Katy Perry’s. And riches there are, even on the lumps of rock hurtling around our planet, which are filled with rare earth metals including gold and platinum worth literal quadrillions.

Cue the ‘I.E.A Andromeda’, an enormous asteroid mining rig built to bore into the rocks of space in order to extract their valuable innards, built by Chris Malloy, and photographed in spectacular detail.

An astonishing feat of brick-built engineering, LEGO’s red rollercoaster track, giant gas-filled orbs, microscale spaceships, communication equipment, and a whole lot of rock all feature, with over thirty incredible images taken to capture the complete model.

A goldmine of photos is available to view at Chris’s ‘I.E.A Andromeda’ album, and you can join Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend, a morning TV host, and Katy Perry promoting her new music in space via the link above.

Botlek Bricks

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We like bridges here at The Lego Car Blog, because… well, we’re a bit tragic. But tough – we’re the ones writing this nonsense, so now you have to like them too.

This is the Botlek Bridge, a vertical lifting bridge over the Oude Maas in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with two spans each as large as a football field. Which it needs to allow Rotterdam’s enormous cargo ships to pass beneath it.

This brick-built microscale replica of the Botlek Bridge – complete with enormous cargo ship – comes from Flickr’s Bas van Houwelingen, and demonstrates the vertical lift mechanism in action. Previously on display at both LEGOLAND Billund and The LEGO House, you can now check it out at Bas’s photostream. Click the link above to sail underneath it.

Micro MAZ

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Here at The Lego Car Blog we love enormous, many-motored machines. Because we’re six. But there’s joy to be found in the small things too, as proven today by Nathan Hake and this wonderful micro-scale MAZ-537. Constructed crossing an autumnal bridge, Nathan’s miniature MAZ is a tiny tribute to his own enormous, many-motored version built for a Lego show that appeared here a few months ago. There’s more of Nathan’s mini-MAZ to see via the link above, you can find the huge show-stopping version from which this diorama is derived here, and if you’d like to see more of the many MAZs to appear at TLCB to date you can click this bonus link to find them all.

Microscale Mech Mining

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It’s sometime in the future, where humankind have traversed the vast void of space, colonised  whole new worlds, and yet are still digging big holes in the ground to extract minerals. Sigh.

Interplanetary destruction aside, Duncan Lindbo‘s ‘Gila’ six-legged mobile mining mech does look rather neat though, and it comes to life too, thanks to a motorised bucket-wheel and LED lighting.

There’s more of this microscale mech to see at Duncan’s photostream, and you can lay waste to an alien eco-system via the link above.

Bang! Zoom!

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…Straight to the Moon! Or from the moon we suppose, as this marvellous lunar base is likely already on one. Flickr’s Chris Malloy is owner of this microscale marvel and you can head to his ‘Horizon Lunar Launch Base’ via the link above.

Space Swordfish

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Uh oh, Sci-fi. This TLCB Writer genuinely knows more about oceanic fish than he does science fiction. Helpfully however, this splendid spacecraft by Flickr’s Red Spacecat is apparently a ‘Swordfish’ class frigate…. wait, that doesn’t help at all.

Still, it is really rather fantastically constructed, with details including a landing-pad for micro-scale ships, an array of cannons, and the coolest brick-built stripe we’ve seen in ages. Head out to sea space via the link above.

She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain…

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It’s been a while without any cars here at The Lego ‘Car’ Blog, so today we’re on to trains. But we like trains. Particularly when they’re as beautifully built and presented as this one.

This huge diorama of a tiny train was constructed by builder Evancelt for the ‘2024 Rocky Mountain Train Show’ in Denver, and a more apt creation it’s hard to think of.

Travelling between two mountain tunnels by way of some cunningly concealed magnets that move under the tracks, Evancelt’s little steam train is a wonderful example of shrinking the scale to expand the detail.

From the micro-scale pick-up truck, fences and trees, to the galleon hidden in the cloud, there’s so much to see, and you can do just that at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where you can also find a video of the train in motion.

Click on the links above to take the tiniest little train journey.

It’s Not Size That Matters…

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…but what you do with it. And least that’s what this TLCB Writer tells himself. It’s a self-support mechanism that’s never been truer than with today’s post too, as we have two enormous-looking FebRovery rovers that are actually really rather small indeed.

The first deceptively-scaled creation comes from Oscar Cedarwall of Flickr, whose ‘Multi-Purpose Terrain Rover’ has gained an apparent massiveness thanks to a cleverly constructed landscape and the use of LEGO’s tiny one-stud figures. Top notch presentation and appropriately wide-angle photography maximise the illusion, and there’s more to see of Oscar’s optical trickery at his photostream.

Our second not-very-big-at-all creation is really very small indeed, utilising a body just one stud square and LEGO’s chain components, more commonly found on Technic motorcycles, for the tracks beneath it. Created by TLCB favourite David Roberts, the ‘Planetary Explorer’ is one of the tiniest FebRovery entries yet, and there’s more to see (although not that much more) at David’s photostream.

Click the links above to see how it really is ‘what you do with it’ that counts.

Some Like it Hoth

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A fallen AT-AT, T-47 Airspeeders overhead, and somewhere Luke Skywalker is making a sleeping bag out of a Tauntaun carcass. It’s the Battle of Hoth, a Star Wars fight between the Dark Side and Jedis or something, of which we know nothing besides what Wookiepedia told us.

Still, TLCB’s usual sci-fi incompetence aside, this micro-scale scene by Flickr’s Pasq67 is fantastic, and sure to excite fans of George Lucus’ overlong space saga. If you’re one of them you can take a look at all the details via Pasq67’s ‘Micro AT-AT’ album via think above. You nerd.

Tiny Tracks

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We’re often guilting of favouring enormous million-part creations here at TLCB. This is because we’re eight, and also because ‘subtlety’ isn’t really in the TLCB Elves’ vocabulary. To be fair to them though, very little is in their vocabulary. Anyway, today we are going small, because Thomas Gion has produced this lovely micro-scale railway vignette, complete with the tiniest trees, teeniest tracks, and littlest locomotive. All look wonderful despite their miniature size and there’s more to see (although not that much more) at Thomas’ photostream. Click the link above to go on a teeny tiny train ride.