Republic Gunship by Mike, post by Mike.

Mike (mikepsiaki) brings us the coolest ship from the Prequels. A beautifully renditioned Republic Gunship. Features include rotating missile rack, ball turrets made from scratch, and opening side and aft doors.

The Town of Sproket, and some other Steampunk Minifigs

Mark Stafford (Nabii on brickshelf) made a very awesome Steampunk Diorama (which includes that bot that Jacob blogged). While some details I absolutely love (The Tavern, This Mech), I feel like the nicely tiled ground could use some more detail and the scene could have had a bit more movement in it. Take a gander yourself.

The now-famous Morgan19 (Jamie Spencer) first gained attention for his steampunk models for their custom-painted gold parts (and amazing construction!). He takes that customization skill and brings it to a minifig level with a little brickshelf gallery.

Star Justice and Space Skulls Reviews!

As most of you spacers out there probably know by now, the Star Justice and Space Skulls sets by Chris Giddens and Mark Sandlin are planned to arrive on our shelves fairly soon. Courtesy of Ryan Wood and Paul Kanter, here are links to the reviews on Eurobricks! Things look positive, but was there ever any doubt?

[Space Skulls]
[Star Justice]

Lime Green is Mah Fav-o-rite.

Dear nnenn. You are awesome. That is all.

I love three things about this MOC.
1: Check out the angles that are worked in. Even using such a standard layout, he's managed to add visual interest to the ship. : Which brings us to to 2: Color. Lime green is great, but the white and red hold attention after the base color attracts it.
3: the detail. The fighter is typically the smallest thing an AFOL will build, and going micro (nnenn-scale) is making it more challenging. Nnenn rises to the occasion with the details he's put in on the engines and wings. Stellar work, to be sure.

Variations are a Good Thing.

It's one thing for a builder to come up with a great model but building a variant really shows a mastery of the concept. In fact, it's a valuable excercise that I found quite very useful. You should try it, too. Nick Dean brings us an ambulance:



So, choose a model that you've built, and vary it. The fact that you've already built the base version of it means that you can have more fun being creative.

This, That, and the Other Thing.

Apparently, the shape of a bull moose's palmate antlers contributes to it's incredible sense of hearing. Okay, let's go!




Mark Strafford's Sprocket Guard Clockbot instills both wonder and fear in me. Maybe it's those eyes, or the functional cannons, but I just can't imagine that these guys would have a hard time going haywire and shooting up the palace. Look at the parts usage here- the tap detail on the back is especially cool.

Brickshelfer Jasperitis, progenitor of more than a few military vehicles, has discovered my suspension study. He's making good use of it and crediting to boot! So, I'd like to give a shout out to Jasperitis to thank him for making use of my ideas- thanks!

Also, check out this nifty six-wheeler, that swooshy ship, and the other incredible RGS

Golem Attack by Adrian Florea

Infamous Adrian Florea has a stunning diorama in his typical style. Check out those golems, (which he posted a little while ago) the roof, and the cliff face! The stone hand emerging from the well, and the other from the rock wall are nice touches. And don't forget the Griffon! In a comment he says;

It's pretty much the fantasy of nature taking it's revenge on humanity.... by the use of magic, spawning these creatures right from under their feet. It might also be a hint as to how powerless we are in the face of nature and it's powers... Lots of interpretations.

He adds not to take that too deeply, but it's still awesome.

Jormargund Battle Tank

Jerrec's latest work is the Jormargund battle tank, built for his Swiss faction.



As he has shown us before, Jerrec is no weakling at tank building. The angles, textures, and colours all come together in a model which earns a solid 85. I especially like the hose details.

A Faun with a Bit More Pulling Power.

Mention Sariel to me, and I think of the masterful Technic builder. Today, Sariel brings us the Faun SLT Elefant- in other words, a bigarse transport truck.



One of the greatest features of the Faun is not the model itself, but the exhaustive presentation that accompanies it. This is one regard in which Sariel has shown himself to be a master. I could drone on at some length about all of the features of this model, but the builder does a pretty good job of showing it all.

Also, check out the way the suspension works on this 6x6 WIP. Weird!

**News Flash** Stardate 3089.0

Authorties and merchants alike have been transmitting numerous reports of pirates equipped with these spacecraft, which have been wrecking havoc along the shipping lanes of the Galaxy. Traders and cargo-haulers beware, you are no longer safe.



For NXKCD-News, this is Envessti Gativereporten, signing off.

On a more realistic note, make sure you check out the rest of Martin's stuff. He has some great stuff in there.

The Case of Legohaulic

The case was an interesting one. I'd known for several years that he was running an operation under the alias "Legohaulic." Now he was back, with a still more mysterious plan. His newest schemes were incredibly detailed. Upon further investigation, I found a few possible leads:

His chairs were very luxurious, imported from Japan, "Moko" type.
The typewriter used for his original letter was of the "Mijasper" brand.
I managed to find a photograph of him and a lady who seemed to be one of his clients.

When I realized how the wastebasket was made, another piece of the puzzle fell into place: He was a master of disguise. What appeared to be a feather boa could actually be a rubber band. Said wastebasket could be an automobile grille.

It was an impressive array, to be sure. But what struck me most was how well it all fit together. I had a case.

Chime In: Your Favorite Mecha

Okay, time for some reader input!

What is your favorite Mech/Mecha/Robot MOC of all time?

For me it's a close tie between Moko's smooth 'Orange Mecha' and Mladen Pejic's 'Bushwhacker' multiped. Both so awesome!

Knight VT

Carter's Knight Vertical Tank looks like it came straight out of the Steel Battalion Catalogue.



I know this is my second post today, but this was too good to pass up.

Lego Military Build Contest!

The Lego Military group on Flickr is a small one, so a bit of publicity is good. Head over here to enter in a genre-straddling contest of all things military! The rules are here, and questions answered here. Enter with a new MOC in one of four categories:

• Military MOC
• Military Model
• Diorama
• Vignette

Prizes are hinted to be BrickArms, so get buildin' soldier!

Neo-Classic Space

Today, Peter Reid adds the 409 squadron to his ever growing collection of modernized Classic-Space sets.



I really do love the details on these ships. Notice that all of the greebles are the same colour as the surface their attached to. To recap, here are the other ships he's turned out so far:

Rnager brings us Newspace, as it really happened....

Christopher McGrath, otherwise known as the Almighty, Townie-Spacer, all around awesome Ranger Snow, shows us exactly what took place when Chris Giddens and Mark Sandlin designed sets for The LEGO Company.

MicroRobots; A Short Guide

As many of you probably know, I built a bot a little while ago that got a lot more attention than I expected. Since the, there have been other versions by other builders (as Mike stated here, and there are more lurking around). I have also received emails from people asking to buy it...

For those of you who have been asked to sell one of your models, you will know where I'm coming from when I say it feels strange to give away one of your creations for cash. I declined to sell, but I took a good hard look at the bot to get an idea of how much it would cost. I was astounded by the piece count- 83 pieces! In just that little robot! What did I put into that little guy that made him so parts-intensive? Well, here comes...

MicroRobots; A Short Guide!

What are MicroRobots?
Small, super-detailed robots with articulation (though sometimes not much). Some examples:
The above-mentioned
VUMF
Lobar Lifter
Bullshark
Bley Minion
Sharkie

(From Me and Tim 'Spook' Zarki, the final by Danny Rice)
Those are examples that popped into my head, but there are lots more by other builders.

Find the Parts!
Part use is key for things this small. If you tinker for a while, you will quickly find what parts are useful for building these guys. They must be small, in useful colors, and have maximum possibility for connections to be made. The key parts I have found:

• The ever-famous Travis Brick
  
• "Doc-oc" claws
• Headlight Brick
• Pneumatic T-piece
  
• And for details, the Minifig Hand
  

Think of all the connections those parts can make, aside from the hands. More connections equal more detail. Of course, there are tons more parts to fill up your little mechanoid- the 1x1 slopes are great for small-scale sculpting, half-pins are useful in a variety of ways, technic bushings look nice as little cogs, and binoculars make great connectors or optical sensors. What's real fun however is integrating larger or stranger parts into the model. Take another look at Tim's Bullshark- the minifig helmets on the 'knees' look like awesome armor! Don't be afraid to devote lots of parts to the robot... Like I said, the industrial bot had 83 pieces, 19 of which where the doc-oc claws.

Then, the idea!
Every lego builder knows how important it is to get a good building idea, and the same with the robots. Whether that ideas originates from some cool new [body part] design, concept art, or inspiration from another person's creation, go for it. For my three mechanoids, they stemmed from ideas on building the legs with very small feet. That goes even farther back; The Lobar was inspired by golems in the Wii video game Metroid Prime 3. The split feet on the industrial robo were inspired by this cyborg, drawn by the artist Keith Thompson (who, by the way, has a nice robot gallery here). So go find something that inspires you to build!

Soon, I will Post According to Our New Standards.

But, not tonight.
This fighter by nnenn is amazing.

Hold your clicks.

After Andrew Becraft simply described good blogging etiquette on The Brothers Brick, I must say I feel terribly about this blog. Posts will be halted for a while... I need to work things out.

"You don't need camo in the future"

The white stripesadd a certain pwnage to this already awesome ornj tank. Don't you agree?
Gallery

Lukas bot!

First, Lukas built a cute little bot.



Then Chuck and Jacob built excellent cover versions.

Fharusi Ornithopter by the YODER

Mike Yoder, infamous flickr-account creator has whipped out a very nice brown, tan, and bley fighter ship, the Fharusi Ornithopter. Why this wins:

1- Clean, effective color blocking (it gets a bit fuzzy on the bottom but we can forgive that)
2- Rotating VTOL engines with nice hinges
3- 360-degree turret on top
4- A sweet lookin' pilot.
5- Working landing gear (which, by the way, I realized I have never had in a MOC. Need to do that sometime)

Brickshelf

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I really don't have time to blog anymore. Sheesh. But check it all out, and stay tuned.

Steam Contest!

LINK READ IT

and you guys need to blog. plzkthx