Armored Trains

Prepare yourself, for I am about to defer again the blogging of Lego for that of niche strangeness that suits my fancy, but I assure YSAB will be back on track with our favorite precision-molded blocks. I'm building an armored train of my own with the stuff, so here's some stuff I found inspirational. The fellow fan of Lego might find it an interesting collection, as might the random internet wanderer.

Lego Steampunk is holding a Train/Floating Rock competition, and while steampunk is a great premise, it is more likely to see quantity of MOCs built in the theme rather than quality. Here's to hoping that it brings out a similar turnout to that of the Ma.K. Starfighter contest that saw so many great entrants.


An armored train seen in the Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle. If I might allow myself to be obsessive and critical, I offer the opinion that this particular design doesn't jive with the rest of the war machines in the movie. The sloping armor, the reasonable barrel length (as opposed to the smoothbore nubs on the battleship of the same faction) and overall plausibility clash with the fantastical/turn-of-the-century theme, such as the quirky airships and ornithopters. But what the hell, it's a cartoon fantasy movie.

A German armored train from the second world war. After the war sloped armor would be teh n0rmalz and all the cool kids would be doing it. It was then deemed ruined by hipsters and in protest the Leopard 2A4 was developed, which was essentially a box on treads with the sloped armor swapped out for titanium armor.

Mind you, a handsome box with a 120mm armament. But back to static tracks:


An armored train from another Miyazaki work, Laputa / Castle in the Sky that seems to take heavy influence from the German design. Darn it if more combat vehicles shouldn't have pink/peach yellow camouflage.









I might coin the term, "rivet-punk".

Here's the Russian WWII era "MVB-2".
In pictures I've found of armored trains, most of them looked pretty DIY-grunge, but the MVB-2 has an amount of aesthetic value. Kind of submarine-like; the protrusion halway down the vehicle looks akin to a conning tower.



Seriously, what's with the pink and yellow?

Hey that's not official

System? Bionicle? Fabuland? Jack Stone? Clickits?



No sir, them Rabbids is illegitimate. Regardless, it's a spiffy Star Wars: Episode I pod racer design, although exhaust from the center engine would probably blast the 'Bids in the face. That might explain their expressions.

By Jocelyn.

Say those figurines remind me of this bro with very little brains:



Now that's some cool joint Christiansen-Milne swag, though Disney probably got in more than his fair share too. Look at his expression, he's either sugar-high from too much honey or he's trolling. He extends one arm as to shake paws, but what he intends with the other is a mystery. Respect.

How much do these go for on Bricklink?

Bartosz is a Boss

I blog pretty much everything he does.



I mean, this is really cool, right? It reminds me of Jon Hall's work, with the sleekness traded for a bit of jank. It's grunge on wings. Here's a work of Hall's:



Don Solo made a cool space windmill, accompanied by the sweetest rover you ever did see. Trans purple!

Evolution of Swag: Ominous Fotress Edition

Non-Lego, but eh. First.

Elsewhere on the internet, I follow a blog that led me to this image:



Now my initial reaction was, "that's pretty cool", but on second thought, and I am always one to ask myself this, where have I seen this before?



Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1985)
I admit to having seen this film multiple times.



Metropolis (1927)



Laputa / Castle in the Sky (1986)



The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)



Spirited Away (2001)



Steamboy (2004)

Where are the Brickarms

In the Tile Every Damn Stud era, these minifig scale models by Brickshelf user "Nyu" stand out as quaint. Each of them can be seen in this Brickshelf folder.











Excuse me, did you perchance say, BATTLE TRAIN?



I am currently making a historic military MOC in a similar scale, so these have been pleasant inspiration. Perhaps these obscure lo-fi builds from yesteryear can be accommodated by obscure lo-fi music from yesteryear. Hmm.



How is that for impressment of taste?

Maschinen Krieger Contest / alt. title MA.K IN ACTION

A bit late, but fashionably so. Winners of the Ma.K starfighter contest were announced last week. The contest drew a greater participant response than expected, and it was great to see so many different takes on Yokoyama's theme from a number of builders. It was also comforting to see the starfighter mold to be broken with such enthusiasm, because you know, seeing the same repeated arrow/bullet shaped craft loses its perk after a while. Here's some notable entries:



Mountain King seems recently joined Flickr in order to enter the contest. His Mercenary Dragonfly is my favorite among those that placed in the top three.



Ted Andes' Hammerhead was my favorite entry. Good shaping all around, and the sticker is ace.



I commend Mark Stafford for his use of the big technic panels. Wow I don't even know where they're from. Also, I found some people's interpretations of Ma.K to simply be a myriad of cylinders and rounds things attached at odd angles. Though this has a place (as exemplified below) Stafford refreshingly fulfilled the Ma.K Mercenary faction's aesthetics with his model.



Cole's entry has a most interesting shape, and I'm in love with the beige. It stands out from a lot of other models that made use of neutral colors.



Tyler Clites won Tim Gould's "heart tile" printed piece award for his Zebra rounds. His also features two shades of orange, one in the craft and one in the stand, both of which I can only guess as to what they might be. Dark orange? Nougat? Brown?

Also, FeMechanic.



Perhaps I'm kinky but I've always wondered if someone would come along and totally diss the brick, cutting them up and painting them while still coming out with a product that didn't look crappy. Enter John Judy. Unfortunately his entry was disqualified because it was painted.



"Steelbreeze9's" entry is really bad ass.

Outside of official entries, a number of Ma.K creations surfaced of the non-starfighter variety. Organizer T.R. Brownridge build a number of hardsuits that I have featured in previous posts. Tim "Spook" Zarki made this multiped:

/unrelated

Choose your weapon cheese



Well done, John.

"This was the last photo of the gathered family. Their bond was irrevocably harmed during the protracted battle over Pa Mech's estate, and Maggie Mech was shunned because of her inter-thematic relationship with some Bionicle thing."

By The Ice Breaker. Look, teal!



More of Tromas-Krieger. Ma.K. "Nutrocker" and "Neuspotter".



Source Maschinen Krieger:





Lego Ma.K. Krieger contest

Mechy

First up is the Think Tank from Ghost in the Shell by Tim Gould:



Here's a Maschinen Krieger-inspired hardsuit by Tromas:



As was this starfighter, also of his design:



The Ma.K contest thread has a surprising amount of high-quality entries, could be tough work for whoever is doing the judging.



Malcolm Graig


Fredo



Spook