(olive) Green machines

  There is yet only a small selection of parts available in LEGO's new olive green color. It lends itself well to military-themed creations, although anyone who follows my own creations elsewhere knows that I could care less for realistic drab color schemes. Above, Fredo does a nice quadruped. I like the cylindrical shape he has made with the 1 x 4 curved double slopes. Given the squareness characteristic of the medium, the model's curves seem surprising although it is is hardly a departure from with Fredo's previous work. Below, Carter uses the new color for a landmate. It has good feet. I can imagine the little auxiliary arms reloading the bullpup-style weapon. 
Here's another quadruped/humanoid mecha combo with a relating color scheme, via Curtis and Pate:

Blok-head

Aaron Williams is fast becoming my favorite mecha builder. His textures are superb, as are the destails. He's really found a way to make LEGO elements look functional.

This is pretty much just a mecha blog, now.

I started following Waka's mechs sometime last year. His style is reminiscent of the work of  Monday Noodle (Brian Kescenovitz), who has been out of the picture for a while.
 
I like the shapes on Waka's most recent mech; normally I find that too many slopes kills form but Waka's model is large enough that it still looks pleasing. In the same way that I judge people by their footwear, I've taken to judging LEGO mecha by their feet. The separated heel and toes totally satisfying. The arched form looks like it actually handles shifting weight; there's something anatomical about it. The largeness allots for a good amount of detail, check out the ammunition belt and fuel hose:

In addition to  his Flickr photostream he has a Japanese website. Also, Catbus!

Moonlighting

I hope not to have this blog lay dormant as it was for most of last month. I've taken on duties at another publication and my output on this one seems to have been halved.



Sly Owl has a real great post apoc / steampunk scene here. It is ornate but without all the pointless embellishments that permeate lesser builds in the genre, such as pearl gold. The floating rock technique is innovative.




This mech has good colors:





Each of these models, by Theo and Louis, display exceptional application of unique parts. The common phrase some throw around is NPU, but Nice Part Usage doesn't put enough emphasis on the integration of funky Lego pieces.

/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

-_-

Original concept walker by FateHeart.

Scale re-creation of the Pulse Rifle from Jame's Cameron's Aliens.



Both flickr users FateHeart and Giovanni Tuzzi are a bit unsung but both competent builders.

what the what

!



Brothers-Brick blogged this back in February, but since then the builder has posted it on flickr as opposed to MOCpages. MOCP's uploader grains up images something fearsome, I do enjoy using the site but I choose to embed pictures off of brickshelf.



This too was featured by the Brothers Brick, which is slightly surprising seeing as it doesn't have a clean, monochrome background, but it's obvious the fantastic build compensates for any presentation shortcomings. Looking at something against a sheet makes me feel like I'm looking at something by Adrian Drake circa 2005. It's kind of cool.



I meant to post this Mech of Robby's design a while ago. I met both the builder and the build at Brickworld in Chicago.

Lastly, this Lego emulation of cold-war Polish bizniz:

EV Heavy Industries

A UK builder under the flicker username Fateheart has recently been putting out consistently awesome anime-inspired mecha, think mobile suits and vertical tanks.









I love the un-tiled studs. FateHeart's style might look a bit antiquated as we've come accustom to sleek, studless builds, but FH's mecha here prove that you don't need the most advanced techniques to get a cool design across. Kudos, man.

Not that we're hating on Brian's MOCs of course. He has yet to post a build this year, let's hope there's something big in the works.

Lastly, this neo-World War II mech is quite great. Liking the simplicity, it looks like it could be easily mass-produced alongside T34 tanks.



Check him out.

Legos

Sometimes life is just a pain in the royal ass. I am so very angry right now. Fortunately, the internet is full of brilliant MOCs like this bad boy. Mechs with guns are always fun to look at.

After a year-long hiatus or so, Rong Yiren's back in the gameeee



Also this clever exo-suit by Cade Roster.

Theives

Okay so the Brothers-Brick has totally been stealing possible posts by linking a ton of space stuff recently. Like, that's our job.







By fredo.

huh maybe there should be some town and castle stuff on this blog as well

THIS

is how to use cheese slopes.

Guess who put a virus on their computer.

So I'm here at the library diong all my computer stuff and I'm really not liking the Internet Explorer they have here. But enough complaining:

A fantastic Mecha by Lord Dane, reminds me of artwork by This Guy. Especially the arms, I love those arms!

Before summer starts to get too busy I'm going to take a stab at sorting my collection; I've been out of the hobby for close to a year now, although to be honest I wasn't ever all that into it. I'm hoping that sorting and expanding my parts library will get me building again, probably some microspace and mecha, possibly trains too. Yeah.

All of it's packed away in a corner in the basement, at least it's no longer on my bedroom floor like it used to be:

Is this why you never had a girlfriend in middle school erik?

Damn I hated middle school.

Jas Nagra's Vertical Tanks

Here's his most recent:



But this one from last week is worth a look as well:

Return of Frogspace?

By Luke Lyons

\m/

Nothing more can be said about the awesomeness that is one of the ever-prolific Shannon Ocean's latest works. So I won't say any more.

This is a Blog, and This is a Post.

In terms of MOC production, I think Fredoichi has reached the same level of productivity to the likes of Jordan Schwartz and nnenn. Fredo has often been compared to the latter for his similar style, although I think his models stand out in that he masterfully uses the textures of parts to greeble-out his creations while nnenn experiments more with overall form. They're alike and different at the same time, and while nnenn's designs were innitially more impressive, there's nothing to hate about the newer builder's stuff.



As of late Fredo's been the man to see when it comes to small mecha. Check out his site.