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

Apoligies for Having Held Out

Now back to blogging! Speaking of hiatus, it only took McZargald two years to build his "Phoenix" frigate:


Looka them crewmen thar, puttin on the final touches.



Armored car by Andrew Somers. I can't help but call to mind Otto's opus:



I miss Otto and his annual updates because they were the shit.

Quote Matt "Jaster" Hamann of Twee Affect, "Spook is home from college and, fortunately for us, decided to put some legos together."



Solid, as all Tim's stuff is.

The Oneman (Bartoz) built a bug that tranforms into a robot. Say what? See for yourself:





I built a dirigible:



wow you're not to bashful about this plugging stuff are you

...And that about wraps it up. Stay tuned for results from the Microspacetopia build-off. (Which may or may not be extended?) as well as results from the Ma.K starfighter contest in a month.

Hopefully this will see an update before then!

-_-

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.

Okay For Real Now

The mechanical steed is of Scotty's design.

This one by red space cat is so great I am posting more than one picture of it!





Very sleek lines, and accomplished with a relatively low part count and in sand blue to boot!



Hey, smod's back! I sense portal inspiration. Looks like something off of an Aperture Science assembly line.

Embrace Your Inner Townhead

YSAB reblogged Brothers-Brick

heheh it's like tumblr. Via Timothy Gould of TBB. Spaceship models by Soren Roberts and Rob "DasnewTEN". Here's some earlier work from both builders. It is always interesting how technique develops over time while retaining similar style and aesthetics.



Also I don't know what this is entirely but it's green and has cool wheels.