Christoph Monnaie Feature

Christoph on flickr. His latest is this sprawling moon base. The brick-built spheres might look dated technique-wise what with those new Star Wars miniplanets, perhaps in a round-about way utilizing square pieces to make round shapes has become its own ironic form NPU.

Here is a series of starfighters he has assembled. Kind of like, what if Peter Reid did bubble canopies?



 I can imagine they can be difficult to integrate. Christoph seems pretty apt at it, though.

 
The hose around the cockpit on this one does a good job of covering up gaps and making for a cohesive shape.




As fun as the starfighters are, this wheeled ground transport is my favorite.

Power Tool Red

By Shannon Ocean By Angus MacLane, previously mentioned in my World War Robot post. By Bruce Lowell.

Lego World War Robot

I've been a fan of Ashley Wood's artwork for some time now, and have been fortunate enough to receive one of 3A's toys as a gift.


"Ashley Wood's Bertie robot with coloring from Tintin's rocket in 'Explorers To the Moon'."

There is a lot of good things happening on Angus MacLane's recreation of a "Bertie"-series robot from the WWR universe. The colors are fun and the equipment packs are a great touch, though I cannot say I'm sold on the finger technique. A Bertie toy as produced by 3A:




This is another depiction of Bertie by MacLane, of the Cube Dude fad.



Lastly, I have made a Bertie and Square more or less to minifigure scale. In Wood's illustrations the robots were never drawn to a consistent scale, and minifigure scale will forever be that odd, undefined practice, so take it.

3A Toys' production blog
Ashley Wood's blog

March of the Think Tanks

For the duration of the previous month, and some time before, the build challenge over at the Mecha Hub flickr group has been generating LEGO interpretations of the "Think Tank" concept as seen in the Ghost in the Shell franchise. Here are some highlights:



This smart model is of Curtis Collins' design. I appreciate how the 1 x 1 "cheese" slopes line up with the corners on the beveled corners of the 4 x 4 x 2/3 and 4 x 6 x 2/3 panels.

Peer Kreuger's is motorized, with both walking and rolling functions:





Kyle Vrieze has assembled this scene. The building are not only furnished with tasteful detail but descending mecha. The large mulitped in the center can be seen here.



Brownridge revisits some Maschinen Krieger imagery for a unique inter-universe crossover.



I love, love the repetition of the four hole texture in both the under-wedge piece (used here as leg armor) and in the turntable top. Smartness from Ted Andes.

These fellas of Andrew Lee's are cute.



This one doesn't qualify as a "Think Tank" as the body doesn't have the arachnid like body proportions, but nevertheless it is a cool build. The legs are great with the Technic figure flippers (32008).

Not to be missed is Ley Ward's citrus themed -koma. Also, in a blog post concerning multiped LEGO mecha, it seems appropriate to give Mladen a mention.

Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack

The mecha community's been abuzz with a kickstarter project, of all things: the Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack Rulebook. Spearheaded by Joshua A.C. Newman, lots of LEGO stuff by Soren, and game design by the folks at lumpley (one of those blogs that I always want to read but can't seem to get interested in). A $10 backing gets you in an a very cool project and a PDF of the rules, once released. I hope this will fuel a surge of micromecha, especially if they're as nice as this:

So, this is twice-a-month thing, is it?

Brian K. has been semi-active recently (almost as active as this blog!). He does a really a good job of blending system parts and obscure technic offshoots.



A concept vehicle of his from last month. It has suspension.



Cute mecha time:





The first month of the Ghost in the Shell-inspired "Think Tank" build challenge has come to a close. It is to continue through April, but I hope to have a March round-up post on here before too much longer.

Jerac's red rhomboids

40K Space Marine armor, made mobile through power functions.



His latest makes use of the the large technic treads. There are a lot of great textures, headlight bricks offer selective studding and curved slopes are used to bevel out the edges of the boxy shape.

Childhood vacancies

Yeah, I have yet to play a Pokemon game for any length of time, and I never owned any of the trading cards. I had seen smatterings of the original television show, I recall one where the orange fire lizard grows up into a dragon. That was kind of cool.

Regardless of my disinterest in trite franchises, Mike Nieve's Gyarados Pokemon is a fantastic build. Great application of Lego parts all around.

Press Select

Brixe63 has built this maze, a simplistic but puzzling build. The isometric camera angle really makes it pop. The decision to highlight the 1 x 1 slope ramps with a color is a good one. It is reminiscent of dungeon map out of a video game, the kind one would bring up to make out a path to the princess/warp portal/power up/level boss. That is a very, very good thing.

Over the past six month or so, Soren has been pumping out gems like these:



I believe the intent is for a table-top wargame, they are fun to look at and I am sure they must be equally fun to play with.



These two armored vehicles do a great job of standing out from the ordinary, cookie-cutter military models, of which I have stated my disdain for elsewhere.



This guy's stuff has already earned plenty of the right kind of praise, so I won't re-iterate it here. Check them out!

MechaHub plugging

GitS inspired think tanks are the theme for the March/April build-off at the MechaHub flickr group. The ongoing build-off is transport mecha, it has not gotten the response it deserves so consider this a plug.

Rodney Bistline's early go at it:



Here's a Vic Viper themed starfighter from last Nov(v)ember. He did a great job with an early-cold war alternate future look.