Got A Quarter?

I don't know why, but one of my first vivid memories is my dad loading me and my brother into the back of the family car at some ungodly hour of the morning to set out cross county. Once we were safely loaded in, he handed us two giant handfuls of those prizes you get from machines like this one from Gilcélio. They kept us occupied until at least the city limit as we headed off to Topeka...in a beetle.

Bulk vending
Bulk vending

Sun-Runner Y7

David Steeves has come up with this intimidating pirate escort fighter/interceptor.  Gotta love the flag, just so there's absolutely no question about who you're dealing with.  A classic pirate ship's mast as a mega blaster is a clever detail, too.  Seeing that there's only the one gun, I assume the ship can be configured depending on which side the pilot's eye patch is on...

Sun-Runner Y7

Volvo EW205D

And you thought Volvo only made boring station wagons for suburban soccer moms.  Oh contraire!  They make some pretty cool excavation equipment, too, like this 1:11 scale beast by davy linden.  Gotta love the detail he put into this build, like all the little hydraulic hoses, and the tasty chrome accents.  Just one suggestion,  davy, take it outside and dig some real dirt!! 

Volvo EW205D>

Volvo EW205D>

LiveBuild Tomorrow - Mixels Series 5!

BrickNerd_Live_Build.jpg

Tomorrow is special. Not only is it a vacation day as we celebrate Memorial Day with our families (at least here in the US) but it's also my wife's birthday! We thought we'd have some fun and build series 5 Mixels tomorrow. We'll start building at 10am PST.

So come on by and watch some seriously exciting building (ok, it's not exciting) and wish Mrs. BrickNerd happy birthday! See you then.

 
 

Stinky Stuff

Does anyone use perfume atomizers anymore? It seems like when I was a kid they were on display all over the place, including on top of my parent's dresser, but not actually filled with anything. And they seemed to make regular appearances on TV. But now I realize I can't remember the last time I saw one in the wild. Well, at least until KOS surprised me with this excellent offering of brick-built ones.

Perfumes

Awesome LEGO Animated Short

Stop motion is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for the impatient. I've spent a great deal of time in the last couple years working in this medium and it gives me an even greater appreciation for this brilliant short by Rogier Wieland. It's charming and funny, and worth a watch. And take some time to watch the behind the scenes after, see what goes into making such an ambitious project.

Reasonably Quick And Somewhat Grumpy

Here's a fun fact: I've worked on two of the Fast & Furious films, Tokyo Drift and Fast 7. Here's a funner fact: I've never seen a single one of them. But it's nothing against them, I haven't seen a bunch of the movies I've worked on, and I'm just not into the tuner scene. I am however into LEGO, and this recreation of the Mitsubishi Eclipse by Mad Physicist is pretty dang awesome.

The Fast and the Furious Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Fast and the Furious Mitsubishi Eclipse

Even AT-ATs Can Be Repurposed

So your tyrannical government has been overthrown and weapons of war litter the landscape, what's a desert nomad to do? Well if you're resourceful you make good use of all that scrap and existing structure and make yourself right at home! Builder markus19840420 has imagined what this would be like and built this stunning diorama. In other news I'm so freakin' excited for EP7 I can barely contain myself.

Toy Story Bank

I'm terrible with money, I freely admit it. And as wonderful as this interactive Toy Story bank from Jared Chan is, I don't think it would really help me. As if I didn't have enough trouble saving this thing has an interactive feature that allows you to press the detonator and blow the back off to get your coins out. I'd be retrieving them as fast as I dropped them in!

Toy Story - Money Train Chase Coin Bank (2015)
Toy Story - Money Train Chase Coin Bank (2015)
Toy Story - Money Train Chase Coin Bank (2015)

EV3 Mosaic Printer

This is pretty cool! Thanks to the limitless possibilities of EV3 and the creative brain of JK Brickworks we can now watch a LEGO machine build a LEGO mosaic. Not only that, but he created some excellent videos to document not only the working machine, but some of the progress in building it. It's mesmerizing to watch, and fascinating to learn how it all came together.

Mosaic Printer - Prototype 2