Rotten Pumpkin

Fall is here. I know this by the subtle clues that have been left for me, like falling leaves, Halloween stuff in every store, and pumpkin spice everything at every turn. While I’ll happily pass on pumpkin spice marshmallows thank you very much, I do have to say I dig this imaginative and whimsical biplane from builder Markus "madstopper78" Ronge. It’s part of his larger epic fantasy world Full Steam, which it getting so much more intricate and expansive that soon I’m sure we’ll all remember watching episodes and arguing about whether or not it’s real.

Dilbert

Back when the daily arrival of a newspaper was commonplace, the comics section was one of the most popular. Headline, sports, funny-pages. That’s when people would actually start reading. And in 1989, Dilbert and the megalomaniacal Dogbert arrived on the scene. The sarcasm surrounding office politics, micromanagement, and new technology really struck a chord. As did these guys when I saw them, by builder grubaluk. I wonder what kind of scheme Dogbert is hatching today?

TARDIS Kinetic Sculpture

Artist, builder, mechanical wizard and Whovian Josh DaVid LEGO Creations is back with another kinetic wonder. This time it’s the iconic TARDIS from Doctor Who. Check out the video to see it in action, and remind yourself that it’s bigger on the inside, and we assume shields the occupants from centrifugal forces.

Leading A Ragtag Fugitive Fleet

Check out the latest from Brandon Griffith! The Galactica here is built from over 29K bricks, is 47” long, has custom printed bricks, custom lighting and took over 300 hours to build. I had the distinct honor of lighting and photographing this baby late last month and it’s a wonder to behold in person. Brandon and I spent several happy hours and used practically every light in the studio. It was like living in the pictures from Apogee I stared at for hours as a kid. It took great restraint to not break out the green screen and motion control equipment and get some spectacular space shots, but our time was limited. Click through for many more pics of this sci-fi legend.

A Man Of Much Beard

Hans Langseth was a man of much beard, record breaking beard, like the longest ever beard. And while that is pretty impressive, capturing his likeness in bricks as Pate keetongu has done is pretty impressive too. Of course it didn’t take nearly as long, but took more skill than allowing hair to grow. Then again, building it was probably less work than showing with that much beard.

Samurai Jack

Millennials should recognize this guy, it’s Samurai Jack! Back when Cartoon Network had had enough of replaying old cartoons and started making their own content, and it was glorious. The likes of Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls and my personal favorite Johnny Bravo paved the way for this breakout hit. Builder madoruk was clearly a fan, and celebrates the show with this amazing MOC.

One, Two, Threeeeeeee!

This charming little memory MOC gives me mixed feelings I’m afraid, a mix of nostalgia and cringe, so this post is going to serve as a public service message. All parents end up playing this game with their kids, human swing. I can vividly remember the last time I did it, with my youngest son. We were exiting Toys R Us and doing this when suddenly he was much less enthusiastic. By the time we got to the van we could tell something was very wrong. We took him to an urgent care center a few blocks away, where a nice doctor fixed his DISLOCATED ELBOW! Happy to say he made a nearly instant recovery, but you can bet we never played that game again. This is actually a pretty common injury with children, and it’s usually from something like this. Take care all you parents out there.

Son of Makuta

I really dig this little dude by builder optimus-convoy, he’s a cool mix of Bionicle, Knights, Hero Factory and System. The metallic stone parts are the real star here, used just enough to tie the whole figure together and give him a unique look. Nice photography too, simple but elegant.

Boo Boo Goes The Trolley

Frost has built a lovely little trolley for those off to Spooky Town. The dark grey, orange, black, and trans-yellow color scheme works well, at first I wanted it to drop the grey in favor of black, but upon reflection I think that would really harm the fun of this build. I believe Halloween needs to strike a balance of Spooky Fun and Spooky Scary and this cheeks those requirements nicely. The angled front windows and sideways built door, really helps to capture that classic trolley look as well.

Squall Cosplay

I have no idea who Squall is, nor do I have time to research it, but this figure from vitreolum is gorgeous. And since cosplay is sort of a new thing for me, at least as a focus for sharing in my fledgling endeavor Nerds&Makers, the name was as intriguing to me as the MOC. I find it fascinating that this might be inspired by someone playing a character, how cool is that?

Pagoda Park

Life in Ninjago City is crowded, but splendid. Builder Galaktek decided to heed the call of The Brothers Brick and contribute to the Ninjago collaboration at BrickCon 2018. If you’re in the Seattle area and not already at the con (I am not, sad face) I encourage you to go see some amazing creations this weekend, including this stunning addition.

Max's Interceptor

The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) was one of those films that blew my young mind. So gritty, so brutal, so Australian. About the only thing cooler than Max was his modified police interceptor, recreated brilliantly by builder crash_cramer. You can practically smell the gasoline, hear the whine of the supercharger, taste the dust and feel the heat of the outback.

Jack Jack Has Powers!

One of the great things about cruising on the Disney Wonder is there’s two beautiful theaters on the boat, running current and classic movies all the time. Me and my wife finally got a chance to see Incredibles 2 during our cruise a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it very much. One of the sub plots is the discovery of Jack Jack’s powers, which was fun because it was revealed to the audience at the end of the first film. Since the sequel starts pretty much where the last one left off, we get to see the rest of the family learn he’s a super too. Speaking of super, check out this outstanding caricature of Mr. Incredible. Just trying to be a good stay-at-home dad and, you know, keep the baby from destroying the house.

At Last We Will Have Revenge

Opinions on the Prequels are well known.  I try to take them for what they are and understand you’re constrained in your story telling ability when you have fixed points established that you have to hit.  However Darth Maul was fantastic, just seeing him for the first time was “Oh wow!  This is our new bad guy!”  Then he’s got this weird lightsaber with a really large hilt what’s up with that?  Then in this scene we find out it’s a lightsaber staff.  That’s so cool (and why is the Maul’s Lightstaff so cool but Kylo’s hilt thing gets so much hate I don’t get it)  Ordo in his own words did not create a perfectly faithful rendition of the scene  but no the less captures it well.  The door and wall that makes the backdrop are well and surprisingly simply done.  Mostly just solid, straight forward SNOT technique.  And now I’ll let you enjoy having Duel of the Fates stuck in your head the rest of today.

Metropolis In Space

I’m naturally an optimist. Despite the seemingly downward spiral humanity seems to be in recently I like to think we’ll make it to another enlightened age, one of exploration and beyond the bounds of this planet. Something like the future envisioned by builder ranghaal with this excellent metropolis in space. Imagine day to day living in this cylinder in the stars, looking up to see more “ground” above you, it would be dazzling.

53rd & Broadway...And Step On It

I’ve only spent time in Manhattan once, for a working gig so I didn’t get to see as much as I would have liked. Surprisingly enough, I only took a single cab ride the entire time (the subway is pretty much the way to go there) but I can assure you, it wasn’t nearly as nice as this wonderful vehicle by redfern1950s2. And the driver was an anonymous silhouette, not dapper and ready to please like this gentleman.

Press Any Key To Continue...

…Which one is the Any key? The first computer I used on a regular basis, maintained and even upgraded, was an Hewlett Packard 386 (yup, ancient history). This latest from Powerpig gave me the instant retro feels for that old heap. You can even open the side to take a peek inside, and maybe upgrade the RAM to a whole MEGABYTE! It’s pretty much what all the computers looked like back then, large, beige and bulky, but gorgeous in their own way. And you can build your own soon because Chris is going to release a building guide.

#12 Grimold Place

I’m going to stop you right here, and tell you to watch the video below before continuing to read, I’ll wait…

I spend pretty much every morning, 365 days a year give or take, blogging LEGO creations. I can tell you that an audible reaction from me is pretty rare, but this brilliant little MOC by builder Inthert made me exclaim out loud “holy sh*t!” I’m a Harry Potter fan, and a LEGO fan of course, and I have a soft spot for micro builds and mechanical ingenuity. This sorta ticks all the boxes for me.

Thunderbolt

Behold your doom, Thunderbolt! This latest by Moko pretty much blows my mind. He’s calling it a Bionicle MOC, but this transcends that class as far as I’m concerned. It’s got the prefect mix of System and Technic blended in, as well as some Power Functions for lighting (and exposed wiring that just adds to the aesthetic). It looks like something from a movie, a movie I want to watch.

NASA's Evil Twin

I’ve got to admit, I’m a sucker for NASA’s rockets and I can spend hour gawking at the marvels of human engineering. But NASA ain’t got nothin’ on this ship by halfbeak! With a ton of black, a handful of green, a dash of realism and a pinch of antimatter, what’s not to like? Not to mention a hint of nefarious criminal activity by NASA’s evil twin, NAST (pronounced nasty). Put simply, if NASA were Futuron, NAST would be the Blacktron of space exploration.