A Tribute To Ingmar

The AFOL community lost one of its own last month, scale modeler and truck aficionado Ingmar Spijkhoven. Ingmar lost his brave battle with ALS on July 30th. I never had the pleasure to meet him, but we were friends on Facebook, and his passion was infectious. Builder Bricksonwheels built this wonderful tribute to him, sadly he passed before it was completed, but he did get to see some work in progress photos. The tanker trailer is Inmar’s design, being towed by a stunning new Peterbilt 389 tractor. While I love all the shiny chrome, eye-catching red color and scale accuracy, my favorite detail is the license plate.

(The End Of) Summer

This little character by builder nobu_tary is clearly ready for some summer time fun, but I do have to question the timing. Summer ended here this week actually, just last Wednesday all the kids had to shlep their way to school again, and they weren’t smiling like this kid. A fun side note, this was the first “first day of school” that we haven’t had to scramble to get at least one child out of the house in 18 years, so I did have a smile on my face just like this kid.

Barb's Disappearance

It was way back in season 1 of Stranger Things when we lost Barb, and the fans have wanted justice ever since. I keep secretly wishing they’ll bring her back, I know things didn't turn out so well for her, but it’s fantasy, some clever writing can do wonders. Builder Legopard took some cues from the official set and imagines the setting for Barb’s disappearance, and the results are awesome.

Agent Carter

Sometimes unconventional construction leads to spectacular results. Take this mosaic by builder Ultron32 for instance, a pretty large percentage of the parts used here are held in place by friction only. And while that may not be great for gravity on occasion, I think you’ll agree it’s pretty excellent for capturing a likeness.

Dwalin Forkbeard Goes Viral

The creativity and ingenuity of the AFOL community never ceases to amaze me. Builder Dwalin Forkbeard has been building a series of space MOCs based on of all things viruses. This is his latest, based on tectiviridae, which is a DNA virus, those wonderful things responsible for such ailments as smallpox, herpes and chickenpox. To see a few other ships based on the microscopic contagion world click through to his photostream.

A Decade Of Bumblebee

Builder Orion Pax has a knack for turning LEGO VW Beetles into transforming Autobots, namely Bumblebee. Below we see his latest version, rooted in LEGO 10252, but below that (and dating back ten years!) is his rendition based on LEGO 10187.

Uncle Scrooge

Here we see the species Anas platyrhynchos dives nimis in his natural habitat, the bank vault. While the origins of this species are well known (he’s from Disney) the origins of his fortune are shrouded in mystery. There are many rumors but we won’t speculate here. What we will do is tip our hat to Swan Dutchman for this outstanding rendition of him.

Alien

Me and a friend of mine were talking about this guy at lunch a couple days ago. He’s reading The Making of Alien book (still need to get my copy) and the story of how Ridley Scott came to direct and how HR Giger landed the job of designer is interesting. It’s just one of those series of events in life that seem pretty uneventful in time, but when looking back, it was fate. And the result is one of the most iconic creatures ever to grace the screen, and make us scream. The version by Build Better Bricks will get your heart pumping too, and what’s even better is you can buy instructions for him and build your own!

---

The Making of Alien

By J.W. Rinzler

Endless Summer

As this summer comes to a close for some of us more unfortunate people (I’m looking at you students), I think now is a good time to think about all the warm summer days we experienced in preparation for the season to drift by. This scene by Norton74 is perfect for this and it takes me on a journey to a place of fine sand wedged in toes and nice cold beverages chilling at our side. And I know all the purist out there are thinking something along the lines of “EEEEEK SAND!”, but let me tell you you’ve just gotta chill out dudes, hang ten, and all that jazz.

City Of Color

Starting in September visitors to The LEGO House in Billund are in for a visual treat. That’s when this creation by the great Brickbaron will be on display. It’s positively bursting with colorful appeal and just the right amount of story telling to draw you in. Everywhere you look there’s activity, and if I know Paul, there’s more surprises in store.

Courthouse

I’ve never been to Iowa, so naturally I’ve never been to Albia. But I can tell you that in Albia they have a charming courthouse, stately standing on a lovely lawn. It’s surrounded by trees, statues and there’s even a gazebo. I can tell you this thanks to builder Chris Maddison, who has built this amazing little micro scale version of it.

Are You Threatening Me?

One of my guilty pleasures is Beavis and Butthead. Yes, there’s a load of sophomoric humor (ok, it’s mostly sophomoric humor) but there’s also so exceptionally clever writing and subtle humor going on. And I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard at any episode as I did “The Great Cornholio” where we see what happens when Beavis gets just a bit too much caffeine. A simple but very effective build by Pascal.

Animal Kingdom

Builder city son is back after a six month hiatus and it was worth the wait. Lay your eyes on this magnificent creation featuring a tiger, mandrill (and her baby) two parrots and the reason I’m up so early this morning, a skunk! Yes, we slept with the back door open last night and right about 5am we were jarred awake by the unmistakeable odor of a skunk, my bedroom is still off limits (whew!). Click through for individual pics of all the wonderful animals of this build.

A Tribute To Queen

The timing of this wonderful pair of builds from Nick Brick is absolutely perfect for me, since I finally got a chance to watch Bohemian Rhapsody just last week. It’s Brian May’s legendary Red Special and Freddie Mercury’s iconic “Bottomless Microphone”. The guitar was built by Brian and his dad, and was subsequently used on every Queen album. The legend of the mic is in the band’s early days during a performance Freddie’s mic stand came apart, and he just went with it. He discovered he liked it that way and the rest is history.

Back In Black

You know him, you love him. He’s darkest of knights, the moodiest of brutes, the richest of bit… alright, maybe I shouldn’t finish that sentence. Anyways it’s the one and only Batman! With just some black and a bit of very very dark grey, timofey_tkachev was able to bust out a great rendition of this iconic super hero to celebrate his 80th anniversary! Now all that’s left to do is to pull out some old comic books or perhaps some episodes of the 1960’s Batman tv series to reminisce on just how far the Dark Knight has come.

Hades

I love a good moody piece, and they don’t get much moodier than this excellent scene from the Underworld by builder Simon NH. Depicted is Hades, Brother of Zeus and Poseidon, who in my opinion really got the raw end of the deal when the three defeated the Titans. I mean, I don’t know the details, but did it go like this?

“Hey, congrats guys, we totally kicked butt. I’ll take the oceans”

“ok, cool, I’ll be the king of all the gods and move up to Olympus”

“Um, ok, I guess I’ll go hang out in the basement”

Who Are You Calling Dummy?

Builder Adam Dodge has entered the uncanny valley. I don’t know if it was a need for companionship, a yearning to entertain or to court the ladies, but he’s made a ventriloquist's dummy of himself. And as you can see, it’s excellent (Adam is the one on the right). All kidding aside this is actually a very cool MOC with a surprising amount of articulation. Check out the video to see this little guy in action.

Nissa Revane

We had a brief but enthusiastic fascination with Magic the Gathering at our house. My son was really into it for a few months, then suddenly lost interest. I never played, but he tried to explain it to me a couple times on the way to the comic book shop where he played, it was a bit baffling. I don’t recall seeing this card, and I don’t know this character, but I certainly dig Eero Okkonen’s building skills and this figure looks amazing.

Ducky

You know what you need? A duck mech. I’ll be truthful, I didn’t know I needed one too until I saw this MOC by Moko. Ok, maybe I don’t need one, but I WANT one! I have no idea what I’ll do with it, where on earth I’d take it, just around my sleepy little town of Lompoc, CA probably. Maybe I’ll fabricate a costume, and fight crime in it, please submit your ideas for my new super hero persona.

Galloping The Plains Of Hyrule

I think it’s safe to call The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild one of my favorite games ever. I’ve been playing it since it came out in March 2017. I completed it on Wii U, but just kept playing even after restoring peace to Hyrule, and for Fathers Day last month I received a Switch, with a new copy of BotW, and promptly started playing all over again. So this sculpture of Link and a trusty steed by vincentkiew immediately had my attention, and now that I’m done writing all this I think I’ll hop on the game a few minutes before it’s time to hop in the shower.