They Have A Machine!

On Wednesday I was one of 100 lucky AFOLs to go to the new Lego Store in London before it officially opened to the public. The store is the largest Lego brand retail store in the world and has two floors of Lego loveliness. There was a well documented scratch card giveaway of the Lester mini figure mascot (I did not win one) I did however win a go on their new Lego Mosaic Machine. This is essentially a photo booth that turns your face into instructions to make a Lego mosaic of it! It comes with a box (set number 40179) of 4500 1x1 plates in 5 colours (900 of each) and a 48x48 baseplate. Normally it retails in the store for £99.99 but as it contains nearly £240.00 worth of lego (at Shop at Home prices) its a bargain. But better than that you have your own super exclusive lego set! And I will share that with you here, no copying it now, I can trust y'all?

Futuristic Bags Of Air

So the future is actually the past. What do I mean? Well, take Airships, they had a moment in the past and according to Terry Pratchet and Stephen Baxter they have a moment in the future, many futures. This small but perfectly formed Airship (SciFi Flying boat) by MiniGray! ticks a lot of design boxes. Its small but has many cool curves and features. The all over white colour scheme makes it quite clinical and functional.

Electric Light Orchestral Manoeuvres In Space

The mixture of Space and Rock Music has been around for many years but it seemed to come to a head in the 1970's. One of the most iconic album covers featuring a spacey theme was Out Of The Blue, released by the Electric Light Orchestra in October 1977. The multi coloured space ship always reminded me of a jukebox. This MOC by grobie captures the look well. I am pleased its small as an actual mini fig version would be the size of a foot all field! Check out the rest of the Rock band Space Ships on his feed. "Hey there you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race"

I Can Hardly Contain Myself

Space. More specifically shipping stuff around in Space. These beautiful containers by Matt Rowntree just ooze class. I think they have a truly universal (see what I did there!) feel, easily at home in the gritty realm of Aliens or Star Wars, as well as the clinical world of 2001. Gonna have a go at some of these myself.

Take A Lok At This Loco!

You may or may not know that I love trains. Big trains, little trains and Lego trains And most of all I love Lego trains in larger scales. This 750mm Narrow Gauge Locomotive from grubaluk described as a Lok 24 of the Jagsttalbahn is just lovely. Built in the old Home Maker scale and full of great detailing, especially around the boiler and the pistons, I would happily give this a home on my railway. I hope that this inspires train builders to create in larger scales!

Bugging Out

There are few more scary things than Giant Space Bugs. Starship Troopers is one of my favourite Sci-Fi action films. And its the Bugs that make it the more terrifying! This superb MOC by Sanellukovic shows two large bugs stomping around the ruins of some civilisation. It seems to have been built for a competition on a German LUG but I would love to see it expanded into a full Post Apocalyptic landscape crawling with Giant Space Bugs. A shiver actually went down my spine!

Quad Jumper Picnic

Here is something a little different that I missed back in July (does this count as MOCstalgia?) I am not and never will be a fan of the Friends Mini Dolls. They just doing sit well with me. However in this MOC from Tyler Sky they seem perfectly at home. I love bold colours on space ships and cool design features. And just look at the backdrop. I wish I could hop into that Jumper and blast off somewhere for food on a blanket!

Dragon Attack!

Just look at that Dragon. Its AWESOME! The parts use here is superb, a million illegal connections, excellent. The castle isn't to shabby either. This Micro scale MOC by Guy Smiley would make a superb set, if it wasn't for all those not so legit connections! Gonna go and see if I can make my own little (big) Dragon!

The Flying Scotsman

In my real life I work on the railways in the UK and part of my route is the East Coast Main Line, home of the world famous Flying Scotsman. Just recently this locomotive has returned to the rails after a multi-million pound rebuild (how much is original is debatable, you take something apart enough times, when you put it back together there is enough to build two!) This incredible model by Ryan McNaught is the largest I've ever seen of the iconic steamer. At over 3 metres long, this is one serious "Kettle"! (thats what we call a steam loco).

A Delightful Prawn Cocktail

One of my favourite recent sci-fi movies is District 9. The fact that it wasn't the USA being attacked or invaded made it different. I have seen it about five or six times now and every time I see it I see something new.  This MOC of the film poster by Sad Brick in micro scale, really captures the most important part of the film brilliantly, a huge alien space ship just hanging there in the sky! There has been some talk of a sequel, I do hope so!

A Blast From The Past

A long time ago in a City far far away I discovered SHIP's. Large Lego Space Ships more than 100 studs long. I was amazed by them, so many different shapes, colours and details. This one, the Centaur LL-72 by Chris Giddens has been a long time favourite. I felt inspired to go and try to build something like this. It has lovely clean lines, enough details to be convincing and maybe a touch of Star Wars about it (in a good way!) I still look back at the SHIP's (Suitably Huge Investment in Parts, I think someone once said) from this time, around 2008 with envious admiration. I did build some SHIP's once, I dropped one, scrapped a few and finally got one on display in 2014, a little late to the party!

This Was The Droid We Were All Looking For!

Lego Megastar Peter Reid has once again come up with a startling mini model. I vaguely remember the Tomy Omnibot from my childhood and this rendition is amazing. Making it look like what I assume is the original advertising finishes the piece nicely. This was built for New Elementary's Nexo-Classic Space Challenge. Its a little worrying that there is a chance of electric shock to children under 6, however I suppose thats the price we pay for having the future now!

Ariel The Hutt

My Eyes! What horror is this I see before me! Take one of the most disgusting villains from the Star Wars Universe and cross it with The Little Mermaid and this is the result. I hope the Exec's at Disney don't see this and get ideas for yet another spin off movie! Whats next R2-Dumbo? This horrific mash up was created by Jonas. This may well haunt my dreams for a while!

X Marks The Spot

When I first saw this it reminded me of the cool map montage's from the Indiana Jones films. I love the way its been composed, lovely little details whilst still having a practical purpose. I have always had a passion for maps and who doesn't love Pirates?. A build by Kai NRG/Geneva for the Mapped Out category of the MOCathalon, Its gonna take some beating. 

ADDITIONAL. So there I was on the train, feeling good for blogging, when Tommy sent me a message saying that I hadn't mentioned that the MOC was an expanded version of the printed tile of the pirates map. Of course I had seen that (I had not seen that!) I just chosen not to mention it (again, I had not seen that!) So double wow! Its the Pirates printed map tile blown up. Sometimes the obvious escapes me!

Birds From Bricks

One of my friends is into birds, big time! His name is Thomas Poulsom. You might recognise the name from the Lego Ideas set 21301, Birds. Well he has written a book showing how you can build another 15 different birds from all around the world. And I have been lucky enough to have been sent a copy to review. 

I was totally amazed by the original birds Thomas made and so when I heard that there was going to be a book full of bird instructions I was very excited. The book arrived recently and as soon as I opened it up I was blown away by how clear the instructions are laid out. Each bird has a parts list so its easy to get the bits together before you start. The steps are small and the sometimes complicated SNOT techniques are clearly explained. The book is in full colour and there is even a colour key for each bird. 

I thought I would build a bird and see how easy it is to follow the instructions in real life. I chose the Canary (Serinus Canaria), collected up all the parts and built it. It was easy to follow and didn't take too long to finish!. Here is where I found a couple of weak points in the construction. However by adding a couple of plates I was able to strengthen the bird considerably. More an oversight than a fault. Overall the bird looks stunning. The half a stud connections in the wings are delicate but as this is a display model, thats not too important.

I can recommend this book not only if you are into birds but also if you like Creator style builds and are looking for more realism in the finished model. I plan to build a few more birds in the future.  The book is published by Quarry and has a retail price of $24.99/£15.99/$29.99 CAN. Its available at Amazon (use the link on this page!) and is even available as a Kindle download. Nice work Thomas, now where are the instructions to that Hedgehog?

"Open Fire. All Weapons. Dispatch War Rocket Ajax To Bring Back His Body"

"Flash, aaaaaaaaaaaa, Saviour of the Universe" When I emerged from my Dark Ages, one of the first things I discovered was Flickr. What a marvellous place, full of images of wondrous Lego creations. Such joy. Such inspiration. Looking back at some of the first things that I faved, I re-discovered this micro space Flash Gordon ship. I love the film and the camp, comic book imagery and this MOC by halfbeak from August 2012 captures the look perfectly. I had never really considered Micro Scale as a serious medium until this. "Flash, Flash, I love you. But we only have twenty four hours to save the Earth!"

Desert Architexture

The amount of texture on this amazing MOC by Luis Baixinho is staggering! Described as Byblios, the house of knowledge at the centre of the Ahridus Desert in Elgarvel, it really oozes mysticism. I can imagine weary pilgrims traveling miles through sandstorms to reach this place. I hope it has a decent cafe inside!

The Day The Earth Got Invaded By War Robots From Mars!

Looking like a cross between Marvin The Martian and The Terminator, this Tin Soilder by Karf Oohlu is both charming and menacing at the same time. from his radar dish to his oversized ray gun (which is excellent in its own right) he looks like something from a 1950's B Movie. 

Architectural Blues

To me, some modern buildings look like they were designed on a Friday afternoon, in the dark,  just before the rush out the door and down the road to the pub! Some, on the other hand have style, grace and presence. This Modern Apartment block by Lisqr has a lot of style indeed. lots of shiny blue walls and neat details such as the railings, but realistic and simple too. This wouldn't look out of place in an Architects studio

This is (Rubber) Ducky Calling!

Space Truckers is one of my favourite films (bear with me). Its cheap and cheerful, but still manages to be a whole lot of fun (square pigs!) This MOC by Luigi Priori captures the look and feel of Intergalactic Space Truckin! He admits he was influenced by the (easily forgotten) Container Heist set from the Space Police 3 theme, but this has so much "In your face, Trucker Mother" badassness (is that a word?) I will allow it! This post was sponsored by the North Atlantic Bracket Users (East and West) Association (NABU(E&W)A)