Corsair

The Corsair is one of my favorite WWII fighters. Which, now that I write that, seems an odd thing to say. I'm sure being a fan of Baa Baa Black Sheep when I was a kid factors in, but declaring "this is one of my favorite machines of war" does seem like a strange utterance. I am a bit of an aviation buff though, and gull wing design has always appealed to my aesthetic sensibilities. This smartly crafted MOC by Sydag hits all the right notes of proportion, contour and color, it's lovely.

F4U-5 Corsair - Suez Crisis
F4U-5 Corsair - Wings Folded

Brick Buddies

When I attended Brick Magic I saw these in person and loved them. I contented myself for several minutes, maybe more than I remember, just staring at them all and trying to identify who they were. Well, builder jtheels has made it easy by putting the names on them, but they're still fascinating to look at (and I still haven't figured out who's standing next to Mr. Krabs). So few bricks, so much character. Click through for many more.

Brick Buddies- Star Wars Heroes
Brick Buddies- Star Trek Original
Brick Buddies- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Brick Buddies-SpongeBob Squarepants
Brick Buddies- Guardians of the Galaxy
Brick Buddies- Scooby Do

Toss Across

Just last night my wife and I were talking about toys from our childhood. Though I should point out the discussion started about the most dangerous toys (we actually had lawn darts, amazing) soon the conversation drifted to toys in general. I had Toss Across as a kid, and seeing this brilliant recreation by jtheels brought back a lot of memories. Mostly of how we used to wet the bean bags and put them on a lightbulb to cook the beans, it smelled oddly appetizing.

Toss Across Final

"Unlimited Technology From The Whole Universe, And We Cruise Around In A Ford P.O.S."

Men In Black is an awesome movie. But how could they fail with Barry Sonnenfeld, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rick Baker and ILM? One of the delightful and surprising scenes is when J and K need to make good time during rush hour and activate a few hidden features in their otherwise mundane mode of transportation, here perfectly recreated by Mad physicist.

Men In Black Ford P.O.S.
Men In Black Ford P.O.S., transformation sequence

Behind The Scenes

Here's a builder after my own heart. Not only is this large diorama Star Wars inspired, it's behind the scenes as well. Burglarhobbit brings us a little taste of what it takes to make a blockbuster movie, in this case The Force Awakens. There's tons of fun little details here, but my favorite has to be the cockpit on the motion base, awesome.

IDSMO - R5 - The Making-of

Hey You! Don't Watch That, Watch This!

Fun fact, I'm so old I remember when MTV was a new thing, a revolutionary thing. It was 1981 and we were around the corner at a friend's house, he turned it on, and blew our tiny minds. I remember trying to explain it to my parents with the words "it's kinda like watching the radio". I also remember one of the first videos I ever saw was Madness' One Step Beyond, I was an instant fan. That was a very long time ago, but this MOC by umamen brought all that flooding back. I think I'll be listening to some ska today.

LEGO: Madness "One Step Beyond"

The Schirrmeisterei

The Brick Time team continues to add beautiful structures to their fictional town of Dunholmincluding their latest creation, the Schirrmeisterei. I'll admit that I had no idea what a Schirrmeisterei was, I naturally assumed that it was some sort of horse stable, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs I was able to clear up that misconception quickly. Turns out a Schirrmeisterei is a military supply office of sorts. This supply office makes a great use of the one of my favorite LEGO color combinations, dark stone grey, reddish brown, dark brown on a sand yellow base.

Dunholm - Schirrmeisterei

Meeting BB-8

The Force Awakens sets are finally out (ours are on order from Billund, we had to wait just like everyone else) and I'm super excited to get to build a piece of the next chapter in the saga. But I'm also looking forward to seeing what creative builders do with the new parts and minifigs. Like this excellent little vignette of Rey meeting BB-8 by Legomichiiiiii.

Rey meets BB-8 in Jakku

The Droids I'm Looking For(ward To)

Yesterday was Force Friday, and while my current budget doesn't support a Star Wars shopping spree, it was certainly fun to see such a rush of Star Wars activity all around the interwebs, including Flickr. And while I understand that these droids by Umamen aren't the droids you're looking for, they're for sale if you want them, and you should move along.

LEGO: R2-D2 & C-3PO
LEGO: R2-D2 (3 inch)
LEGO: C-3PO Instructions

Klaatu Barada Nikto

Making movies is a lot of work, and I do mean a LOT of work, and I've done a fair share of them since 1988. Most have blurred into a mishmash of memories of waiting all day to be up, last second equipment malfunctions and tyrannical directors. But a few stand out as actually fun to work on, Army of Darkness was one of them. Bruce Campbell was a joy to be around, Sam Raimi was awesome and the crew of Alterian Studios was family. So to see this book of the dead by vitreolum might conjure images of the macabre for some, to me it's just fond memories of one of the better movie making experiences of my career.

Necronomicon

V-Galactic Racing

I'm a sucker for a good MOC backstory. It adds that extra touch of flair to really understand the world in which a build exists. Builder Markus Rollbühler has not only knocked it out of the park with two awesome space builds, but has generated a wonderful context - they're selectable racers from a video game! He's even gone the extra mile to craft his own select menu, which looks fantastic. I hope we get to "unlock" the rest of the racers soon.

V-Galactic Racing: Scarlet Hare 20X
V-Galactic Racing: Crimson Hornet 3000

Getting Around Springfield

For the past week builder 6kyubi6 has been uploading an entire fleet of vehicles from The Simpsons as part of his "Springfield Project". All manner of conveyance is here, and there seems to be no end in sight, but after 26 seasons on the air there's plenty of material to draw from. My personal favorite is the U-Break-It van. Click through for many more as well as a whole slew of cool buildings as well.

Marge's Car
Otto's School Bus
Kang & Kodos
Chef Wiggum's Police Car
U-Break-It Van Rental
Snake's Firebird

Feed Me!

I have serious mixed feelings on Little Shop of Horrors. On one hand I love Rick Moranis, Bill Murray and Steve Martin. And Audrey II is a crowning achievement in the possibilities of animatic creatures. But I have a hard time watching that movie. I think it's because my roommate tortured me with the soundtrack (that and Howard the Duck if you can believe it) for months, he loved it. But I certainly dig this MOC by Umm, Who?

LEGO® CMF Series 14: Scary Story!

SOCIUS

My first reaction to seeing this MOC and presentation by zi zy was a flood of nostalgia. My buddy and I used to love to go to a Japanese toy store in LA called Pony Toy. We would gawk for ages at all the cool stuff from across the Pacific. This is so well done it looks exactly like a classic Japanese model kit, the kind we would lust after but couldn't afford (jeez, I've always been poor).

00030

Johnny Five

I'll say one thing for Iron Builder, it makes my job easy, Today we're getting retro with some 80's robotic action. This is Johnny Five from the classic movie Short Circuit by Pepa Quin. I've always been a fan of this robot. Short Circuit came out when I was graduating high school and planning on going into the film industry...to do animatronics. It's hard to understate how inspiring this work was to me.

Number Five is Alive
Johnny Five

Test Flight Preparations

This is gorgeous, it's like a scene from a movie. I love everything about this awesome shot by agaethon29, the build, the lighting, the composition, everything. I am instantly drawn in and want to know more about what's going on. Take note space builders, this is how to shoot your models for a cinematic or narrative presentation, beautiful!

Test Flight Preparations