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

ZTZ-41 Xiao

Say for argument you had a neighbor that had some trees that they let get WAY out of control. And suppose you suggested to this neighbor that the trees *might* need some trimming and upkeep, only to be confronted. And perhaps those trees were also responsible for some root damage and your fence was pretty much wrecked because of them. This would be the perfect machine to handle such trees, in a way that would be both efficient and cathartic (with entertainment value for surrounding neighbors). Nice build Tromas.

ZTZ-41 Xiao
Jiangshi

Diggin' Dinos

I'm pretty excited about this. Early in the year I was asked by Brick Loot to design a model of the month. I had a couple themes to choose from and settled on the dinosaur theme in June. I won't tell you what I designed, that's a secret, but I will say it was fun to build and looks great on my shelf here in the studio. You have about three weeks left to score the June box so head over to www.brickloot.com and place your order.

Epic Thunderbird 3

Entertainment on TV was a little scarce when I was a kid, we only had like 5 channels. And in a landscape flooded with reruns of I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore and Adam 12, stuff for kids was hard to find. Except on Saturday morning, when we ruled the airwaves. Thunderbirds wasn't on very often, so when we happened across it we were glued to the screen. Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation kept us completely captivated as we obliterated an entire box of Cap'n Crunch. Yes, the puppets were a little unsettling, the ships were a bit garish, the plots were thin and the visual effects were a bit cheesy...and we loved every second of it. Builder Bricks for Brains was clearly a fan too, and this totally awesome MOC of Thunderbird 3 is a work of art.

LONG SHOT
View from below
Sofa transport

Midi Sandcrawler

I've always had an affection for the Jawas and their behemoth transportation. Something about their cute yet mischievous behavior juxtaposed to this colossal machine is just appealing. It's something we take for granted now but think about it, before George thought this up it simply didn't exist, and there was no basis of reality for it. It's been brick-built many times, and an official set three times, but I really like the scale of this version by Omar + kamitera. Oh, and those micro Jawas are adorkable.

Midi Sandcrawler
Midi Sandcrawler

Treasure Collecting, Backstabbin' Fun

I had the great pleasure of learning to play Munchkin for the very first time with Guy Himber last October. Guy is the man behind Crazy Bricks, which ran a successful Kickstarter to create custom Munchkin parts for Minifigures (as well as a slew of other way fun custom parts). Well, now Guy has brought the entire game to life with a custom brick-built game board. 

Munchkin Game board made from LEGO