You Knocked My Block Off!

Ah, childhood, when we weren't out beating each other senseless with our Sock'Em Boppers, we were inside beating each other's robots senseless with Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Builder jtheels is back with another solid dose of nostalgia, and has sparked a theory. As impossible as it sounds, I am absolutely convinced at this point we somehow shared a toy box from either side of the country.

Bento Box

The Japanese have elevated "lunch to go" to practically an art form, with an endless variation of boxes, food and creative presentation. Who wouldn't want to take a break from their busy work day and dig into one of these? Certainly more appetizing than a brown paper bag. I can't speak to the nutritional value of this bento box lunch from builder nobu_tary, but it's certainly got appeal. 

Latte

I'm a tea drinker. I start every day with a cup of PG Tips, with a teaspoon of sugar in the raw and a splash of milk (a proper hot cuppa). I very rarely drink coffee, unless you count Frapps, and I don't, but I have to confess to a slight craving after seeing this lovely MOC by DOGOD Brick Design. The design is clean and the presentation is perfect.

Cha-ching!

I suppose today's kids learn about money handling with an app (between catching Pokemon) but when I was a kid, this was the apparatus of choice, the Fisher-Price cash register. Seeing this MOC by scottstaz brought a whole flood of nostalgia and happy coin-counting feels. It's a perfect 1:1 recreation, right down to the chute on the side.

Hamburger Steak With Egg

While I would prefer my hamburger patty between two buns, and my eggs scrambled, this yummy looking meal by nobu_tary looks delicious. It's also a testament to thinking outside the brick...I mean box. Not many would look at Commander Cody's shoulder pauldron and think "egg yolk".

Spinning Vinyl

Well, plastic at least. I can remember studying one of these at around age 4 and working out how it functioned, prompting me to disassemble a couple music boxes of my mom's to see if they worked the same way (similar, but using a drum). I also remember getting into a bit of trouble for not putting them back together. What can I say, they were far more interesting with their inner workings exposed. Builder jtheels nails another retro build (and brings back all the childhood feels) perfectly.

Bonsai

Can a MOC center you? I'd argue this one can. Ancient growing and pruning techniques meets skilled building techniques in this bonsai by Emil Lidé and the results are stunning. From a distance you'd swear it's just a little plant, but up close it's a marvel of construction. You really can't appreciate how this is built from these images, I encourage you to click through and check out the high res images.

You Can Spin With One, Spin With Two, How You Spin Is Up To You!

I know we had at least one of these at our house when I was a kid, but being that I get barfy just glancing at my phone in a moving car I never cared for it much. It's Sit 'n Spin from jtheels, and it's a blast form the centrifugal past! Yeah, some of the toys from my youth were kinda dumb, but then again so were we (lawn darts anyone?).

Old School Recording

Back in the day if you wanted to record some audio you used one of these, a cassette recorder. They were huge, they were clunky, they were crude and they were awesome. This one was build by Nathan Wells for the brickfilming documentary Bricks in Motion (in which I make a brief appearance!). It's 1:1 scale and amazingly accurate, brings back a lot of memories.

Gameboy

Way back in 1989 I was working on location on a pretty terrible film called The Boneyard. One day me and some other crew members went to Walmart and I spotted these, the brand new Gameboy from Nintendo. I immediately bought two, one for me, one for my girlfriend, and we played and played. This version by Kloou brings back all the nostalgic feels. 

A Place For Everything, And Everything In It's Place

This looks right out of a Hold Everything or Ikea catalog. Builder kosbrick is presently engaged in an epic struggle known as Iron Builder, and the seed part is the little paint roller handle being so cleverly used as hooks in this unpretentious build. It's clean, it's realistic and it's functional. 

Hungry?

I went to Japan once, it was in the late 90's and quite the adventure. It started simply enough, with some press junkets for Armageddon and lots of meetings. There was food too, lots of it, and it was sensational every where we went. And presented well, with pride and panache, like this bento box from nobu_tary. Then I got sick, asian influenza type two, and became quite familiar with my hotel room... for three long and brutal days longer than I planned to stay in the country.

Tick Tock

I'm having flashbacks to being a kid, and the agonizing wait until Christmas. Where time itself can be empirically observed to slow down, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. I am of course talking about the four day wait I have until Star Wars comes out. Perhaps if I had this wonderful clock by Legonardo Davidy the hands wouldn't mock me to the same level.

TRAC BALL

I have fond memories of my formative years on Mango Street here in Lompoc. It was where I lived when I got my first movie camera, saw Star Wars, played lawn darts and (once those were determined to be the stupidest invention ever) TRAC BALL. These wonders from Wham-O are actually still around and allow you to throw a perfect curve ball despite having zero athletic ability. I will however caution against the attempt to catch a Stretch Armstrong thrown by your brother, it will break it (I speak from experience).

You Can Practically Smell The Flux

This is so awesome. I spent many, many hours breadboarding, repairing and designing printed circuit boards way back when, so this latest build from 6kyubi6 for Iron Builder resonates on many levels for me. Brilliant on every level.

Phonograph

There seems to be a music theme this morning here at BrickNerd. By total coincidence I was thinking moments ago about the Christmas music I have on vinyl, then this wonderful phonograph by bricks.life.idea pops up. I'll take it as a hint that I need to deck the halls today.

Pump It Up!

This is one of those classic situations where you might just skip over a MOC because it's so darned good it just looks like a mundane photo of an everyday object. This hand pump by 6kyubi6 may not be any good at inflating anything, but it's sure splendid to look at.

Wheels Of Steel

I've always wanted to play with one of these, but the opportunity has never been there. I cut my teeth on early hip-hop and electro, with the likes of RUN DMC, Newcleus and Sugar Hill Gang (yes, I used to break dance too, that was a LONG time ago). This half-scale twin Technics setup by delta.triangle makes me want to break out my vinyl. 

Feeling The Pressure

The latest Iron Builder rages on, and if history is any indication, both builders should be equipped with one of these little babies by cmaddison, because the pressure is 'building' (see what I did there?) I've personally never competed, and I don't think I ever will. Because I'd be redlining from the start and probably blow a gasket by week two . 

Wilson!

Cast Away is a remarkable bit of filmmaking, if you haven't seen in, I highly recommend it. It breaks many of the "rules" but works so very well. And one of the characters is so unconventional, well, you just have to see it to understand. Builder jtheels understands, and this LEGO version of Wilson is absolutely brilliant.