Venice 1486

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Inspired by the game Assassins Creed II, Jonas Kramm and Brick Vader have created this charming diorama of everyone's favorite City of Water.  Beyond the major landmarks depicted in the LEGO Architecture set, there's a lot to appreciate about Venice.  That's exactly what they captured in this scene of ordinary life during the fifteenth century.  Before it was a tourist trap, Venice was a hub of commerce and economic power.  But it also had its moments of tranquility, as you can see from the boy fishing on the pier to the gondolier rowing along the canal.  That guy on the roof, though, I think he's up to something... 

Venice 1486

Buzzzzzz. . .Houston, We Have a Problem

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"I see them. . .Buzz Droids!"

Takamichi Irie may be having some problems with his spaceships soon!  This is a wonderful and incredibly accurate recreation of a Buzz Droid first seen in Revenge of the Sith.  My favorite part of this model is the eyes, which are so realistic!  I'm not sure how much time was spent on this creation, but a lot of Star Wars love and detailing went into this MOC!

Buzz Droid
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Plastic Men Tell No Tales

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This idyllic pirate MOC (by Vitreolum) shows something I really love to see in MOCs online: an entire scene built fully out of LEGO. A White background is nice and all but it's really cool when a builder goes the extra mile to flesh out a scene with more details. I especially love the forced perspective with the tiny island, and the puffy white clouds.

Pirate Cove

Review - Geeky LEGO Crafts

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Review - Geeky LEGO Crafts

Geek culture is a little hard to define. Does that mean Star Wars and Doctor Who fans? Magic the Gathering players? Cosplayers and prop builders? It's sort of all those things, and a million more. It falls under my mantra of "fearless passion", or celebrating and sharing love for something without caring what others think. Sometimes it takes us a while to embrace our own geekdom, but when you really decide you're a nerd, and seek out other like-minded nerds, you'll be so much happier. So what does this have to do with this book?

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Serrated Night 3V

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Looks like our pal Nick Trotta's been busy with this impressive fighter for the Nnovvember contest.  He was inspired of course by the Vic Viper design, a ship from the Yukikaze anime, and an F-117.  I encourage you to click on the picture to see the high resolution image.  The details, color blocking and a crafty angle changes are a real treat.  How the heck did he do that?  Well, it's Nick, so naturally there's a video.  Wicked!

Serrated Night 3V

Red Lady of the Stream

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Eero Okkenen has come up with another stunning figure making use of those nifty "orient-esque" pieces from the Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty Nijago set.  Now, as all of us anglers know, the red lady of the stream refers to the Grayling species of freshwater fish.  So creating a literal yet mythological interpretation is certainly an intriguing concept, and I'd argue worthy of an entire anime series. 

The Red Lady of the Stream

Motion Tracker

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I've always been a fan of the tech of Aliens. James Cameron is a legitimate creative genius and some of my favorite all time movie gadgets are in that film. This is one of them, the motion tracker. It's humble real-life story is as fascinating as it's time on screen, being the product of the 80's scrappy and get-it-done prop builders. This version by W. Navarre does it justice...game over man, game over.

Motion Tracker
Motion Tracker

Rolling in Style. . .In SPAAACE!

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There seems to be a sudden wave of many amazing micro and nano scale creations in the past few months.  This miniature (yet mighty) space rover is a wonderful addition!  Builder Sad Brick has created a rover that is so unique, but incredibly realistic at the same time.  I would definitely cruise around in a full size version of this adorable little build!

MicroRover
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Hot Wheels

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No, your eyes aren't deceiving you (and no, we haven't started covering other toys), these are LEGO. Builder Brick Flag has recreated some classic Hot Wheels, and the results are perfect. Of course they're significantly larger than their tiny rolling counterparts, but I think that's part of the fun. What's more is I had these very cars when I was a kid, the paramedic truck was one of my favorites, and the fastest in my collection.

Hot WHeels Lego MOCs 1 of 11
Hot Wheels Lego MOCs 2 of 11

Winter Fox Hunt

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I watched a lot of nature shows when I was a kid, so when I saw this shot of Miro Dudas' new moc, I could almost hear David Attenborough's voice.  Built for a contest on Eurobricks, Miro has captured the action perfectly.  The fox, listening to it's prey scurrying beneath the snow, almost has a smile on its face, ready to strike.  Lunchtime!

Winter Fox Hunt

Firestorm

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Every once in a while a ship comes along that just screams to be swooshed. You know what I mean, you just wish you could reach into the screen, grab ahold of it, pull it out and run around the room making ridiculous but totally satisfying spaceship sounds and flying it with one hand (and in my case closing one eye and pretend the other is a camera). Today, this marvelous Vic Viper by builder Tim Schwalfenberg is that ship.

Firestorm
Firestorm Details

Khvostov 7G-0X

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Nick Brick is back with another top-notch video game inspired weapon. This time around it's a rifle from Destiny: Rise of Iron, and it's pretty stunning. It's a bit of a departure from the more fanciful weapons of recent history and seems more rooted in reality (looks an awful lot like an AK-47 in my opinion). The attention to detail is what we'd expect from Nick, making this a jaw-dropping reproduction.

Khvostov 7G-0X - Destiny: Rise of Iron
Khvostov 7G-0X - Destiny: Rise of Iron
Khvostov 7G-0X - Destiny: Rise of Iron

No Starch Humble Bundle

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Those fine folks at Humble Bundle and No Starch Press are having "pay what you want" sale and you can score some amazing deals on ebook versions of a load of LEGO inspired titles. Check out this lineup!

Pay any amount to receive ebooks of:
Beautiful LEGO
The LEGO Adventure Book, Vol. 1
Medieval LEGO
The LEGO Build-It Book, Vol. 1

Pay more than $8 to receive all of the above, plus:
The Cult of LEGO
Incredible LEGO Technic
The LEGO Build-It Book, Vol. 2
Forbidden LEGO
LEGO Space
The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions

Pay more than $15 to receive all of the above, plus:
The LEGO Architect
The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book
The LEGO Neighborhood Book
The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Discovery Book
The LEGO Power Functions Idea Book, Vol. 1
Steampunk LEGO

It's $323 in books that you can have for as little as $15, and it supports charity! What are you waiting for? The sale ends Nov 23rd so get going! 

Eve

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Character design and animation at Pixar is pretty amazing. If you saw a sketch of Eve from Wall-E before you saw the movie, you would scarcely suspect she was capable of the range of emotions required for the film, but she was. You might also have suspected she would be pretty much impossible to build with LEGO, but thanks to builder LuisPG2015 you can see it's not

LEGO EVE
LEGO EVE

A Circle Within A Circle Within A Circle Within...

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Every once in a while a MOC comes along that makes you go "wait...what?" This motorized gimbal by builder Sheo stopped me cold this morning, and I love that. It seems impossible at first (even for someone with a background in mechanical contraptions) but then you look more carefully and it makes sense. And in motion it's as beautiful as it is confounding.

Spinning Gimbals