The Last Skimmer

Grant Davis is leading the charge. . . This happens to be the first build I have seen from the Last Jedi trailer, and it's an excellent model indeed. The new resistance vehicles are seen skimming across the surface of Crait towards a battle with the First Order. Though we have very limited footage of these new vehicles, Grant was able to build a model that is easily recognizable, even if it didn't have the iconic dust behind it. This is one of the things I knew we would see multiple versions of in LEGO, because most of the other footage from the trailer is just scenes with a few characters. I was also planning to build this craft, but I may hold off, because we have this awesome representation!

HAL

Jason at JK Brickworks is back with another nifty MOC that has your best interests at heart. This one isn't kinetic, but sci-fi and Kubrick fans will recognize HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL is brought to life by the Pfx Brick, featuring light and sound. They're in the final push on their Kickstarter and need your help. You can also find instructions to build your own HAL here.

Tree Town

Is there anything more inviting than a tree house? Admit it, you see one, you just want to climb up and hang out (unless you're afraid of heights, or squirrels or something I suppose). I can say I've never had the opportunity to spend any time in a quality tree house, but I've always wanted to, especially if it was as awesome as this MOC by Tim Schwalfenberg. I'm not sure how much I'd trust that bridge, or that bee hive, but I desperately want to visit this place.

Preacher

As is usual with a comic related post, I've never ready Preacher, nor have I seen the TV show based on the comic. But I do appreciate a good character build, and this busts by Vitreolum are fantastic. Of course I did a little googling just to see who we're talking about and they're pretty much perfect.

Reaper

The description of this impressive beast of a MOC by Benjamin Cheh is "Surveillance and Target Acquisition" but judging by the armament on this thing, it's more than capable of target annihilation as well. I would love to see this thing walking...just not in real life, towards me, I don't ever want to see that.

Shadowcaster

This is a MOC that defies logic and the "rules" of brick construction. How this flowing curve and tapered shape was accomplished is a bit mystifying to me, but it's so gorgeous I don't care. Builder JON1138 describes the model in detail in this video by the fine humans at Beyond the Brick.

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's A Cubist Interpretation

Superman has probably never been edgier (see what I did there?) than in this cool cubist version by builder Amida Na. The man of steel is a man of bricks, and I think he looks pretty super. Now some may debate that everything in LEGO is cubist, or even say that this isn't cubism at all (art is so subjective) but no one can deny that this is pretty awesome.

And You Had Trouble Picking Out A Tie This Morning

Tony Stark certainly has no shortage of suits, both three piece and Iron Man suits. One he uses for guest appearances at charity auctions and being a playboy on the town, the other he uses when he needs to look business-like. I don't know if this MOC by John Toulouse has every single Iron Man minifigure that has ever been made, but it certainly looks like it (even the micro-fig!). It also has some fun surprises on the back side, very cool.

The House That Jamie Built...

UK builder Jamie Douglas always thinks, and builds, big. In 2015 he built a giant train station  Manchester Brickadilly, and now he's turned his attention to the Palace of Westminster.  That's the British Houses of Parliament, the Commons and the Lords, to you & me.

Fun facts:  
To create this monster build, Jamie used parts from 10 of the Big Ben sets (#10253), as well as a large number of Bricklink orders.  So if you find the price of Tan elements has gone up, you know who to blame. The whole thing uses in excess of 50,000 pieces, and took 235 hours to build, which doesn't include the 25 - 30 hours planning time.

The finished MOC will be on display for the first time at this year's Bricktastic, 1-2 July in Manchester UK.  If you can, go see it in person, but if you can't, click through to Jamie's stream on Flickr.

TESS

Meet TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. TESS will be in space planet hunting sometime next year, but thanks to builder Apojove you can have one on your desktop right now. You can download instructions and learn all about this fascinating satellitr and it's mission on Rebrickable.

Technique Tuesday - Building Guides

One of the best things about the LEGO community is that we can learn from one another.  Here at BrickNerd, we like to share techniques that we see from builders all around the world. . .

This week's tip isn't really about a particular technique, but more of an invaluable resource. Brickgun.com not only has a slew of really cool weapons, instructions and other nifty models to purchase, there's also a ton of really valuable and useful building guides in the free section. I have a print out of all these at the studio, they really come in handy. Click through and grab them, and give the site a good look, it's excellent.

The Simple Pleasures Of Childhood

I remember them well, out in front of the K-Mart, the rides. They were actually in front of several places here in my home town growing up. You know, those little rides that don't do much, don't cost much and don't seem to be very fun, but we all begged our moms for a quarter so we could ride. Builder LEGOMINDED takes advantage of the new rocket costume collectible minifigure to bring back a bit of nostalgia, and the results are as charming as they are clever.

Unaussprechlichen Kulten

For those that don't know, the Unaussprechlichen Kulten is a fictional book from Robert E. Howard's short stories, and was later referenced by H.P. Lovecraft, so you know it's got some dark mojo. It was built by Vitreolum as a companion piece to his Necronomicon. That's the beginning of a pretty bleak, but damn cool library.

Titanic On The High Seas

We're all familiar with the name Titanic. It's become synonymous with tragedy or failure. But that description couldn't be further from truth with this awesome animated mechanical MOC by builder Bangooh. With a crank of the handle the Titanic sails one again, while the ocean waves swell by. Check out the video to see it in action.

Poe Dameron Brick Cosplay

He's the best pilot in the resistance, and a hero of the republic, he's Poe Dameron. And builder Takamichi Irie is such a fan he's built his costume. But it's no ordinary cosplay, the helmet, chest box, pistol and many other accessories are all brick-built. It's a Star Wars, costuming and LEGO mashup, and it's pretty awesome.

Happy Easter!

I hope all your baskets are full of yummy snacks and plastic bricks (mine was, and an Apple Watch, woot!) and you are all celebrating Easter in your own way. Builder powerpig brings us this adorable...Unibunny? She's got some eggs for you.

Information Retrieval

Robots will eventually be a part of our everyday lives, in some way they are. But as we imbue them with more personality and human like characteristics will it become harder to think of them as hardware? Take this little guy from builder Legoloverman, it's really hard not to feel sorry for him. A robot is a bunch of metal, plastic and circuits, no more "alive" than a Roomba, but I doubt I'd feel anything if one was in this same position.

Journey

Builder and BrickNerd alum Melan-E is a huge fan of the game Journey, and to celebrate she has build this gorgeous figure of the main character of the game. I've never played Journey, mainly because I don't have a Playstation. But if I did I have no doubt this would be in my collection, it's totally my kind of game. This beautiful figure has the sweeping lines and curves of the game character, or the flow-ness as Mel puts it, and looks ready to glide over the dunes.

Tregatis VI Mining Operation

I hope you were in the mood for some serious Neo Classic Space because this is pretty epic. Welcome to the Tregatis VI Mining Operation, by Brick Knight. According to the builder Tregatis VI is a uninhabited planet located in the Pegasus galaxy. The CS explorers discovered the planet contains a rare mineral that has great potential as an energy source. Click through for many more pictures and get a good look at this huge layout.

RoboRoo

Here's a fun fact. The reason that you only see kangaroos in Australia is because that's where they were invented by ancient aboriginal robotic designers. About 2500 years ago a mechanical engineer by the name of Djalu Yunupingu, working in his secret lab deep beneath Uluru, designed the first robotic kangaroo. This was in direct response to a threat from a rival designer. Working in what would eventually become the Sydney Opera House he designed what he called "the ultimate mechanical army". Those ended up being koala, but due to their dependency on eucalyptus fuel that had the side effect of making them sluggish and slow moving, they turned out to be no threat. I made that all up, but I dig this robotic roo by ToyForce 120.