A Visit from Saint Nicholas

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Bert Van Raemdonck captures Saint Nicholas delivering hope at Christmas time. Saint Nicholas was a bishop in what is modern day Turkey he lived from 270-343 AD and much of what we know of him focuses on his generosity.  A brief bio of what we know can be found here. The miter (a bishops pointy hat) is excellent captured using the classic roof piece 3049 , as is the crozier (a bishops staff of office, which often resembles a highly stylized shepherds crook) using the gold plant piece. 

The Gingerbread Express

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The holidays means a lot of things to a lot of people, and a great many traditions. One in our house is a mild obsession with gingerbread. I’ve made no less than four batches of gingerbread men this season, I just ate one while my tea was steeping this morning in fact, and the bag is taunting me as I type this. We’ve built houses in the past, but never anything even remotely as whimsical and wonderful as this train by builder Tim Lydy. It’s adorable, and looks delicious.

A Host Of Robots

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What does one call a collection of robots? A gaggle? A flock? I’m going to propose the official word to represent a mechanical gathering, a “tinker” (make this happen, I’m counting on you all). Builder Rogue Bantha has assembled quite a collection of robots here, and has invited us all to pick our favorite. This is really no small feat, and despite staring far too long at this image I’m afraid I’m not up to the task. I cannot pick just one, so I’ve decided not to, you can’t make me (remember this day when our robot overlords come, when I was inclusive and did not play favorites).

Christmas Cookies

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While we are up to our 5th batch of cookies this year, we haven’t made any of this style (but the gingerbread men have been so yummy) but there’s still a couple days before Christmas so who knows what might happen. And while they might be tasty, I seriously doubt they’ll be as cute as these cookies from builder buildings blockd, which are as adorable as they are filled with Christmas spirit.

Veronica Winter

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Builder vitreolum gave no indication of who this is in the description, so it’s up to me. Meet Veronica Winter, Santa’s personal assistant and aspiring pin up girl. While Santa isn’t terribly supportive if her aspirations, she is the best assistant he’s ever had. Before she came along mail was occasionally lost, milk and cookies might not be readily available and “the list” was never quite up to date. But as much as Veronica loves her job all she really wants is to be pictured on the nose art of the sleigh, something I never new was needed, but I have to agree that would be pretty awesome. Her attempts to prove her worthiness tend to just embarrass Santa, who has given her more coveralls than anyone needs. And Mrs Claus is at her wits end to say the least. When things calm down after Tuesday she’s gonna “have a little talk” with Veronica.

Doc Ock

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Fun fact: I worked on Spiderman 2. Not so fun fact: I spent most of the time working on a single shot that was when this guy showed up and some metal panels got pulled off the wall, blink and you missed it. Doctor Octopus, depicted here by vitreolum, is one of those villains that everyone knows, but no one really “knows”, you know? He’s actually a pretty complex character, who just happens to be a mad scientist with mechanical appendages hell bent on proving his genius while smashing Spiderman.

A Seriously Armed Canard

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When you hear “pusher canard” I’m sure a certain percentage of you would think “huh?”, the rest of you are plane geeks. This rear propeller (pusher) aircraft with front mounted elevator (canard) from builder Red Spacecat is ready for some serious sky warfare. With enough firepower to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger, this looks ready for total sky domination.

The Tower

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This tower has an interesting story. It started as a dark creepy tower, but over the month or so builder MinifigNick worked on it it magically morphed. I’ve endured a UK winter, and I know exactly what Nick means when he says it was an “antidote to the dark wet winter evenings”. LEGO was my therapy when I was there too, it has pretty magical healing properties.

The Stranglers

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I’m afraid that latest band featured by builder redfern1950s2 didn’t get much airplay here in the US, and back then before global connectivity if they didn’t play you on the radio, you didn’t exist. The only song from The Stranglers I’m aware of is No More Heroes, but being a kid of the 70’s and 80’s I’m guessing they’ll have some more offering that will be in my wheelhouse. Time to do some catching up.

Star-Lord, Man. Legendary Outlaw!

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Brickatecture returns, unveiling his brand new wearable Star-Lord / Peter Quill helmet after 3 months of hard work. This model is 100% LEGO, 100% wearable, and 100% awesome. The helmet itself barely seems LEGO, especially with all the fine hair detailing that went into this model. All of the time and parts that went into this creation sure seems to have paid off! Make sure to follow Brickatecture for more amazing life size LEGO replicas!

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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. 

Toast

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Toast, in my opinion, gets no respect. How many times have you watched patrons leaving a diner with their toast still sitting there untouched? How many times have you made breakfast and totally overlooked it? Did you know February 23rd is national toast day? Of course you didn’t! Well it’s lovely to see an AFOL giving toast it’s due, with this awesome little MOC by builder Лего. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make some toast, because it’s awesome.

The Perfect Tree

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Santa seems a bit late with the whole tree thing, we’ve had ours up since Thanksgiving. But thanks to builder Norton74 he’ll have it back to the workshop lickity split with his trusty pickup. Then he can get back to the business at hand, which is good because our tree is looking a little bleak right now (the woes of being a freelance artist). We’re counting on you Santa!

The Sun Dragon

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I wish dragons were real. Wait a minute, what am I saying? Even if they were real humans would have wiped them out by now (this is why we can’t have nice things!) I’ll have to be content to see them in movies, games and especially in bricks, like this marvelous example by builder dviddy. This is the sun dragon, who is very old, very wise, and smarter than all you dumb humans.