Tennis, Anyone?

The world of sports is filled with legendary venues: Fenway Park, Lambeau Field, The Brickyard, The Palestra, and this place; Centre Court at Wimbledon. My old pal Dave Kaleta was commissioned to build this venerable arena and ship it to the UK. Somehow it survived intact, considering all the nifty, irregular connections. Nicely done, Dave- it’s a real home run! Oh, wait…

This MOC Measures Up (See What I Did There?)

This was another one of those “almost scrolled right past it because of the thumbnail” moments. Builder Attacki Works crafted this incremented wonder to exact specs, making it so realistic I barely gave it a glance. Then I thought “why would anyone take a picture of a ruler?” Unfortunately it’s not much good for measuring small stuff, because it’s over six feet long!

How We Used To Compute

Back when I was a young child, this is what computers looked like. I was in high school before they started showing up at everyone’s house. The incredible thing is, that phone in your pocket probably has more computing power and storage than this entire room (or one that this room represents, let’s face it this one is full of plastic toys). A totally retro build by Jalex.

A Tribute To Ingmar

The AFOL community lost one of its own last month, scale modeler and truck aficionado Ingmar Spijkhoven. Ingmar lost his brave battle with ALS on July 30th. I never had the pleasure to meet him, but we were friends on Facebook, and his passion was infectious. Builder Bricksonwheels built this wonderful tribute to him, sadly he passed before it was completed, but he did get to see some work in progress photos. The tanker trailer is Inmar’s design, being towed by a stunning new Peterbilt 389 tractor. While I love all the shiny chrome, eye-catching red color and scale accuracy, my favorite detail is the license plate.

(The End Of) Summer

This little character by builder nobu_tary is clearly ready for some summer time fun, but I do have to question the timing. Summer ended here this week actually, just last Wednesday all the kids had to shlep their way to school again, and they weren’t smiling like this kid. A fun side note, this was the first “first day of school” that we haven’t had to scramble to get at least one child out of the house in 18 years, so I did have a smile on my face just like this kid.

Barb's Disappearance

It was way back in season 1 of Stranger Things when we lost Barb, and the fans have wanted justice ever since. I keep secretly wishing they’ll bring her back, I know things didn't turn out so well for her, but it’s fantasy, some clever writing can do wonders. Builder Legopard took some cues from the official set and imagines the setting for Barb’s disappearance, and the results are awesome.

Dwalin Forkbeard Goes Viral

The creativity and ingenuity of the AFOL community never ceases to amaze me. Builder Dwalin Forkbeard has been building a series of space MOCs based on of all things viruses. This is his latest, based on tectiviridae, which is a DNA virus, those wonderful things responsible for such ailments as smallpox, herpes and chickenpox. To see a few other ships based on the microscopic contagion world click through to his photostream.

Uncle Scrooge

Here we see the species Anas platyrhynchos dives nimis in his natural habitat, the bank vault. While the origins of this species are well known (he’s from Disney) the origins of his fortune are shrouded in mystery. There are many rumors but we won’t speculate here. What we will do is tip our hat to Swan Dutchman for this outstanding rendition of him.

Alien

Me and a friend of mine were talking about this guy at lunch a couple days ago. He’s reading The Making of Alien book (still need to get my copy) and the story of how Ridley Scott came to direct and how HR Giger landed the job of designer is interesting. It’s just one of those series of events in life that seem pretty uneventful in time, but when looking back, it was fate. And the result is one of the most iconic creatures ever to grace the screen, and make us scream. The version by Build Better Bricks will get your heart pumping too, and what’s even better is you can buy instructions for him and build your own!


 
The Making of Alien
By J.W. Rinzler
 

Endless Summer

As this summer comes to a close for some of us more unfortunate people (I’m looking at you students), I think now is a good time to think about all the warm summer days we experienced in preparation for the season to drift by. This scene by Norton74 is perfect for this and it takes me on a journey to a place of fine sand wedged in toes and nice cold beverages chilling at our side. And I know all the purist out there are thinking something along the lines of “EEEEEK SAND!”, but let me tell you you’ve just gotta chill out dudes, hang ten, and all that jazz.

City Of Color

Starting in September visitors to The LEGO House in Billund are in for a visual treat. That’s when this creation by the great Brickbaron will be on display. It’s positively bursting with colorful appeal and just the right amount of story telling to draw you in. Everywhere you look there’s activity, and if I know Paul, there’s more surprises in store.

Are You Threatening Me?

One of my guilty pleasures is Beavis and Butthead. Yes, there’s a load of sophomoric humor (ok, it’s mostly sophomoric humor) but there’s also so exceptionally clever writing and subtle humor going on. And I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard at any episode as I did “The Great Cornholio” where we see what happens when Beavis gets just a bit too much caffeine. A simple but very effective build by Pascal.

Animal Kingdom

Builder city son is back after a six month hiatus and it was worth the wait. Lay your eyes on this magnificent creation featuring a tiger, mandrill (and her baby) two parrots and the reason I’m up so early this morning, a skunk! Yes, we slept with the back door open last night and right about 5am we were jarred awake by the unmistakeable odor of a skunk, my bedroom is still off limits (whew!). Click through for individual pics of all the wonderful animals of this build.