LEGO Batman 3

LEGO Batman 3 Beyond Gotham has been announced to come out the fall of 2014. One of the aspects that I do not like about LEGO games is that once you have played one the rest are the same but with different settings. I am happy with it because it is in space and most of the LEGO games are on earth or Middle-earth except for LEGO Star Wars but that does not really count.

Classic space microfigure commuter vehcile + guns?

When building just for looks and not for playability their are options available that one does not often think about. For example, do the pieces actually have to "stick" together. I the MOC below the windshield piece is resting on a tire that the mircrofigure is squeezed into.



  

 

Of course none of my MOCs are completed without the guns except for some of my medieval and commuter vehicle MOCs.  



Review: Rocka Sealth machine

When I first saw the "Invasion from Below" series, I wanted to buy one of the sets. One of the reasons why was that the pieces were not so unique that you could only use it in the model that you buy, as is the case with many a Hero Factory set. Another reason is that I did not own a single Bionicle or Hero Factory set, so I wanted the parts for making larger mechs.  Their were other sets I wanted to purchase before I got a Hero Factory set but when I saw the add for "buy 1 get 1 free all Here factory sets" I knew my chance had arrived so I purchased the set you see below.

Here are the pros and cons of this set.

 

Pros

 

-  Good piece to parts ratio for Hero Factory

-  Translucent green parts.

- Nice for playing and displaying

- Hero Factory hero that is built using a variety of useful and cool pieces. 

 

Cons

 

- The leg joints are week causing the mech to fall over.

 

Overall I this set is a very good set to buy for many reasons. Almost all the parts are useful for a variety of builds except the cockpit piece.   

 

 

 

Out-of-Praportions Hard Suit

After I finished building this hard suit, I just laughed. The proportions are all wrong for this hard suit, the torso is cone-shaped when it is typically a funnel shape, the left arm is too big, and to top it off (or maybe bottom it off) instead of large legs, which are normally attributed to a hard suit with a torso that big, their are tiny stick legs. 

When I originally created this build, it did not look like what you see above. The legs, arms, and a few parts of the torso are leftovers from what I originally built. To give the arms more maneuverability  I used a technique where you take a small ball joint piece and place it between two parallel clips to form a ball joint. The ball joint that was created was very week and could not support the left arm of the hard suit. After the original model broke, I rebuilt it to what you see above. I then got a LEGO Mixel and replaced the ball joint. Now the new ball joint can easily withhold the weight of the right arm. This is one of the many applications that the ball joints, found in the Mixels, can be used for.

Dino: Got guns?

When I bought this Dino vehicle, It originally had a noose with a turkey leg on it to lure the dinosaur into the noose. I thought that the idea was rather silly, and I could not really use it in my collection. The original set looked like this:

 

As you can see, the set lacked the guns that is typical of my LEGO collection. So, I did a couple of improvements.

One of the things that I like about LEGO, is that if you are discontent with a set you buy, you can just upgrade it. If you want to upgrade a set that you bought, I found that to make the improvement look like it belongs on the set, you have to keep with the style and color of the build. This can some times be challenging but the results are well worth your time.

Mars Mission

My favorite series that LEGO has produced is Mars Mission. I fell in love with the series the first time I saw it because of the cool ship designs. Unfortunately, LEGO stopped producing Mars Mission LEGO sets in 2011. The build below is supposed to be in the Mars Mission theme, but is completely my own creation.   

 

 



 

Ever since I discovered LEGO's unlimited potential, I wanted to build a Mars Mission themed build. After making several unsuccessful attempts at building a Mars Mission vehicle, I decided to give it a break. Finally, a couple months ago I picked up the challenge again and built the vehicle pictured above.  

 



LEGO Viper

Most of the space builds I see, are of nice clean-looking spaceships that look like they have never been flown. What about those spaceships who have travelled the cosmos and as a result are discolored and worn out? In this build I tried to make a viper (a type of spaceship) that looks like it has traveled all over the cosmos.

 

 

One of the lessons that I have learned being a limited LEGO builder is that normally it is hard to find enough pieces of the same color or two colors to complete a build. When confronted with this problem, I found out that making the model worn down and discolored can not only give the build a realistic touch, it also increases the amount of piece colors you can use.   

Brotherhood Workshop

A great LEGO animation studio is the brotherhood workshop. It has a lot of funny LEGO animated videos. I like how they make the animation look smooth. Here is probably one of my favorite videos

I disagree with making fun of blonds, but it is funny in the short. Here is the link for the Brotherhood Workshop https://www.youtube.com/user/BrotherhoodWorkshop

Spaceship or flying boat?

 

 

A couple of posts ago, I said that whenever I tried to construct a spaceship it always turned out to be something other than a spaceship. Today I am displaying another result of such a twist in fate, but I cannot figure out if this is a spaceship of a flying boat. Tell what you think it is in the comments below.

 

When I constructed it, I designed it on paper and traveled to the Bricks and Minifigs, a store that sells assorted LEGO in mass quantities, and purchased the pieces that I did not already have on hand. Unfortunately, the Bricks and Minifigs did not have the right pieces, so I had to improvise.

Hummingbird

When I bought Wild Style from the LEGO Movie minifigure series, I knew I had to use the fan for the end of a bird. After Several unsuccessful attempts, I created the hummingbird that is pictured below 



 

The birds wings are the wings of a Mosquitoid from LEGO Galaxy Squad. 

Happy Mother's Day!!!

 

Thank you mothers'!   

 

Than you mothers' for raising us up in a dangerous world

 



You cannot see it well in this picture, but I used my avatar for the kid and replaced the regular sized legs with short legs.

War of the bricks

 

A couple of minifigure series ago, there was a British spy that had a suitcase and was holding a copy of The Financial Times. I thought it would be fun to change the ending of the famous book War of the Worlds. Where instead of the aliens dying from bacteria, they are slaughtered by the British spy found in the minifigure series with his gun that folds out of his suitcase.   

Created the legs first before I thought about making an alien. I did not know what to use the legs for, until it dawned on me that I could make a scene from War of the Worlds and the legs could be the alien. The rest of the build fell into place. When I build, I normally create some obscure part of the build first and then create the whole build around it.

A space-like spaceship

 

When I build spaceships they normally look like they are for atmospheric travel and not fighting in space. In today's build I created a spaceship that looks like it belongs in space, and, as always, it is armed.

 

 

 

 Spaceship in landing position

 

Spaceship in flight



Spaceship in battle mode

The commuter vehicle of the future

 

Most of my MOCs and builds are normally loaded with guns and weapons, but this build is for a time when one must travel large distances in space to get to ones work. This commuter car can transform from its flight mode to landing mode as pictured below.

Flight mode

Landing mode

 

 



May the 4th be with you

I like puns and I like Star Wars. What a better way to celebrate those two likes then on May 4th.
here is a random picture off the internet of a Star Wars themed build to celebrate this day.

 

I hope that Star Wars episode VII will be released May 4th, though it probably will not.

What should have happened to Gandalf

 

In the scene from the move The Two Towers, when Gandalf is fighting the Balrog while falling through air, I wondered why didn't the Balrog just use his wings and cremate Gandalf? I demonstrated what should have happened, in this build by displaying the skeleton of Gandalf surrounded by flames.  

I know that it is recommended to not use BURPs (Big Ugly Rock Pieces) but when you are a limited LEGO builder you have to be resourceful. A very important aspect to a LEGO creation is how the picture is taken. I have seen builds which look amazing only because of how they are photographed. I have found that using a sheet of paper can give the blank background that is sometimes desired, but when you want to take a picture having a black background it is a lot harder. Black backgrounds are hard to create because, if you use cloth or any material that is not stiff, you have to adjust the lighting so that the folds are hidden. When I photographed this scene I used a piece of black cloth and had to turn off all the lights in the room except for the desk light that I focused on the diorama. Using a black background has its advantages too. If you use a black background and have the proper lighting you can focus on the subject more and hide parts of your build that you would not like to have shown. Using black backgrounds takes more work and time to set up than white backgrounds but the end result is normally worth it. 

LEGO Hishe

I normally do not post any videos but this one on what happens after the LEGO movie is hilarious.

I always wondered how the master builders/superheroes could just be taken without a fight.

LEGO commercial

When I saw this LEGO commercial I knew I just had to post it.