Posted by
Dan
at
11:14 PM
| Name of Model: My own creations from set 8048 |
| Created by: Tomik |
| Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=470006 |
Details:  Here's another set of winners for our alternate models category - which recognizes great original creations based on parts from only one kit. In this case, there are actually 8 new models shown (all of which can be built with the 314 parts in set 8048 Buggy)- a motorbike, a plane, two trike designs, a helicopter, a wasp, a rabbit, and a dinosaur. As you would expect with alternate models from a Technic kit, some of these have working features - a knob in the back make the rabbit's arms move, for example, and the motorbike features working suspension and an engine with pistons that pump as you roll it along. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:00 PM
| Name of Model: Happy Easter 2011 |
| Created by: schfio |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schfio/sets/72157626422017053/ |
Details:  You may have heard that it was Easter this past weekend. For the occasion, this builder created this spectacular sculpture of a baby chick with easter eggs. Although the building-in-all-directions technique is still fairly novel (and frequently done with the aid of a computer), this builder has started making it a main part of his style and incorporated elements that can't easily be specified in a computer-generated design. Note how the little wings are attached by a clip instead of being sculpted on. The use of round eyes and a nose pushed between studs perpendicular to it are also great touches (which also serve to emphasize that this design is more than just a computer-generated pattern). |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:33 PM
| Name of Model: Four Lego Delta Robots |
| Created by: Shep (Tinkernology) |
| Found at: http://tinkernology.blogspot.com/2011/04/four-lego-delta-robots.html |
Details: You may remember the first LEGO flexpicker robot built by today's builder a little over two years ago. While an excellent project, it wasn't the most realistic use of the technology - generally speaking, multiple delta robots are used together as part of an assembly line. Although that would be a mere quibble for most of us, it was reason enough for the builder to give it another go, applying various new techniques and algorithms to improve performance and reduce size compared to the original. A full description is at the site listed above.
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:52 AM
| Name of Model: Garrison of Moriah |
| Created by: gerburrows (Gerry Burrows) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerburrows/sets/72157626512173154/ |
Details:  We've seen other epic models before - but never anything quite this ambitious. This room-eating display was built in about 9 months by one person. In some of the photos, you can see a bit of a bridge and a couch. The LEGO bridge actually goes completely to the other end of the couch, where more is being added to this colossal model. One interesting technique used to quickly reach some of the heights seen here is using baseplates at various angles - in the image shown here, the large grey expanses are all 48x48 (15 inches square) baseplates. Don't miss the second centerpiece, which is a bit more Castle-y and features some great landscaping. The inside of the arena (behind the large statue) is surprisingly detailed considering how hard it must be to get in there and move the minifigs around.
I, for one, can't wait to see what's on the other side of that bridge. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:54 PM
| Name of Model: It's My Birthday |
| Created by: powerpig (Chris McVeigh) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerpig/5610707006/ |
Details:  I've seen plenty of cakes over the years, but this one, erm, "takes the cake". The upside-down plates used in the middle make for a surprisingly believable cake-y texture. The frosting on the outside is similarly good use of texture - having studs face out in every direction captures the look better than tiles or the sides of bricks could. The 1x1 round plates (and the similar flowery element) make great sprinkles. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:41 PM
| Name of Model: legocamera |
| Created by: bshikin |
| Found at: http://code.google.com/p/legocamera/ |
| Details: People have been using analog film with LEGO pieces to make pinhole cameras for years, but this is the first one I've seen that is controlled by a microprocessor. The description offered falls just short of full instructions - the complete source code (which includes such features as a film winding angle calculator and shutter speed calculator) is available to view or download. Since it tracks how much film is left, you never have to worry about exposing the rest of the film before you want to. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:01 AM
| It's come to my attention that some recent posts have been showing up out of order. Since I've been less active here lately (I'd rather be building than writing, and we do have BrickMagic right around the corner), I've been relying on posts I've written earlier. The dates seem to have slipped by, but I do believe they're back in the correct order now. There still aren't enough of them to make up for lost time, so we're going to skip a week and get back to today's model of the day. Sorry for the inconvenience - now let's try this again. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:31 AM
| Name of Model: custom box |
| Created by: 123laulau |
| Found at: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=467918 |
Details:  Here's a charming experiment in color and texture - a 6x16 box in yellow and dark red. IThe top makes great use of one of the curved slope elements in quantity to create a more interesting texture. In the front, we see the common jumper-plate-sideways-looks-like-a-drawer-pull technique flanked by a pair of 1x1 plates stuck into 1x2 Technic bricks. The design is somewhat simple but very visually appealing. | | This is Tuesday's model of the day |
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Posted by
Dan
at
10:11 PM
| Name of Model: LEGO Mindstorms NXT Vision Guided Brick Sorter ver1 |
| Created by: akiyuky (who is also on YouTube) |
| Found at: http://legokarakuri.blog91.fc2.com/blog-category-3.html |
Details: This may be the most useful LEGO robot we've seen yet. This machine can sort LEGO pieces by shape and weight. As you can see in the video, a handful of pieces are pushed out of a reservoir of LEGO elements, and a pair of conveyor belts move the parts from there to a digital scale. The digital scale is in view of a webcam, along with the piece on it. OpenCV is used along with some custom software and a custom database of parts to identify the pieces. From there, another mechanism puts it into one of eight cups based on what type of piece it is.
According to the blog posts describing this, this is just the first iteration. I can't wait to see where this project ends up. |
| Housekeeping note: in the interest of not letting things get out of hand, we will not be taking the time to make up the week we just accidentally skipped. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
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No, we would never succumb to product placement. Never! We're like a popular 60's pop group, and just naturally suggest that Things Go Better With Coca-Cola
occasionally without skipping a beat. In this case, we see Coke
logos and iconography brilliantly added to a Star Wars
-style pod racer. The technique for the roughly life-size cans is particularly clever - and fortunately for coke fiends like myself, well detailed in the work-in-progress photos of this model. Building a round mosaic with a size requirement is an impressive feat, even without working it into a complete model concept. 
, Dora the Explorer
, or Winnie the Pooh
.
won fourth place in the "building" category. It's not hard to see why, with the amount of detail packed into it. The building itself has a surprising amount of texture (particularly for such a monochromatic structure), and the subtle landscaping is also top-notch. 
