This model isn't terribly complex from a technical standpoint, but it features great uses of lettering, hinges, and studs-not-on-top building (check out the boxes shown on the side). Then, of course, there's the use of a 1 x 1 round tile and 2 x 2 round tile to represent some milk that has spilled.
Details: This fantastic bust made its public debut this year at Bricks By the Bay. The character (OK, the hat and colors, mostly) is based on the Baseball Player Series 3 Collectible Minifigure. The team is the Clutchers, because LEGO pieces clutch together (see what they did there?) - but the hat itself is actually a really neat build, featuring cheese slopes at the edge of the brim to round it out into the more traditionally sculpted top. The incorporation of brick-built lettering on a sculpted surface is spot-on. Don't miss the details of the face: in addition to the standard bars-in-headlight-bricks-for-the-whites-of-the-eyes trick, there's also some fantastic studs-not-on-top tricks and clever uses of slopes to get great curvature in the cheekbones and nose.
Details: The reigning champion of cutesy Easter models is back to one-up last year's impressive model. I do wish we could see a different angle of this bunny's face - the minifig helmets used for eyes look pretty good from this photo, but I'd love to see how it looks from the side. The egg cart is priceless, continuing the studs-out approach and even including wheels built out of plates instead of using regular wheel and tire parts. The best detail may be the necktie, though, making use of two red plates with clips attached sideways to get the double-sided plate effect - it's not a difficult technique, but most people wouldn't think to have made the middle of the bowtie sideways facing outward so that could work.
Details: Somewhere along the way, I started collecting Nerf Mavericks when I could find them on the cheap - used, I could find them for very little at some of the same places I was buying used LEGO. A coworker had started bringing some into the office, and I felt a need to have at least one of my own so I could shoot the dart back. The Maverick seems like the ideal model in my mind - it's a simple 6-shooter, fast enough for goofing off but not so fast that you're likely to end up with a giant pile of darts on the floor afterwards (admittedly, this is my own idealism, and another coworker has since proven just how quickly a mess can be made with a Maverick and a few hundred darts.
There are apparently quite a few people who have gotten into both LEGO and Nerf. Obviously, we've covered a NXT/Nerf robotic tank before, and there's at least one famous photo of a Nerf gun fight kick-off at a LEGO convention. It seems to go deeper than that - it's very common to see people asking on flickr what they should buy first - a Nerf gun or a particular LEGO set (spoiler: the correct answer is always the LEGO set).
Here, though, we see the logical conclusion of this convergence of crazes, the coupling of these commonly collected cool curios - a photorealistic LEGO version of the Nerf Maverick. The slide and barrel move just like the real thing, although it wasn't possible to have this much realism and make the internal mechanisms work at the same time (not that you'd get the correct effect from an official LEGO spring anyway). A few stickers had to be used, but it's hard to argue with that when this look is this exact. The size, complexity, and accuracy of this model sets a new standard for hyper-realistic life-size replicas of ordinary objects.
Details: Building artificial bones is a very time-consuming, tedious process. As explained in the video here, it requires dipping a sample into a mix of calcium and protein, rinsing it, and then dipping it into a mix of phosphate and protein. This process has to be done over and over again. Needing a quick way to automate the process, they turned to the education edition of the LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit. In something of a rare occurrence, the comments at the YouTube link above are actually helpful and explain more about how these robots were made. Most surprisingly, they were able to get the correct amount of precision out of the robots using the graphical language (NXT-G) that LEGO ships with the kit. Also explained in the comments: why there are three motors on robots that only have two degrees of motion (arm back/forth and winch up/down). Most impressively, one of the builders mentions that it was their first time using Mindstorms!
Details: Every once in a while, you hear someone dismiss a LEGO creation as a variation on a box. I believe that this is the only counterargument necessary - it's indisputably a box, and yet it's still a distinctive and fantastic creation. The dark tan corners are an excellent use of the 3x3 wedge plate (I will never understand why a wedge plate is one of the few pieces LEGO makes widely available in that color). The use of a rope bridge as the handle is inspired - it also doubles nicely as a working latch. The parts made to look like latches are a rare great use of Vehicle, Base 4 x 5, with some nice pearl gold on the top. I don't know where the LEGO logo towel is from (I want one!), but the boat rigging holding it in (this piece, I think) pushes this over the top.
Details: Back in 1995, LEGO released the (then-groundbreaking) Control Center II. As a "programmable" (through routines on a specialized console) tool for motorized Technic creations, it was a precursor to the more recent Mindstorms kits. One of the models you could build with the kit (the dinosaur) has been used as a flagship for the LEGO company long past when you could actually buy the Control Center II - giant sculptures of it can be found at LEGOLAND attractions. Here, we have life-size reproductions of some elements from the kit - the Control Center itself, and the European version of the power cable - alongside a 9V motor (a newer version than the one that came with the Control Center kits) and the end of a European extension cord.
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).
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.
Details: This lantern has quite a few clever parts uses. The outer "glass" is made from 24 1x4x6 3-pane windows. The loop at the top is actually a tire that fits a 3-wide Technic pulley wheel. The candle in the center is actually a stack of large white radar dishes. Even the flame is out of the ordinary - it's made out of several small trans-orange pieces instead of the usual flame element LEGO makes. The whole thing looks so sleek that you could be forgiven for not recognizing it as being made out of LEGO elements at all.
Details: We would have posted these earlier if we were more on top of things, but I was only informed at the last minute that there was a merry-making holiday coming up (and then got caught up in some merry-making of my own). First up is this pair of toy-making elves, which I believe to be actual size. The toys being made on the table are figures in various scales - you may recognize the miniland-scale Bender from Futurama as one of the characters, in the elf's hand at the moment is an R2-D2 minifigure). These have been part of a River Park "Photos with Santa" booth next to a Macy's in Fresno, California, USA since Black Friday (No word on how long this will remain open to the public, but I understand there are other models in the display as well).
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I put off blogging this one in favor of getting some photos and news coverage in addition to what Sean Kenney wrote for his own site. That decision paid off, since I can now offer you a round-up of coverage of this exhibit, which lasts for several months. The particular picture above is roughly minifig-scale, and is one of three showing a rainforest in various states (healthy, destruction, replanting). The rest of this exhibit (running from April 10th to October 31st at the Philadelphia Zoo) features large, life-size sculptures. Here's a round-up of links covering the events:
In addition to the long-term display, there are also two "Build with Sean Kenney" events scheduled for visitors to the zoo (both events are free with zoo admission). One is next weekend, the other is in September.
Details: There is now another great entry in the category of life-size LEGO furniture. This buffet has four drawers and two doors. While there doesn't appear to be any particularly trickery building technique here (we all already knew you could use tiles to let part of a model slide on top of another part of the model, right?), the scope of the model is very impressive. Over 25,000 LEGO pieces were used to make this life-size - over 6 feet long. Based on a design by Dutch furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld, this model captures the look of the 1919 original as perfectly as can be done with LEGO parts. This buffet will be on display as part of droog's presentation at design miami / basel 2010 from June 15th to june 19th, 2010.
Details: Here's a smaller project that's a little easier to try out - a miniature functional sundial. Full instructions for building this model and setting the sundial to work correctly in your area can be found at the website above. In addition to actually working as a sundial, this can be easily folded up and stored in a pocket - hence the "portable" bit. It's not terribly practical to use a sundial to tell time these days, but this project is easy enough and the documentation is thorough enough to warrant attention anyway.
Details: It's a bit hard to grasp the scale of this enormous chess set. Each piece is actually a large Mindstorms NXT robot. The base of each one is fairly standard, but the top of each one actually looks like a particular chess piece - some of them are even animated (note the kicking front legs on the knights). The 38 NXT programmable bricks here are controlled by a laptop through Bluetooth - which requires that the laptop is constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to the "brains" in each chess piece. A project of this scope is beyond the reach of most NXT fans, but since a few of the builders involved with this project have worked with the LEGO company before as part of MCP, MDP, and the BrickWorld staff (according to their bios on the BrickWorld site), I'm guessing that the cost of this (roughly $30,000 retail) was partially subsidized by the LEGO company. This is fully functional as a chessboard - you can play against the computer, play against another human player, watch the computer play against itself, or watch the chess robots act out a saved game. To see this in motion, you have to check out the two videos of this game in action at the site above. Alternatively, you could go to BrickWorld this upcoming weekend to see this in person when these robots make their LEGO convention debut.
Details: For many people the great taboo is trying to build a piece of furniture. Even fairly experienced builders who wouldn't think twice about building a giant sculpture often shy away from building furniture. That didn't stop today's builder, though, who paid top-dollar for thousands of shiny new bricks in black and white and glued them together to build a sturdy replica of a George Nelson Platform Bench. In context, it looks just like the "real" thing. There's also a stop-motion video of the table's assembly at the site listed above.
Details: Here's another for the "don't try this at home" category - building a sword out of LEGO. On second thought, I trust that you can behave yourself and I think we all can agree that this is one beautiful model. This was built for a recent Classic-Castle.com challenge that asks LEGO enthusiasts to try building life-size medieval weapons.
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This human-size arm is an extremely unusual feat. Done entirely with off-the-shelf LEGO Technic parts, it holds it's own weight and can maneuver well enough to pick up objects. You can get an idea of the strain on the parts by looking at the overhead view - extra battery packs are acting as a counterweight, and you can see how just one linear actuator holds the weight of the arm. The video is what really makes this model so dramatic - you can see that the parts have little problem handling the loads. Frankly, as nice of a model as this is, it almost feels like an advertisement for the newer Power Functions motors, linear actuators, and pneumatic parts. The older pneumatic parts show up in the hand itself, used as a way of closing fingers while limiting the amount of force used to grip. While the claim that this was built in one weekend might appear suspect, I'd argue that this is clearly an example of what you can do quickly if you've built up a decent collection of parts and have a good idea of each how to appropriate us the various elements. The use of the strong linear actuators in certain places allowed this arm to be much more stable and powerful than it would have been with geared joints or pneumatic actuators in the upper arm. Using pneumatics to limit the amount of force for the grip was a pretty clever trick, but not one quite as intuitive as using torque-limiting gears.
The important skill that allows people to build models like this quickly is knowing the strengths of each part. There's really no replacement for just messing around with elements you're not familiar with and seeing what they can do. That, kids, is what you should tell your parents when they ask why you never did finish building that big Technic kit.
No, seriously - I learned how to use pneumatic parts in the first place by "failing" to "correctly" assemble an 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig. Ironically, my parents weren't convinced it was a good idea until I built my first large mechanical arm - which couldn't be mounted in a human manner because pneumatics wouldn't be able to handle that much weight.
Details: This is easily one of the more unusual models I've featured recently. Generally speaking, people very intentionally seek out certain parts to build the models featured on this blog. Usually they have to stock up on certain elements, sort the collection a bit, and it's not at all uncommon to see someone buying additional parts to finish a model. So when I hear about someone using nothing but their childhood collection to build something spectacular, I start to wonder if it's a hoax. The fact that I can't find any other information about this builder similarly annoys me. Oh, and did I mention that the builder does not
However, the brilliant attention to detail in this model makes it noteworthy beyond it's seemingly mythical creation. Everything that's supposed to open up does, revealing internal details. It's really all in there, with everything recreated using fairly common parts. This looks so much like a functional Fender Princeton Reverb® amp that the Fender official website is hosting the webpage I'm linking to here.
Details: I think it's pretty clear how these beautiful tulips were done, but I have to admit it's a pretty clever design even if it does look easy to copy. Of course, that's assuming you have the parts - I know I don't have the dark red ones. I love the upside-down palm trees here.
As part of the FOODcember 2014 building challenge, Kosmas Santosa built this very realistic bottle of milk...and mini chocolate cake, a chocolate cake with cherry and cream on top, a martini, fried chicken and french fries, and a kitchen to establish the theme for the month. That's not even all of his builds for this challenge, and it's only small taste of the delicious models in the FOODcember Flickr pool.
from 
as one of the characters, in the elf's hand at the moment is an 
). These have been part of a River Park "Photos with Santa" booth next to a Macy's in Fresno, California, USA since Black Friday (No word on how long this will remain open to the public, but I understand there are other models in the display as well). 
. In context, it looks just like the "real" thing. There's also a stop-motion video of the table's assembly at the site listed above.
