A wolf in, well, wolf's clothing

I suspect that the subject matter of the model below, and the identity of its creator, are both so self evident that they don't really need spelling out. But if you're in any doubt about either, this wonderfully wolf-centric rendition of Little Red Riding Hood is by the prodigious Tyler Clites (aka Legohaulic).



There are just too many trademark Tyler 'NPU' details in the wolf to call out individually (although if you study Little Red, you will discover a more manageable set of them perhaps).

And here is the complete scene. Apparently Tyler built this as another entry in some contest or other. But I never follow or enter or win contests, so I wouldn't know about that.



But at least this one won't shed any bricks when held upside down, so I think Tyler is redeemed - good for one Get Out Of Twee Free pass in my book! ;-)
 

One more, for the road

Yes, yes, yes Christmas is finally behind us now. The bear trap has been removed from the fireplace, hosed down, and the all elf carcasses summarily buried in the back yard.

And it's not my fault that Ed Diment (aka Lego Monster) only just got around to posting what may be my favorite Festive model of the year. I'm guessing it got lost in a snow drift and only just reappeared! Either that, or he only just sobered up. (...I'm going with the latter, since I only just sobered up about two hours ago)



I suppose if I were to Photoshop out the tree, I could get away with just referring to this as a "hunting scene". But based on my previous mischief tinkering with Ed's photos's maybe I'd better resist the temptation!

Apart from which, I have way too much other important Christmas stuff to do. These unopened presents aren't going to burn themselves, you know...
 

Merry GRID-smas!

It's 2am and I'm only just done with wrapping all the presents, if you can believe that. So what the hec am I doing fiddling about in Photoshop at this hour, you might ask? Wishing my fellow Lego fans, Tron fans, and most of all Living Brick readers a very Merry GRID-smas, that's what!



Maybe in the morning Santa will have left me some new blog postings to share with you. Or a big bottle of Scotch would be good, too!

"YesYesYesYesYesYesYes"

(...to quote a character from the original movie!)

The wait is almost over, the Tron-mania almost at fever pitch now. Because TRON: Legacy finally opens in theaters this Friday! In anticipation of this event, I have been listening to Han Zimmer's excellent soundtrack almost non-stop. Oh, and I also put together this little Lego sculpture of one of the movie's characters...

Quorra (played by actress Olivia Wilde)


This model was quite a challenge, but I'm really pleased with the result. It's about a foot tall, and this represents a new scale and level of detail that I'll be transitioning to in 2011.

The light bands are not brick-built, I'm afraid. I tried a few brick-based approachs and they all looked horrible. So in the end I just used sticky paper, so as not to spoil the general lines of the figure. After all, I spent several weeks staring at that poor woman's bottom, and I wanted it to count for something!
 

Talk to the hand

This piece entitled Without Expression is anything but. It's creator Nathaniel (aka "/\rchitect", since his keyboard apparently lacks an "A" key) has used some very eclectic combinations of bricks to flesh out this character's flesh-free features.


I also like the very sparing use of a single color highlight, for what appear to be this figure's only items of clothing. But I guess if I were a charred skeleton with a hollow skull, I might prioritize on shoulder pads, jock straps and socks too!
 

Les is more

Fellow kitten hater and, by all accounts, very talented guitarist Brian Kescenovitz (aka mondayn00dle) has created this breathtakingly accurate Les Paul, complete with brick-built frets and everything!


It's just such a pleasure to look at. I keep meaning to give my favorite classic synths the Lego treatment, and stuff like this just inspires me to maybe get off my arse and do it.

Nice one, Brian! <does triumphant Bill and Ted style air guitar>
 

Wascally wabbits

CactusBrick co-founder Chris Piccirillo got to make these kwute fwuffy bunny wabbits for the grand opening of a new Lego store in Arizona a while back.







It all looks very sweet and innocent but I'm sorry, the black one just completely fucking scares the shit out of me. Ugh, I think it's got the mixamitosis! You just know the carrots are bate for the gray bunny, and the black one is waiting for it to get close enough so it can chew off its head.

And yet for some reason - as my son realized for the first time while watching some interminable wildlife documentary last week - the camera man never intervenes!
 

Like chalk and cheese slopes

It's nice to see I'm not the only one exploring the world of Lego mini-busts. The two fine specimens below are of characters so well known that they almost need no introduction, and nothing interesting about them can be said that has not already been said!



Ok, so you recognize Homer Simpson on the left, created by Fredo Houben. I mean, is there anyone alive today that doesn't just automatically see his face whenever they close their eyelids? Or hear George Bush speaking?

Perhaps a little harder to put a name to is the face on the right, that of Professor Frink, from the same show, created by Alex Eylar. Probably the nearest thing the show has to a photographic negative of Homer. Which is why it's so cool seeing them side by side like this!
 

Prepare to meet your doom, doomed ones!

Mariann Asanuma (aka Model Gal) created this version of Invader ZIM that captures all the calm repose and controlled alien dignity of the original Nickelodeon character...


It's so adorable, it's even cute when seen from the rear...


I can almost hear him now: "Prepare your bladder for imminent release! Invader's blood marches through my veins, like giant radioactive rubber pants! The pants command me. Do not ignore my veins!"
 

Mimicry is the sincerest form of surprise attack

This one's for my fellow Dungeons and Dragons fans (the ones that don't still live in their Mom's basement anyway). My favorite monsters from this game were always the specialized dungeon denizens such as beholders, trappers, gelatinous cubes and of course jellies. So I was tickled pink to see two versions of the classic Mimic surface in the same week, from joshua777 and RGB900 respectively (both utilizing different sized Lego chests).





This *so* makes me want to have another go at building some D&D monsters, since my original attempts were less than spectacular!
 

King me

Amado C. Pinlac (aka ACPin) may be better known for his expansive Star Wars dioramas, but his version of the Scorpion King is still pretty sweet. Although I have this odd feeling he's about to build some kind of expansive diorama around it!


But what I wanna know is, with scorpions for hands, how exactly does this guy hold a spoon, or file a tax return, or go to the bathroom, without totally killing himself?!

Of course, I don't think we need to know this guy's birthday to figure out that he is know for being extremely possessive and jealous, yet also capable of incredible loyalty, is strong willed and always will to speak his mind, is typically attracted to Pisces with Venus rising and minor homicidal tendancies, and today should be especially careful handling money situations, and watch out for goats wearing monacles. Today's power numbers: 4, 17 and 506.
 

The world's gone mad (again)

Everyone's off unwrapping and playing with their minifigs. I cannot find anything worth blogging, that is made out of bricks. All I can hear is the distant crinkle-crinkle of a million foil packets. And somewhere not far from here, deep in the bowels of a smoking volcano, Hillel sleeps soundly upon a giant mound of spartans and fisherman, like some modern Smaug...
 

A la modo

Chipmunk abuser Chris McVeigh (aka powerpig) recently finished up a stint as a guest artist for the online geek mag Gizmodo, for which he produced some lovely little brick-built Lego vignettes to accompany various articles. I can't pick a favorite, so here's the whole lot of them...

Silk Spider	Killer Wave
Preserve-O-Matic	A Ramen Meal
Radio Tower	Yamaha Speaker
Broken iPod	Lego iPad

 

Prawn cocktail

Over the summer I finally got around to watching the movie District 9, and really digged it. I know it's a bit messagey, and yes we all get it: if you don't throw away your leftover seafood, it'll evolve to the point where it wears bras, and this is a bad thing (that was the message, right?).

Last year Adrian Florea made a fantasic large sculpture of one of the movie's alien "prawn" characters (one of the best character MOCs I've seen in a long time). But as excellent as it was, Adrian's version lacked "playability", due to its size.

So hat's off to Âtin for coming up with these handy-dandy little minifig scale prawns, complete with fetching color-coded feminine support garments...



Let the oppression begin!
 

Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

When she's not busy conjuring up fully-furnished miniature houses or recreating iconic album covers by once talented progressive-rock-slash-folk-slash-wrist artists, Brixe63 can always be found doing fun things with what I can only imagine is a Modulex collection beyond envy.

So what at first seems innocently like some cute little piggies, is all the more awesome for being made in Modulex, because that means the smallest one is about the size of kitten's spleen...



Then things totally go off the chart when you discover these things are actually nesting pigs!



Well, I suppose if pigs could fly, the next logical step would be for them to start nesting too (nyuk, nyuk!)
 

"I'm going to shove coal so far up your stocking you'll be coughing up diamonds!"

Seeing as Thanksgiving feels like it was almost 5 minutes ago now, and what with St Patrick's Day practically just around the corner, let's get festive. Ho, ho, humbug!

Mark Anderson has created this pretty sizeable model of Robot Santa from The One And Only Cartoon. (...I'm talking about Futurama of course, you idi-bots - spluh!)


I've been such a good boy this year, I'm sure if I put Kwanzabot and Chanukah Zombie on my list, someone will recreate them before Christmas too...
 

Quiet on the set!

So help me God (hey, it's deja vu all over again!), I'm posting something not 100% Lego related! But you'll understand my reasoning as your eyes soak up these wonderful miniature recreations of instantly recognizable soundstages from classic TV shows.

Bewitched


These are the work of Charles Brogdon. In his own words: "As a kid I loved visiting Hollywood and seeing various TV sets in soundstages. I was always forbidden from taking pictures so I would come home and build what I saw. I have not built a set in 12 or so years and these make great dust collectors. Now I have brought them out for you to see and have some half finished ones as well I am finally getting done. Sets are made of lots of different things but the basis is Lego bricks. A set can take from 2 weeks to a month to complete. Some people build model ships... I build model sets."

  Cheers


What's interesting about Charles technique is the use of Lego both as a raw material (for shaping large structures such as walls) and for recreating individual props such as furniture. Study the pictures up close and you may recognize a few familiar Lego elements!

  Rabid Fascist Diatribe Network


Apparently these models are all for sale, although if that's too rich for your blood, they can also be enjoyed through the books "On the Set" (here) and "On the Set Take Two!" (out soon).

  Seinfeld


  Roseanne


  Pee Wee's Playhouse

 

You know, for masons...

So help me God, I'm posting more Cube Dudes (woah, is there an echo in here?). According to scientists, if the Cube Dude population continues to multiply at it's current rate, within a few decades they will represent a sphere of Lego bricks travelling away from the surface of the Earth at the speed of light. Hmmm, or maybe that was humans or squirrels or something.

Anyway, Thomas Oechsner took the theme in a slightly different direction recently, by creating Cube Dudes of ancient anthropomorphic monuments (...glad I finished my Gin before trying to say that).





And just to keep this post balanced for Kevoh and the like, I will now say the word "penis" for no apparent reason. ;-)
 

For the Ladies

So help me God, I'm featuring a Technic creation (...hey, at least it's not Bionicle <ahem> "Heroni Factorycle'). But I was rather impressed by the latest in a series of Technic insects by arcanemettles...



This mechanical Lady Bug is not only adorable to look at, but is also packed (literally) with some interesting features such as the very accurate unfolding action of both the wing casing and wings, as demonstrated in this handy video...



There is something of an AFOL subculture around building Technic bugs, that focuses largely on mechanics and movement, which separates it from the Battle Bug phenom (as exemplified by guys like Jason Ruff and Lino Martins), which focuses more on the artistic and realism aspect of Lego creepy-crawly creation.

However, in this model, there are elements of both, especially with the excellent use not only of Bram Sphere technique for the wing casing, but a hollowed out Bram Sphere at that (...as if those things weren't already hard enough to construct!)