Happy New... Yearsmas?

Since 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, this creation by ArzLan seems like an appropriate way to ring in the New Year. Although I swear there are some decidely Christmas-y things about this MOC! (See if you can spot them)



Wishing you all a happy and prosperous year. And remember, the Mayans were a bunch of smelly loin-cloth-wearing severed-head-football-playing bunch of drug addicts, so don't take their predictions too seriously!
 

Filled with the Christmas spirit

Just because it's the day after Christmas doesn't mean we can't still enjoy some festive MOCs! And in my opinion, this wonderful little scene by q_159 perfectly captures the essence of Boxing Day (or as we over-40's prefer to call it, Regretfulness Day).


 

"On the 7th day of Chib-mas..."

"...TKH sent to us: Seven of whatever these things are!"


 

Tis the season

Christmas fast approach-eth. Apparently-eth. But that doesn't mean I have to spend all week boring you with the usual array of predictable Lego-ized facsimiles of tree ornaments and Santas and other obvious Yuletide fayre.

Matt De Lanoy (aka Pepa Quin) knows what I'm talking about. Here we see his excellent Team Fortress miniland characters taking a break from whatever the hec they normally do, to help Santa to (insert oblique literary Christmas reference:) "reduce the surplus population" with a little Elf Bowling.



"Clean-up on aisle three!"
 

The Old Masters

Lego is clearly an artistic medium. But apparently it can also be an artistic subject! As illustrated by painter and occasional AFOL Lester Murphy (aka Lenny Hoffman aka Glencaer) in these wonderfully vibrant expressionist interpretations of his favorite Lego bricks...



Above, we have the indomitable headlight brick, one of the earliest SNOT-enabling bricks. Even though the newer and easier to use 87087 brick is starting to replace it these days, the headlight still retains a certain charm and utility (for example, a pair of these can be used to do some very small-scale SNOT-180). Heh, listen to me, waxing lyrical about a frikking Lego brick!



And here are some of treatments of another incredibly useful brick, that carries the now legendary title of Travis brick or TK brick, named after Lester's friend Travis Kunce (sadly no longer with us) who loved this brick so much he got a tattoo of it!

I think these paintings would look great on the wall of any Lego fanatic's workshop...
 

"News from Home"

Although the US flag of command was officially lowered in Baghdad today, we should not forget that as US involvement in Iraq winds down, the conflict in neighboring Afghanistan is (if anything) still ramping up, and that US soliders continue to put themselves in harms way every day.

Dave & John Xandegar (aka briXwerX) recently created this simple scene in honor of Dave's nephews Nick and Jordan, who are now both serving in Afghanistan.



As you sit bathed in the light of a flat panel display, viewing words and images miraculously delivered to you from some distant data center, it's worth remembering this... For all it's distractions and evils and sillyness, the Internet and other microprocessor technologies make the lives of today's military personnel safer and more tolerable in an innumerable number of ways!
 

Number One Phan

It's no secret that my good SeaLUG buddy Scott Fowler likes to build large things. So when he decided to build a CubeDude version of his friend the Vietnamese American comedian Dat Phan, it came as no surprise that it would be a CubeDude of EPIC proportions!


I suppose this is the point at which I make some hilarious racist comment about it being a 1:1 scale model. Except I'm not that racist (...I hope).

To Scott: Good luck on your little "100,000 mile service" next week, and wishing you a pleasant and speedy recovery! I have no doubt you will figure out some devious way to maintain your normal levels of building, and texting :D
 

The nays have it

The works of builder Tim Goddard (aka Rogue Bantha) have appeared quite a few times on this blog over the years, and rank among my all-time favorites. So despite our non-aggression pact, I just had to feature his latest creation here even though it was already just covered by my chums over at Brothers Brick. (...no, I've never heard of them either)

Except I'm gonna go one better than them, and show you the front instead of the ass! But I'll resist the temtpation to photoshop on a unicorn horn and caption it "Charlie"...



Tim had actually already created the head, to use as an exhibit in his wierd museum diorama, but decided to add the entire body as a way to inspire shame his wife into building again!

I'm no lawyer but if you ask me that sounds like grounds for divorce...
 

Grind designs

Judging by the name, I can only assume that this wonderfully intricate steampunk contraption by Pablo Gonzalez was inspired by the famous travelling knife grinders of Terra da Chispa ("Land where sparks fly") in the Ourense region of northern Spain.


I love all the attention to detail and mechanically realistic components (the piston, valves, boilder, centrigual regulator, fly wheel, toolbox, and so on), all of which Pablo shows off in great detail. If you study it carefully, you can kind of figure out how the whole thing would logically work, as a foot-powered grinder given a steam-powered retrofit.

This truly is a thing of beauty!

Cooked or raw

It's always interesting to see what artists from other disciplines choose to create when they dabble in Lego. Although let's all continue to pray that Lady Gaga never gets a hold of the stuff, otherwise it'll be all "meat castles" and blood-soaked mini-figs.

But Japanese glass artist Takashi Higashi has started posting some Lego creations on Brickshelf that caught my eye.

It's not often you'll see Lego food caught in an "action" pose, but he's managed it with this very appetizing bowl of tempura prawn and soba noodles...



While in contrast, here is a less 'appetizing' rendition of a moulting cicada, which is more in line with some of his glass creations...



For other fascinating (non-Lego) wierdness check out Mr Higashi's website at http://www.moerugomi.com (燃えるゴミ, lit. "combustible garbage").
 

You know, for vigilante superheros

I think its fair to say this rendition of the Joker by Котон Котоныч was probably inspired by Lino Martin's clown figures. But it's repurposing for use on this subject matter, incorporation of collectible minifig parts (such as the custard pie), and moody photography are nevertheless quite clever!



Click here to the full scene involving both the Joker and Batman, built for a Batman contest over on Eurobricks.
 

Minilandia

Ryan McNaught (aka TheBrickMan, and apparently the only Lego Certified Professional in the Southern hemisphere!) decided to celebrate the opening of Legoland Florida by declaring November to be "Miniland month" and building a new miniland-scale character every day.

To see the full set click here. Of course, as a regular abuser of this scale myself, I couldn't resist selecting my own personal favorites...

Dr. Evil

E.T.

Clint Eastwood

Madonna

Cricketer

Dalai Lama

All of Ryan's choices of subject were great, but I think for me what makes these particular examples stand out is how effectively and cleverly they capture the essence of these characters.