THIS IS A POST ABOUT LEGO

A while a go Weird Al released a new CD, Straight Outta Lynwood, it's called. Most of his new CD's have Polkas in them. They aren't the traditional Al parodies, just him singing blips of the popular songs in.... polka. His newest, Polkarama!, has these songs in it:

• "Let's get it started"--Black Eyed Peas

• "Take Me Out"--Franz Ferdinand

• "Beverly Hills"--Weezer

• "Speed of Sound"--Coldplay (yay nick)
  

• "Float On"--Modest Mouse

• "Feel Good Inc."--Gorillaz

• "Candy Shop"--50 Cent

• "Drop it like it's hot"--Snoop Dogg (Thanks Brett)
  

• "Gold Digger"--Kanye West

and then 3 other songs I don't know. Figure it out. Keep in mind that half the artists there I don't like... just FF, MM, some Weezer. BTW, for christmas I got the Wright flyer, the Holiday train, another train set (heh) and... that's it. Well, and some DWR Cubits, A sweet scarf, and an iTunes gift card. So I bought some new music (As well as The Arcade Fire's album "Funeral", Mr. Baron)

We'll see what I blog next. After a week-long skiing trip to Utah with some relatives.

I is be in very sorroful.

It's okay guys. I'm still alive. I recently posted some stuff on flickr... but that's it. We had a nice day (christmas eve.) No snow, I was walking around in a T-shirt and jeans. Although it is nice, I would rather have snow on Christmas. Oh well.

I have absolutely no lego to display, even though many a great MOCs have been tossed around by the other lego blogs (TBB has MOVED! Go check it out). I dunno... I haven't really been in the "lego" mindset recently. I've been thinking about other things. I don't want to start another blog (cuz that would suck) but this one will either slow down (although it has been slow recently anyway) or change a bit. To fit the things I've been doing. I thought about joining Review'd or something.... but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll just take a (longer) break from blogging. Sorry you guys had to read my intrapersonal rantings, now one last thing to say:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

p.s. a cool new blog I'm checking out is "Indexed." It rocks. Also, The new TBB (TNTBB) has some SWEET pics of 2007 sets... those skeletons look wierd but I'm looking forward to them anyway. Cheers.

New Blog list.

I just want to point out a couple new blogs on my "Lego blogs" link list!
-Imperial Inspection
-Review'd
-Microbricks

Yup, that's it. Except for this Orange 'beut made by brickshelf "Fox-Primus." It's... so... smoove! Just that one little ugly bit, but that's okay. We can forgive him, right?

Also, two questions to "all my readers" (pshh like there are more than 3), Should I change any colors and what order should these side-bar things be in?:
-Archive
-Tags
-Basic Lego links
-Lego Community
-Lego blogs
-Lego sites
-Other links

It may not look like much, but I had a lot of tabs open at the time.

Whoooo man. It's been a while. Busy with... wii.... and.... other things.
But this has been turning into too much of a jibber jabber blog, onto the lego, right?

Well today I have a mega-roundup of MOCs! YAY!

First off, brickshelf kerouac has built two really awesome Zaku-esque things from Gundam. Red and Blue. They are both excellently made (though I disagree with the wizard hats on blue) and continue his theme of small mecha that look bigger than they are. I also like the way he did the tubing around the mecha...

Flickr User Don Solo has made a really funny bot- he started off working to make Bender from the TV show Futurama, but he ended up with this little guy! (It still looks like bender too) We all love Roy... until he kills us.

And the ever-present Moko has been building up a storm with his "SMF" (Small mecha frame), check these out!
-BEAST!
-NINJA!
-INSTRUCTS!

B-shelf nnenn, who I blogged before, is taking the exo-force theme and revamping it, with two new mecha- Paladin and Blazer. Now if these were actual lego sets.... well, that'd be awesome. He used the basic exo-force frame with some armor and better shapes slapped on, I especially like the armor on Paladin's legs. I'm just not sure if those flaps in the back are official lego pieces...
He also made some funny ships based off the micro-sized versions, much like Mark Stafford and his Mantis. They aren't too great in a building sense, but they are accurate from micro-minifig scale.

And I think I'll just wrap up with a little RLOSIDWTTA
-Squieu mech
-David R. schweet hardsuit
-hopeso009 funny hardsuit
-Chocobabee!
-Yay cool halo moc

I will hopefully be updating on a more regular basis from now on.

Musical Motivation: Nothing.

Wii Wii Wii Wii Wii Wii Wii Wii...

Okay:
Last sunday I waited for 3 hours in front of CompUSA (I was second in line) and it turned out they didn't have any Wiis. Yesterday, I visited over 10 stores to check for shipment times. Best Buy is getting TONS tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get one after waiting in line and playing DS with my friend. Hopefully...

So other than that, all I really have is a RLOSIDWTTA (I know, nothing much):
Soren's new Lifter
sugegasa's Viking Robot
MACHA's Tachi

Mecha Mecha Mecha...

Greetings.
Life is swell. Kinda. I didn't get a Wii. But, Twilight Princess is sitting in my basement. Sad, cold, and lonely. Just sitting. It makes me want to weep. Kinda.

Brickshelf Pratt (master of tanks and that kinda stuff) has made some cool basic brick-built hardsuits. Nothing special really, I just thought they were pretty cool.

And Izzo... who's mecha/animal building have been carefully documented by dunechaser, has made an insanely cool Elephant mech. It definitely resembles an elephant, and has great use of those annoying wheel-wells. The Feet are off a bit though... last I can remember Pachyderms don't have sharp claws.
Izzo also made a mini- documentation of Sugegasa's popular mecha frame (which he has ALOT of.)

A rather random bit, oldhamk has made a diorama called "homage to the southwest." I'm not sure exactly where they originated, but he has made the best mexican (cuz that's where I always see them) clay house. It's so smooth and beautiful!

Countblockula, always the tinkerer has made a neat-0 way to get those rockets you see R2 use in ep II and III (I think...?) in lego! He provides some cool little tips for it too.

Just a little mid-week update.
Musical Motivation: 16 military wives (I listened to it 2 times) by The Decemberists (on Picaresque)

His ribs our ceiling beams, his guts our carpeting, I guess we've got some time to kill...

Guess what? The ps3 came out today. Guess what? The Wii comes out on Sunday. Guess what? I'm gonna camp out for the Wii!! hehehe. I'm such a geek it makes me awesome.

For all of you who actually checkout the most recent edition of Brickjournal you already know of it, but Mark Stafford has recently officially announced his new Gothica! YAY! The coolest part of the ship is all the little things that fit into it. I especially like the Venator... and then the mecha that pops out from behind it! The scout ship is also really awesome. All that sand green....

Brickshelf Lomero, who Dunechaser blogged a little bit ago, has made another awesome barge, this time a (little) more modern. Steam. yeah, modern. It just has great construction, a cool propellor, and a nice design... even the engine room is cool! I'm gonna keep my eye out for what else he will make.

Another small-time builder on brickshelf, " k1089" made an interesting Alchemist's hut. It's nothing specialy really, but the interior is nice and I think he used a lot of colors in a good way (look at the roof part of the hut red, green, brown, etc.) I just don't like the top of the "tree", it looks way to sparse and wimpy. A cool idea would make it at a slope, like the tree had gotten chopped by some sort of giant. That would be cool.

I know this is a little old, but for those wanting to help AIDs in Africa, (and get cool looking gear) check out (RED). I think it's pretty cool. Plus that red iPod is just too awesome to pass up.

Now for a RLOSIDWTTA!!!:
-A squieu Samurai bot
-Izzo makes a cool little robot frame
-Space camp song!!

Musical Motivation: The Decemberists, Picaresque (I got it for my birthday)

EDIT: Don't ask about the font color change... I'm not really sure how to fix it anyway.

I really don't feel like it.

Tomorrow r b my burphday. Yipee. I'll post a picture of all the presents coughlegocough I get. As for making an actual post... everything in my "blog stuff" bookmarks folder got blogged on Snoikle or TBB. So yup. Nothing today. Nothing at all. Except for an ill-known fact: I am building. Yes. I have a new G2 sub-sonic racer in progress and this industrial digger... I'll get to it.

Steampunk

This weekend I have a french essay... Math homework... A science pretest to do... A social studies project to finish... and an English book to read. Oh yeah, then I want to build lego, have a sleepover, Work on a game my friend and I are making, among other things. Geez.

Steampunk is a now common lego building genre it seems. Generally idealized as 19th-century european steam-powered inventions, it has grown to be a vast theme of many varieties. It embodies the idea of "What if the combustion engine (or fancy-shmancy electricity) was never invented?" then we would end up with planes like this and cars like this.
A quick search on brickshelf gets you lots of different models, from smooth wood and boilers to clunk junk machines. Steampunk to most people is really a way to use interesting parts that you usually wouldn't, like for most space builders they can throw in some technik gears and barrels for wheels and boilers. Many people interpret it differently too... like marakoestra has made the wood-only (more magical) inventions of Professor Nutbolt (steampunk is also notorious for outrageous inventor names), while smartiac seems to see it as more of a society, everything is steampunk and that's the way it is, Even [steam] craft carriers!. He even brought steampunk into the future (weird thought, I know) with a steam-powered robot.
The [near] inventor of the genre is Kevin Heckle (aka Jonesy), has built steampunk, (click the letters) for a while now, and the other kevin (Kevoh) jumped on the bandwagon just afterwards. Kevoh has even more steampunk (click the letters again), but his is more "fantasy" (like marakoestra.) This brings up an interesting point, how magic is steampunk? Kevoh's cyclopin (k) and Hitodama (u) are totally outrageous in real life. Some of the others too. The Cars are a little more reasonable, but still, how long would that last before you need to re-fill on water and coal?
Magic/Fantasy has really become part of the "steampunk" genre now. Mr. Yrizzary's floating rock ship is a great example of total fantasy, but to understand it you need some background on the "floating rocks." Jonesy, is most definitely the creator of this mini-theme. It started with an innocent little MOC, a rather random "floating village." I'm not quite sure where it went from there, but after a few years floating rocks were popping up everywhere! From the small (but pretty, you gotta admit) to the amazing, it was a staple in the new steampunk! Now, why do the rocks float? This has been discussed and discussed, but soon enough, Bossy 'ol Jonesy gave this semi-conclusion:
"The minifigs in my world don't know how or why the floating rocks float, and I think it's better to keep it mysterious and have lots of legends and theories about it. I like to think that floating rocks move in the sky at tectonic speeds (i.e. 1 inch per year or so), if they move at all. However, in the anime series Escaflowne there were airships that used floating rocks for lift by heating them, which is an idea I will endorse.

Aaron's idea is nice and interesting, except replace "hydrogen and helium" with "fizzy lifting juice" or something similarly goofy and magical, because hydrogen doesn't have the lifting power. The coral thing sounds pretty close to Eureka Seven's "scab coral", which would be a huge spoiler if I explained further.

I will share some of my ridiculous and embarrassingly fantasy-genre theories:

1. Aftermath of a War of the Magi (yeah, FF6 ref): About a thousand years ago, all the wizzards had one great big war over something or other, and where a wizzard died in battle, the immediate vicinity became a floating rock. (OMG emo)

2. Pocket Universe: The universe of floating rocks is stuck to another universe in untold millions of spots, like plastic wrap. The other world has a vastly different landscape, and the core of a floating rock is rock that's deep underground in the other world.

3. Magick Crystals: Floating rocks are where magic whooshy crystals grew underground at the convergence of two or more magickal ley lines of magic, and the crystals took the surrounding rock with them as the ley lines changed.

4. Magick Redux: Did you ever put raisins in 7-Up as a kid? You know how like the raisins float and then sink and then float again? It's like that with rocks, except magic.

5. STFU: They float because I say they float. I will break you if you ask any more questions.

Okay, I feel retarded now. Damn you all for making me explain.

P.S. Death to Castle!!!111"

So there ya have it. Floating rocks float. Because they float. Just a note too, Jonesy didn't really "invent" floating rocks. They have probably been around in books and TV a lot longer, like skyland and stuff like that.


Please remember that this is just a prototype article, it isn't done and isn't perfect. Enjoy.

RLOSIDWTTA:
Jerac's steampunk boat
A great topic on inspiration and sorting
A sweet little mecha by tim

And I will hang my head, hang my head low...

I'm feeling kinda weird today. I'm having trouble with my math homework. But other than that, good things have been happening. I got The Decemberists new CD, The Crane wife. Remember? It rocks. Nice, slightly upbeat songs that are just great background music. And I have a sleepover tonight with one of my best friends...

But onto lego. Kyle Vreize, who I've featured before, has built a new mecha. Except it's halve-mecha halve-tank. "Chrome hounds" which is for the Xbox, I do believe. Kcaster (nick) built something like it a little while ago, same deal; mecha+tank and chromehounds. Both pretty cool, great building guys! What I like about Kyle's model is the great color blocking, but I think the sand red should've been a different color... maybe dark bley to match the guns up front. 3 color rule! It also has some cool controls.

Kerouac... has built a gnarly (tee-hee) yellow robot. It is so sweet and industrial, using those wheel-well pieces so well to cover up where the two tanks connect, and it looks so real. Like Izmojuki too... dang. It would just shuffle around the construction site like *beep beep* shuffle shuffle shuffle *braaaap* *clunk* shuffle shuffle *ga-chunk*
Heh.

Tim Gould, who I know I have blogged a buncha times before. He made a sweet iddy-biddy hardsuit, too bad a minifig doesn't actually fit in there. : P

Plus, a simple, lovely little floating rock by Arpy.

Musical Motivation: The Decemberists - The Crane wife (DUHHRR)


(KA-PWING!!)

I hate my Math Class

I'm in a special "smart class" where I have one math class a week, on Thursdays, for 2 and a halve hours. I like math, my teacher is fine, the work isn't too hard, but what I really hate is the speed. She talks way too fast. And I can't write, think, and look all at the same time. I just have to hang in there by the skin of my teeth until 3:30. Then I have to catch up at home over the weekend and don't have time to do much at all. And then I don't have any more time that week to go over what I learned, and next time class rolls around, a whole new slew of problems and processes are hurled at me. This weekend I have a lot of other homework too. French, Social Studies Homework, and a Social Studies Project. And then an English essay I need typed. Ugh.

But I guess I can still try to eke in another blog post.
Dan Rubin, Lego ambassador, Brickfest Organizer, Among other things, has polished off a new spacecraft deemed "Lightning." It's pretty cool, with some SNOT in the front, cool intakes, a nifty engine, and lightning bolts on the wings. Sweet.

Legohaulic, who I've known for almost 2 years now, from SSLF, and his brickshelf, and MOCpage, has made an interesting study, almost, as a skeleton. My favorite bit is the minifig-sized skeleton arms used as fingers. Heh.

Chuck Citrin, who I met at brickfest, has made a Lightcycle, from the classic sci-fi movie Tron. He got some great SNOT work in there, but it is a bit bulkier than they are in the movie. It can't be helped really, as lego has it's limits.

Countblockula has also created some cute crab designs.
And Justin Harvey made a sweet gundam-thing, with some sweet colors and some insane SNOT stuff.

And this post I will not blog squieu nor Moko. I have self-control, even if his newest MOC is pretty cool. A nice frame going on there.
Dammit.

Oh oh oh, and Make sure you download the newest Mozilla, it has an auto-spell checker thingy. Hehe.

Musical Motivation: Nothing. Yep, nothing at all.

I should stop blogging moko, fer totally.

So anyway, Toshiya has made a rather cute Zaku from gundam. The scale ruins some of the cool details, like Soren could include in his model. He used some interesting joint techniques and stuff like that. Makes a nice frame too...
He also made a schweet orange (ORNJ) industrial-type mecha. It's pretty stylish. And the "layered" look he got on the legs is great... very realistic (kinda) looking.

Miyazaki... has inspired many a lego models. Jonesy and Kevoh especially, a lot of his movies include steampunk ideas and stuff. One of his movies, "My Neighbor Totoro" really doesn't prove any lego ideas. But I was proved wrong... Totoro gives the two sisters a ride on a living bus, the cat-bus that can fly and turn invisible. Probably has warm seats too. I wish I had a bus like that.

Moko (Sorry) has built a really intriguing hover bike-ish thing. I just love the smooth shape he was able to get on it... and the pedals for the minifig, and all that. Overall just a smooth, complete model. Cool colors too...

EDIT: Dunechaser has some nice info on it too.

Brickshelf tkh, who I've mentioned before, has build a really crazy mecha this time. It's G- umm... Godannar? I guess what I like is the simple brick he uses throughout all of his models, and this is no exception. Just cool ol' bricks, plates, and click hinges, (for the most part.) Plus, anything with a flaming head gets kudos in my book of awesomeness.

And (a day early, cuz I probably won't have time tomorrow) HAPPY HOLLOWEEN!!!!
Don'tcha just love the online lego community? They're so great. Ah....

Musical Motivation: The Long Winters

SPACE! MICRO! CASTLE! DISHWASHER!

Just a second little update for the weekend.

Spook (0114) has made 2 micro-scale ships, the Iron Titan and Laser Frigate. The Titan is okay... too much bley/grey mixing and not enough little details to be fantastic. The white stripes are nice though.
It's the laser frigate I love. Such a great, simple anime-esque design, with some sweet engine detail to boot. The screwdriver use is great, to get that spreading out kind of engine.

Plus, check out "Airborne's" cute little "Q-cars."

Aaaand, the Collossal Castle Contest IV has begun! This might make me have to build castle once more... It has great prizes and some great entry categories! Check out the Classic-castle thread.

Last, this was too good to pass up. A dishwasher with a lego wash cycle. Here's more [info]

Musical Motivation: System of a Down

Bluh-Bluh-Blubbity-Bluh

A bit of a late update this week, I try to post every friday but I've been pretty busy still.

I normally try to avoid blogging things other blogs have blogged (whoah) but Felix Grecko's New Airship is too good to pass up. Even the two shades of Brown look fine together! The "bubbles" on the bottom are awesome, give it a real good idea of how it would fly (in... a fantasy world) and the use of the Jabba's sail Barge Sails is excellent. Plus, the crew looks cool.

Kyle Vrieze, who I got to meet a brickfest, has made 3 models highlighting some other builder's ideas. The Cheribum inspired this guy, Soren's frame for this one, and one of Jamie Neufields for the bike. I just thought that was great, being able to add a builder's own style to other people's designs. I wish I could do it that well!

And what would a post be on bbv2 without either squieu or Moko? This time you can have both! Squieu built a tiny mecha person, but what I like is the "cross-section" veiw. Moko, on the other hand, built big this time. And strangely enough, he has a sort of "cross-section" veiw too. Some Japanese contest maybe? Maybe...

Tim Gould, rendering extraordinaire, has made a nifty semi-futuristing cargo carrier. I've been trying to build something like this with propellors for a while now, but in steampunk. It's a really nice model, but the colors look kind of jumbled and could have gone without the blue.

Now for a RLOSIDWTTA!!!
-Spook's awesome Laser Frigate
-Junker Bandits Build-Off!
-Mini-Maersk Carrier VTOL

That's it really. Nothing much this week. Check out other blogs fore more info on stuff, I gotta go.
I've also decided to do what Dez has been doing, musical influences!

Musical Motivation: Franz Ferdinand

Damn you Squieu

Today I will try using labels in beta for the first time.

Soren Roberts, infamous for gundam models and cracking wise, has made a new mecha outside his usual style. Gravity, is a more technic-based mecha with some cool techniques and part usage (the way he used those 4x4 round rings is awesome around the ankles and arms! Plus, the wheel-wells around the hips.) Plus the pack on the back is so cool looking with that lime green.

Oh, and then squieu. He has DEFINATELY earned himself a label. A new coupla mecha in his own little theme...but this one's a bit special. It's his usual style, but he made it so much smoother. He actually used tiles, and some big chunky slope peices in the back! It makes it look so much more complete than some of his other, messy things. Acutally, soren's Gravity reminds me of squieu's Wight...

And a CSfer/Brickshelfer Jerac (who doesn't get a whole label for himself yet...) has made a really cool "merchant cruiser" as he calls it. It's hard to get an overall feel for this ship, as he said in the thread, he wanted it to be very asymetrical. It's cool anyway! I'm liking his Swiss space theme more and more. He made a great Layered look (very popular these days, to make it looks as if there are lots of greebs underneath an armored casing) He has little ship bays, refilling ports (that's what I assume they are) and cool-looking engines. It's awesome. (I'm giving this a "cargo" label)

Also, I made a new MOC. It's a G2 (my hover technologies company, remember the Maximum?) Experimental Ship. Using a new propulsion generator. I also have other plans for G2, like a civillian hoverbike, a G2 labs diorama, and a hover transport. Maybe the head G2 designers and Whateverly should meet and have a chat about his Half-cell. Plus, I made a cool looking logo for them.

One last thing, the Newest Brickjournal is out. Go see!

Posting Labels

After revamping this blog (no, it's not noticeable really) I've decided to start using the labels feature in Blogger Beta, because technorati's annoying and takes a while to check. So the question is, how should I label posts? If I label every single creator, then I'll have tons. I can't really make alphabetical creator lists either. No posts will contain "lego," but some will have "music" and things like that. Maybe "space," "mecha," "castle," type things would be good.

So, how do you guys think I should do this?

Little Yummy

"SPACE from lego again."
"Space will be returning."

2 words: OH MYGOD.

I'm at a loss of words.

Aw man. I've been so busy lately. School, homework, swimteam (I swam a 1:32.65 400 freestyle!!) and other stuff (including a new kitten.) So, I haven't been able to blog a lot. That's okay though, because after checking, not a ton of stuff has been going on.

There is some stuff though. Cool stuff.
Like brickshelf mikepsiaki built a nifty WWII Corsair fighter. Now, this is version 2.1, apparently. So obviously he's made some improvements, but it's just awesome! The wings fold up, nicely integrated landing gear, and an awesome hatch system! Sweetness in blue. Great SNOTwork on the front bit too, with those 1x2 curvy slope bits.

And squieu (after reading my social studies book, I learned about this french philosopher named Montesquieu. Connection?) who is always one of my favorites, has made some Evangelion units, from the show Neon Genesis Evangelion. I've only seen the show once, and it was really fast-moving and confusing, but maybe that was just the episode I saw. By Squieu standards, these are pretty simplistic, but they're very accurate in still such a small scale. I'm wondering where he got those modified 1x1 plates with the round bit on the side and 2 opposite-facing studs in green....

I recently found a good Halo moc (lolomgyay). I've never played halo, but from what I've heard it's a pretty neat game and whatever. There is a vehicle in the game called a ghost, which looks like a funky purple speederbike-like thing. Purple in lego is pretty rare, so lego builders normally use dark red, dark blue, red, or blue. This ghost is Dark Red, but what I would like to point out is the beautiful plate sculpting. Great smooth look there Dean! (roamin candle to some) My only complain is the 1 stud wide seat area, but with a fig covering it up, it's hardly noticeable.

There's this one guy on brickshelf that I've paid attention to for the past 1.6 years in my online lego life. It's tiger0207, and man, he does some strange stuff. It's not really MOC's in any way, but with a mix of awesome photography (them minifigs r float!!1) and awesome minifigs! I've only ever found one revealing picture! He also seems to have some sort of special-made weapons I've never seen before (from Red Bean or Littlearmory or anything.) Anyway, all I'm saying is that he's a pretty weird guy, and he now has a blog.

I think I've blogged him before, but kerouac has made some new mecha, seemingly from gundam. There's nothing totally new and spectacular about these guys (well actually, they are pretty spectacular) but what I want to mention the scale. I look at them and go "Yeah that's pretty cool." Then I lean in closer and see that the chest is only 5 studs wide and I go "Whoah." They look so much larger than they are, with tons of cool details thrown in. I especially like the hands.

That's all. I've decided not to technorati much anymore, as I've lost my statcounter and I don't think it matters tons. Oh well. Enjoy.

P.S. Yes, I'm building. Slowly. Please be patient.

Oh My G

I went on the iTunes music store yesterday. Specifically pressed Num 6 (shortcut keys!), played "My Way" by Limp Bizkit, and then clicked "iTunes Music Store" with the little shopping bag icon.
And right there, in "Recently added music" was something amazing. 3 albums. The Crane Wife, by The Decemberists, The Information, by Beck, and Straight out of Lynwood, by Weird Al. I almost fell out of my seat, 3 NEW ALBUMS BY AWESOME A+ ARTISTS ALL RIGHT THERE.
Now I need some money. I've decided to return DS games to Gamestop to rake up some extra cash. I also mowed my lawn today and Mom gave me $5. Yay. Half of one album. I want them soo bad.

Speaking of music, I recently found something in Last.fm. If you become a member, it acts like pandora, remembering what you like and making a personal station for you! This was my only problem with last.fm. Now I need MORE money. Fortunately, it's only $3 a month. Once again, Yay.

One little thing, before I forget, is NW Brickcon is going on right about now. Dunechaser has some awesome coverage, so stay tuned to his blog to keep up with all your lego-addict action.
Would that make an awesome kids TV show? THE LEGO-MAN. Action figure comes with utility belt fulla useful bricks, and awesome attacks such as STUDLY MIGHT. Heh, I'm bored. Stay tuned next episode as LEGO-MAN defeates the villainous MEGABLOK-MAN demon of death!

Do do doo. Time for another RLOSIDWTTA (random list of stuff I don't want to talk about)
-Izzo's Mini-robots reminiscent of his Industrial Mecha
-New entries and ONE WEEK LEFT for my Concept Car Contest!
-Jamie Neufields nifty Bikes

Heh. That's all. Maybe I'll manage more next week.

Technorati tags: Lego last.fm iTunes The Decemberists Al Yankovic Beck NWBC Dunechaser Izzo robots Jamie neufield concept contest

Of Mecha and Men

Okay. I have some catching up to do and Hawkeye is getting impatiant. I think the most important this I have to post here to day is Moko. I know, it's Moko again. Whatever. He just finished his long-drawn out Project G. G for gecko? No, G for GODZILLA!!!! Oh my god. When I first saw this, I was at the pinnacle of enlightenment you can get by spedning time talking to shady people online about child-like hobbies. Okay, most aren't really shady, and Lego isn't childlike to me. But that's beside the point, and the point is, THIS THING IS FREAKING AWESOME. So much curvature... so much spines on back... so much black plates... it's just great! I only have 2 dislikes. The head seems too small (can't eat enough crazy japanese minifigs at once) and the feet look too blocky. Even so, this guy gives me shivers of happyness.

Next up is something my Micah Berger. Micah usually builds small animal-like things using cool techniques to make them at to-scale while maintaining posability. His most recent is no exception, I present: SQUIDHEAD. Now he's just plain nifty. With those tencacly-fingers and weird face tentacle design (isn't that awesome?), he's just so nice and evil looking. I think I'm going to attempt to make him, and then use him in brickwars as the cousin of Brickthulu.

And now, in celebration of my lazyness, I present to you the first ever RLOSIDWTTA!
(Random list of stuff I don't want to talk about)
-Legohaulics AT-RT
-Legokinsfolk Skeleton Centaur
-Peter Reids Mycroft Bot
-END-

Recently on Classic-Space, there has been a discussion about Japanese Builders. For the most part, it's been about our favorite nippon lego maniac, how their culture is different than ours, and how we might find a way to speak with them easily.
Now, Japanese builder like Mecha. There is no doubt. So here's another RLOSIDWTTA for Japanese Mecha ONLY (because they're awesome)
-Mumu's MS002
-Izzo's Height operator
-Jehkay's Exo-Force suit
-Toshiya's Arbalest
-Squieu's noName 4
Now I also have something to say about each of these people and their building:
-Mumu- Is probably best known for his Hazel unit. As much as this is awesome, his other mecha aren't much to speak about. Normally he builds cuter stuff.
-Izzo- Izzo builds all over the place mecha. He has so much STUFF on his brickshelf account that I don't even want to try to find you anything. Just randomly click, and see awesome robots.
-Jehkay- Is the one I really want to talk about. I found him on flickr one day, building these strangely connected-multi-bleyed mecha. I think that they're amazingly awesome. Now a lot of other people know him, but that doesn't matter. He has a really cool unique style.
-Toshiya- Usually builds funny brick-built mecha. He too has a unique style, and his entire gallery is a fun go-around. I especially like his Bancho.
-Squieu- Okay. Squieu's just weird. I think his grabbie bits would just wear out after all this time! He too has a certain style, normally these stout, complicated mecha dudes. I love his gallery.

Alright. That's all fer today. I'm not even gonna try to Technorati this post however, way too much.

JAPANESE STUFF IS HAPPEN

Brickshelf user Kerouac, who is beleived to be the retired Gla-Gla by some (I'm pointing at you, Soren) has made a really neat Scopedog from VOTOMS. VOTOMS is an early mecha anime, with a different kind of mecha than was common then. They were much more industrial and whatever. shorter too. This is also his third version. 3 colors too, that's awesome. One of my favorite bits, is the figs actually. He made a really good air feed tube using a minifig arm attatched to a certain minifig headgear.

And Squieu (I think I spelled that right, darn you funky japanese names) has had a bit of miscellany popping up recently. Here they are (I won't go into too much detail):
[Guy with Messed up Hand]
[Wight]
[Flying Thing]
[Mini Tank]
[Military-looking dude]
[Quadraped]
Squieu has a really interesting building style. Tons of grabbie bits and SNOT cubes. I kind of like it too, I've tried building some of his mecha frames, like the Compact Body Design. The last link there, the quardaped, is my favorite. I just like the compact design (I'm always one for the smallest available answer) and the overall shape. I think I'll try to build something like it soon.

Shinji-o, who might be known for his awesome Centaur Design, has been making some WWII Vehicles of War. A Half-Track, 88mm Flak gun, and SchwimmWagon (swim wagon?) They are pretty nice, and pretty much minifig-scale. Dunno. Just felt I should show you guys some cool stuff. Also check out Shinji's "monsters," they're awesome.

LMO-JAPAN seems to be the Japanese equivalent of Brickfest. And it looks like it's going on right about now. Just browse through those folders, it's really interesting.

Technorati tags: Lego Kerouac VOTOMS scopedog Squieu shinji-o World War Two WWII Half-Track Flak Schwimmwagon LMO-JAPAN Brickshelf

Krab People and some Cute Metal.

Okay.
The Brothers Brick, is (aside from mine OF COURSE) the best lego blog out there. Duh. I just can't get enought of it (when I'm in a lego browsing mood I guess.)
They recently featured 2 things that I quite wish I had blogged myself, and here I am blogging them.
Mike Crowly, more well known as Countblockula, is a strange kind of builder. It's rare that I've seen him build say, a spaceship or car. He does lots of fun minifig-things though, and his brickfa frame is probably most famous for that. But now he has made a Krab-Trooper, which (according to him) is hoped to be part of an undersea type exhibit at NWBC (did I ever announce that coming up like, really soon?) It's nifty.
Speaking of Sea Life, Fradel Gonzales, who is probably most notable for his expanding collection of mecha, has made a Lobster-fighter thingy. He did a great job with the organic shape, and made it look smooth and industrial at the same time. Awesome, dudes.

There's a guy I met a brickfest. His name is Taylor. He builds cute hardsuits. Very cute hardsuits. If you're a castle-r then you might know him for his squigs. But now he can be known for the easiest and awesomest steamjetpack. Yup.

Short Post for today folks, I need nutritional supplement and have lots of homework.

Technorati tags: Lego Brothers Brick Countblockula Krab Trooper Brickfa Undersea NWBC North West Brick Con Mecha Cute Cheribum Seraphim Steam Steampunk Jetpack Brickshelf flickr

OMG new stuff

Yups. Just a little bit 'o joy in your monotonous days of whatever. Or something.

Now, I have an iPod shuffle, and everybody rags on me for it like "it sucks because it doesn't have a screen! How the crap do you know what you're listening to?" Duh, idiots, you're hearing it! I like it. I've never even passed more than 3/4 of the way full and I have the 512 Megabyte version. Anyway, Apple realesed a new, smaller (how is that possible?!?) 1 gig iPod shuffle. And it's like 80 bucks. Plus, now they have iPod nanos that come in green (cool, but I hate the nanos. I think they would snap in halve in my hand) pink, blue and silver, in addition to the original black and white. Plus, there's a new fugly iTunes icon. Green is sooo much better than blue omfglolroflecopter.

And uhhh...brickshelf user mizuki (I'm guessing he's Japanese) has made a really neat Samus figure. It's big, and the shoulder things are kinda awkward, but it's cool nontheless. Chunky, but pretty accurate.

Also, Lego "pope" Kevin Blocksidge has been working on a ton of wheeled things. Same colour scheme as his Traveler, Ender, and Harlequin too, so they'd look awesome in a group photo. The first is like one of Mladen's mecha, the other is like a modified Tachikoma. And then the little wheeled box, which is just whatever. Cool stuff.
Also, As Kevoh has left for College, he posted a variety of steampunk heros, called the Steam squad! Cool weaponry and all cool figs. Neat-o kevin, you rock.

Flickr user Snowleopard (Mark Neuman) is working on a really cool medium-sized mecha frame. They look un-parts-expensive, flexible, and customizable. Post more pictures/instructs! These rock!

And, a special movie recommendation, "Memories" is an anime compilation by Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamuro, and Katsuhiro Otomo. Three short films, each with a different anime style and director. The first "episode" or mini-movie is "Magnetic rose." It's probably the most serious of the bunch, is really fun to watch as well. It's about a spaceship that investigates a distress call from an abondoned sector in space, and find out that the computer running a dead opera singers space-mansion has gone mad! In the end, everybody dies because of magnetic field interference. Heh. Really though, it's a thoughtful and intresting voyage of how people remember and how that affects them.
The second "episode" is "Stink bomb." A simple lab worker accidentally takes a prototype pill thinking it will help his fever, and it ends up mixing with cold medicine and making a foul stench coming out of his body that kills everything but him, and actually starts to interfere with electronics as well. It's funny in a way.
The third, "Cannon Fodder" is... intresting. Very strange rendered backgrounds and anime drawing sets this short apart from the others, but lacks a more entertaining storyline. It's about a dismal metropolis who's population only exists to make weapons for a distant and ongoing war. Really strange and quite hard to put into words. Go watch it.

Technorati tags: Lego iPod Shuffle Nano Apple iTunes Samus Aran Argiope Agenor Kadnos Kevin Blocksidge Kevoh Steampunk Steamsquad Minifig Snowleopard Frame Mecha Brickshelf flickr

Tekki junk and Moko nudges in again.

I found yet another fun flickr thing, called dumpr. Not much there yet, but it's nifty and whatnot. Another fun blog too, fulla random stuff, is Fireflies in the Cloud.

Some more Tech things, for those Firefox users (woot) remember the little search box in the upper-right? Click the search icon (usually it's google or Yahoo) and click Creative Commons (cc). When you search using creative commons, it searches google, yahoo, flickr, and blip.tv all at the same time. Awesome! By the way, Blip.tv is kind of like youtube, but you make your own tv shows with elpisodes and whatever instead of just individual vides. Well, you can upload individual videos, but it's more fun if you make a series out of it. It's awesomer.

As for lego stuff, most recently brickshelf nnenn has been making funky space-fantasy spacecraft. They look kinda of like...windsurfers and podracers combined. I really like the sleek look he can get with them, very strangecool. The teasedale's the best IMHO, I just like the little stripes of colors along the wings and the teeny-tiny cockpit. Also check out the rest of his brickshelf gallery, he makes nice stuff. Especially all of his micro-scale space junk, It's sweet.
Also, Moko (I know, "again?" , but he is too awesome to overlook) built a weird alien fig. Moko's so good a fig building. I wish I could build figs as well as he.
Another lego bit, brickshelf Arvo, who is probably most known for his larger-and-smoother-than life Akira bikes, has built a miniature old-fashioned typewriter. Neat!

Also, I've checked The Brothers Brick many times today, and there are so many new posts it's insane! Lego news insanity will follow!

Technorati tags: Lego Dumpr Tim Gould Copter Creative Commons blip.tv nnenn Retro-tech airships Moko Alien Minifig Arvo Akira typewriter Flickr Brickshelf

So much more stuff it makes you wanna explode.

fd's Flickr toys have gotten quite a bit of attention by the flickr community recently. They really are neat, allowing for multiple hours of fun messing with photos. I especially think the badge maker is kinda funny. Another tech thing, Yahoo's Widgets, are fun to play with. Basically, they're easy-to-manage mini programs fro your desktop with things like a photo slideshow, clocks, werewolf detectors, to-do lists (very helpful!) and things like that. Plus, you can make your own or browse through others that user have created. Now, if you have widgets and use flickr, you can use fd's flickr uploader widget! I already have it sitting just in front of my FLCL desktop. Very cool little tools.

Speaking of FLCL, I made a minifig-scale Canti! Here's the whole gallery. I used Micah Bergers Arm design, and that worked quite well on the scale I was going for. The head is by far the best part, and that was the ispiration for building him too, I just grabbed two teeth bits and shoved em on a travis brick.

And Danny Rice, probably best known for his recent Porphyrion, has made an Ohm. He's had some practice in animals too, with his scorpion and almost-award winning squids (Damn you Bryce!) In a word (or...sentance) Ohm are large armored beetle-like beasts roaming the wasteland in the Miyazaki film Nausicaa of the Vally of the Wind. They become valuble for the people, as the shells can be used as materials for building in the vast desert. The only person I've ever seen attempt a brick-built ohm is this guy. He made Nausicaas flyer very well, but his Ohm is undersized and not too accurate. Danny rocks.

Technorati tags: Lego Flickr toys Yahoo Widgets FLCL Danny Rice Porphyrion Miyazaki Nausicaa Brickshelf

Industrial and Tranforming Mecha

First off: If you noticed, Nick and Jordan disappeared from the users list. I'm having problems switching to Blogger Beta, and the members page automatically undid-them. I still haven't figured out what's going on, but hopefully they'll get back soon enough.

Second, go check out The Brothers Brick. Andrew (aka Dunechaser) has added Nathan Wells and Linus Bohman to their member list! This great blog just got 2x better! Also, something I found in one of the (many) recent posts there...

Izzo's Industrial robos! These guys are awesome. He has a Loader, A Cement mixer/dauber, a Carrier, and a...Forest Walker? Izzo's photography suddenly jumped up while making these, with the nice white abyss to accompany the mecha. They all have a unique style, and from the looks of it, some was inspired by Izmojuki. They all have great joints and an interesting style. Great job Izzo! I give the whole group an 8.5 out of ten, because ya know, they could be better.

Another Japanese builder, who on Brickshelf is called tkh (he is known for small-scale brick-built mecha mostly), has built some transformers. At first it just looks like one big blue/red mecha, but it splints into two small mecha, and then they can transform in to two trucks?! How awesome is that! Definately gets a 9/10, because they have a lot of studs and in some parts look kind of clunky.

One last bit, (I always seem to be making huge posts nowadays, but at least that isn't a bad thing) I'm hosting a Concept Car Contest! Read more about it here.

Technorati tags: Lego Brothers Brick Izzo Industrial Mecha Robo tkh Transformers Brickshelf Concept contest Brickshelf

Micro Madness MOC review!

Okay, so they aren't actually MOCs. They're sets. I just needed another M word in there. I'm doing a round-up review of a bunch of Tiny Tuners! There's not actually a whole lot to say though. Each and every one of these has great parts, even some have good stickers! Occasionally one has printed-on designs though. Each one has a specific colour scheme too (obviously) and they usually come with great parts in that color! A lot have the 4x1 wheel well tiles. I love those peices, but I need somewhere to use them in a MOC...
All in all, for the price (usually about 5 bucks, I got some for $3 on sale) these sets are great.
I also built and alt model to the Mini Jedi Starfighter (which I got 2 of a brickfest.) It's not much, but I thought It was worth a mention while on the micro-scale topic.
And again, Moko eeks his way into a post. But seriously, who can resist his little squid? (see pic)
I just love it, but I wish there was an easy way to elongate the legs a little bit. Also, Moko brickshelf'd his recent top-like ball robo.

Technorati tags: Lego Micro scale Robo Ball Moko Cuttlefish Flickr Brickshelf

i blurble chibikoma

Moko is a great Robo Builder. I recently posted his Orange Robo, but he has so many more that it's hard to put the spotlight on that one. Anyway, as highlighted on his blog, he has made a new Small Mecha frame. A while a go moko built a micro-scale tachikoma. I tried to ask him for instructions on his blog, using a crappy translator, but I guess he made sense of it (or some other guy asked how to make it), as he just posted instructions! It's awesome. I have one sitting on top of my computer right now.

In other news, I've invited Nick and Jordan (Kcaster and JordanN from CSF) into the blog! Jordan hasn't accepted yet, but Nick's here, and I'm sure he'll make his own introduction. Welcome, and I hope the blog benefiets from your presence! Also, we got a new pet, meet Godzilla jr!

Technorati tags: Lego Mecha Robo Tachikoma Micro Moko Gecko Flickr Brickshelf

Micro warfare and a fragile BFTT

Soren Roberts is infamous for perverted wisecracks, and gundam models. Occasionally he does other random bits, but he's all mecha. Adam Silcott I guess asked him to make something from Advance Wars, a series of take-turn strategy war video games. I own Advance Wars: Dual Strike for the DS. It's tons of fun, but apparently all Soren likes is the art. So without further ado, Chibi Troopers!
Cute, aren't they? I just want to bundle 'em up in a tackel box and play Advance Wars: Lego edition.
Also, Kevin Blocksidge ("Kevoh" to most) has made the third in his... black and yellow ship series! I got to see it at brickfest, but he didn't let me hold it because the long black thing sticking outta the bottom falls off easily. I love the round front, and the engines are totally awesome! I seriously need to use that as a booster design in a spaceship someday. I'm not so sure about the little yellow bits in some of the fins, but stripes would have been hard to do with the peices he used. I'm also amazed that he could fit a fig in there. Great job Keeeeevoh! 8.5/10 for ugly yellow bits and a fragile big fat fin thingy. Also, I finshed a bunch of steam/retro tech stuff recently. Check it out:
[Steam Chimney]
[Floating Rock]
[Flappters]

Technorati tags: Lego Advance Wars Chibi Ender Kevoh Kevin Blocksidge Soren Roberts Space

Steam Retro tech Flickr Brickshelf

Concepts

I've been posting quite frequently...don't expect that to keep up with the long posts I've been making. This one will be a bit shorter.

I tried last.fm out. It rocks. There's one big difference between last.fm and Pandora, that being the likeness of the music being played. In last.fm, it playes a genre of music, while in Pandora, it plays a certain style of music. I find myself not enjoying songs as much as I did while using Pandora, but the interfaces are nicer and you can share what you're playing with other people and such. I'll probably end up using last.fm more, but Pandora still is a good choice, and is a bit simpler if all you want is some good music, not good music, a music community, and lots of music info.

Brickshelf user hidaka has made a very sweet concept car. From the pics, it looks a lot larger than just 6 studs wide and 13 studs long. I'm horrid at getting that kind of effect, but his is great. It looks like the kind of car Bill Gates will drive in another 8 years or so. Kinda like an ultra-segway. Nice color use too, with the red blocking in the driver's seat, with a simplistic design. It just flows nicely together. 8/10 (in case you haven't noticed, I'll be doing short MOC reviews occasionally with an outta ten score near the end. I might end up doing set reviews too. Tomorrow I go to Toys 'r' Us, we'll see what I do then.)
Also check out hidaka's other cars, as well as all of his (I'm assuming it's a he anyway) keyboards and pianos and whatnot. Very nicely done, all of them.

Technorati tags: Lego Car Futuristic Concept Hidaka Flickr Brickshelf

Phil and Brickfest

Snoikle got an interview with Phil Painter (aka cerebruminc.) The interview is about his new ship, the ci LL928. It's so smooth in a studdy kind of way with a low profile armored kind of feel. I just loves it. Definately deserves. a 9.8 or so outta 10. Phil also posted an MRV (as he calls it) which is pretty cool, albiet being pretty simplistic. Probably Phil's most well-knows creation is his ci Maximum. It's a nice sleek racer ship (which was the main inspiration for my g2 Maximum.) I think he's had these for a while, but only now are the instructions up! Phil's the man. Especially because he's in Michigan with me :-D

I also have some brickfest '06 pics up if you want to see them. My flickr contact pages are crawling with other pictures, and some galleries are starting to pop up on brickshelf. Now as I've been to one however, it's really hard to capture the spirit of brickfest in just pics and nice words. You just kinda have to be there.

And something to all you flickr-ites. When you make a set of pics (through organizr) make sure you check out the set yourself, and click "make stuff," a button in the upper left. You can make calendars and mini-pic books through Qoop. You can also make those kind of things via other photo websites, like facebook and photobucket. Check it out.

And at brickfest, during a conversation with Jonesy, I learned about last.fm. Last.fm is similar to the Pandora web-radio I posted about, but it seems a lot better (haven't tried it out yet.) It scans your iTunes, and the songs you listen to, to make a station. Not a whole lot different, but it gives you more of a running start with it checking what kind of songs you like in vast quantities first off. I thought it sounded neat. I'll have more on that once I try it out (sometime this week probably.)

One last thing (as I suddenly realize how long this post is,) I'll be trying to integrate Technorati into my posts.

Technorati tags: lego space racer Bounty Hunter Brickfest Philip Painter Flickr Brickshelf Qoop Last.fm

Brickfest is upon us!

I leave tonight, and stuff starts happening tomorrow! WOW! Get ready people. I'm printing out my MOC cards now. I also have more stuff to talk about though...
Moko's new Orange Robo is just plain cool. it has a retro feel for it, along with great construction, and who can't adore some ORNJ?! The little minifig cockpit is great too, and the interchangable weapons, and the smoothness and the binocular eyes... It's just awesome! Even if you can't read them, click the links in the post I linked you too, those are the other pictures. I give it a 9.0/10, because the feet are too blocky for my tastes.

And for all those flickr addicts, I have a program for you! (assuming you have a mac, I don't, I tried it out at a friends house.) 1001 is a program that lets you more easily see what's going on in flickr, and lets you upload right from your desktop. You might also want to check out the two other programs on Kula, but they cost money after the first 21 days.

See you at Brickfest!