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!

Just a Quicky

I added a bunch of Links to the nav bar, and a flickr badge with "lego"-tagged photos. If you have any submission for any section of the bar, I'd be happy to put yours up there! Currently there are just the ones I use. The Other links secion will mostly comprise of links I feature here in the blog. That's all for today!

Getting Started...Again

Welcome to the new Builder's Block Blog! I hope this one does better than the other did. It won't always be about lego though, it will be more about whatever I like, video games, music, and whatever else. The new adress is http://www.brickstuff.blogspot.com. Remember that, BRICK STUFF dot blogspot dot com.

So, to start things off, I'd like to include two things. One, Brickfest is in 4 days! Whoah! Don't forget about other after-hours activities too, like a parts draw, and the air and space museum trip. Then there are other random things, like the Giddens and Sandlin Bot Fight! Remember to print out your MOC cards too. I'll make sure I take tons of pictures and whatnot for those unlucky enough to not be able to come (like I was last year, I can't wait!!)
Next off, some thing non-lego. Pandora is awesome. You just put in a musical artist, or song that you really like, and it makes a "radio station" with songs or artists much like the one you used. It avoids the "no free music" law (that nobody seems to obey anyway) by playing songs you didn't ask for. It's like a really good radio station streamed right through your computer. Once you make an account (it's free!!) you can have up to 100 "stations" that you can manage (re-naming, re-choosing a song or artist, deleting, and whatever.) You should try it out. So far my favorite channels are ones made my using the songs "The Middle" by Jimmy eat world, and "Wonderwall" by Oasis.