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These aren’t Star Wars minifigures you’re looking for

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…but these Star Wars figures just may be the coolest ones around. We covered Omar Ovalle‘s Endor Trooper last month, but Omar’s been busy since then converting lots of LEGO Technic figures into awesome Star Wars characters. The Technic figures, which LEGO produced from the late 80s to the early 2000s, are considerably larger than traditional minifigures and have a lot more poseability. The size also allows more accurate scaling with small characters, like Yoda and the Jawas, who both look quite good as minifigures next to the Technic figs. Boba Fett definitely takes the cake for the best looking figure though, as he blasts his way out of the Sarlacc pit.Greetings from Dagobah

Greetings from TattoineGrettings from Dathomir

Greetings from the JawasGreetings Mos Eisley

Greetings from Bespin

Greetings from Hoth

Greetings from The Dune Sea

LEGO lighthouse shines brightly

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Kołobrzeg Lighthouse is located in Kołobrzeg on the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea.  Piotr Machalski has build a very nice rendition of this landmark in LEGO, capturing its curvaceous architecture in brick form.  The real lighthouse is is a red brick cylindrical tower that emits a light that can been seen nearly 30km away.  There are lots of techniques for creating curves from LEGO, many of which hail from builders who favour castle-themed creations, but it’s always nice to see similar techniques used for other types of building. The main central portion uses a mix of round and regular bricks but the outer wall is all about the power of bending LEGO.

Kołobrzeg Lighthouse

This lighthouse we blogged previously uses a similar technique as the main tower in Piotr’s build.

LEGO sea serpent is coming to get you

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Fresh from delighting us with a rusty hot rod, Austrian builder sanellukovic turns his building skills to more organic shapes with his Midgardsnake creation. The curves and scales of this mythical water-serpent have been captured brilliantly with some nice use of slopes and smart color choices. Whilst the splashes and water running from the serpent’s body are well made, the mix of trans-clear and trans-black plates used for the water itself is just inspired. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed that particular combination being used like this before — it certainly creates a great impression of water in motion. Lovely stuff.

Midgardsnake

Collaboration breeds a fine set of rovers

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Jason Briscoe has shared an excellent space rover featuring multiple trailers. It was part of a collaborative display at the recent Portugal fan weekend, with many of the attendees bringing along a trailer design based on the common chassis. I was lucky enough to see Jason’s contribution “in the brick” at the Bricktastic show and they’re lovely little models.

Parades De Rover

Miguel Reizinho came up with the original design for the trailers. It’s a smart little build and clearly made for a good solid base for the participants to riff on. Nice work. I love when little collaborations spring up like this — especially ones that cross borders. It reminds me our hobby is an international one, and that plastic bricks speak their own language.

Untitled

Failure is always an option

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When The Matrix came out in 1999, it was groundbreaking for many reasons and gave rise to plenty of cultural references. And then they made two more movies: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Regardless of your opinions on the quality of the later movies, they both had some redeeming features. This little version (by David Lipton) of an epic truck crash happens to be one of them.

Matrix Reloaded Truck Crash

I particularly love the use of cheese slopes to emulate the crumpled truck effect. It works very well! I’m also strongly reminded of Mythbuster’s Compact Compact myth, which was equally awesome.

Cutest Police Patlabor

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Lee Young has nailed it with these super-cute chibi Mobile Police Patlabor mecha models. Despite the dinky scale and super-deformed proportions, these guys still have an impressive chunky heft about them. They look like they’d just relish the opportunity to suppress your street protest.

patlabor 2 + patlabor 3

Lee has been building a few mecha figures at this scale recently. Check out this pretty damn awesome rendition of Optimus Prime using your local downtown for cover…

Optimus Prime

The hardest part of space travel is getting off the planet

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I’ve been inspired lately to build some near-future space vehicles, and so I’ve got at least a couple of vessels in the works. But the first step of space travel is always getting off the planet. This space shuttle, the Indefatigable, is designed to carry payloads to orbit, where they can be assembled into a much larger craft. The shuttle is designed for undergoing the rigors of liftoff, while a vessel capable of interplanetary travel may not be.

Space Shuttle Indefatigable

I generally avoid using stickers, often not even applying them to official models. However, this model really needed a tiny detail for the cockpit, and there’s no way to achieve that with bricks, since the area is just too small. So, a few carefully cut official LEGO stickers work well to mimic cockpit windows.

Space Shuttle Indefatigable

All are not supercars that are called Porsche

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…Unless a vintage tractor is a supercar for you. DB_Kit Fisto entered the latest Build the Porsche of your Dreams contest not at full speed, but definitely with class. His massive tractor is a scaled replica of the Porsche Super from 1960s. That was the time of truly beautiful agricultural machinery, much more elegant than the modern!

Porsche Super

The design of this vehicle is simply fantastic thanks to amazing combinations and connections of System and Technic pieces. My favorite part is that small technic corner panel above the front axle placed right among regular plates and slopes. This is how you build a Super tractor!

Stormy, husky, brawling, / City of the Big Shoulders

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If Carl Sandberg had lived to see the skyscrapers of modern Chicago, I’m sure he would have been no less proud of his city than he was when he wrote his poem “Chicago” more than a hundred years ago. Rocco Buttliere has captured the Chicago skyline in LEGO with this substantial group of microscale buildings, including the legendary Sears Tower (now the John Hancock Center). The looming, iconic buildings certainly dominate the skyline, but I love the smaller buildings and landscaping that Rocco has included, like the Lookinglass Theatre building and the Seneca Playlot Park. My favorite LEGO building, though, is 900 North Michigan with lovely green glass.

LEGO Chicago Magnificent Mile

As fantastic as the buildings look in the photo above, I love this top-down look — as though you’re flying over in a helicopter.

LEGO Chicago Magnificent Mile

See lots more photos in Rocco’s photostream on Flickr.

Which yellow character would win in a fight? SpongeBob, a Minion or Pikachu?

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It’s a question for the ages: which yellow cartoon character do you side with? Wise-cracking SpongeBob Squarepants, the most anthropomorphic sponge to live under the sea? One of Gru’s Minions, an adorable comedy sideshow who manages to steal the limelight? Or Pikachu, the elusive and beloved Pokemon? Takamichi irie decided to build all three, so you can see how the LEGO versions stack up. Cast your votes in the comments!

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