The Battle for the Gold Mask

The finalists in the Battle for the Gold Mask have been announced on ReBrick, each with a surprisingly insightful paragraph describing its design and appeal. It's definitely worth a look. I think the judges did a good job, and the classic Bionicle awesomeness of the entries is a pleasure to see.

Four Treads & a Boiler

Tim Inman had a great idea for an entry for the LUGnuts Steampunk Motorworks contest, and he executed it beautifully. He started the retro vibe of the Jeep Forward Control, built it in the appropriate style. But, in a stroke of brilliance, he threw on Mattracks, an addition which perfectly combines the realism and absurdity which makes steampunk so appealing. It's an awesome MOC, and the concept is relatively simple to reconstruct after the fact; but thinking of it in the first place? That is what makes you a boss.

'Foodcember' at its Finest

Well It's December, the time of the year that families and friends get together to enjoy good company and good food. For those in the Lego Community, It's also Foodcember, another of the theme-months that bring out lots of awesome builds every year, this time celebrating food and just how awesome it is. I'd like to highlight a few builds by KOS brick, who has recently been going all out for the community build and has produced some fantastic works.

I'm not going to highlight all of them because there are a lot but all of them feature some brilliant simplicity, presentation, and the use of different bricks are used to portray textures very well in all of them, resulting in a brilliant selection of mouth-watering mocs that if I didn't know better I'd say looked good enough to eat. 

ABS probably tastes pretty bad though...

Check these out and many more at KOS bricks's Photostream!

 

Source Material is the Struggle

Miro Dudas has built something awesome. I think this is a great archetypical example of how to build form source material. First, you need an in depth knowledge of your source. Second, you need to prioritize the details. The third thing is dealing with the realities of rendering in Lego, and making the tough decisions about what to build in and what to leave out. For instance, Miro evidently decided that the details of the face were a higher priority than the round shape of the head. When he figured out that couldn't do both, he discarded the shape. Those kinds of decisions are what make the difference between a MOC that lives up to its source material and one that does not. Miro's does.

Non-Lego presentation for your Lego

Earlier on this year while I was at the Auckland Brick Show 2014, I saw the works of weta workshop lead model maker David Tremont, and He has a most brilliant thing where he paints his mocs, and to an incredible standard (as you'd expect from a professional model maker I guess), in some cases to the point you need to second guess if its even Lego. Initially, A foolish arrogant me wrote off painting mocs as the easy way out of getting detail, until I saw his stuff. Unfortunately Davids' Flickr stream only has his starwars droids (which, Don't get me wrong, are awesome, but his other models feature a lot more painting and model making genius).

Since then I've come to appreciate people going out of their way to present a moc to give it an authentic professional look much more, as it really can enhance the creation in quite a unique way, and certainly has a cut over the 'regular' lego photography.

Kyle Hardisty has just that going on, and it's awesome. 

The mocs themselves are nice, but without a doubt it's the superb presentation of the composition that lured me away from my flickr feed to admire them, It looks so beautiful and authentic. Im not saying that everyone should pack up their photography boxes, but sometimes going a little bit further with your presentaion can really make a big difference.

Pimp-my-sandworm!

Not many people like sandworms. They've got a reputation of eating through your desert shoes, eating through your desert supplies, and every so often they just decide to eat you too. This one by Cole Blaq is made of Lego, so as much as it looks like it wants to tear through something, you're safe. The combination of minifigure and bionicle elements is superb and really gives a very creepy organic look to the worm, the head is so good that I had to stare at it a bit to figure out what was actually going on. The loose tiles combined with the very clean base give the creation a sense of motion which compliments the worm a lot.

Boss.

If you haven't already, check out Coles' flickr stream here!

Suit-up!

I'm not that big on military builds, whether they be realistic trench and tank scenes or apocalyptic mechas completely loaded with weapons; that being said I do appreciate it when its well made. Devid VII has been pumping out some excellent hardsuits and mechas recently, and they are certainly well made. I absolutely love the amount of detail and greebles that He's managed to fit on such a small, and I believe posable hardsuit, It's quite extraordinary, and the presentation really tops it off nicely. 

Check out Devids' photostream here for heaps more awesome mechas (and other cool mocs!)