More than Cool

There’s just something about seeing creations with your own eyes on a convention that you don’t quite get when you’re looking at your screen. You can walk around models, choose your own perspective and discover hidden details instead of looking at the same few pictures everybody else gets to see. And you get to take your time, gazing at the models for minutes on end instead of flicking to just another picture after some seconds without real investment. All of this is especially true for those big dioramas that you see so often at conventions but rarely online. Luckily, lostcarpark‘s Hoth diorama made the jump to our screens and still looks extremely cool.

His creation has something to love for everyone, making his Echo Base very fun to explore even online. Wonderfully detailed rooms that capture the atmosphere of the movie perfectly sit right next to rooms we’ve never seen before but that have some fun stuff going on, showcasing that even in such a dire situation, people need to go to the restroom or need to take a break. There is an exciting battle going on outside with pre-existing models that are cleverly arranged for forced perspective when looking from the Rebel standpoint. There are incredible custom builds for this diorama like the shield generator, the turrets and the service gantry over the X-wing which could be respectable MOCs all on their own. And there’s some brilliant landscaping going on with a wonderfully meandering trench and a snowy landscape with wedge plates in a more or less consistent direction to give some structure to the snow, which is nicely broken in some busy areas to showcase the variety in the terrain. All of those factors coming together makes for a multi faceted yet coherent creation that just invites you to look closer, linger and have fun: you connect with it. And not just now, because this creation is a work in progress, so much more joy is ahead of us. Thank you, lostcarpark, for bringing the joy of conventions to us without us even having to leave our hangar door!

MOCcing Movie Magic

As a Star Wars fan, it’s easy to take that galaxy far, far away for granted, with its grand stories, inspiring settings and infinite details. It’s easy to find everything so natural, you forget a lot of love and labor went into crafting that universe in the first place. Luckily, we have Kit Bricksto to tell us to take a step back and admire the people who made it all possible. And luckily, he tells us that in the most beautiful way possible, with a gorgeous creation.

First of all, it’s gorgeous in its concept. It shows you the entire movie at a glance, reminding you of all that was so great about it with a minimum of bricks. At the same time, the imagery of the roll of film and the black bands on the screen show you it’s only a sequence of images after all, but that those images (most of them, at least, as you can see) were handled with the greatest care. I love the balance between the abstract and the realistic in this depiction. Secondly, this creation is gorgeous in its execution. Every single one of those small scenes is a wonder of composition and color, totally doing justice to the respective scenes in the movie on a tiny footprint. And that scene on the monitor – I swear I could see one of those figures move! It’s incredible how lifelike this scene is, so much so that it looks like an actual screenshot pasted in the picture. But no, it’s actually physically there. I think the effect is so convincing because of the twofold contrast between the screen itself and the scene seen within the screen. There’s the powerful contrast in color between the grey frame, the black bands and the snowy white scene that makes the screen almost glow. And there’s the contrast in depth, the paradox of a flat screen containing a base so deep, your eye gets sucked right into it. That depth was created by the cleverly angled wall on the right and the subtle use of consecutive layers to depict the icy formations. After a while, you forget you’re looking at an image on a screen on a screen, you’re just totally absorbed. The behind the scenes tour is enough to convince you a lot of love and labor went into crafting this creation. Yes, it’s the movie magic all over again.

Exuberant Exogorth

 

I hear a number of people have always been frightened by episode V’s space slug – or Exogorth, if your tongue is up for a challenge. I’ve actually always liked it, to the point where I feel sorry for it getting shot right in the intestines, having an interior infestation going on and living all alone on a small rock. There’s something so helpless about the obtuse hand puppet with its limited range of motion. It took Outworlder‘s stunning build above to make me realize there was something seriously wrong with me to feel like that. His rendition doesn’t look helpless or harmless, but more lively and threatening. I love how it looks so massive when it completely overshadows those rocks yet so dynamic, reaching for its prey with its mouth wide open, pushing the billions of muscle fibers in its body to the limit. This was cleverly achieved by showing more of the body than we’re used to and by making the motion very vertical. The mouth is wide open, clearly overstretching the jaw muscles, and the tongue sticks forward in the impatient expectation of delight. At the same time, the Exogorth stays close to the ground which highlights how it just comes out of the blue. It is the strange mix of sheer size, speed and a low profile that make this creation so unsettling, and it uses it to full extent. Outworlder captures the one moment in which the giant creature is truly alive. Without that life, this creation is still a marvelously shaped beauty with surprisingly smooth shapes and a superb head which looks at the same time fat and muscular, boasts a perfect row of teeth and has a throat you can get lost in just by looking a tad too long. But with it, this is a creation to remember, one that will feature both in your nightmares as in your dreams. There’s no escaping, so you might just as well check out the topic for more amazing shots.

Remakes are a Dish Best Served Cold

 

Being an AFOL comes with a host of happy moments. However, there are sad ones too, like when you realize one of your favorite builders hasn’t uploaded something in a long time. I had such a sad realization with Brickdoctor, who used to create awesomely accurate midi and minifig-scaled Star Wars vehicles and has been a constant inspiration to me, and whom I have learned to know by working on this blog and in the forum. Apart from the happy and sad moments, there are also ecstatic ones. I lived such a moment a week ago, when I saw the magnificent snowspeeder above and saw the name of its creator.

It was definitely worth the wait, because this version blows his previous one out of the molten snow! Actually, it’s better than any rendition of the snowspeeder I’ve seen, with those absolutely perfect wings. The angle of them is right in every direction, while there are no studs and the edges of the wings are perfectly smooth, a combination that has never been achieved before. The subtle angled lines on the surface of the wing make for an interesting texture as well. Another lovely area are the intakes with the smooth shape and perfect separation of colors, in which nothing gives away it’s made out of plastic bricks. I love how this model uses techniques that are far from straightforward and that must have required a lot of work to incorporate without any gaps just to give it that extra touch I love so much in Brickdoctor’s work. The way he details his model is incredible as well, exploring options no one has thought of before. The laser cannons look so good thanks to – who would have guessed? – train axles, and a look at the back of the model with the perfectly fitted old ribbed Technic bushes is enough to convince you that not a single area was finished before the optimal solution had been found. Not the detail on the lower airbrakes, not the tiny asymmetric features I’ve never noticed before, not the tiny inward angle of the cannons. This is what happens if you don’t create anything for years: your creations ripen. You take your time to finish a creation even though it’s rather small. You can combine the observations of years of watching other creations to come up with something new and sensational. Something that delights me with every new picture I encounter in the topic. Something that makes me ecstatic. If years is what it takes for such a glorious return with such a creation, I’ll gladly wait them out. Turns out that moment years ago wasn’t a sad one after all.

A Hotly Anticipated Review

 

As of June 1st, the much debated UCS Assault on Hoth set is available for purchase. There have been a lot of comments on the builds in advance, but what do they look like from up close? Are there any interesting parts to be found in the set? Do the minifigures look great? What kind of goodies does the instruction booklet have to offer? And which spare parts do you get? All of these are questions Bob De Quatre answers in his excellent review. He uncovers some extra flaws but some welcome surprises as well. So before you buy or don’t buy, definitely check out Bob’s beautiful pictures and honest opinion.

75098 UCS Assault on Hoth Revealed

 

Rumors about this set have been floating around for a while now, but it’s finally official: LEGO’s next set in the Ultimate Collector’s Series will be 75098 Assault on Hoth. It’s a play set, a bit in the style of the Ewok village, with all of the essential Hoth locations. You need to piece together 2144 bricks to build the main hangar, the trenches, the ion cannon, the Wampa’s lair, a snowspeeder… so it’s the definite Hoth playset. It contains 14 minifigures, many with updated prints, and they all look gorgeous. If it’s still to small for your liking, I have no doubt this year’s 75138 Hoth Attack set will be perfect to expand your trenches and your armies. All in all, it looks like a nice set (especially with that gorgeous box art), but to me it’s not much more than a lot of sets slapped together. To me it lacks the wow-feeling of a detailed and elaborate construction that’s so characteristic of the UCS sets. There’s no denying its tremendous play value though: this will be high on many a kid’s wishlist! This set will be released on April 30th, just in time for the May the Fourth craze, and will set you back $249.99/£219.99/€249.99. Check out the official descriptions and all of the pictures and discuss the set in our forum, and be sure to check out the designer video below for a great overview and an explosion!

Spoiled BrAT-ATs

 

Lately, we’re getting more and more threads starting with “Yet another…”, and I must admit it reflects the feelings I sometimes have towards a new rendition of well known source material. “Should I click through? What new surprises could a model hold that I have seen built countless times?” We’re so spoiled with great models, that if I’m having a very bad day, I just leave it at that and scroll along. Luckily, the day I noticed dmaclego‘s thread wasn’t such a day. Because I would have missed the model of the decade! You see, his creation isn’t yet another UCS AT-AT, it’s awe, inspiration, intimidation and pure beauty come to life.

I pretend to see small possibilities for improvement in a lot of models, but dmaclego has me stumped. Everything’s there, not a part missing, not a part too much. When writing about a micro creation, you might catch me saying that every single piece used in the model was the perfect one. Today is the first time I can say such a thing about a creation containing not tens, but thousands of bricks. I think you can see why, because I’m pretty sure you had to look twice at that picture. That’s because both the shapes, the details, the details in the shapes and the shapes in the details are all awesome. The roundness of the feet and knees of the model are unprecedented. I’ve never seen a greater variety of greebles all over the model, from the most obvious to the most obscure places, that still doesn’t overload the model. The nearly hidden taper at the top of the leg and the angled dishes at the ankle are those near to invisible thoughts that have a huge impact on the credibility of the model. And touches like the half-plate insets for the greebles and panels gracefully embracing the ‘shoulders’ draw you ever closer in. That’s far from a complete appraisal of the static model – and I haven’t yet begun covering the impossible functions that found shelter between all of the perfect pieces! And even worse, this is only part of a bigger Endor diorama that will feature a cusom built UCS Imperial shuttle as well! So you’ll have to discover it for yourself. So leave a word of praise in the topic after you’ve lost a night’s sleep absorbing every detail from every picture. And lose another night’s sleep after watching the machine slowly powering up and turning its mighty cannons towards you… Maybe you should have scrolled along after all.

Just Keep a Cool Head

 

When you learn that LiLmeFromDaFuture’s definite snowspeeder was just a spin-off of a minifigure scale AT-AT project, your heart skips a beat. I wished for this when discussing the snowspeeder, and now we get to see just the head of the AT-AT, and it’s already looking like something that will set a completely new standard. It doesn’t just look incredible, it’s unbelievably accurate as well: I can’t discover a single feature on the studio model, from the tiniest of greebles to the subtlest of ridges, that hasn’t found a place. It’s remarkable how the builder used rather unusual parts and features you’d normally want to hide to achieve this, like the belly of the jumper plate, that tiny gap beneath the visor that’s the backside of an erling brick, the side of a grill brick or the triangular flags that never looked this good before. Even areas that seem to contain no details where handled expertly. You’ve probably noted the half plate offsets of the tiles on the roof, but what’s most subtle is the use of smaller and bigger pieces in the absolutely flat areas, of which the seams create a perfectly interesting pattern. Every brick contributes to the look and feel in several ways, which makes it really fun to pour over. And once the lack of gaps gets through to you, you realize there is some serious engineering wizardry going on just to fill those extra millimeters in. Yes, the inside does look rather complex according to the builder. So top, bottom (check it out!), outside and inside, no matter where you look, it’s clear this creation is in an entirely new category. It’s definitely worth it to look at all of the pictures and considerations in the topic, because there’s so much to discover about this piece. And that’s just the head.

Resistance is Futile

 

AT-AT MOCs are always a delight to watch. But we’ve seen so many excellent renditions, only a few create a lasting impression. That said, be prepared to let Rollokster‘s minifig-scale walker join that select list. It stands out from the myriad of impressive but similar minifig-scale AT-AT’s we’ve seen so far by it’s baffling presentation. The composition, carefully recreated from the cover of the new Star Wars Battlefront game, is already really imposing with the walker dwarfing our hero, with a look that seems to say resistance is futile. The ominous red lighting from below helps to sell the tank’s immense scale, and the troopers in the background add that little bit extra to it. Then there’s the silhouette of the figure that seems to say it’s taking it’s chances to resist anyway… the entire atmosphere of the build is just so tense and epic, unlike any other LEGO image I’ve ever seen before. The undetectable picture editing only enhances it more: it makes me wish every MOC was presented this way!

Of course there’s more to success then a good presentation. If you look past the initial wow! (incredibly hard to do, but try anyway), you’re immediately wow!-ed again by the quality of the walker itself. Look at how effortless all of the angles match up perfectly. And the ‘coat’ of beast features a balanced texture with studs, tiles, seems and grills, that makes the walker look like a complete and effective walking fortress. The legs especially look incredible with some cutting-edge detailing. I thought the perfect combination of parts for the cockpit had already been found, but Rollokster whips up another variant that beats them all. It’s simple (maybe not so), effective and gorgeous. That walker is one mighty and beautiful sight to behold from back here. Still we feel the absolute terror of that unbeatable monster looking down at that feeble little Rebel: a combination that makes for an irresistible experience. Here you can experience the wonder, the horror and your new wallpaper to the fullest.

“Hang on, Dack. Get ready to fire that tow cable”

 

It seems to be The LEGO Group’s favorite Star Wars vehicle, with it’s numerous incarnations. And still, apart from the UCS version, none of them truly captured the iconic look of the snowspeeder. LiLmeFromDaFuture‘s one you see above, succeeds where the official ones failed. It’s the result of three months reiterating to come to the perfect fighter. Working with LDD and together with the kind commentators here on the forum, it seems like he’s tried every single possibility to come to what could be described as the definite LEGO Snowspeeder. It’s quite amazing how a number of techniques have been used to create the perfect, clean shape. There’s the notable use of a combination of SNOTted slopes and studs-up plates for the perfect balance of smoothness and accuracy of shape. And you might not have noticed the fact that the cheese slopes delineating the air intakes and supporting the cannons have been offset half a plate to form a perfectly smooth whole. The new windscreen part also fits perfectly. The amount of detail is quite impressive: just look at those air intakes, the different sizes of cooling fins, the brakes in several places… It’s one of those models you can really see the dedication in. You’ll see no accidental gaps here, no compromises: it’s completely ready to take on the Empire all by itself! We can only hope LiLmeFromDaFuture will use his patience, openness and talent for more and bigger vehicles… the future looks promising indeed! Right now, check out the airspeeder in great detail here, or get more insight into how it grew over the past couple of months here.