Spirit of the season

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is in full swing, and while it may be mild for some people, it's decidedly not for others. You could blame this on the climate being affected by axial tilt and the Earth's distance from the Sun, or you could blame it on this "malevolent mountain spirit with powers over the wind and snow," Uromroz the Cold.

Built by Djokson, this icy, sharp character certainly looks responsible, doesn't it?

Feelin' blue

So much for me being a sci-fi blogger. The MOC in this post is another Castle build in a very similar style to the last one: a rustic, cobble-hewn style befitting of a rural countryside cottage. 

I'm not a huge fan of some of the part choices for rocks (too round) or the transparent elements (for the stream and chimney smoke), but still found this definitely worthy of a blog mention because of the beautifully textured cottage walls and roof, and the use of color. Blue is not too common in the gray/brown/green-dominated Castle theme, but between the roof, stream, and bluebird, there's plenty of it here, contrasting nicely with the sienna trees, gray walls, and cool green earth. 

Oh, and there's NPU: a feather, a minifig hand, and a joystick base for a bird? Ingenious. And John Snyder (jsynder002), if you're reading this, is that a minifig hairpiece used as a bird's nest? (Nice build by the way...) 

Take me to church

I'm no Castle expert, but I instantly felt this MOC by newcomer don leopold brings something new to the table. It has a different feel than a lot of Castle builds I've blogged before, although I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it is. Maybe any Castleheads reading this can elaborate...

We've seen the 1x1-cylinder-for-roofing technique before, but it works really nicely here. The trees and stone wall are well built and fit nicely into the scene. My favorite aspect of the build is the excellent use of SNOT and greebles to achieve the look of crumbling, paint-worn walls; it's some of the most natural-looking I've seen in a Castle build. Also note the NPU for the bell - can you tell what those pieces are?

"Bazaar"ly masterful building skills

Howdy.

Ignoring my face-palm-worthy title, Mark of Falworth's The Grand Bazaar is truly a LEGO magnus opus in the first and finest degree.  It not only invokes a wonderfully refreshing building style that perfectly utilizes a brick-built base to give the MOC structure, but the details that he has added really bring out the structural beauty in this diorama.  I especially am a fan of all the pastel and sand-green/blue elements he has used. Quite inspiring, indeed. 

Ending NoVVember with a throwback

Remember M-Tron? I don't, considering I was born seven years after the theme's last set came out. But the space theme holds a place in the heart of many builders due to its campy aesthetic and red/black/trans-lime color scheme. 

Our last NoVVember post this year is an M-Tron inspired Viper from Genghis Don: 

The dark red is an interesting departure from the bright red of the official sets, but the trans-lime touches leave you with no doubt this is M-Tron. I really like the engine technique and the multiple fins/flaps. 

You... shall not... PASS!

NoVVember continues and the Vic Vipers keep coming. Here's a small and simple, yet very creative, design from Shamisenfred, a builder whom I hadn't heard of before but turns out to have some excellent sci-fi builds in his photostream. It looks so alien and otherwordly, and I love that eye-catching gold stripe down the front. 

Here are the specs, according to the builder:

Equipped with two heavy acid plasma throwers, BALROGs are low flying war machines with limited space capability. They are very efficient against infantry and vehicles depending on their armor as the glowing pink plasma they shoot burn through flesh and metal.

Seriously though, if you're a n00b like me and didn't know about Shamisenfred, go check out his photostream for some awesome alien-spaceship goodness. 

Venice, 1486

Last time Jonas Kramm (Legopard) and Brick Vader collaborated on a MOC, we blogged it. Then again, pretty much anything made by these builders extraordinaire is blog-worthy. Here's their latest, a wonderful scene from medieval Venice:

This is one of those builds where the more you look, the more details you find. This was built for NEW ELEMENTARY's "The New Black" parts festival, so plenty of new molds and recolors (in black, of course!) are featured - check out the lamppost, bench, door knocker, gondola, and balcony! (Some are hard to see from the above image, so be sure to visit Legopard's post to see more images and some building analysis.) 

Some Scala parts have been integrated: the bridge features a specially molded flower, while the large salmon-colored vase is made from a flowerpot and umbrella stand. 

The wonderfully lifelike tree features many flexible elements and is one of the most natural LEGO trees I've seen. 

Maybe my favorite part use is the Chima vulture head for the mask of a plague doctor!

Overall this MOC is fantastic and only heightens the already lofty reputations of its builders. Great work!

Some images and content in this post came from NEW ELEMENTARY. See Legopard's highly interesting post there at this link!

Bloomin' good build

The Brothers Brick just highlighted Milan CMadge's cactus MOC. I wasn't aware of the builder so I checked out his photostream and found this equally impressive flower build (a lily, I'd say): 

Although there aren't many parts, they're all used perfectly - the hot air balloon segments as petals and some Ninjago ghost blades and what I think are whip elements used for the inside of the flower. A very well-composed build and photograph!

Guard those shins

Yep, those are CCBS shinguards (from the Star Wars buildable figures, I think) on this Vic Viper by F@bz. Don't they look fabulous?

This is a really unusual color scheme and F@bz pulled it off beautifully. I'm in love with that trans-lime windscreen, the design of the front prongs, and all those lovely greebles around the engines and guns. Everywhere you look there are innovative part uses and techniques - for example, I love the way the tailfin uses some SNOT to fit right into the slope of the rear canopy; the choice of dark gray "log bricks" as exhaust ports; the lime-and-blue "racing stripe" on one of the prongs... Some well-chosen stickers from official sets complete the model. A fantastic build and one of my personal favorite NoVVember builds I've seen! 

The desert of forced perspective

Certain comments about building a wall aside, most people consider Mexico a land of beauty: red sand, spicy food, crystal beaches, tequila, mustangs, mariachi bands, El Dorado... Since childhood, vir-a-cocha has wanted to visit this country. Hopefully someday he will, but for now all he can do is build the beautiful desert landscape with LEGO:

This MOC makes expert use of forced perspective - just check out that distant shadowy cactus, created brilliantly with small pieces! That steer skill in the foreground is very well built, and the red-and-pink sunset completes the scene. Fantastic build!