Beach day

Every so often a MOC comes along that just makes me go "wow." Usually it's a huge castle or spaceship or something of that magnitude. But occasionally it's something as small and (at first glance) simple as nobu_tary's bucket of beach toys. 

Every time I look at this build I see something new to marvel at. The bucket and tools look perfect - and have some very clever part usages, including a flower in the fishing rod, an inside-out tank tread for the top of the bucket, and a little green dinosaur as part of the shovel's string. An expertly constructed water gun and toy car round out the toy selection, while the pastel pink rake adds quite a bit to the color scheme. I also love Hadras's headgear from the Pirates of the Caribbean line being used as a little seashell.

Brick Bucket Review: 70743 Airjitzu Morro Flyer

4/5

Appearance - 4/5
Construction - 3/5
Pieces - 5/5
Playability - 5/5
Minifigs/accessories - 3/5
Value for money - 3/5


70743 Airjirzu Morro Flyer is one of the six Ninjago "Airjitzu" sets released in early summer 2015. It retails for $9.99 and contains 46 pieces, for 21.7 cents per piece.




Verdict: This thing looks pretty cool, but its main purpose is as a flying toy, and it does very well in that regard. There are also some excellent rare and/or useful pieces included. 

New logo!

Contributor Dead Frog has created a sweet new logo for the blog!

The Meduza II underwater habitat: going down to the bottom

The Meduza II was a Polish-designed underwater habitat constructed in 1968. Polish builder Karwik has miniaturized the submersible in LEGO form, and the resulting MOC and presentation is awesome. 

Something was triggered in my brain's "happy center" when I realized that everything in the above photo - including the ropes and tubes - is made out of LEGO. The photography is stunning as well, really making it seem as if the picture was taken in the murky depths of the Baltic Sea. 

Check out this Flickr album to see some more angles. 

Dishing out goodness

This quirky but marvelously built organic spaceship by BobDeQuatre caught my eye the other day. A smoothly angled hull and expert placement of tentacles make it reminiscent of a nautiloid, though it retains enough alien flair to speak for itself. The real star of the show, however, is the use of iterated dishes for a fantastic segmented look.

Anubis

As some of you may or may not know, I do really like the creatures of Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology. Now Dennis Qui brings us an amazing recreation of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of mummification and Afterlife. Especially the mostly trans-orange torso makes it look brilliant.

More than just a stud shooter

As most fans know, one of the best things about LEGO is that almost any piece can be used for almost any purpose. There are no limits to creativity, and in the right hands a seemingly very specific piece can be put to use in an unexpected way.

That's the case with the new(ish) LEGO stud shooter as used in these two recently posted MOCs. The first build comes from vir-a-cocha and is a creepy character entitled "Nightmare Designer." As you can see, the stud shooter finds a use as the character's head, creating a surprisingly well-defined facial expression.

The second MOC was actually influenced by the first - it was built by vitroleum and features stud shooters as a pair of those notorious Easter Island heads: 

Besides the stud shooters, check out some of the insane part usages in this build: a tooth/claw, feather, rocker hinge, backpack, and treasure chest lid have all found their way into the ship!

(Sorry for the lack of posts the past week - I just got back from music camp!)

Vehicles, vehicles and even more vehicles

I am a huge fan of all types vehicles, and today two popped up in my Flickr contacts list.

The first one is an amazing bulldozer by Karwik. On first sight I didn't even notice it was LEGO. The usage of flex tubes, string and even LEGO watch pieces is brilliant!

The next MOC is a pair of motorcycles by Calvin Sun. The amount of details build into these small vehicles is amazing.

Baseplate of operations

Within a 16x16 stud baseplate, Shannon Sproule has miniaturized Tracy Island from Thunderbirds. The visible building techniques used are fairly simple, but the clean style and judicious use of a decorated baseplate keep it just detailed enough and pleasing to the eye.

Super Nova

I'm just blown away by this microscale "Nova" Medium Assault Cruiser built by Rancorbait. I can't believe it's possible to fit that many complex techniques into such a small model! My favorite part is probably the dark gray line of greebles along the side, and the way the contours are angled around it. This is one of the coolest microscale ships I've ever seen. 

The wheels on the bus

This Hungarian Credo Econell 12 bus was built by Gabor Horvath in 1:24 scale, and judging from the source photos, it's a very accurate replica of the real vehicle. Making it even more interesting, the whole bus is remote-controlled and can be driven and steered (the doors can also be opened/closed remotely). 

Take a look at the video below to see all the functions in action, then head over to MOCPages for more images, including shots of all the Technic mechanisms that make the bus work. The amount of Technic work crammed into this frame is incredible. 

Metroid Prime boss battle

While scrolling through my Flickr feed today, pondering the many fine MOCs I saw, my ties to this blog posed a new question besides the usual ones ("Wow, I wonder how many bricks that took?" "Now how did they accomplish that angle?" "Where on earth does anyone get that many T-pieces?!").

I was faced with the difficult decision of what to blog. 

Well, difficult until I saw Canadian builder Jared Rosenblitt's mindblowing Artifact Temple Showdown from Metroid Prime.

Clicking the above photo leads to a photo album that includes detail shots of the impressively SNOTed teal highlights and views of both Samus Aran and the build's centerpiece, Meta-Ridley. Using a delicious assortment of purple parts, this terrifying villain is a masterpiece in its own right.

An ambiguously named "Part 2" will be unveiled next year, which will "complete" the build according to Jared. I highly look forward to seeing the final product.

Under construction

This microscale construction site by Galaktek has a very simple, uncluttered look that I like. The vehicles have smooth lines and basic color schemes, making this seem almost like a classic LEGO Town playset. Check out this Flickr album for closer images. 

And then there were three

Today The Brick Bucket welcomes its third resident blogger: Aaron Van Cleave, better known as A Plastic Infinity. He is a talented builder as well as a blogger, and we think he will be a welcome presence here on the blog. You can follow Aaron on Flickr here to see more of his work; in the meantime, here's what he himself had to say: 

It's morning somewhere - good morning!

Or good night.

Hope you're enjoying your lunch as you read this.

I've always wanted to write for a blog, but was also always too lazy to start one myself...which is why I'm very grateful to Tate for inviting me to act as a contributor here! I look forward to rooting out underrated MOCs, which there are far too many of, and recognizing them here. While I lean heavily toward Sci-fi, I can certainly appreciate a good Castle or City build. Most themes, in fact.

As a fairly active builder myself, I hope to expand my own understanding of what constitutes a "good" MOC, and share that knowledge. And use way too many emoticons. :D

-A Plastic Infinity