Apogee

apogee. [AP-uh-jee]. noun. the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of a man-made satellite at which it is farthest from the earth.

Or, the name of this awesome spaceship by F@bz:

I have no idea what pieces are used for the ridged section of hull, but I do know I love this ship's color scheme (the dash of red is great) and the generous amount of greebles. There are so many nice textures and designs on this thing.

Edit - Flickr user billyburg says those ridged pieces are battery packs (I assume from trains?), and adds that the background editing in this photo is quite nice - to which I agree.

Moon cheese miners

Anyone remember that Wallace and Gromit episode where they go to the moon and find out it's made of cheese? 

Maybe that's what inspired Galaktek to build this model of some intrepid space miners carving up the cheddary landscape:

They came prepared - they have a crane...

...a barge...

...and even some sort of rat alien thing...

I really love this MOC, and I haven't been building for a couple weeks but this inspired me to break out the bricks again. So kudos to Galaktek for that. 

You can check out even more images in the Flickr album!

The hanging tree

vitreolum has been working on a series of vignettes showcasing popular horror movie scenes. He started with The Exorcist and Scream; his third installment is this scene from Witchfinder General, which I have not seen but seems like a pretty messed up film. 

This is one of the most organic brick-built trees I've seen in a while, I think because of the combination of curved and straight-edged slopes and the textured slope at its base. The other thing that caught my eye was the SNOT construction used on the grass under the tree - the curves of the grass and the stone path fit perfectly together, something not easy to achieve. Overall this is a very well-built vignette, maybe my favorite of the year so far! 

You can follow the continuing horror vignette series here. 

Woo-hoo! Mario win!

I only recently got a Wii U and I've really been enjoying Mario Kart 8. This little model of one of the trademark karts, by Cecilie Fritzvold (cecilihf), is accurate to the game and reflects all its signature charm. The photo-editing is top notch as well, but I think my favorite little detail is the banana peel constructed from three whole banana pieces. Banana-ception?

UPDATE (4/23/16): Here's another Mario Kart MOC from the same builder, this time it's Yoshi on a bike!

The Yoshi design is very similar to cecilihf's green Yoshi that we blogged a few months ago. Oh and check out that green shell - good stuff!

Nautilus

Trash can man says this was "a VERY frustrating build," and I believe him, but I'm glad he stuck with it:

The shell is constructed of BIONICLE/HERO FACTORY armor segments that appear to be rubber-banded together and wrapped around a greebly central structure. Although small, it's intricate, and it's very well done. 

Badshahi Mosque

Not too long ago Andrew of The Brothers Brick wrote a post in which he stated that "the world needs more LEGO mosques," citing a lack of Islamic architecture in LEGO in the last several years. Since then, I actually have being seeing a fair few examples of Islamic styles in my Flickr feed (and a look through The Brick Bucket's archives will reveal previous posts containing these types of MOCs). It's one of my personal favorite architectural styles and I've been thinking about trying a hand at building it myself. 

No doubt I can credit some ideas to jsnyder002, who constructed this excellent model of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. The complex building techniques and intricate designs make this model more interesting the more you look, so once you're satisfied with the picture here, hop on over to the builder's blog Brickbuilt for more. 

Just look at all the fantastic implementation of SNOT building and part usages like the flowers, unicorn horns, and cheese slopes and tiles built into the walls. This MOC is a great example of the intersection of LEGO and art. 

Dragon mountain

Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) added another nice entry to his Iron Builder battle with Kosmas Santosa (kosbrick) by using the paint roller seed part on a fierce Asian dragon. 

Aside from the dragon, my favorite detail of this build is the little bridge - a simple construction of bar plates, but it looks quite nice. 

Maximum horsepower

The most powerful horses in the world are foals in comparison with Sleipnir, the ultimate horse.

Nordic myth states that this eight-legged horse was born to Loki, god of mischief, when he disguised himself as a mare to distract the workhorse of a giant who was building a wall and was coming close to finishing, which would cause him to win a deal that the gods were not content to lose and prepared to further sabotage through the strategic placement of Thor's hammer Mjöllnir into the skull of the giant and blah blah boring fight scene etc etc

Long, weird, story short, Sleipnir is an awesome horse, and anything named after him better be equally powerful and cool.

This seems to check out. Joel Larsson is to thank for this vessel that holds-and is worthy of-such a significant name.

Refined antique

Following on the heels of our last Marchikoma post, here's another "think tank," this one from Cole Blaq. While our previous think tank featured a bright, industrial style, this one is much more streamlined and elegant. Its color palette is bronzed and antique - the rusty old granddaddy of Marchikoma. 

Check out the use of those awesome burnt orange balloon segments from 70603 Raid Zeppelin. I actually pointed those out back in our preview of this spring's Ninjago sets! They really add a nice dimension to this model - I can't get over that lovely color scheme...

Last-minute-ikoma

With only hours remaining in the theme month known as Marchikoma, Andrew Lee (onosendai2600) persevered late into the night, clicking together the final pieces of his last-minute build. 

Fueled only by cheap beer and the fact that in his time zone, it was still March, he managed to churn out this sinister, mustard-yellow menace you now see before you:

This has a nice industrial, vaguely creepy feel to it, and the color scheme (which is actually flame yellowish orange - thanks, Legends of Chima!) is fantastic. I also love the wheels, something most Marchikoma MOCs lack. 

Brick Bucket EXCLUSIVE Review: 70320 Aaron Fox's Aero-Striker V2 [APRIL FOOLS]

5/5 

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

70320 Aaron Fox's Aero-Striker V2  is one of the second wave of Nexo Knights sets which are due to be released later this year. It retails for £13.99 / $19.99 / 18.99€ with 174 pieces, yielding a prices per piece ratio of 11.5 cents. 




Verdict: The minifigs are great, though compared to other Nexo Knights sets they're pretty standard. The set itself is a bit wonky but fun to build and host to  a number of cool functions and great new parts. The price is fair, making this an inexpensive and thoroughly recommended buy.
 

Editor's Note: Fellow blogger Dead Frog inc. has lucked out before and found sets before they were supposed to be available, and he's done it again! This set is part of the second wave of Nexo Knights and is set to release much later this year, but once again "a little toy store somewhere in Germany" mysteriously had a copy. Once again, The Brick Bucket is proud to present (as far as we know) the internet's first-ever review of this brand new Nexo Knights set!   -Tate

Co-Editor's Note: Frog is indisposed, but managed to send photos of the set and a brief description of some important points, which I've used to write the review in his stead. This looks like an excellent set and I'm excited for its official release.  -Aaron

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