I spy a spider

Beast or bot? Flesh and blood or metal and bolts? These are the questions that come to mind just before Mitsuro Nikaido's arachnophobia-inducing concoction leaps toward you from the darkness...

Mitsuro, who goes by ToyForce120 on Flickr, has been working on a whole gallery of mech-animals, including a whale, a crocodile, a rabbit, and even a horseshoe crab - so I suggest you go check out his photostream for more robotic goodness!

Pink poison

The Brick Bucket's fearless reporting takes us once again into the Iron Builder arena, home now to a peculiarly pink battle between Grant Davis and Kosmas Santosa (kosbrick). The seed part at stake is the 4x4x13 curved panel, more commonly known as the "hot air balloon segment," in any and all of its three existing colors. 

The Brick Bucket's intrepid journalism has now discovered the source of the pink variety of these pieces: they must be harvested from the abdomens of a very rare and beautiful spider deep within the jungles of Iron Builder Land. But there's a risk to be taken for beauty, as this spider is not just pink; it's deadly poisonous. Watch your step...

Follow the Iron Builder action at this link!

Luggabeast

Wow, sorry for the lack of posts this month! I've been surprisingly busy for summer break, but hopefully soon we'll be blogging more regularly. I was talking to Frog and Aaron today about some potential new ideas, and we're also going to be bringing another pretty well-known blogger on board pretty soon...

...but enough about that; you came here for the MOCs. And Robert Lundmark has provided today's fare - an excellent model from a galaxy far far away, specifically from The Force Awakens. Behold Teedo astride his Luggabeast:

This is on a larger scale than the official-model Luggabeast from a recent set, and is therefore much more detailed.

If you love highly detailed and accurate Star Wars builds, there's much more where that came from, so follow the link to Robert's photostream for more amazing builds from across the galaxy...

The good, the evil and the...nocturnal being?

So, today I've got not one, not two, but three amazing Bionicle creations to share with you.

First of all, Alieraah brings us an adorable bat-technician (I'd never thought I'd ever say that). The CCBS body, the system head and the Ninjago wings mix up perfectly. The small bits of mint green also add a lot to the overall detail.

Second of all, Kelvin Low brings us this Nexo Knights-inspired lava beast. Appropriately titled "Ballrog"(Get it? cuz it has got a Ball for a head. Also yeah, this name kinda was my fault... This thing really looks like it won't let you pass. The flawless integration of system pieces and especially tires into this Bionicle build is pretty dang neat.

And for the last MOC of today I got a bit of a personal backstory. If you don't want to read is, just skip right ahead to the image.

As a little kid, I was a huge fan of Bionicle, and I especially liked the Barraki series. Then, one day, I think it was in 2007, I got the Lego Collectors Guide, and how shocked was I to find out that there were three Barraki Sets that never made their way to Germany. One of them was Nocturn. I was lucky enough to get this set around one year ago, and have really liked it ever since.

Now Logan McOwen brings us this lovely revamp of Nocturn. The seamless integration of CCBS onto the old Barraki pieces, the integrated gearbox and especially the new head design really made this MOC outstanding to me.

Dragon warrior

...I really need to get around to finishing (read: starting) my review of 41172 The Water Dragon Adventures. The set's been sitting completed on my shelf for almost two months now. And I can't even claim to have built anything with it in the meantime - quite unlike LEGO 7, who took the head and wings from another Friends dragon, 41175 Fire Dragon's Lava Cave, and built this stunning mech:

The legs are a little short for my taste, making the creature a little less imposing - but maybe that was the goal, and at any rate I have no right to complain since I have not turned my own dragon set into a mech as awesome as this one. Not yet, anyway. 

(Stay tuned for that review...)

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!

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. 

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. 

Frog squad

I'm sure my co-blogger Frog will enjoy this post. Frequent Brick Bucket bloggee Deltassius returns with a trio of frog-themed warriors! The charming cuteness (and color choices) remind me a bit of Pokemon...or maybe that's just because of my Pokemon post from a couple weeks ago. 

In any event, check out these adorably feisty critters before they hop out of sight...

Warrior:

Artillery:

Hypnotoad:

Computer bug

Djokson's MOCs are always full of character. He mainly uses BIONICLE-type parts but adds a few System parts as well to create excellent details. Here's his latest, a digital mantis with a fantastic color scheme:

Every part seems to enhance the model, and it's amazing how nicely the BIONICLE/HERO FACTORY headpieces and ball shooters integrate into this model. Also take note of the positioning of those red ball pieces for the eyes. It's simple, and subtle, but they're oriented so the small hole appears as the pupil. Brilliant!

Brass bug

I'm a trumpet player, I think trumpet is awesome, I've ordered antique LEGO trumpets from Bricklink, and somehow I missed this creation from Legopard amidst the frenzy of building that was the recent Iron Builder contest. But now I've seen it, and the combination of trumpet, insect, and steampunk makes me happy. Although maybe that design is more of a mellophone. Or a flugelhorn...

Gotta catch 'em all

willgalb continues his long trend of pop-culture builds with this fantastic new idea: Pokemon cards, but made out of LEGO! Well, sort of. He constructed accurate models of the final evolutions of the three Generation 1 starters (Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise - but who doesn't know that?), and edited them into real-life cards. The result is a fantastic mashup of two well-known hobbies!

The famous (and no doubt expensive) originals of Charizard and Venusaur are represented, but I wonder why the builder used the HeartGold/SoulSilver card version of Blastoise? (See, I still know a bit about Pokemon!)

Ring-necked parakeet

AnActionfigure adds to their lovely series of realistic, detailed animal builds with this brightly colored parrot:

The color scheme is nice and this is quite a realistic model. Check out AnActionfigure's photostream for more like it!

Sinister spider 'bot

And now back to the Iron Builder arena...

Between us and the other big LEGO blogs, I wouldn't be surprised if every single MOC out of the current IB round gets blogged by someone. I just featured 6kyubi6's flower and vase; now we head to the realm of the robotic to take a look at competitor Legonardo Davidy's mecha-spider.

I think this build has been overlooked by some of David's more impressively presented ones, but I for one really like the way the seed part (the musketeer sword) makes this thing look so spidery and mechanical. For some reason the first thing that came to my mind was Ray Bradbury's description of the Mechanical Hound in Fahrenheit 451 - a pretty respectable work to evoke in a LEGO model, I think. I'm really enjoying this IB round so far...

Come closer to the light...

So, it's been some time since I last blogged something, but here I go again.

As most of you know, I am a huge fan of well built and thought out BioMOCs. Now Flickr user thisisnothingatall brings us this slightly creepy, disturbing creature. I especially like the anglerfish-esque lamp, probably used to lure prey. All in all a dark, but weirdly beautiful beast.

Dracholich - undead dragon

Dragons are awesome enough, but a skeleton dragon? Even cooler. And an amazingly well-built MOC of a skeleton dragon by vitroleum? Too cool to not post! Just look at how nicely all the pieces fit together in this build...

Hot stuff

This jaw-dropping (and jaw-melting) lava dragon is brought to you courtesy of Deus Otiosus. The large window panels used as wings arguably stick out most prominently at first, but the fantastic chest detailing, superbly formed head, and lighting (!) make the biggest impact, if you ask me.

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.

Angry dino

This adorably angry little dinosaur by nobu_tary makes great use of a Chima Speedorz part as the head, but there are other nice Technic/BIONICLE usages throughout, and despite not having many bricks, this build sure has character. 

Side view

“My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears..."

"...the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Behold this mighty sea dragon, an impressive sight over the open waters and - just as impressively - built by Cecilie Fritzvold (cecilihf) using only pieces from Mixels set 41534 Vampos. 

Alternate builds using only the parts from any set are difficult, but even more so for something as small as a Mixel - Vampos has only 59 pieces, and almost all of them have to have been used in this MOC. The large tooth plate used as the sail of a mythical Viking warship? Genius.