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.

Marvelous minifig hands

Ah, the minifig hand. Since the dawn of time this seemingly insignificant  part of the LEGO person's anatomy has been used for almost anything a builder could think of. Today we have two MOCs which I was going to blog individually but then realized that both these builds contain a smart use of the humble minifig hand. So here we go: 

First up is this microscale Hoth scene from Jeremy Williams (Bricking It). This was built a couple months ago for NEW ELEMENTARY but I missed it then, so here it is. Check out all the great part usages at this tiny scale, including a metal ingot, roller skate, and of course those tiny hands...

(Sidenote: we've chosen this build as our June 2016 cover photo over on Twitter! Don't forget to follow us, and all that!)

Our second MOC is also from a licensed theme, but from the more magical side of things - a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets vignette built by Markus Rollbühler ('rolli). Not only are some sand green hands put to good use on the basilisk, but there are also some arms (and skeleton arms) in there. Plus that crow bar tongue. 

Spaceport on the dunes

We started off the month in a Castle mood and now we're finishing on a Space streak. This microscale space scene from Karf Oohlu gives off a great 50s/60s sci-fi vibe and I love the texture and color transition from the sand dunes to the sleek metal. 

Swooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

So, first of all, a great apology for not being very active on this blog,or Flickr in general. I'll try to blog more often from now on.

There are a lot of great Lego spaceships out there, but not a lot of them stand out. But This gorgeous Starfighter by Adrian Florea Is simply genius. The smooth transitions of the Dark Bluish Grey slopes and the amazing Stickerwork create a somewhat non-lego-aestetic, which is usually really hard to achieve which such simple shapes.

The modern life

Ahhh, after all those ancient, weary Castle MOCs, it sure is nice to see some modern architecture! :P

This build from Grantmasters is clean and straightforward, with an excellent color palette, and everything is balanced. There's some great building going on with jumper plates - the porch as well as the front righthand tree:

This MOC might also win the interesting title of "first MOC ever to include prefab tree parts, used as trees, that I did not immediately scroll past..." 

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...)

A bit of Castle

This month seems to be a good one for Castle-themed MOCs, at least in terms of me seeing things on Flickr that I want to blog. Clearly my blogging time has been limited (although I'm going to attempt to fix that in the next few days), but for now let's all enjoy this excellent vignette by Brother Steven, entitled "Fisher's Luck":

(Built for InnovaLUG's Summer Joust competition)

Reconquest

I said yesterday that we'd be covering more of InnovaLUG's "Summer Joust" contest, which is now open on Flickr through June 30th. Anyone is welcome to enter, so go check out the photo pool if you're interested!

I really liked this entry from builder marcu44. The base is relatively simple and flat, just some plates and foliage elements, but the whole MOC is elevated by that wonderful brick-built tree. The SNOT work in that twisting trunk; the roots crawling over the boulder; the beautifully positioned leaves - everything has the makings of a great nature build. And you can't ignore the creative part usages for the tiny mushrooms or the bird:

Castle on the rocks

There's never a bad time for a good microscale castle, especially not now in the heat of the Summer Joust contest. (We'll have more MOCs blogged from that in the days to come, so stay tuned.) This one's by Halhi141 and features an attractive color scheme and some intriguing building techniques - you can read more here. 

Quack quack

This little model of Donald Duck by Djokson is really sharp. There's only a small number of pieces, but every one is used with purpose to bring out the essence of the character. Many of the pieces are just simple, classic elements that seem perfectly suited to their usage here, and for that I'm designating this build with a well-deserved NPU tag. 

(If anyone was wondering, my personal favorite part use is the 1x1 teeth to create the effect of balled fists.)