A Steampunk vehicle

[Dreamweb]

First I'd like to say that I love watching steampunk MOCs, I just never had the opportunity to build one, until now. So, allow me to introduce the PUWALV: Prototypical Universal Water and Land Vehicle.

On the upper picture you can see it traveling in water, while on the lower picture it's in its 'land mode'.

On this picture on the right you can see the eccentric Professor Lophophore - the inventor of the vessel. Here's a closeup of the engine, and here you can see the helm - the bigger wheel controls the rudder, and the smaller one is used while driving on the land. A lever is used to switch from one mode to another.

Here's the whole eccentric gallery.

[Bonaparte]

Wow, this is something special.

Makes me think of these 19th century inventions.

And you seem to have several interesting characters on this ship.

I prefer realism, but this is fun to watch.

[Asuka]

I have to say I really *wub* steampunk MOCs and your vehicle is great! *y*

I like the effort you

[Dreamweb]

I prefer realism, but this is fun to watch.

Well, I think that's what steampunk is about - putting realism aside for a moment and building things that look as weird as possible...

[Mister Phes]

QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!!! Get John Cleese to this thread immediately! He's a major steampunk fan so he's probably candidate the best discuss this MOC with.

[john cleese]

Well as a steampunk afficionado i have to provide you with creative criticism.

Now bear in mind this is all in light of honesty; there are some parts of this moc that i love. The engine and the wheels, especially how they fold up for instance. However there are other parts i dislike, mainly the lack of detail on the ship as a whole. For example the bow of the ship could be improved upon greatly with some very simple greebling and snot techniques. I would also say you werent greatly adventurous in your endeavor to build for this theme. As you yourself said dreamweb "It's all about putting realism aside and building the wackiest thing possible". Where are the clockwork gears? The pneumatic cannons? The propellers, the zoowats and doodats that are quintessential to this theme? What i mean is you lack a hook, something that sets you apart from the rest of the steampunkers. Steampunk mocing is nothing like the mocing of a space model, each Mocer has to have a truly original idea and represent that in their model; i can garuntee you that anyone who types steampunk into the search bar on brickshelf is doing so for this reason. Now to the pros, I noticed some interesting subtlties that i smiled at. The car stearing wheel being used on land while the vavle one is used in water was the most outstanding of these. I also noticed the tops of the rails on the stern are technic plates, i liked this cause it adds variety and i usually don't think about this sort of thing right away and often slap my forehead (not literally) while mocing and say oh crud i should have done that. Then i massacre part of the thing to add that little part. I'll tell you this though; i would never have this application for those pieces in my moc. If it was mine it would just be boring tiles all around. Finally the engine. This part is well done and I find it's a shame that it's in a rather bare moc. So even though i hate to be a Simon Cowell those are my true thoughts of this pontentially great moc. I hope you'll rework it because theres nothing wrong you've done so far, it just looks a little incomplete.

and hey phes man i'm sorry about all that anger towards you over the issue of moving my post :-$ .

[Dreamweb]

Thanks john cleese, these are all perfectly valid arguments and I will consider them. Like I mentioned before, this is my first ever attempt at making anything steampunk-related, so you can hardly call ma a "steampunker" :) I will try and improve it when I find some time and inspiration.

The valve is not a steering wheel used in the water, it's just a... valve :) The wheel used in water is the bigger wheel next to the starboard yellow seat. Sorry to disappoint you :)

[Mister Phes]

I think Mr Cleese's feedback was very constructive and helpful for anyone embarking on MOCing in the steampunk genre. It would be interesting to see what he'd create following his own advice and I don't mean anything Time Twister/Cruiser related.

[Dreamweb]

Do you imply that my MOC is Time Twister/Cruiser related? :)

Well, it does use Flybo's hull's bottom part (the top part is from Renegade Runner), but I don't see too much resemblence myself ;)

[john cleese]

Phes i did build this which has certain unique parts. the gem lamps and its the firstm to use a fabric balloon. Sadly for some this was one of the flaws of my moc and they said the fabric balloon looked like it was about to deflate. Also its fairly detailed overall but does look a little thrown together towards the end. I also built crabs worth, seen here and it's uniuque in that it's the only mechanical crab of steampunk moc's. However this is something i did quite a while ago and think could have bennifited from more snot work, i'm not particularly proud of it thats why i didnt post it till 4 months after i built it but there are some good parts too.

And no mr. Dreamweb phes was saying that he wanted to see a steampunk moc i built according to my own advice, and said timetwisters moc's wouldnt count, he didnt mean your moc was timetwisters/cruisers like.

[Dreamweb]

And no mr. Dreamweb phes was saying that he wanted to see a steampunk moc i built according to my own advice, and said timetwisters moc's wouldnt count, he didnt mean your moc was timetwisters/cruisers like.

I thought so, just wanted to make sure ;)

Oh, and BTW, the crab looks really nice!

Steampunk is slowly becoming my favourite non-official Lego theme (the favourite official one being of course Pirates!).