Darkblane

Thanks to everyone who voted for my entries, 1st place in Category B is awesome! I usually build space, sci-fi or city, so it was a nice change to have a go at a classic pirates (in addition to space pirates ). Also congratulations to all of the other winners, the other entries and to Bob for running the contest.

The Last Outpost Whether its at sea or in space, there are always uncharted areas where pirates roam. To protect the civilised world (or worlds), Imperial soldiers built chains of outposts spiralling outwards from the heart of civilisation to where these uncharted areas began. Classic Pirate Version Welcome to the last outpost, where one Imperial soldier and his faithful parrot maintain watch over the uncharted seas, ready to light the beacon or man the cannon at the first sign of pirates. This version uses exactly 700 parts (rocks are very parts intensive...) There are more photos in the full set on Flickr: The Last Outpost (Classic Pirate Version) Space Pirate Version Welcome to the last outpost, where one Imperial soldier and his cyber parrot maintain watch over the uncharted regions of space, ready to send a signal or activate the turret at the first sign of space pirates. This version also uses exactly 700 parts (floating rocks are even more parts intensive and it took a lot of time to actually find ways to remove parts from my original design to get it down to the contest maximum!) There are more photos in the full set on Flickr: The Last Outpost (Space Pirate Version)

Long John Silicon's Pirate Crew Welcome to the space pirate crew of Long John Silicon. In the photo above, from left to right: First Mate N13A Quartermaster X4S0 Bosun AR03 Long John Silicon El Castillo (Liberated from the Conquistadorian sector) Lady Killicrew

Like Batman, all I want for Christmas is to share it with the people that matter to me (and for LEGO to announce either a LEGO Movie or UCS Batwing ). Unfortunately I haven't had and don't have enough time to build this using real bricks before the closing date for submissions, so for now and for the raffle at least an LDD model, rendered with POV-Ray will have to suffice, though I do have plans to build this in real bricks as soon as I'm able to.

Marine Salvage Drone - MK I "Snapper" The marine salvage drone was designed to allow ships and their cargo to be recovered following a shipwreck, without the need to endanger human life. Each drone could be remotely operated or programmed to follow simple routines. The Mark I was primarily equipped for tearing through wreckage and recovering cargo. It also became routine to equip the Mark I with auxillary grappling hooks to allow it to assist with more complex recovery operations. As a result of its appearance, the Mark I became affectionately known as the "Snapper". If you need a higher resolution image for the poster, the original size of 3072x2304 is available here. It may look larger than 8x8, but it will fit diagonally on an 8x8 base plate, as shown here. More photos can be found on the full set on Flickr: Marine Salvage Drone.

Also, does color matter with regards to determining if a part is considered licensed vs non-licensed? For example, if the battle droid torso in my example above is considered non-licensed, does this apply to it regardless of color as there are some colors in which this this part has only been produced as part of a licensed set e.g. dark red? (Can you tell which part and in which color I want to use within my turtle :))

So to clarify, is there a way to determine if a part is considered licensed or non-licensed? If a part has been used in a non-licensed set, is that part considered non-licensed even if it was originally created for a license e.g. is the (Star Wars) battle droid torso (30375) considered non-licensed because it's been used in LEGO movie sets (e.g. Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!), a few Christmas sets and even a couple of city sets.

Winter Village Swing Boats I'm not sure how well known swing boats are around the world, but in the UK, they are a common sight at a fairs, village fetes and Christmas markets. A swing boat is basically an oversized swing seating a pair of riders who pull on a rope causing the boat they are sat in to swing back and forth. "Hey Dad, can we go on the swing boats?" "Sure son" "Wheeeeee!" Each boat swings freely (without the minifigs falling out) as demonstrated by this animated GIF. More photos can be found on the full set on Flickr: Winter Village Swing Boats.

Yeah, LEGO really need to make some other denominations, like a $1 bill, as everything seems to cost $100 in the LEGO universe Alternatively, they could at least produce some coins that minifig hands can reliably hold...

That's a really nice entry and one which fits in really well with the Winter Village Market. These are just the sort of stalls that appear all throughout the Christmas markets in the UK as well. I'd happily include this in my own Winter Village collection if I could.

What do you have on the top of your Christmas tree? An angel, a star or a fairy? In this case, it's a fairy.

Like Simon, I want to start off by saying that I'm not associated with the project in any way other than being a backer. I had the opportunity to see the Mechabrick display at the 2013 Great Weston LEGO Show (aka Steam) in Swindon (UK) and was very impressed by it. This is my impression of it: The Game I think it's important to remember that at the core of this project, there's a game. Yes you can pledge for just the mecha kits, but the purpose of the kits is as the playing pieces of the game. The game essentially seems to be a tabletop skirmish wargame, in which LEGO and LEGO compatible pieces make up the 'miniatures' and scenery. From what I understand, the rules have also been kept very straightforward. As a result, what you end up with is a game easily accessible and easily customizable by anyone with at least some LEGO kits. This isn't just aimed at AFOLs. This is so something that kids can easily pickup, customize and play. For example, the scenery is entire made out of LEGO and even few basic bricks can make effective looking buildings. For each game they can be easily moved around or completely rebuilt. The Mecha With regards to the mecha, it's important to realise that they aren't minifig scale. Even though they make use of minifig parts, the mecha (and scenery) are closer to microscale (they actually seem scaled to the LEGO trophies). If you look at the project, you'll see that each mecha consists of a lot of individual custom parts, each one designed to be compatible with LEGO. For example, the shoulders are attached to the upper arms via a stud connection. The feet attached to the legs by a stud / bar connector. One of the guns has even been designs so that a set of binoculars can be attached to it (like the guns in the Galaxy Squad sets) The minifigs parts were probably chosen to be incorporated as there's no need to design additional custom parts when these parts do the job of providing a core structure to the mecha. They also allow easy color customization (each mecha of the same color could easily be distinguished by a different colored set of legs). The mecha can easily be customised using standard LEGO parts, so you could for example swap out the head for one of the robot heads from the Galaxy Squad sets (and again in context of the game, this makes customizing each 'army' very easy for anyone of any age). These parts also don't have to all be used together. Just because they're designed to combine into a mecha, doesn't stop them being useful parts in their own right. Individually they can easily be incorporated into other MOCs just like any custom part from BrickForge, BrickArms etc. Of course, all of this is just my own opinion and speculation and I understand this still may not appeal to everyone, but hopefully that's helped clarify some aspects of the project, and outlined some of the potential I think it has.

Now that I've finished reading through five(!) pages of entries, here's my entry: More Than Meets The Eye Theme: City / Sci Fi / Transformers I'd have done a big reveal and put the second image of these four first, but I know that the first image tends to get used as the thumbnail for the voting thread, and if I'd put that one first, it might not have been obvious that I'd actually done anything as I intentionally kept the vehicle form (of what is obviously a Transformer) as close to the original as possible. The complete transformation process (from vehicle form to robot form) can be seen below: The process can simply be reversed to convert the robot form back to the vehicle form. Other than the gun which needs to be detached, split into two and stored inside the vehicle, and the shield, which becomes the roof, the camper van can be transformed from its robot form to its vehicle form (or visa versa), without any structural changes - all parts fold neatly away or form the body of the camper van. Check out the full set on Flickr: More Than Meets The Eye

Sorry for the late reply WhiteFang. Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago, I just didn't have time to take a photo of them, but here it is: Again, thanks and I look forward to the next contest.

Space Invaders Minifig: Battle Mech Theme: Space The battle mech watched the invaders descending on the screen in front of him. The graphics were basic, as were the controls, but then they didn't need to be anything else, they outlined the situation perfectly. The odds didn't look good, but the battle mech would remain in this bunker, defending the planet with the bunker's laser cannon until all of the invaders had been destroyed or the bunker had been destroyed. This was no game. The Battle Mech minifig stands on the two studs in the control room at the bottom of the vignette. Check out the full set on Flickr for alternate angles and photos of the vignette with the Battle Mech minifig included.

The Daily Commute Minifig: Businessman Theme: Town / Steampunk In an alternate 'steampunk' London, the gyrocopter is the only civilised way to get to work. The Businessman minifig sits at the front of the gyrocopter, whilst his newspaper and suitcase slot into the compartment directly behind the seat. Check out the full set on Flickr for alternate angles and photos of the vignette with the Businessman minifig and accessories included. Overhang Some elements overhang (within the 2 stud limit) and are hopefully considered reasonable. The angles that the photographs have been taken at may make it difficult to perceive the exact amount of overhang, so the details are below: <= 1 stud - some of the greebles on the base <= 2 studs - the propeller blades, about 20% of each element <= 2 studs - the tail, primarily the two 'tile, modified 1 x 2 with handle' elements, about 50% of each element

Identity Theft Minifig: Computer Programmer Theme: Town ShadowForge87 (or Dave to his friends and family) walked into the Internet Cafe and looked around. His laptop had run out of power and he'd forgotten to bring his power cable, so this place was his only choice if he wanted to get online. Sitting down at the nearest desk, he entered the login details he'd been given by the pale looking assistent and waited. This could take a while, he thought, considering the computer looked like something out of the 90s, but within a few seconds he was logged in. Before he began visiting his usual sites, like BrickLink and Eurobricks, he'd better check to make sure there was nothing running that would track his actions. He was all too aware of the dangers of identity theft and you couldn't be too careful in a place like this. In the basement of the Internet Cafe, another computer screen flared into life: ... Terminal 2 Activated ... ... Cloning Facility Online ... ... Cloning Process Initiated ... The Computer Programmer minifig sits in the chair, whilst his cup stands on the single stud on the desk and the laptop is placed between the cup and the divider. To be clear, the minifig in the basement is not a placeholder for the Computer Programmer minifig, but an 'in progress' clone being created from the Computer Programmer sat in the Internet Cafe above. Also, all of the parts used to create the clone are parts which are available from other minifigs / sets, even the 'Bright Light Blue' arm (Series 4 Ice Skater or NRG Zane). Check out the full set on Flickr for alternate angles and photos of the vignette with the Computer Programmer minifig and accessories included.

I just opened up LDD to create a few examples and as far as I can see, the flex tool is now working fine for me. All of the problems I had the other day seem to have just disappeared. I've even checked the file I initially had these problems with and parts which I couldn't get to flex properly then, are now all working as intended. I have no idea why it was behaving so odd the other day, but I was working with it straight after updating to 4.3.6, so maybe a reboot was all that it needed.

There seems to be an issue with parts which support the flex tool, though it's more noticable for those parts with stud connections (i.e. spiral tube, 64230, and 6M chain, 92338). After one of these parts is placed and connected to another element, when the flex tool is used upon it, it seems impossible to get the unattached end to make any connection to any other part. Also after clicking without making a second connection, the part always returns back to being straight, instead of just remaining flexed (I don't think this was the behaviour in 4.3.5). I know that in 4.3.5 getting these secondary connections took a bit of trial and error, but in 4.3.6, no amount of trial and error seems to result in a connection. Interestingly, opening a file from 4.3.5 with parts which were flexed and attached at both ends, does not cause any incorrectly placed part errors and the parts remain correctly connected. However, if these parts are subsequently detached at one end in 4.3.6, it is impossible to reattach them in the place they were originally attached.

It's to make the contest fair for people who don't have / can't get hold of the figure they want to create a vignette for. This was particularly an issue for the earlier contests which happened prior to their corresponding series being available in some countries. If the official minifig was allowed to be included if you had it, I suspect entries which did include it would get more votes than those that didn't, therefore entries without the official minifig would be at a disadvantage. Forcing people to have the official minifig would severely restrict some people's choice of entry and possibly stop others from being able to enter at all.

Dogs of War Commander Canaan looked out across the barren landscape from the top of his Havoc MK1 tank. It had taken almost two weeks to cross this region, known locally as the "Desert of Bones", but at last the enemy were in sight. During that time he'd heard no complaints from his dog soldiers, but then again, they were mercenaries and mercenaries weren't paid to complain. Check out the full set on Flickr for more photos and alternative angles.

That's a very sleek build. I especially like the combination of wedges / wedge plates to give the effect of windows.

Yeah, in hindsight, I realised this after I'd finished taking the photos. I think the black antenna works better than a dark bley one when the vignette is displayed normally (as it constrasts with the dark bley section to which it's attached), but photographed on black it doesn't show up very well at all. Originally I'd intended to photograph it on a sand colored background, but the background color was too close to the dark tan of the base. It's always difficult to choose a perfect background color as whatever you choose there always seems to be at least one part that conflicts with it (and I do like photographing on black as it gives some really nice reflections).

Factory Defence When the war came to the Antarion IV, the factories became a significant target for heavy bombers of the enemy faction. As a result, each factory was upgraded to defend itself and ultimately the factories on Antarion IV became as heavily armed as the war machines they produced. From the assembly plant (to the right in the photo below), war machines are sent across the canyon to the inspection facility on the other side (on which the defence platform is situated). This building also provides access to the landing platform (out of shot in the photo below, but to the right in the photo above) as well as to the ground to air missile platform. Underneath the inspection facility, rare ores necessary for production are mined from the surrounding rock. Power is drawn up through the lava chamber, situated directly underneath the assembly plant and command post (to the far right in the photo below). It's difficult to see this section in detail in the wide shot, but if you follow the link below to the full set, there's a close up photo. The lava is illuminated via a light brick hidden in the base. The power station can be accessed via the buildings above, or via the access road running through the canyon and tunnelled into the rock. Check out the full set on Flickr for alternative angles and close ups of the various elements including the lava chamber (and power station), the drilling chamber, the command post, the defence platform and the landing platform.

Winter Village Store This set is approximately 1400 parts with 7 minifigs (so similar in size to the Winter Village Cottage). The complete set features the village store with interior, a roast chestnut stall, a delivery lorry and a stone bench. The delivery lorry, complete with deliveries and driver. I'd have preferred to have built this entirely using dark blue, but the overall color choice was limited by the availability of certain parts. The other elements of the set, the roast chestnut stall and stone bench. The interior of the village store. There's no upper floor for two reasons. Firstly, adding it with sufficient details such as furniture, would have probably pushed the parts count over 2000 parts, much larger than even the Winter Village Cottage. Secondly, and more importantly, for playability, as adding the upper floor would have made certain elements on the ground floor much harder to access (and much harder to photograph clearly). More details of the interior, including the fully stocked refridgerator and vegetable section. Again, one of the hardest parts of these contests is selecting five photos to showcase the entry, so be sure to check out the full set on Flickr.