sparkart

With the Mystery Machine, I know we'll catch that villain! Like ZOINKS, Scoob! by SPARKART!, on Flickr

LDD can produce models that are unbuildable. You can create hanging pieces in the build space that don't attach to anything, or use connections that won't physically work (not enough friction). LDD is an invaluable tool - nowadays I never start a model without LDD, first - but part of these contest challenges is to build a real-life LEGO model (and, of course, LEGO is trying to promote the use and purchase of their commercial product).

Thanks for checking it out, guys! The backpack is colored as it appeared in Return of the Jedi. Boba Fett was a lot more colorful in Return of the Jedi than in Empire Strikes Back. To me, the patchwork colors suggested that Boba Fett's armor was scavenged from several different sources, mostly from Imperial troops (like Dengar's appearance in the Empire Strikes Back). I guess we did see a lot of variety of armor in the Clone Wars, but I was looking forward to seeing many factions of colorful groups of Mandalorian commandoes mixing it up. Dapper, yes, the hat was inspired by Asian sun hats. The first iteration was huge and oversized, to better protect from the sun, but it obscured a lot of the figure. The goggles were what's left from my attempts to make a full-face mask. I was thinking that a full-face mask would be more interesting, but it didn't work with the bare arms, it looked more like a weird robot, than a masked creature. The white trinket hanging from the creature's neck is supposed to be an animal skull.

On the planet Tatooine, an old Chelonian scavenges on the Dune Sea near the Great Pit of Carkoon and finds a discarded Mandalorian rocketpack: Boba's back...pack by SPARKART!, on Flickr. The scavenger is well armed to defend himself from scum and villainy: Sarlaac Scavenger by SPARKART!, on Flickr. It's ironic, that so many things happen on Tatooine, in spite of being the planet farthest from the bright center of the galaxy. I suspect that Tatooine will be visited again, and there will be some awkward and ham-fisted nodding to the previous movies, like...a funny creature finding Boba Fett's rocketpack. ;)

Thanks for the kind words. When I was playing around with the new horse, and came up with the goofy Space War Horse concept, I was intending to just put a rocket pack and wings on it's back - like a futuristic Pegasus. But when I had the rearing horse in hand, it reminded me of an old 80s cartoon, BraveStarr. BraveStarr had a cyborg horse that often would walk around on two-legs. With the more anthromorphic horse pose, I wanted to clad it in heavy armor, like a Warhammer 40K figure. I think it vibes with some Kow Yokayama Maschinen Krieger SF3D aesthetic. The orange and grey color scheme comes from District 9 and Halo 4 weapons. The gun is supposed to be a rotating barrel weapon, a laser minigun, with the ribbed cylinder on the side suggesting an electric motor with cooling fins. I was trying to imply that it is a two "handed" weapon, and that the horse is holding it with one "hand" and controlling/adjusting/firing with the other "hand".

Space War Horse by SPARKART!, on Flickr.

I bought a car. It turned out to be an alien robot. by SPARKART!, on Flickr.

Wow, these are awesome, thanks for sharing the link! If you find a place to buy the mook (magazine+book), please share the information, I'd love to get one, too. When were these books published? I tried looking around for the books, and found these links: http://the-mobile-frame-garage.blogspot.com/2012/04/spotlight-zizy.html http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=zizy2

Very nice, especially the sandtrooper and dewback! It's funny, for a planet farthest from "the bright center of the universe", a lot of interesting things happens there.

I'm the last person that would espouse using stickers, but I guess they have their uses. I'm wondering if some kind of static-cling vinyl would work... After a little googling...what the? Who's used these: http://www.brickstix.com When did these get invented?! Cool! Funny Conan O'Brien clip: http://teamcoco.com/video/greyson-maclean-drops-truth Okay! So, let's use a static-cling decoration for the body sticker. I'm feeling better already.

The 4x4 hemispherical dome is completely hollow - there's nothing preventing it from rotating, without detachment, on top of the 4x4 round plate. It's not free-spinning, there's friction, but it doesn't have to detach to rotate. The R5 head can be attached with one of these: so that it can rotate freely.

The project's been updated with a photo of rockets firing and the third mobility leg. I don't really like the way the third leg is connected - it's two clips hugging each other. While I like hugs, this isn't a connection that I've seen in any official LEGO set. Click on the pic to see the project on LEGO Cuusoo.

Andy, I think the grand daddy of astromechs are the giant R2-D2 models assembled at LEGO store openings and special events. I was watching a bit of Episode I, and thought it would be kinda neat to make a hangar full of different astromechs, or model the scene on the outside of the ship with the astromechs fixing the shield generator, and getting blown away during the escape. Modeling wispy things like fire, smoke, and explosions in a static model is a special challenge, and I'm amazed when I see it done really well in the scale modeling world.

I'm not a fan of stickers, and I'm not indifferent, I really hate stickers. But I guess they have their use. I was thinking of making three separate stickers, one for each round brick on the body, but to line up one is hassle enough. Oh, but they actually ARE minifig scale. These are models of the Empire's new terror weapon, giant killer astro droids!

I honestly have never seen Dapper-D2's MOCs, pretty spiffy! An earlier iteration of my version was similar, using stacked 1x1 and 1x2 technic bricks for the legs. I switched to stacked plates to get more color variation in the legs, and to get a sturdier structure, to ensure they'd hold together when placing and removing from a starfighter socket. The stickers are custom printed using a Brother P-Touch label printer.

Do the heads turn? Kinda...the dome can be attached at any rotational angle around 360 degrees for different poses and looks but it's not free-spinning. I'm sure there's a way to get the truncated cone R5 head rotating, but on the pictured prototype it's stuck at only one angle. Nice suggestions, I'll try play around with the models, soon.

Tried a couple of third leg assemblies, but I wasn't happy with them. They either didn't look good or weren't securely attached. Suggestions and ideas are welcome! I really would like to see someone put together an R2-D2 serving drinks on Jabba's barge.

jmagaletta, I haven't started the 7B conversion, yet. I put it on the back-burner, in deference to another Cuusoo proposal. I'm trying to get a model of Ralph McQuarrie's X-Wing put together with real bricks. That project is here.

I thought it would be more fun to build LEGO set 10125, Obi Wan's Starfighter, into the "B" version of the Delta-7 Aethersprite, which uses a full-bodied astromech for a co-pilot. The body and legs of the droid were pieced together around the kit's astromech dome, a printed 4x4 hemisphere. Just make more headpieces, and you have astromech variants, like an R5. How cool would it be to build astromechs in all the colors of the current LEGO palette? Alas, the printed 4x4 hemisphere is only produced in dark red; and other pieces, like the feet, are only available in a limited number of colors. Here's the part list to make an R2 astromech with the printed 4x4 hemisphere: (first number in parentheses is the quantity), second number is the Bricklink part numbers, & "description is in quotes". Legs: (4) 92946 "Slope 45 2 x 1 with 2/3 Cutout" (2) 48336 "Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle on Side - Type 2 (closed ends)" (2) 3794 "Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with 1 Stud (Jumper)" (6) 2555 "Tile, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip" (2) 60478 "Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle on End - (closed ends)" (2) 3623 "Plate 1 x 3" (2) 3023 "Plate 1 x 2" (4) 3024 "Plate 1 x 1" (4) 3069b "Tile 1 x 2 with Groove" (2) 6541 "Technic, Brick 1 x 1 with Hole" (2) 2780 "Technic, Pin with Friction Ridges Lengthwise WITH Center Slots" Body: (1) 47905 "Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Studs on 2 Sides" (1) 52107 "Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Studs on 2 Sides" (2) 3024 "Plate 1 x 1" (6) 54200 "Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3" (2) 60474 "Plate, Round 4 x 4 with Pin Hole" (one attaches to the dome, one attaches to the bottom of the body) (2) 87081 "Brick, Round 4 x 4" (1) 6222 "Brick, Round 4 x 4 with Holes" The creation was submitted to LEGO Cuusoo, so that we can push to get all these parts produced in more colors, especially the R2 dome, i.e. blue & black printing on a gray piece to make R2-D2. If you'd like to support the project, please visit this page. Thanks for the support and I hope to see astromechs in all sorts of colors, variations, roles, etc.

I'll miss the midi line-up, too. It is a small enough size that you can pick up and swoosh ships around and recreate some scenes from the movies more easily and economically. At the same time, it's big enough to incorporate enough shape and detail so you don't have to tell someone what they are looking at for them to see what it is (usually): midi scale hangar by Ѕolo, on Flickr. midi Shuttle scene by fbtb, on Flickr.

This is based on the work of Legotron and CanonFodder000: TRON LCDTV: TRON Light Cycle De-resolution Terminal Velocity

Excellent!

Here's my LDD + Real Bricks Entry: It's a LEGO model of the little, friendly, cuddly exo-suit from District 9 in a "playset" that echoes the typical LEGO toy adversarial pairing of "hero vs. villain". The Multi-National United (MNU) security vehicle is a bit out of scale with the exo-suit, but I still like to see them together to kinda give a sense of size to the alien machine, and also suggest a bit of conflict and drama. The white MNU truck model features an articulated rear gate and passenger doors, with interior seats that recreates the white, hard-shell, bucket seats seen in the movie. It's amazing to me that LEGOs are so well manufactured with such tight tolerances that just two studs' worth of friction at the hips can hold the weight of all that plastic. The exo-suit features ball joints at the shoulders and flexible elbows. The legs can be posed as well, and support the weight of the model with barely a quiver. I love the scene in the movie where the exo-suit snatches the rocket-propelled grenade from its trajectory, look for the RPG in the lxf jpg.

I don't think it's spooky at all, because both build-ups attempt to model the same subject. When playing with LEGO, I often find an "enabler", a piece or group of pieces on which, surprisingly or not, the model's success relies upon. There's only so many ways to put the bricks together, so with the number of people playing with LEGO, there's going to be commonality and coincidence. Just today, while I was mulling entering my Battle Droid and STAP into the LDD competition, I happened upon a MOC that was similar enough in scale and technique that I wondered how this guy ever saw my design. Of course, he didn't see mine, I didn't see his, we just happened upon the same pieces that made it work. "He didn't see mine, I didn't see his" Whoa. Take that out of context, and that's a bit embarrassing to say.

Here's my LDD-only entry. It's the big scary robot, MAXIMILLIAN, from the movie, The Black Hole. I wish I could buy it in this color scheme, and confirm that the design works in real life, but a few parts aren't currently available in red to purchase. I've got a VINCENT model in LDD, too, but they're, unfortunately, not in scale with each other. Hope you like it. Get the LXF here!