Laura Beinbrech

Actually, I think the Chi Crystals are the exact same mold as the power crystals used in the Insectoids line:

I love it! I never would have thought of using one of the spinners as a hover-platform though. :D

Maybe it's just a WIP title that got leaked? I know that has happened before on occaison.... One such example was when one of the LEGO Store employees showed me some prelim pics of the Phaoraoh's Quest sets and referred to the Flying Mummy Attack set as "the Red Baron"....

These sets look interesting, but the only ones I'm likely to get (due to monetary constraints, what with LoTR, Ninjago, The Lone Ranger, etc) would be the collectible animals: My wife would just LOVE the squirrel, kitty, bunny and turtle, especially the bunny. I do like the fact that they seem to have come up with some new molds for shorts and skirts for the mini dolls.

That is one excellent animation! As one who dabbles around with 3d graphics and animations (mainly for rendering them out for city improvements or creating units and faction leader animations for Civilization III), I actually have some idea of how much work went into building, rigging, animating and rendering all of that... Well done!

That was pretty much my thoughts, but it did come with a nice exclusive minifig (the Alien Commander), and was a good parts pack (a bunch of those 2x4 light bley train roof slope tiles and enough narrow guage track to complete a full circuit), and with a bit of modification, makes a nice medium-sized flying saucer (which is what I did with it)....

This is a really nice dieselpunk spaceship. It definitely captures the 1940's look quite well with a good color scheme and well-planned interior.

I'm almost the complete opposite.... Since coming out of my first dark age (which lasted from the middle of 1994 to early 1997), I've mostly looked at sets as parts packs.... Since 1997, I can only name maybe two or three sets that I bought based on the fact that I liked the design, namely the Raid VPR and the Vampyre Hearse, and even then, I made significant modifications to the base designs (I posted the Hearse mod in the Action themes forum and will be posting my Raid VPR mod here soon). Most sets I buy never even get built as the original set: Most are just sorted out into my various parts bins and the minifigs suitably modified and added to whatever army/faction I'd had them earmarked for. ...Of course, this makes sense considering that, based on the LEGO Personality survey I've seen floating around here, I'm a "Purist MOCer", although the "purist" part is rather inaccurate, considering that I blatantly use Custom accessories (Brickarms, BrickForge, Arealight, etc) and even high-quality Clone brands (Tyco and Oxford, although mostly for hidden, structural support, since some of the colors don't quite match). Praiter Yed: Those two sets you posted from Classic Space are rather interesting, considering the kind of almost worshipful respect for Classic Space most people have around here. That Robot vehicle is quite hideous, and proof that even a much-loved theme like Classic Space can have a few duds...

Well, to be perfectly fair, the Hypersonic "We're gonna F***ing shoot you" Aircraft (as Scorpion would call it) definitely has some potential... I would like to see about getting those large wings it used for possibly making a bomber of some kind. Most of the sets would have been decent parts packs, but then again, the same could be said about the Fright Knights (my least favorite Castle theme)....

I'm glad those Mars Mission sets came out during my dark ages... If I'd seen those I'd have probably never come back to LEGO!

Sweet! So the Croc boat is, in fact the same hull used in the 2010 City Fire Boat and the 2011 City Harbor grain boat set, but in olive green... I am so getting that and turning it into a corvette for the bad guys in my setting.

Very nice, Annie! These locomotives aren't as odd as you might think: This looks very much like some of the lighter Climax or Shay locomotives used for the same purposes on American Logging railways. I also like how you're making it to Friends scale.

Very nice! Seeing all these classic theme minifigs being "updated" lately (see also the updated Black Falcon figs in the Historical forum) just seems to really drive home how truly timeless LEGO is....

You might also want to try doing 4-stud wide track (like the current narrow-gauge track that comes with the Joker funhouse) for your Cape-Gauge trains... I use it to represent 3' gauge for my on LEGO trains, like my Heisler-style mining train that I built a while ago: NGTrain2 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

While this looks rather interesting, I'd be much more excited if he released some kind of Narrow-gauge stuff...

While I liked the helmet and minifig design for the UFO and Insectoids, I'd have to say that they, along with Roboforce, were the ultimate low in LEGO Space.... They were all afflicted with the poor set designs, overabundance of crappy over-specialized parts, and funky colors that most other classic LEGO themes (with the exception of the Adventurers) were suffering from in the latter half of the 1990's.... It's no wonder Space was replaced by Star Wars right after those three themes, and didn't show up again for several years.

Ooh! I like these, particularly how you re-purposed some of the Kingdoms chain mail torsos. I might have to try something along these lines, but with the Kingdoms Dragon Knight legs (to kind of keep the blue and black theme going)....

Cavalry Builder set... WOOT! That just made my day. I'm also highly interested in the Commanche camp and the Train as well.

My thoughts exactly. Excellent work nonetheless!

Thanks guys! Glad you like my modifications. Grace: This is actually and assault vehicle for the undead hordes to use against the mortals. Well, considering I'd like to get a copy of the Zombies set, all I have to say is this: Have you ever seen the movie, "Army of Darkness"? Soccerkid: The .50 MG turret is basically a scaled-down version of the 38mm turret I used on my Patrol Boats a while back.

I'm not entirely sure whether this belongs here or in the Sci-Fi forum, since the end result is for my Post-Apoc setting (Mad Max Style), but since it is a Monster Fighters set mod, I decided to put it here. Anyways, from the moment I first saw the blurry preliminary pics of the Monster Fighters theme and the Vampyre Hearse set, I knew that I just had to have it. When I got the set about two months ago, I was generally pleased with it, but a few things bothered me: First of all, the driver's compartment was kinda on the flimsy side (with a gaping hole between the driver's seat and the engine compartment), and the sides were wide open. Furthermore, there wasn't any real room in the back, thanks to Lord Vampyre's coffin and the play feature for launching Lord Vampyre and an open wheel base. In addition, there wasn't any kind of proper door on the back, and finally, I didn't like how the exhaust pipes were kind of free-floating. I bought the set with the intention of turning it into the Tomb Kings' (undead faction on the West coast in my post-apocalyptic setting) equivalent of a Humvee/Buffalo, so I set to work, and after a couple hours of modification, here's what I came up with: Undead Assault Vehicle, Left Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Introducing the M-2105 "Grim Reaper" class Undead Assault Vehicle. Armed with a 50-caliber machine gun and equipped with armor-plast windows and 1/2" unobtainium armor plating, this wicked ride gets the undead hordes to battle with style. UAV Front800px by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr In this front-view picture (a.k.a. what you DON'T want to see coming towards you), the Soul Stone power source is clearly visible. While scientists initially thought the Soul Stones were a variety of the Warpstone used as power sources by the Hordes of Chaos and to a limited extent by the Grand Duchy of New York, it turns out that the Soul Stones are completely different. Whereas Warpstone is the solidified essence of demonic Chaos energy, Soul Stones are ordinary crystals imbued with Necromantic spells and function by tapping into the universal force of entropy, causing decay to increase around them, thus doubling as a low-level weapon as well as a power source. Undead Assault Vehicle Right Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr On this side view, you can see part of the ghoulish assault squad through the large armor-plast windows as well as the Yuan-Ti gunner in the turret. The Yuan-Ti are an evil race of snake-people (as opposed to the Naga, a good race of snake-people) who practice Necromancy and other dark magic, making them natural allies of the Tomb Kings. They tend to hold various specialist/technical ranks in the undead armies, due to the fact that unlike most troops (except Vampires and Liches), they actually have a functioning brain (which would pose a problem with the zombie troops, except for the fact that zombies only eat humanoid brains). Undead Assault Vehicle Rear by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Nice shot of the back, showing the armored door that also functions as the exit ramp when it is opened. Undead Assault Vehicle, Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Interior view of both the driver's compartment and the troop compartment. The troop compartment has room for 5 undead troops (including a Yuan-Ti squad leader), and a Zombie driver up front along with a Vampire officer. The ramp is also in troop deployment mode in this picture as well. Well, I hope you had as much fun looking at the pics as I did building and modding this set. :)

I'm glad you guys like the planes! I cannot take any credit for the landing gear setup on the Yellowjacket, though... It is almost completely unmodified from the original Creator set's setup.

Well, regardless of which color of green it is, I'm sure I could re-purpose it as a Chaos gunboat/heavy corvette/light frigate, so I may end up getting that set at least.

Well, I realize that it has been a while since I last posted anything here, and I promise that it's not another one of my lame ships this time. I've got two fighter jets that I made, after getting inspiration from looking at experimental WWII aircraft and artwork from Crimson Skies and Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow.... But anyways, more about the planes: Excerpt from Airplanes of Post-Final War North America, by Richard Goering, published 2112 by the Lone Star Republic Press, San Antonio, Texas Not long after the disastrous antimatter missile exchange known as the "Final War", two major powers soon began to rise from the ashes in what used to be the northeastern region of the United States portion of the North American Union. One, the Federal Republic of America, was organized around the core of surviving North American Union government and military as well as industrial and agricultural assets in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio, and is considered by many to be the last remnant of and succsessor to the old North American Union and its dedication to freedom, democracy and justice. The other, the Grand Duchy of New York, was founded when Doctor Regis Blackgaard, nefarious Mad Scientist, megalomaniac and all-around villain, seized control of New York City and proclaimed himself as the Duke of New York. Blackgaard, who was the main antagonist of the global conflict known as the Final War, as well as the man responsible for the ultimate antimatter-missile exchange, then proceeded to take over most of the rest of New York State (only the Six Nations and the semi-autonomous Barony of Buffalo were able to keep him out of Western New York) as well as the rest of New England and all Canadian territories south of the St. Lawrence River. Needless to say, these two factions quickly came into conflict with each other. Initially, both sides used whatever air and space craft that they had left over that survived the Final War, but it soon became apparent that they needed to begin new construction of modern aircraft as the war dragged out. The result was the Grand Ducal Army Air Corps F-1A Yellowjacket and the Federal Republic Air Force F/A-210 Thunderbird Yellowjacket & Thunderbird Top by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The Grand Duchy's F-1A Yellowjacket got its name from the distinctive yellow and black paint scheme used by the Grand Ducal Army Air Corps and its speed and maneuverability. Yellowjacket Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr While Grand Duke Dr. Regis Blackgaard wanted to jump straight to building orbital space fighters and bombers, he was forced to bow to the post-Final War reality and its greatly reduced infrastructure and tech base (which ticked him off pretty good, since Grand Duke Blackgaard hates bowing to ANYTHING, much less something as petty as "reality"). The resulting design was something that borrowed elements from the MiG-15, Gloster Meteor and the Gee Bee flying engine. Yellowjacket Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The aircraft was almost entirely designed around a massive 20,000lb thrust high-bypass turbofan, the aircraft is practically all engine and wings, with a fairly short fuselage. It sports four 50-caliber machineguns as its primary air-to-air combat weaponry and has hardpoints on the wings that can hold up to two 500lb bombs or 50-gallon drop-tank fuel pods, as well as and additional 6 to 8 missiles (this particular plane is woefully under armed). Yellowjacket bottom by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Pic of the undercarriage, showing the landing gear fully retracted as well as better views of the bombs and Multipurpose Merculite Missiles (MMM's) The Federal Republic of America's answer to the Yellowjacket was the F/A-201 Thunderbird. Thunderbird Side by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr This two-seat multi-role attack fighter has often been described as what you'd get if an A-10 Thunderbolt II mated with an ME-262 Swallow, and this aircraft bears advantages from both its predecessors.... Greater speed and simpler construction from the ME-262, and the armored cockpit, massive 10,000lb thrust high-bypass turbofans and high survivability of the A-10. Thunderbird Interior by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Carrying a heavy loadout of Guided MMM's and Laser-Guided Bombs, the Thunderbird oftentimes has a Weapons Officer/Copilot on board so the pilot can concentrate of flying/shooting at enemy planes. Thunderbird Front by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr Speaking of which, the plane's primary air-to-air combat, as well as tank/mech-busting armament is its four 25mm "Bushmaster" autocannons, making this particular fighter the airborne equivalent of four M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Thunderbird Bottom by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr And and undercarriage view of the Thunderbird, showing the bomb mounts and the landing gear in its retracted position. Finally, and obligatory pic of the pilots/crew of the two planes: Fighter Crews by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr The Grand Ducal Army Air Corps pilot is on the left with his trusty AK-47 variant backup weapon (in case he gets shot down behind enemy lines), and the Federal Republic Air Force Weapons Officer and Pilot are on the right. The Weapons officer is holding his AMP-45 "Bolter" submachine gun and the pilot has his trusty C-96/45 semiautomatic pistol. ... Anyways, some background info on the builds themselves: As you no doubt can tell, the Yellowjacket started out as the yellow Creator Airplane (set #6745), and initially I only modified it enough to fit a minifig in the cockpit (and rather poorly at that) and add the Grand Duchy's symbol (the Kingdoms Dragon Knight shields) to the fuselage. Recently, however, I decided to make it into a jet, as well as remove all white from the design... I'd decided at this point to have black and yellow as the primary colors of the Grand Duchy's aircraft (which is fitting, since their space ships, when I ever get to making one, will use the classic Blacktron colors). trying to get all the colors right was kind of a pain, especially since I had to raid the Vampyre Hearse to get enough black 1x2x1 wall panel sections to finish the cockpit, and the tail section was an equally huge pain in the buttocks, until I remembered I still had that Bi-wing Baron set lying around, and just got the black tail fin off that. The cockpit design was also a real pain, but after many tries and lots of frustration, I finally came up with what I have now, and it seems to work fairly well. The Thunderbird is essentially a mash-up of the Freeco Speeder and the red & white biplane from the Indiana Jones Airplane Chase set. I had previously modified the biplane into a monoplane, and left it at that. Again, I got inspired recently to take it further, and began work on this, which ended up turning into a completely different aircraft. While I'm not normally a fan of SNOT, and try to avoid it at all costs (mainly because it tends to be extremely flimsy), I'm rather proud of how I made use of SNOT in both this plane and the Yellowjacket for accommodating some of the odd shapes between the sloped top and cockpit pieces as well as attaching the jet engines to the sides of the Thunderbird. As usual, comments and suggestions are welcome.... Finally: Uh, Guys?! by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr ...Uh, guys? Couldn't you at least wait until your AIRBORNE before slugging it out?!

OK, you've got my attention: By "large" city ship hull, are you talking the same size as the 2011 City Police Boat, or the gigantic ship that came with the City Harbor set several years back? If it is the former, I might just get it because I could use a Frigate-sized (that's what I use the police boat sized hulls for) boat hull in sand green.