fallentomato

She does so love those shiny baubles. I'm sure he's involved in all sorts of pine crime: black-market tinsel smuggling, pinecone-nappings, lumberjack bribery, sap collection, you don't want to mess with him.

The eyes are just the right size to fit a Picnhbot each. However if I want to make them into cockpits I'm going to have to redesign the entire head. Right now they are just Pinchbot pods. I think you're right though, this is definitely the way to go. It's just going to take me a while to figure out how I want to do the cockpits/control bridge. i think the pichbots might look even more adorable if that had levers to pull. I'll look into the sticker idea. You know I think that might have been the first arm I tried, but then I dismissed it because I didn't have any of these in black. That's a much better solution. It also gives him the ability to flap his arms up and down. That will be useful in giving him some character while animating. Thanks for the great suggestions!

I made these two characters while I was building a forest set this week. I really like the top hat piece and wish I had more. Goblichaun - Don't be fooled by his snazzy duds and golden chest, this guy is out to trick you. The Pine Baron - A ruthless villain with a fresh scent. I hope you enjoy them.

I just made a slew of bizzare MOCs last week. This one is supposed to look absurd. It's a machine that a villain uses in an attempt to destroy a city. I don't know how it is supposed to work, and I'm not sure he does either. Why didn't it work, is it because one of the octopi is red? Or is it because he only used 6 octopi instead of 8? Who knows? It has a big important looking lever for him to throw though. If you really want to get a sense of it though, you should probably . I hope you enjoy it.

B-V-9C I made this for Reasonably Clever's handtruck contest. Here's the various versions I tried out along the way. Hope you like it.

I was taking apart my many battle droids and wondering what I could do with those pieces. The result was this monster: It reminding me of the rabbit from Donnie Darko so I named it Frank. As you can see from the side view it is very flimsy and prone to collapsing in on itself. I could probably make it stabler if I used some other tan parts, but I like the fact that it is made only out of battle droids (aside from the eye) but also I don't want to make it stabler, because it's so creepy. This way if it ever comes to life while I sleep it's still very easy to destroy. Seriously, this thing creeps me out. What do you think?

A couple years ago i was playing around with the remnants of Graveyard Duel and wondering what I was ever going to do with with 12 of these. A little while later I had 6 of these little robots. As far as robots go they aren't very threatening: they couldn't really do much, and they are smaller than an average minifig. I thought it would be funny if they tried to invade a town, only to be defeated by children and dogs. I also thought that after the invasion a toy company might make a (slightly) smaller version and sell it. Thus was born the Mini-Pinchbot (I couldn't think of a way to make this any smaller and still retain its Pinchbot-ness, but if any one has suggestions I'm all ears. ) These two things sat around in my collection for a while (I was separated from the main part of it during college, so there were many things like this that I forgot about) and then last summer I brought them out again and decided to build their leader-bot: Grabbor. He is more or less just a 2X version of the standard Pinchbot. I used those crazy eyes instead of standard 2x2 radar disks because everyone i asked agreed that the crazy eyes were better. I do love those crazy eyes. I'm not entirely crazy about his pinchers, but I still can't think of a better solution. At the time I build Grabbor, I also started building the head and arms for a landing vehicle for the Pinchbots. Again, i used the principles of scaling and made it a 6X version of the standard Pinchbot. I finally got around to making legs and a body and putting it all together last week. Here's the Pinchbot Landingbot. I need to put through a bricklink order to get enough trans neon green pieces for the booster feet, right now they have some placeholder parts. The panel on the front folds down and acts as a boarding/deployment ramp for the Pinchbots inside. It only stores 4 Pinchbots, but that's okay, I can always pretend it stores more than it actually does. Here is a picture that shows the relative sizes of all of the Pinchbots. I've got a 4X one stared as well, although i'm not sure what purpose it will fulfill, the most important roles are already filled. I also have 4 of these in trans-neon green and while I think making a 20X Pinchbot would be a little excessive i was thinking I could use it to make a microscale Pinchbot mothership. Rather than look like a Pinchbot it would be a giant neon green circle with 8 big Pinchbot arms jutting out, or something like that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my growing Pinchbot army, let me know what you think.

Very rough translation of the Latin on the statue: "In honor of thirty years of building in Space"

That's an interesting point, in the story that accompanied the original pirate line, TLC gave both sides claims to the buried treasure. The pirates were native to the islands and knew that there was gold there that had belonged to their ancestors. The imperials came over and were the ones who actually dug it up first though. So we've got some vaguely colonial themes here, but no real atrocities committed by either side (at least not on the box art). I'm aware that the supporting websites elaborate on the story to make it the villains seem more villainous and the heroes more virtuous, but not every kid is going to see those materials, so I would argue that the messages sent by the box art and the models themselves are what really define the story, after all, the point of the web stuff is mostly to get kids to buy more sets. TLC establishes the conflicts in pictures and sculptures, in a universal visual language. Based on that, a picture like this could very easily be construed as sending a message that slavery is acceptable so long as the slave looks sufficiently different from you. As far as mars mission goes, the fact that the aliens attacked first in "the actual storyline" does not in my opinion justify rounding them up. That smacks of internment camps to me. I'll say again that I'm not trying to say that TLD shouldn't have human vs. monster conflict. I understand that fantasy violence sells and I love all the cool monster pieces that this means for us. I'm just saying that they shouldn't be depicting anything that would be morally reprehensible if the monsters were replaced with humans.

So I'm going to start out by saying that I think this is actually an important topic and one that I've tried to bring up before. I know it may seem like a silly thing to debate, but I don't think that's ever stopped anyone before. Yes, yes and yes. The issues is not that TLC might offend aliens, but that they are systematically otherizing their villains. I understand why this is done and I'm generally okay, with it, but otherizations is a slippery slope. Back when we had human vs human conflict (for instance Aquanauts vs Aquasharks) the sides were pretty much equally matched. But as the villains have become less and less human, TLC has allowed the "good guys" to do things they would never dream of allowing if both sides were human. Mars mission is a perfect example of this. The humans in that theme are imperial invaders, they come and colonize a place, strip of its natural resources and exert their power over the local population. They round up the martians, perform experiments on them and use them to power their ships. That's twisted. I think the power Miners might be even worse though. In one set the power miners have enslaved a rock monster and are forcing it to help collect its food source for their own benefit. Now can you imagine how people would react if for example there was a set where the imperial soldiers were using enslaved islanders to build a fortress? It's one thing to otherize your villains, that's a time honored tradition, but to use it as a way to make it okay to have slavery and colonization? I think there's something problematic and dangerous about that. And I agree that kids will choose whatever side they want to be the "good side" and mix and match things and tell their own stories in which atrocities like slavery are common place. I still think TLC should be more careful about the messages it is sending about violence and power dynamics etc. All that being said, I think that TLC is actually doing a pretty good job dealing with these tricky issues in an incredibly competitive market. They have a very clear policy about how violence/conflict is portrayed in their themes. In their home grown play themes, the violence is always in a fantasy type setting, where the villains are monsters/aliens/non-human. In the licensed themes, they will portray violence (and race) they way the original source material does. That does not mean there are never human-human conflicts or human villains in the home grown play themes (e.g Pirates). And in the end, we got cool new parts and pieces.

Yes, necessities: food, shelter, clothing and LEGO. I am tempted, but I am running low on display space in my apartment as it is, and I'm not yet ready to dismantle the Star Destroyer. Also, I feel like since I passed up on buying this at half price during the damaged merchandise sale at Brickworld last year, paying $400 is actually overpaying. But still, I'm tempted...

Well, aside from the obvious... some of the exo-force heads might work well. They almost look like they have face paint on. You might also try some of the Native American heads: When I'm looking for new heads, I like to use the thumbnail view of the Bricklink catalog.

As much as I'm excited about the prospect of new versions of the Classic Space torso and the ninja going into circulation, I must say I'm confused at some of the choices. Why a red ninja instead of a black or gray ninja? Why have we seen so many space men and so few castle figs? Where are the female figs? Why are these things so expensive? I will probably get one of these anyway though. I do so love ninjas.

The public days are Saturday and Sunday - June 20th and 21st.

ROCK-et Science! Okay, so maybe I'm a little twisted.

Yeah, those "microfigs" would be perfect for infant bodies. I must have them! I really hope these come out in America. Tigris and Euphrates is one of my favorite board games and while I know that these won't be anything like that, I imagine they will still be pretty fun.

I didn't know that, I never followed Bionicle. But either way, the Throwbots are the ones that started the disk trend. I'm not bashing Throwbots, I'm saying that the disks are bad pieces. They can't be integrated with any pieces other than the throwbot arm, and even if they could have very limited uses due do the silly pictures on most of them. I'd love for someone to use them effectively in a MOC and prove me wrong.

You think bionicle parts are bad? How about Throwbot disks? Unlike bionicle parts I don't think these have ever found their way into a legitimate MOC. I, sadly, have 16 of them, because when I was young and foolish I collected the entire original line. Along the same lines as that canyon piece is this 'baseplate' from one of the Aquazone sets. This thing may look cool, but like the canyon it is made of flimsy plastic and doesn't integrate with any other pieces. I think a better way to think about this question might be "what's the worst part you own?" You know that one piece that just sits there in a bin, never ever being used, that you cant even think of using, because it's so awful. And if you're going to say a bionicle part, at least try to pick a specific one.

B-V-9A "Hello! My name is Persephone Verada, official Spokesbrick for the Super Villain Education & Leadership Teachery, the place where evil comes to learn. I understand you're here to find out our position on the prison breakout earlier today. I'd be delighted to explain it to you. Please make yourselves comfortable here in our lobby and I will be with you shortly." This a set for my next animation, which is why it just has one wall. This was my first time doing SNOT text, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Hope you like it.

Allow me to gush about my amazing Brickworld experience. Short version: Brickworld is awesome! Everyone who can should go! Long version: I attended the public exhibition part in '07 and the full event in '08. Going to the public part was incredible in its own right, but attending the full conference was a life changing experience. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating , but honestly it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Obviously it a great place to see MOCs and buy lego and all that, but what really makes it an awesome experience is the people. I joined EB because I met Hinckley there. I also had a great time with BrickMiner, Brickadier General and a number of other AFOLs. One night I went to the bar across the street and spent a couple hours drinking and talking with several TLG employees, including Matt Ashton, Jamie Berard and Steve Gerling, a guy from NetDevil (the company developing Lego Universe), and some other AFOLs. Words cannot describe the awesomeness that ensued. I didn't register until the last minute, so I wasn't able to reserve a table, but I participated in some of the collaborative displays and was able to find a friendly guy with some extra table space so I could set up my laptop with a DVD of some of my lego animations along with a few small MOCs. I think I probably drove Badger a little crazy since he was right next to me and therefore got to hear the soundtrack of my movies playing over and over again all weekend. Ever since Brickworld last year I have been planning for my display this year. And unlike last year, where I wasted a couple hours every day driving back and forth from my house to the convention, I will be getting a hotel room, the better to immerse myself in the awesomeness. Long long version: If you are really interested in my experience at Brickworld last year, you could read about all four wonderful days on my personal blog.

That's just what I was going to say! Although when I looked back, I realized the resemblence was not as strong as I initially thought. Still, I definitely think this new design is a nod to the original (but much improved ). I have to say, I was never very excited about power Miners, but I find myself buying more and more just because I want the Rock Monsters and certain cool pieces.

I also preferred the wavy legs, but unfortunately they did not do a good job of supporting the weight of the body. Since I will be eventually animating with this, I couldn't have it falling over all the time.

Ooo... that's a great idea! I was looking for ways to make this more "flaming".

They are actually for a Pirate themed Cruise Ship, so that's great to hear! Do you have any suggestions? I tried putting a 2x2 radar dish, but that only emphasized the gap between them more. The thing that bugs me is that I can't make them the same color grey. The helmet doesn't exist in dark bley and of course the cheese slopes don't exist in dark grey. Sure! That's a good way to work in the tail feathers. Now if only I could make the arms more wing like... That whip was just asking to be used for a monkey tail. I started working on a shark costume more along the bobble headed look of the other two... It might be a little too big though. Maybe as a two person costume. Thanks for all the great feedback!

Yeah, those are the ones I got. I almost accidentally ordered the pure red ones at first, though.