Righteous Squid

A Feeling I’m Forgetting. You go the way that memory fades, Reliving the old scratched record plays As the glorious revolution adds Another twenty four hours To your catalogue of days. You go the way that memory fades And in shadows hope that heaven waits Where saints of patience walked and talked Or cried aloud with God While waiting on a breath or whispered word; And the mournful daughters, lovers spurned and driven To cloistered cages where their passion slowly burned Over every sacred page they turned, still unable to consume The bitter taste that youth abused had given. You go the way that memory fades, This crumbling in the clay God made And shaped and formed While dreaming the shapes of mortal men Before we left to dream our own. Now dust settles on every surface of my soul, The fire low, the ash turns cold, And we sleep, and we grow old. You go the way that memory fades, The road proceeds, the horizon stays, and you somewhere beyond it.

Thanks lightningtiger. Yes, the two spherical tanks are fuel cells powering the lazers and jets. Thanks KielDaMan. Funny enough I did an earlier MOC using some of these peices which was a dropship that could transform into a mech. It wasn't very good though. Thanks Batbrick. Just to encourage you, I haven't posted or even photographed previous attempts to do green mechs. I tried several times to do a mech called the Sphinx for the Riddler with these pieces but each one was a disaster so I reverted to the tried and trusted style of Sabi and the Batmech.

Thanks for the suggestion. They are common but also very useful and sadly I never have enough. Thanks KielDaMan. The decals aren't custom though, but belong to the original Titan mech from which this mech evolved. Thanks Batbrick. You can of course compare with the earlier version and see that I only achieved a reasonable standard of mech by continually evolving and experimenting with some rather suspect attempts. I stumbled upon this style of mech accidently as I tried to use up those somewhat cumbersome windscreens and found them to be perfect for mechs (if you recall my Batmech). Also changing the alignment of the large curved red panels was a moment of inspiration that I thought wouldn't work but happened to compliment the curve of the windscreen very well.

Thanks Scarecrow. Look out for my Arkham Asylum, home of the Scarecrow, coming soon. Here in this pic you can see a lady happily perched atop the top right wall: the handiwork of my daughter. I didn't notice until after I had taken the pic. I can understand TLC’s wish to retain the iconic yellow minifig and I would be happy if they would do a wider range of fleshies available through pick’a’brick, or moving into the realm of fantasy, a trading service in which you could trade lots of yellows for fleshies (or vise versa). The thing that annoys me more than the dominance of yellow heads though is the torsos that have a little bit of yellow for an open neck. The only way to use them with fleshies is to paint them or pretend the minifig is wearing a yellow vest, and how many Gothamites wear yellow vests? “If you build it they will come!” One has to try very hard not to have fun with Lego. Thanks blhc11. I have no plans for an Iceberg lounge. I’m afraid I carry my own version of Gotham in my head in which there is no Iceberg Lounge and the penguin is a crazed opera singer (sorry Penguin) : so I hope to do an opera house. I do hope, however, to do a zoo a la Batman Returns sometime in the distant future. I have plans for a Wayne Manor over a Batcave – though not on anything like the scale of Dave Kaleta. I have done some initial experiments but it will take some time to gather up the necessary bricks. Could be a couple of years before this project really begins to blossom sadly. Projects I am currently working on are Arkham Asylum and a Gotham Dept. Store and I shall post WIP pics soon. I also am trying to collect pieces for Jokers old abandoned carnival park. Righteous.

Well, it is true it could probably still do with some work. I doubt I will ever truly 'finish' a MOC as I always want to experiment further. I'm not sure if its noticable here but in my Brickshelf folder you will be able to see how I recently changed the roof by adding the roof windows Mostly I just use whatever parts happen to be at hand (hence my design for the structure was guided significantly by the selection of white pieces I had), and sometimes I raid previous MOCs to borrow little details, but here the trans-clear domes and the flowers were one of the details I ordered specially from Pick’a’Brick as they were crucial to my vision for the character of the place. The other details I ordered where the white dishes for the lighting above the bar and the trans-red dishes for the lighting at the tables. I also ordered a slew of cups and glasses and the trans-clear studs for the bottle-tops and wall lighting. Oh, and probably the white circular plates for the tables too. The large white disc on the exterior was also ordered for the interior but didn’t fit so contributed to a completely unplanned exterior detail which I love. I guess that just goes to illustrate how much more attention I put into interiors than I do for exteriors. Oh I do love to torture the professor. Luckily for him I will probably be leaving him alone for a while as I didn’t have time to arrange stories when photographing my latest MOCs. Thanks for your comments Batbrick Righteous. Thanks Morgan. Still some tweaking to do though.

This mech is a sniper type mech with four longe-range lazer cannons. It has rocket boosters to reach high vantage points and small wings for controlled descent. N.B. I do intend to do more work on the legs when I come into possession of the right kind of parts.

Thanks Lightiningtiger. Thanks Black Rabbit, thanks LuxorV The cockpit was my focus of attention and is pretty spacious - room for two figs and a few bits and bobs. The legs aren't a big priority for me to do any additional work on, but I do like to keep improving my MOCs and I would add more to if I get the right parts, (but not much more), and yes, I don't have a great range of red parts that aren't commited to other projects. I'm happy with the lower leg and the upper leg is awkward to bulk out owing to the fact there can be only one pin fitted. The other reason is functionality as one will lose movement range if too much is added. This Mech is also supposed to be a fairly fast one. I do hope to do a larger, more heavily armoured heavy weapons mech in the future. Just for interests sake here is the origional Lego version and an intermediate stage or 'missing link'.

This mech moc is an evolution of Lego’s Titan alternative model, several stages removed.

Thanks Blackicep8ntball. To answer your question: The interior is cut away for playability - if I were to build to full thing in modular style the stairs would be at the back of the building away from the shopfloor, it would also be somewhat oversized and consume my entire lego collection.

Thanks Lego-maniac thanks Belchher I wouldn't say though that I felt child-friendliness was 'foisted' on me as a big part of the enjoyment I get from making my MOCs is the enjoyment my kids get from them and I never would have gotten into Lego again apart from that. My MOCing actually started in earnest as I tried to downscale the Batwing as it was really too big for my son to play with at the time. I will also say that my kids don't care that the colours are natural or 'dull' compared to the standard primary colours and actually prefer the fleshies to the classic yellow in minifigures, so I would love it if the normal city sets matured a little. My two year old daughter absolutely loves my Gotham police station (which I will post soon) and over the next couple of years I hope to design wayne manor with modular rooms that can be interchanged, and lots of furniture so that she can use it like a dolls house - I know she would enjoy it as much if not more than anything I have seen in the Belleville range. Anyway, before I rave on too much and start to foam at the mouth the long and the short of it is that playability does not have to sacrifice asthetic sensibilities and a satisfactory compromise is possible. Look forward to seeing something from you.

In that case I am glad to revive it. Thanks Commodore. More MOCs already made and will be posted soon. I will also be posting an index for my Gotham and Batman MOCs Thanks Batman 1 and welcome. Nice to have another Batman fan aboard. I myself prefer fleshies and wish Lego would convert once and for all as I don't like to mix them. (Then it would be worth getting the minifigure collections.) However, the professor is an established character I have been using to present my MOCs since back when I had only a few fleshies and tonnes of yellows so I continue to use him even though I have retired all my other yellows. Perhaps if Lego releases a suitable fleshie head in the future I will do a transformation MOC. The bank is still built as my aim it to have a Gotham city. More depth would indeed be nice to be able to add more interior detail, but I design my MOCs for my kids to play with and depth is wasted space if it cant be reached. Also by keeping it shallow I can make the buildings taller and more gotham-like, do more buildings, and will be able to do a full street much sooner. I do intend though to give the bank more width in the future. Beyond that, perhaps, and once the kids are grown up I will complete the buildings but thats a long way off.

Thanks Carbohydrates. Personally I wasn’t so sure about how the grating looked on the inside, but I love how it looks from the outside and along with the bar it is the feature around which this set was built. And it is supposed to look a bit odd so I will take that as a compliment. Thanks indianajones. I know it would look better in CC modular style with full floors and walls. However, the set is designed for play so full floors and walls would make it hard for my kids to play with. I may make the top floor bigger at some stage and add a partial roof should I ever collect enough large white panels. A large part of this MOC comes from two of the golden sentai set but I needed to get the police station as well to get enough white bricks. Thanks lightningtiger. The Exo-Force Golden Sentai set was in fact the initial inspiration for this MOC, the idea grew on me as soon as I saw it and I was able to get two on sale since it wasn’t the most popular set. I haven’t seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for probably nearly twenty years but a vague impression of the opening scene and its atmosphere does influence the design. This concept of this MOC was initially conceived when the Golden Sentai set came out so I was extremely pleased when the Temple of Doom sets where released providing the characters to populate it. Thanks prateek. I think I give more attention to interiors. I throw up the outside with only a vague impression of what I’m aiming for but I will often make changes and add details to the interior over time. This MOC was first built last September, but I still don’t regard the interior as finalised. Thanks Whitefang. I am honoured to be blogged for the first time. If you are wondering about my hairloss status in asking about my understanding of the characters then yes I wear my hair short because it has thinned, though not completely gone. I used to have long blond hair not unlike the professors here but the truth is I don’t miss really it. Serves me right though because I used to tease my dad about his bald spot even though it didn’t appear until his late forties. If you are wondering about my criminal status in asking about my understanding of the characters then no I am a law-abiding citizen. But I would say that wouldn’t I. As for the translation of the characters, I couldn’t remember exactly what they all meant but I had previously noticed what they were labelled as on the sticker sheet so I knew there was a certain irony in using them for this MOC. Thanks Dr Spock. Thanks KielDaMan. Thanks Peppermint M. I love making use of parts of all kinds and see it as a challenge to use as many of my accumulated parts as I can, especially the unusual or less obviously useful ones. Sadly there are always parts left over that I have to build more things with and I have way too much technic on spite of never buying a technic set. Thanks BigCam Thanks Tom Bricks. I especially love the gratings myself and as I said there are the feature around which this MOC was conceptualised. Thanks Luxor V.

Thanks Penguin. I built a prototype in one evening over a year ago. I then took it apart and rebuilt it the next evening, making a number of changes. I then got the green grocer for christmas and rebuilt it again to make use of all the extra bricks - probably about another evening. Since then I have made occassional changes and finalised interior and exterior details. So depending on how you look at it you could say it took me either a year and a half or four evenings worth. Nor do I consider it finished as when I accumulate enough bricks and proptotype other gotham projects I want to widen it by four or eight studs, and do work on the roof and vault among other things. More Gotham MOCs on the way soon. Righteoues

Welcome Penguin Look forward to seeing your Batman MOCS should you post them. And may I say, 'you've played this city like a harp from hell!' Righteous

This corner teahouse, owned by a gang, sorry, ‘co-operation’ of Asian ‘entrepreneurs’ is famed for its selection of exotic teas and herbal drinks boasting a range of amazing mental, physical and spiritual beneficent properties; each lovingly made using ingredients culled from all kinds of endangered and in some cases even extinct creatures. The ‘co-operation’ is careful about their clientele and hires some ‘nice’ gentlemen who will assess your suitability before allowing you to enter or politely asking you to move along. Once inside you will find the friendliest of service. The professor, still sore from losing his prototype wig, is looking for something to raise his spirits. He orders the most potent herbal drinks on the menu. Upstairs a shady looking customer makes it clear that all those empty seats are taken. So the Professor finds a quiet corner for himself. Meanwhile the ‘benevolent’ head of the co-operation arrives. As the professor drinks his way through as series of elixirs a strange tingling sensation begins to spread over his scalp. ...??? ...!!! Seeing what has happened to the poor professor the benevolent head summons the him to his penthouse. In spite of the benevolent head’s polite and delicate questionong the professor cannot remember what drinks he has taken or in which order. Nor can he remember when he is introduced to the ‘delightful’ piranhas. The professor screams in horror and falls to his knees begging for his life as the benevolent head draws his katana ... Later, the benevolent head finds a quiet corner to enjoy his latest trophy. While the professor desperately drinks potion after potion, elixir after elixir as he tries to rediscover the winning formula. More pics available in my Brickshelf folder

Thanks CallMePie – always happy to raise a smile Wow, high praise indeed. Nice to see someone sharing my desire to combine detail and playability too. The MOC is built for my kids (8yrs and 2yrs) to play with and the enjoyment they get from it makes it all the more satisfying.. Would have mixed shades of grey more if I could – I’m afraid I always stretch my collection to the limit and don’t have a lot of the old shades since I started collecting after the change. Thanks Erdbeereis. I hope to continue evolving my design adding detail as I collect appropriate bricks. I have already done so on the exterior of this MOC – pics of update below. Thanks LuxorV. I am pleased the gargoyles have worked as I wasn’t sure how successful I could be with brickbuilt ones. As for the Indy panels I don’t complain about the stickers in sets as they are so much more versatile than printed parts and it makes the little purist in me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to use official lego stickers rather than make my own decals. Thanks I Scream Clone. The wooden doors are to my mind reinforced – the wooden panelling on them being for aesthetic purposes. For my Gotham I ultimately want to go for a style that blends retro, modern and fantasy elements, hence I have also chosen to go for a less secure but decorative and retro interior rather than use bullet-proof glass etc. Here are some pics of updates that I have since done to the exterior, adding some details and increasing the height by 3 or 4 bricks:

Thanks lightningtiger. Nice to get an opinion on the black and yellow from someone who isn't prejudiced against yellow. Maybe one day I will have the right peices to do it in green with white stripes or white with green and then I will be able to evaluate it more objectively. Thanks LuxorV I believe only the grey one has been posted some time ago. The rest I put up on brickshelf just the other day. Perhaps you are suffering some sort of disfunction in your temporal perception and have seen into the future where cars are actually modelled on my Lego designs

Just sharing some of the veichles I have built to populate my city (which happens to be Gotham city from Batman but these veichles are not Batman specific and perhaps of general interest so I am posting them here). First of four Cars of various types: This one I like least since I don't like standard yellow, but as it is there I will use it. This grey muscle car is an old one that has been ever so slightly updated - still a favourite of mine: A black luxury car: My favourite, the red sports car: Now a TV truck and a modified RV: And finally for good measure - a modded tow truck - downscaled with a limited range of orange pieces available. A few more angles can been seen in my Brickshelf folder

Nice work. The man eating plant is excellently done and the flower-bed is a fantastic idea and its execution looks amazing. Looks like I will have to 'steal' some designs from you this time. Oh, and the manbats, though a little incongrouous, are great - I love it that they are brickbuilt and they really deserved their own topic.

Happy Birthday mate.

Many thanks for your kind words of affirmation. As to Batman patroling only at night I think I can say my photos prove otherwise - I didn't photoshop him in you know Credit is always good - how much did you have in mind? Sadly for the columns in the centre I ran out of suitable dark grey pieces especially when I raised the building another two bricks in height. However I think I will do something with the window in the middle top rather than the columns which might have minor decoration at the top - (note the technic holes at the top of the columns which I had thought to put studs on but never did). I have further modifications in mind when I have further supplies of parts including raising the building height by a further two bricks and widening it by four. Well I have zero bank note tiles if that is what you mean, but a lot of envelope tiles - so my bank is currently handing out IOUs. I have tried statue figs with grey hair but they just look weird IMHO: Beards are best! The missing roof part is not a parts issue - it is a letting your 21 month old daugther play with it before you photograph it issue. She always removes parts and puts them elsewhere or builds something. I went to photograph again later from different angles but couldn't find the figs in spite of searching everywhere. After I had given up and posted I discovered the figs in the vault. The roof is something I want to work on further, as is the lighting. I considered some kind of chandelier but have no plans to include one at this time. Thanks for the detailed comments. Much appreciated. One thing missing though - what did you think of gargoyle v1.0?

Ah you assumed I was thinking the apocalypse would break the windows. However in my post the source of the breaking of windows was never made clear, so let me clarify: I was actually thinking of the universal human imperative that all windows of all abandoned buildings become the automatic and necessary target of any stray stone that happens to be passing by within reach. It is a well known fact that while the structure of a building might remain intact the windows will not, so long as a human being is left alive on this planet. It was all I could do to restrain myself from throwing stones at my screen.

Thanks Prateek. I should point out, as I meant to above, that I changed a staff room with sofas and a coffee table to a conference room after seeing Batbrick's bank (sorry Batbrick, I should have said, ) so its not entirely 'different'. Apart from that there was no 'conferring' on any other detail Wow. That is high praise indeed. Thanks very much Riddler. As my second favorite villan (after Scarecrow) I will one day have to do a story involving you but as yet I simply don't have a good enough selection of green pieces to do Riddler transport of any kind and my attempt a sphinx mecha was a total fail. It also works as a cunning disguise No Need: your own Bank is impressive in its own right and I must confess to being jealous of some of the details you have been able to include in your Bank. Having been inspired by your conference room I must admit my conference room is sadly a little cramped and not as impressive as yours and I envy your gold stuffed safe. I do wish I could pack in more details but thats the unfortunate trade off for play space. I look forward to seeing how your Gotham evolves compared to mine. Thanks Batbrick

Fantastic MOC. Lots of lovely details but not too cluttered. Especially like the shopping cart and how the blood leaking from the spiked head really stands out against the greys. One question though: How did the glass in the windows remain intact?

Gotham Central Bank has opened for today’s business Some people like to go up and down the steps. Some people withdraw cash from the ATMs Some people have random fights on the street - “Take that rebel scum!” Down the alleyway a security van transfers cash. Inside people begin to queue for the NATH (Non-Automated Telling Humans) Some ‘busy’ managerial staff pause to look down on all the poople bringing them money. In the conference room the banks owners plan the next financial meltdown. The manager convinces the professor that his Bank is the safest place to deposit his valuables. So the professor leaves his case with security… … and it is deposited in the vault below. Suddenly the doors burst open and Two-face bursts in with his henchmen… The security gate crashes down... They manage to open the safe… But there are two cases - Two-face has to flip his coin. Fate having chosen the case they will take they make their escape in a cleverly disguised security van… Robin soon roars up on his cycle… Two-face presses a button that randomly selects a door to open, luckily it is on the right side and his henchman shots out Robin’s tyres enabling them to escape… Back at their hideout Two-faces henchmen begin to wonder if it is worth working for someone whose decisions are made by a coin toss. The professor feels a passing pang of regret that the only existing prototype of the super flame-retardant, cold resistant, chemical proof wig that he had intended to patent is missing. Batman patrols the rooftops to keep a watch for further mischief… As with all my MOCs my design choices are guided and often determined by the need for playability, (in this case I wanted to incorporate the security gate/portcullis which did have important implications for the design), the primary aim in building it being to make my kids something fun to play with it. The building is therefore a façade with the interior fairly open plan to allow easy access. And my kids love it. Today I was wondering where all the bankers had gone and discovered my 21 month old daughter had locked them in the vault along with the cat. Disclaimer: The fact that I am posting this now has nothing to do with Batbrick having posted his Gotham Bank and I am not trying to copy him. If you haven’t seen his yet check it out. We just both happen to be working on building up our own Gotham cities and banks are an essential part of the drama of Gotham city and Two-face was in the story because Lego chose (for reasons still unclear to me) to give Two-face a unique security van which I chose (for reasons still unclear to me) to modify. (I did in fact promise this MOC and story months ago but due to problems with getting bricks to Africa I wasn’t able to finish the Bank when I anticipated but had to wait until I got the Green Grocer set for Christmas). The bank isn’t entirely complete in every detail but my plan is to build a street of several buildings and then work out what pieces I need to add the finishing touches - so I don’t anticipate finishing it to my satisfaction anytime soon. Enjoy and do feel free to comment, question my sanity or whatever