Inconspicuous

Greetings! My latest MOC is a celebration of the local wildlife here in Northern California. I frequently see deer and turkeys while out hiking, and mountain lions are native to the area (sometimes making the local news). I made this MOC for a Lego event called Brick Palooza that's taking place tomorrow in Santa Rosa, California. The event was a great inspiration to build something ambitious. It will also be my first time displaying a build for the general public. If anyone's attending, be sure to keep an eye out for this one! Trio Annadel The landscape and wildflowers were inspired by my local state park, called Trione-Annadel. As a play on words, the jazz group is named Trio Annadel. I made a signboard with Trio Annadel lettering, but have omitted in some photos to better show the landscape. Here's a photo including the board: The biggest challenge was preventing the tall figures from falling over. The mountain lion is anchored in 3 places, with the tail playing a major role (prevents from tipping forward). In case you're wondering, the collar is a GPS tracker. This mountain lion must be helping the local scientists with their tracking project! Meet the musicians! I tried to pick instruments that matched each animal's physiology. For example, the mountain lion's claws are natural guitar picks, and the deer's sturdy hooves are perfect for those bass runs. This build gives a whole new meaning to "turkey drumsticks"! (...ba-dum-tshh) One of the structural details that I've particularly proud of - the deer is balanced entirely on its front hooves, similar to the way that real deer walk. I'm also very pleased with how the turkey's feathers turned out. You could even say I'm a... big fan. View of the plants in the back, including purple ones that are really common at Annadel. Throughout the build, there are several other types of wildflowers (including golden poppies and sky lupine). See if you can spot them in other photos! The turkey is perched on a giant cushioned chair! Did you notice it's playing with foot talons, since it doesn't have hands? Here's the top view to show the general layout better. The baseplate separates into 3 modular chunks for transportation. Hope this trio was able to jazz up your day! Thanks for taking the time to look. (Link to the Flickr album for more photos.) -Inky

Small castle that I built to practice my architecture techniques. I made it orange so it would be more fun and inviting than your standard gray castle. Comments and criticism welcome! Thanks for taking a look. -Inky

Isla Mística

Greetings! This is my entry for the Create a Theme Contest, being hosted on the Special Themes forum. ------------------------------------------------ Theme Name: Isla Mística Theme Description: Somewhere along the rugged coast of Chile… just beyond the fog… awaits an island full of mystical creatures and terrifying beasts! The local fishermen have learned to coexist with their magical neighbors, but the arrival of Spanish explorers threatens to disrupt this tenuous peace. The angered creatures are now indiscriminately attacking human settlements across the island. Can the fishermen and explorers team up and successfully mount a defense? Or will they become the next victims of Isla Mística? ------------------------------------------------ Category 1 Entry (Two Sets from Theme) La Bruja’s Cave - $9.99 The wandering explorer has stumbled across the dwelling of La Bruja (The Witch). Beware the fearsome Imbunche (mythical monster) guarding the entrance! Inside the cave is La Bruja's potion ingredients... and perhaps the leftovers from El Imbunche's last meal? Open the spiderweb to reveal a set of Spanish armor... from the last unlucky explorer. The cave folds up into one cute little structure! On to set #2... Fishing Village Attack - $99.99 Ship approaching! The dreaded Millalobo and his aquatic minions La Sirena and El Pulpo have descended on the peaceful fishing village with their Flying Serpent Ship. Can the fishermen and Spanish explorers use their net launcher to turn their enemies into the catch of the day? ^ Video of net launcher in action! ------------------------------------------------ Category 2 Entry (Minifig Lineup) This theme includes 3 factions: the Spanish explorers, the local fishing tribe, and the creatures. Spanish Explorers: Left to right: soldier, 2nd mate, 1st mate, captain, soldier, soldier. Fishing Tribe: Left to right: fishmonger, fisherman, his daughter, chief’s son, the chief himself, the healer/shaman, and the blacksmith. The Creatures: Left to right: El Trauco, El Imbunche, La Bruja, Millalobo, La Sirena, El Pulpo, La Bestia, El Murciélago. ------------------------------------------------ Fun fact, this theme is inspired by a real place - the Chiloé Archipelago in southern Chile. It's known for lots of things, including its stilted houses over the water, its seafood, and its rich folklore. I had the chance to visit there on a solo trip, and loved the eeriness of the foggy forests and smoky shoreline. Several of the minifigs above were directly inspired by creatures from Chilote mythology! Thanks for scrolling this far! Hope you have a mystical day. Inky

Congrats Oky on earning the Grand Admiral award! A very impressive set of entries, you should be proud. Great job to my fellow contestants, it was fun to see all of the fantastic MOCs accumulate in this forum (and make me increasingly nervous about my own! ) I'm thrilled that 2 of my 3 entries made it to the winners circle. I look forward to displaying a shiny new X-Wing next to them on my shelf! Thanks MKJoshA for hosting the event! And to the judges for your time evaluating the builds.

One more entry in! Each category was such a different experience, wish I had time for the starfighter one too.

The Senate negotiations may not have been the most exciting part of the movies, but sure was a great source of interesting character designs. I would stay clear of that Neimoidian if I were you, doesn't look too happy... that Chagrian on the other hand seems pretty cheerful! Maybe he knows Mas Amedda? -Inky

Just posted my entry for the 12x12 vignette category. Thanks MKJoshA for hosting the contest!

From the epic duel between Ahsoka Tano and Darth Maul on Mandalore from the final season of the Clone Wars TV series. Hope you enjoy! -Inky

Here's my entry for the Brick Built Creature category - the Loth Wolf. I love these Star Wars contests, hoping to squeeze in another entry for a different category!

The mystical Loth Wolves play a major role in Star Wars: Rebels, assisting Ezra Bridger in his fight against the Empire on Lothal. Their connection to the Force is strong and mysterious. They possess the unique ability of hyperspace tunneling and provide Ezra with the keystone to the world-between-worlds. However, meeting them for the first time can be a frightening experience! I had a blast with this one! Here are a few reflections on the building process: The stripes on the face set the scale for the whole model. Turned out bigger than expected! I'm very proud of how the asymmetric mane turned out. The wolf's head is angled in two axes, which made it difficult to shape. The body is surprisingly heavy, and I had to redesign the legs several times to support its weight while maintaining the organic pose. Bent legs tend to collapse. Why are ears so hard? I swear I spent half the time working on those. Anyways, hope you enjoy the end result. Someone give that wolf a banana, before that wolf eats Ezra... -Inky

This build was inspired by the Netflix animated series Aggretsuko - a combination of "aggressive" and "Retsuko" (the main character's name). It's a deadpan comedy about the daily frustrations of corporate culture, told with cutesy animal characters in the style of Hello Kitty. I found it to be highly entertaining, and at times uncomfortably relatable. Oh, and did I mention there's death metal karaoke? One of the recurring characters is Haida the hyena. Haida is reliable around the workplace and supportive of Retusko, but is nervous and a bit of a pushover. The show uses a lot of reaction-based comedy, and Haida's panicked expressions are a great example. Naturally, I had to build multiple expressions for my Lego version! Then I made a simple animation to showcase my favorite ones. In the series, Haida is always drawn with an underbite and three teeth showing - so I made sure that detail made it into my build. Haida, the Corporate Hyena In total, I made four different expressions - normal, angry, panicked, and happy. The shocked reaction was definitely my favorite! Which expression do you like best? Thanks for taking a look! -Inky

Greetings and Happy New Year! I'm pleased to share the results of my holiday building project, a microscale rendition of San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had the chance to visit Puerto Rico with my family at the end of 2019, my last "big" trip before the pandemic started. We had a blast driving around the island to destinations like Luquillo, El Yunque, and Rincon. At the end of the trip, we spent several days in Old San Juan. Some of the highlights from San Juan included walking the cobblestone streets, visiting old Spanish forts, and the charming and colorful buildings. This build was based on a souvenir postcard that I brought home with me, depicting the Puerta de San Juan. I've included an image of the postcard below, as it was essentially my concept art. This was my first microscale diorama, and it was both fun and extremely challenging! The footprint is about the size of an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper, and I packed it with as much detail and texture as possible. It was satisfying to use so many colors for the buildings, but I had to get creative due to limited part selection in those colors. Without further ado, the photos! Here's the postcard art that inspired the build: Detailed Views: Conclusion: Thanks for taking a look! Here's the link to the Flickr album for high-resolution photos. -Inky

Hi everyone, A few years ago, there was a family of foxes that lived in my backyard. It was a family of seven, including five of the most adorable little fox kits. It was such a delight watching them grow up, and foxes became one of my favorite animals. I just moved into a new apartment, and I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated space for Lego building. Although I'm still in the process of setting up, I was itching to build something. So as my inaugural build, I made a small sculpture of a red fox! To challenge myself, I didn't look at any reference images for this build - it was done totally from memory. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out. A few details that you might find amusing: For the tongue, I used a pink chair element For the tip of the tail, I used a white shark head For the eyes, I used pith helmets Hope you enjoy! Inky

Hi everyone! I had the chance to do some building over the holidays, and challenged myself to make a large-scale natural landscape. I was inspired by some of the interesting trees that I saw while hiking in the local wilderness here in Northern California, and wanted the trees to be the focal points of the landscape. As the build progressed, it started to become an experiment in tree and plant design! So I created mini environments within the landscape to showcase the different flora - and even added a little fauna. Hope you enjoy! -Inky

Here's the link to my entry. Thanks MKJoshA for hosting the contest! -Inky

Attack of the Bactabugs! The bactabugs have discovered a hospital's central reservoir of bacta, and are about to contaminate the entire supply. The pest control team has arrived on the scene, and are trying every trick in the book - chemical treatments, electrical zapping, and laser traps. But these specialized tactics come at a price... Caught in the cross-fire, the terrified hospital staff wait for the dust to settle - and then reluctantly pay the team for their trouble. Pictures with Illuminated Bacta Tank: Normal Lighting: Poor hospital staff are having quite an unexpected day. Enjoying their job a little too much? Preparing the laser traps. Note the baby bactabug on the right! Someone forgot to negotiate a quote in advance! Time to pay through the nose. That sucker's about to go down...

Lately I've been watching the Lego Masters TV Show, and was inspired to create a timed building challenge of my very own! For the task, I set out to create a modular-style building within a total time of 12 hours (divided across a Saturday and a Sunday). Here are the results. I think it went pretty smoothly! There were a few more details that I wanted to add, but given the time constraint, I had to cut them short. Modular Gardening Shop. If you have a green thumb, this is your go-to place! Featuring a courtyard, greenhouse, rooftop vegetable garden, and street-side flower bouquet sales, it's a true haven for gardeners and plant lovers from all walks of life. It's also a great place to go to escape from the confinement of the city, and spend some time relaxing under the patio shade structure. Street View: Top View: Courtyard: Rooftop Garden: Courtyard: Inside the Greenhouse: I'm particularly proud of the exotic shrubbery that I designed for the greenhouse. It's made of Green Goblin masks! I'm still not sure why I had so many lying around... Thanks for taking a look! Inky

Hello friends, Here's my latest creation, inspired by the Netflix series Bojack Horseman! If you're not familiar with the series, it's a dark parody of Hollywood culture that takes place in a version of the world where people and anthropomorphic animals coexist. The main character, Bojack, is a self-centered, alcoholic horse who struggles to revive the glory of his 90's acting career while struggling with self-destructive habits. Despite the serious themes, there is an abundance of hilarious animal puns and visual gags peppered throughout the show. In one of the best recurring jokes, the main characters start using the word "Hollywoo" after the D from the sign is stolen! The format of this build was inspired by the show's opening credits, which follow a static-looking Bojack as the events of a typical day swirl in the background behind him. Here's an example of the opening credits, if you're curious. To create the right sense of focus and perspective, the Bojack figure was photographed separately from the house and combined later using image editing. I had a lot of fun trying to create letters for the Hollywoo sign! The O's are made using a pith helmet, which had an excellent cartoonish shape. Why the long face? Background Only: Hope you enjoy! Inky

Thanks for the extra time! Was a huge help in finishing up my entries. Here are my submissions for Category A and Category B.. Thanks for hosting this contest, it was a great reason to break out my Lego collection after moving apartments!

Hi everyone, Here is my entry for Category B of the Landspeeder Contest: "Speedee Repairs". Your one-stop destination for all speeder tune-ups, repairs, and replacement parts! You can even watch the action from a viewing platform while you wait. Hangar Only: Meet the Speeders: Activating the Fuel Pumps: Raw Material Storage: Welding and Inspection Table: "Hmm, where are these tools supposed to go?" Thanks for taking a look! -Inky

Yes, that's right - good spotting! I really liked the way they looked as steering handles, and this "floating" attachment also made it easier to fit the other cockpit controls.

Hey everyone, I'm back from a long hiatus to bring you my latest creation... Furiosa! Dex Brando may only be a student at the prestigious Coruscant Engineering Academy, but his custom speeder modifications have already raised (and singed) a few eyebrows. Here, he demonstrates his latest creation - Furiosa - powered by twin onyx-ion fuel cells of questionable legality and attached to an aerodynamic chassis that was salvaged from the scrap yards in a high-end sector, or so we are told. Dex plans to pilot this landspeeder in an upcoming student vehicle racing competition. No doubt that Dex has a bright future in store - if he can graduate without getting arrested first! This landspeeder was a ton of fun to create, and posed some great building technique challenges. I'm particularly proud of the cockpit design - like any good racing vehicle, there is ample shoulder support for those tight turns! Thanks for taking a look! I welcome any feedback you might have. -Inky

My ideal tree is one tall enough and sturdy enough to avoid the curious wrath of a mischievous housecat.

The technique I used for the eyes is not exactly legal - they're actually two loose assemblies sandwiched between the halves of the head. It's a tad blurry, but here's a photo of the four components: No plans to expand the Berk collection right now, but perhaps I'll take a stab at the other dragons in the future. I didn't take any photos of Toothless by himself, but here's a close-up of the tail: