thebrickmaker

Gah (part 4)

thebrickmaker — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:25:01 +0000

Well my Kickstarter was rejected.

I’m probably going to go back to playing with my Legos in private from now on.

The Launch

thebrickmaker — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:01:27 +0000

I official submitted my Kickstarter today. Now all there’s left to do is cross my fingers and hope its approved.

Odd Numbers

thebrickmaker — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:27:16 +0000

These bricks and plates may look “Normal” but they are not. Standard Lego bricks have a fear of odd numbers. Sure, there’s plenty of 1x’s and a 2×3, but that’s the limit. There are plenty of times when you think “This brick just needs to be one peg longer for this to work”, and 3D printing solves that dilemma. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong with the seaming process in this one, odd textures appear when I lopped off extra vertices and I’m not sure how to get rid of them completely.

Battleship

thebrickmaker — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:15:13 +0000

Saw some pics of the Kre-O Battleship brick sets today. I know that the off brands take a lot of heat from the Lego fandom, and some of bricks you see in the picture are obvious clones of classic bricks (like the little red “cones” on the guns), but honestly I think some of the original parts in these sets can be kind of cool (like the claw on a chain), and I like minifigs that can actually be posed a little.

The picture also begs the question: why do the aliens have caucasian hands? Or are they supposed to be gloves made from human skin?

Also why does a film based on Battleship have aliens?

Custom Arches

thebrickmaker — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:18:50 +0000

Some rough sketches of some arches I thought up during my last MOC that would have allowed for building more smoothly around the freak parts without being as obvious about it. We can print it!

The Exterminator

thebrickmaker — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:18:58 +0000

Finished version. Still not entirely crazy about the front bits, but that giant awful bug head was a tough work around. I went with four legs (thought about even going with six) and no minifig. A variety of wings on flexible bases, some standard and some more bug-like. My goal is achieved, a good looking MOC using freak parts.

Freak parts are everything! The whole time I was building this, I was wishing my freak parts were just a little bit different so they could fit the normal parts better (we could print them!), or my normal parts were just a little bit different so they could accommodate the freak parts a little bit better (we could print them!). What I was really wishing for were more hybrids; just something totally odd-shaped, but still within the realm of fitting your standard brick.

Playing With Bugs

thebrickmaker — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 03:32:37 +0000

I collaborated with the LeoCAD creator to come up with an issue for the bug that was hiding the parts library for some users (he did all the work, really, I just diagnosed a problem he didn’t realize was happening and came up with a temporary fix). It makes me feel a little bit like a hero (or should I say a Bionicle?). Focusing on it cost a couple days of productivity in custom design, but whatever, I had fun playing with my MOCs.

I stopped and restarted this one a few times before I found a path I was happy with. My goal was to use a few rare, weirdo parts from a poor set and make it into something worthwhile. It’s a long process, sure, but the set was poor for a reason. Haven’t decided if I want two feet or four feet for landing gear yet, or whether there is still hope for incorporating a minifig. It could be a drone, or something on micro scale (I can have it eat mini-New York!)

My ultimate inspiration ended up being Neon Genesis Evangelion; I want to create the effect that the spaceship constructed over the bug is more like a cage than a suit of armor. I think the effect is working so far. Hopefully the finished version will do a better job of scaring the cat.

Gah (Part 3)

thebrickmaker — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:01:14 +0000

Still working out the bugs in LeoCAD. I’ve got a partial fix running but it makes it incredibly inconvenient to run and design.

Guess I’ll settle on MOCs for now.

Softwares Go Boom

thebrickmaker — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:30:56 +0000

I was going to spend the morning seeing if I could replicate some of those Japanese bricks into something compatible with the standard brick, but after updating some of the design software, nothing wants to load.

Guess I’ll keep working on my bugship.

Bugs

thebrickmaker — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:46:40 +0000

Years ago, I bought this weird bug Lego from a set that was some tie-in to a terrible live action tv show. It was between 2002 and 2005 but I can’t seem to find any reference that it ever existed. I wasn’t impressed with the single set I bought so after about fifteen minutes it was disassembled and in the pile. It’s sort of like Bionicle, but not cool at all. Apparently no one was impressed with it, and it’s been erased from history. It’s not even on Lego’s website.

Okay, after a full half hour of searching, I’ve discovered it’s called “Galidor“. Apparently the show also served as a lame Doctor Who spin off, complete with a small blue spaceship that’s much bigger on the inside and is known by an abbreviation (TDMN, or Trans-Dimensional Navigation Module). Srsly, worst Lego tie-in ever.

Anyways, after watching a thousand hours of bad science fiction television, I’ve decided to use these awful parts to build a living insect spaceship MOC, ala Lexx or Farscape.