Tuesday, July 10, 2007
icontest
The new Flickr group Microspacetopia is holding an icon contest. The winning creation will be the group icon for the next month. It looks like they'll repeat this contest each month or so, so I'll leave this up as a "current contest" link for the foreseeable future. Each month be sure to check Microspacetopia for the next installment. Initial entries this time around include Andrew's shuttle and Jayfo's fighter.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Friday, July 06, 2007
Why micro?
Why build microscale? If you've been following this blog you've certainly seen some great micro MOCs, but what is the allure of this style of building rather than the more common minifig-scale? Several reasons are given below. What are your reasons for enjoying this scale?
Anyone can play - Like vignettes, microscale is open to anyone. Some other themes are dominated by builders with huge collections; for instance, it's hard for a new builder to come up with an impressive fig-scale castle or a full train layout simply because they don't have the bricks. At microscale, however, with some creativity you can have a great MOC even with a very small collection. For instance, Jason Alleman's great tractor uses only 18 pieces.
Impossibly large subject matter - Along the same lines, with microscale you can tackle projects that would be unmanageable even to those with huge collections, like the Death Star, the Titanic, the World Trade Center, Minas Tirith, or Ersh's model of Manhattan, a project that even Sean Kenney would balk at if forced to do at fig-scale.
The cuteness factor - What's cuter? A chicken or a little chick? A cat or a kitten? Mark Stafford's great Gothica or his microscale version.
Flexibility - When you're building to the minifig, you're set in at one scale. Once you go smaller (or larger, but that would be another blog) you get infinite flexibility. For instance, I've seen great Millenium Falcons done at many different scales, which allows for new and clever solutions. Or here, for example, Don Bruce approaches the Chateau de Hautefort at three different scales.
Imaginatve piece usage - Microscale encourages creativity, since you often take pieces like minifig utensils that were originally intended for one specific use and remake them into something new at a different scale. For example, the use of the hawk/parrot element and the binoculars in Dunechaser's Hawk 1.
Forced perspective - Microscale can be used in conjunction with fig-scale to give the illusion of distance. For example see the Parthenon in Brendan Powell Smith's Paul in Athens.
Mixing scales - In addition to forced perspective, microscale can be mixed with fig scale to, for instance, give a fig a toy to play with, as in Erik Brok's Otterdam by bike, where a fig visits a LEGO store complete with micro versions of sets, or to put a giant fig in the land of microfigs, as in Moko's Adventure of Gulliver
Finally, it's fun!
Anyone can play - Like vignettes, microscale is open to anyone. Some other themes are dominated by builders with huge collections; for instance, it's hard for a new builder to come up with an impressive fig-scale castle or a full train layout simply because they don't have the bricks. At microscale, however, with some creativity you can have a great MOC even with a very small collection. For instance, Jason Alleman's great tractor uses only 18 pieces.
Impossibly large subject matter - Along the same lines, with microscale you can tackle projects that would be unmanageable even to those with huge collections, like the Death Star, the Titanic, the World Trade Center, Minas Tirith, or Ersh's model of Manhattan, a project that even Sean Kenney would balk at if forced to do at fig-scale.
The cuteness factor - What's cuter? A chicken or a little chick? A cat or a kitten? Mark Stafford's great Gothica or his microscale version.
Flexibility - When you're building to the minifig, you're set in at one scale. Once you go smaller (or larger, but that would be another blog) you get infinite flexibility. For instance, I've seen great Millenium Falcons done at many different scales, which allows for new and clever solutions. Or here, for example, Don Bruce approaches the Chateau de Hautefort at three different scales.
Imaginatve piece usage - Microscale encourages creativity, since you often take pieces like minifig utensils that were originally intended for one specific use and remake them into something new at a different scale. For example, the use of the hawk/parrot element and the binoculars in Dunechaser's Hawk 1.
Forced perspective - Microscale can be used in conjunction with fig-scale to give the illusion of distance. For example see the Parthenon in Brendan Powell Smith's Paul in Athens.
Mixing scales - In addition to forced perspective, microscale can be mixed with fig scale to, for instance, give a fig a toy to play with, as in Erik Brok's Otterdam by bike, where a fig visits a LEGO store complete with micro versions of sets, or to put a giant fig in the land of microfigs, as in Moko's Adventure of Gulliver
Finally, it's fun!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Microspacetopia
I've previously noted how great spacers are at microscale. Now they've made it easier to report on thei work by creating a new Flickr group, Microspacetopia. You can bet I'll be mining this group for creations by builders like Dunechaser, Lights and Zachmoe.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Yoda, some wookies, and way too many Y's
Monday, July 02, 2007
A scene seared in memory
I'm a little conflicted on this one. On the one hand, it's not fun like most of the stuff I blog here, but on the other hand, I believe that LEGO can be a true art form, and art can (ought to?) often push us out of our comfort zone. At BrickWorld, Todd Webb the World Trade Center during the 9-11 Attack. This won "Best Vignette" (though I'm posting it here rather than at VignetteBricks, so you might guess that this doesn't fall in my personal vig aesthetic, which is more minifig-based). Read more on Todd's site.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Micro-space theme madness
Andrew Lee has posted a whole fleet of great microscale spaceships (also on Flickr).
One of the things that makes these so cool is that most of them are recognizably part of official themes, like his Classic Space Intersteller Freighter or his M-Tron Retrival Craft:
Or also part of fan-created themes like his 3vil Assault Craft or his PCS Shuttle-o-craft:
One of the things that makes these so cool is that most of them are recognizably part of official themes, like his Classic Space Intersteller Freighter or his M-Tron Retrival Craft:
Or also part of fan-created themes like his 3vil Assault Craft or his PCS Shuttle-o-craft:
Monday, June 25, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Threepy Kong
LEGO Europe is hosting a raffle to give away golden C3PO's. One of the entries is Badgerboy's Empire State.
Keychains
It looks like LEGO is going to release a set of Star Wars vehicle key chains. These are currently not found on the lego.com site, but at StarWarsShop.com you can preorder them for shipping in November.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
That Don Ho classic, Tiny Bibles
Brendan Powell Smith has a huge project, The Brick Testament, illustrating the Bible in LEGO. In many places he uses microscale in the backgrounds to create perspective, as seen here in Paul in Athens.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Set 4886 - Building Bonanza
Today's set is 4886 - Building Bonanza.
"Now wait a minute," you might say, "that's not microscale!" Well, yes and no. The main model isn't (if anything it's large than minifig scale). However, this set is from the Creator line. This line is not so much about creating one main model, but about providing many pieces with instructions and inspirational pictures to make many different models. If you go through the instructions, you will see that the "ideas" (models without full instructions) are at various scales. Thanks to zFERRY for building and posting pictures of the various ideas, including these two smaller scale creations.
Set 4886 on Brickset and Lugnet. Inventory on Peeron. Instructions on BrickFactory.
"Now wait a minute," you might say, "that's not microscale!" Well, yes and no. The main model isn't (if anything it's large than minifig scale). However, this set is from the Creator line. This line is not so much about creating one main model, but about providing many pieces with instructions and inspirational pictures to make many different models. If you go through the instructions, you will see that the "ideas" (models without full instructions) are at various scales. Thanks to zFERRY for building and posting pictures of the various ideas, including these two smaller scale creations.
Set 4886 on Brickset and Lugnet. Inventory on Peeron. Instructions on BrickFactory.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
Castle time
Recently, new AFOL ook22 burst onto the scene with a great castle MOC, his Lake Hold Castle. He followed this up micro-style with the Haunted Keep.
This seems like a good time to celebrate micro castles with some older MOCs. A couple of years ago, Aaron Sneary posted his MINIcastle.
At a smaller scale, Mockingbird has a vig with a tiny castle as part of a Lowlug show.
This seems like a good time to celebrate micro castles with some older MOCs. A couple of years ago, Aaron Sneary posted his MINIcastle.
At a smaller scale, Mockingbird has a vig with a tiny castle as part of a Lowlug show.
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