Sunday 17 July 2011

I'll be back!

Hi everyone!

I have not being updating this blog a lo lately, and sadly I am not writing this message to tell you it is about to change...

I had a lot going on in my non-Lego life in the past month, including an incredible amount of work to cop with... Also, I will be moving back to France soon, and I am sure you imagine what kind of not fun organisation that requires...

Anyway, I will be back, as soon as I found a new place to live (a much, much bigger place, only awaiting to be filled with Legos...). As usual, you will be the first informed!

Have fun!
Gabriel

Monday 30 May 2011

"May the Force be with you contest" on www.legopirate.net Part 2

Hi everyone!

As I wrote it in my previous message, I have been building speeder for the "May the Force be with you" Contest on www.legopirate.net (Okay, the cleverest of you already had this part figured out...). Anyway, we were allowed to enter two different categories, and I thought I would put all my brand new Pharaoh's Quest bricks to good use.

Moreover, I wanted to give Steampunk a try... What is Steampunk? Well, a quick look through this gallery will give you an idea... Lots of brownish colours, with old-looking mechanics and odd-looking machines. Since I had so many golden bricks, I figured out deep red and gold did go along pretty well with dark grey; and so I ended up building this speeder quite rapidly.

In the end, I am happy with the result (not only because I had tons of fun building it), although I wish I had more deep red slopes, as I feel the overall structure remains too flat. On the other hand, I love the way grey engine parts are mixed with more decorative golden ones... The "dart" up front was a last minute addition, as the speeder was so short it looked almost comical... Hope you will enjoy the pictures!





Well, that is all for this one! Once again you may click here to see all the entries!

Gabriel

"May the Force be with you contest" on www.legopirate.net Part 1

Hi everyone!

Once again, I decided to enter a contest on www.legopirate.net! This time, we were to build a speeder/podracer for a minifigure out of another Lego series (yes, it sounds a bit bit like the recent FBTB contest...) As ColeBlaq's speederbikes have always made my head spin, I decided to try and build something "speederbikish"...

I also wanted to experiment a bush of new techniques. The fact that I am not building something every night does not mean I do not spent a lot of time reading and learning from my favourite builders. Anyway, with this one I was trying to build a 1-knot-wide speederbike. I wanted a very light-looking speeder, with nice curvy parts joined together by very simple connections. I also had a blast with the 90° knot inversions all over the place. Of the few details (stolen from a lot of people) I managed to recreate, I am very happy with the tiny wind-shield. Oh, I almost forgot! I made a small old-school robot as a technician (I am very proud of this one as well!). Enjoy the pictures!






Well, that is about it for this one! To see all the entries to this contest (French site & forum), simply click here!

Gabriel

Saturday 21 May 2011

Pharaonic Combo!

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, as the week came to an most-anticipated end, I stopped by my favourite Lego Store on the way home with a very precise idea of what I wanted to buy. Indeed, I have been experiencing lately a series of tough weeks at work, and it has been a while since I had real building time... As a result my Piggy Bank has kept on cashing money in, and I wanted to treat myself buying a massive amount of Lego bricks. Moreover, I decided I wanted some Pharaoh's Quest set. So here you go! Not one. Not two. Three Lego sets at the same time! Enjoy the pictures!







Well, for the next step I still haven't decided if I will be mixing the three sets together yet, so I guess you'll have to find out later!

Gabriel

Monday 16 May 2011

A yellow bulldozer out of box 8!

Hi everyone!

It took me a long time before finding something to build out of this set, as every single idea seemed to be bound to fail. Okay, my will to use the two big curvy bricks in the model may have gotten in the way a few times, so I suppose I am to blame as well. But I really wanted to use those parts...

Anyway, I eventually came up with the notion of putting them together in a kind of bulldozer blade. The rest of the model was rather easy to assemble afterwards, although I managed to integrate little details I have been playing with from the moment I disassembled the original truck (Yes, I am talking about the little ugly lamps on the side, I am really happy about how they look...). Well, enjoy the pictures!





That is all for today!
Stay tuned!
Gabriel

PS: Remember the Atlantis contest? I detailed my entry on this post... Well, the results are here! I had no chance to win whatsoever, but at least 2 people voted for me, and that sure made my day! (And, no, I did not vote for myself, for that would be uncool...)

Sunday 8 May 2011

Opening Box 8!

Hi everyone!

I am back again with a new Lego set! After trying really hard to build something else out of the Ninjago dragon without (almost) any hint of success, I decided to give up and  search for a brand new playground... So I stopped by my favourite Lego store on my way home yesterday (Yes, I tend to work on Saturdays as well...). There, I was attracted back to the City models, and in particular to the "building" sets. There must be something deep down in my brain triggered by flashy colours such as bright green, red, blue and in this case yellow. I instantly fell for this not-so-little truck, bought it and build it right away when getting home.






After building the set, I am really happy with my decision, as the built is smart, involves a lot of fun (specially on the front head of the truck), and comes with a lot of little details Lego is known for such as the boulder and the signalling material.

That's all for today! Stay tuned!

Gabriel

Friday 22 April 2011

Some kind of ninja out of Box 7

Hi everyone!

It has been almost a week since I have purchased the Ninjago Dragon set. I knew it would be quite a challenge to build something else out of these bricks alone, but I honestly was not prepared for this! I had a very tough time creating something new, and I am still not entirely satisfied with the result...

Anyway, I have managed to build a kind of ninja-armour-transformer-robot with the ninja as a pilot. Whereas I am not that happy with the model, I am very fond of some of its features: I really like the serrated arms and the shoulders. Also, I have to thank my girlfriend, for she was the one who came up with the idea of the wings in the back... Enjoy the pictures!






Given the difficulty of building from such a small a specialized pool of bricks, I do not know if I will be able to make create something else from this box...
Stay tuned!
Gabriel

Monday 18 April 2011

Spacemen!

Hi everyone!

I have recently been to Camden Town, and I found a guy selling a handful of classic Lego spacemen for a couple of pounds... How could I possibly resist?

Stay tuned!
Gabriel

Saturday 16 April 2011

Back with Box N°7!!!

Hi everyone!

I am sure you missed me a lot the last few weeks, but I have been kept away from my bricks by a series of unfortunate events at work and a holiday abroad. But I am back and feeling more creative than ever (although that's a really relative concept...).

Anyway, as I was inactive, my Piggy Bank was not, and I found myself with a huge amount of money to spend on Lego. As I was a little bit intimidated by a giant fat box for my return to the bricks, I instead opted for a smaller one. But this is not a way to avoid any challenge, as I chose to purchase the Ninjago Dragon.

I remember when I first saw the Ninjago sets, and I have to confess I was not that excited about them, for I am more of a castle/pirate guy... But I guess after all this time I could go on judging without trying it myself... So here you go! The Dragon is really fun to build, and I absolutely love the wings! On the downside, I sense it is going to be really chalenging to build something else out of this box... Here are a few pictures (on some of them I chose to remove the "ball-launcher", just for aesthetics reasons).





Stay tuned!

Gabriel

Wednesday 30 March 2011

"Guardians of Atlantis" contest on www.legopirate.net

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned it before, I was Lego-busy lately trying to enter my first building contest. This friendly competition intitled "Guardians of Atlantis" is organized by www.legopirate.net (french site & forum). As the most faithful of you may remember, I had managed build a kind of giant Atlantis monster a few weeks ago, and this was the starting point of my planning...
The idea of a giant lobster/crab monster was really appealing to me, although I started to imagine a darker kind of build, mixed with a science-fiction nightmarish vision of a colossal insect... In particular, the mechanical octopuses from Matrix were a strong inspiration in the process.
After a few days and as many building trials, I came to the conclusion I needed more specific brick to complete what I had in mind... Therefore, I had to purchase a Lego set I knew would fit perfectly... Unfortunately, the box I had chosen (Set Atlantis 8056 "Crab Attack") was not available from the Lego stores, and I had to sell a kidney to shop in online and have it delivered to my very door in a few hours...
Once my building complete, I feel really proud of myself, because the model looks like I imagined it (after a few minor tweaking, of course...), and it gives me a welcome little boost in self-confidence, for I now know I am able to build from total scratch!
I hope you'll like the pictures as much as I do!
 





I will sure keep you all posted with the results!
Stay tuned!

Gabriel

PS: To see all the entries, click here

Saturday 26 March 2011

A Red Dragster out of Box 6!

Hi everyone!

You cannot possibly imagine how glad I am to write these words, as I have been working  almost restlessly all week long. But with the week-end came a little building time, during which I managed to create another race car out of the "Wreckage Road" set. I sense the more conscientious of my very numerous readers (more than 1000 since the creation of this blog!) might be bored with me building race cars. What shall I respond? I am sorry, but I really cannot help it, I love putting together big engines and wheels!

Today, I am proud to present a red and black dragster-like car! The origin of the model was my will to use the pillars of the finish line originally included in the set. After a few unsuccessful attempts, it became  clear the best way to insert them in the model was to build the car around them... This was consistent with the thin and long style I wanted anyway! I am pretty happy with the result, specially since the look is a strange mix between retro and concept cars... Hope you will enjoy the pictures!






I think that is pretty much it for this set, and I will be working on a very different project for a contest in the coming days... Of course, I will share pictures of my entry here as well!

Stay tuned!

Gabriel

Saturday 19 March 2011

A Black & White Racer out of Box 6!

Hi everyone!

As the end of the week was closing, I started to think hard about what to build... As the set originally allows to build two race cars, my first plan was to try creating two of my own. The concept of a black and white coloured car was the first to come to mind, so I started building it. The more I was progressing, the more obvious the impossibility to build another car out of the set. So I thought "What the hell?" and gave up the ambition of building it a twin, using the extra bricks to give my one and only extra length/depth/class.

Anyway, I am happy with the final look of it, although I feel some ill-intentioned persons with overcritical aesthetic sense are going to tell mine looks too much like the original... I would plaid guilty, but I would add in my defence the "F1" standard I had in mind is quite common... Hope you'll be happy with the pictures!






After I had fun using a restrictive colour scheme, I have a lot of ideas to create new race cars, some of them involving mixing the different sets I have purchased a few weeks ago... I 'll give this a little bit of thinking and keep you posted!

Stay tuned!

Gabriel

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Cracking Box Number 6!

Hi everyone!

As this week started with tons of work looming around but not yet for me to be worried about, I decide to stop by my favourite Lego store on the way home today. I am pretty sure the fact I bought a set will result in more work and less building time (cosmic/karma balance?), but I feel like it is a risk worth taking... Since my Piggy Bank contained a little more than £30, I had a real freedom of choice for my next box. Somehow, this "Wreckage Road" set caught my eye, and I was happy to take it home for I never bought a World Racer box until now.

After opening the box, I was amazed how many bricks I had! Seriously, I know that Star Wars sets are are overpriced, but the comparison with the spaceship I had fun with a couple of weeks ago still hurts... Anyway, I am really happy with my new bricks, as they allow to build two cars, with four mini-figures. I sense I am going to enjoy building race-cars in the coming days!

Oh! Yes! I forgot... You want to see pictures??? Here we go!

Stay tuned for more building!

Gabriel