The Ice Storm

Oceanographer's Choice

The moral of the story is to never rely on anything with a microchip in it for anything. In short my computer is trying to kill me and its not going to stop in-till one of us ends up in several bits in a garbage bag at the dump.
Anywho, let this weeks journey begin..
First off the bat we have ATDudley's Panther Hovertank Which looks rather nice.
Its got some nifty detailing going on such as the grills in the intakes and the rows of jets on the underside. The separate sections and hatches for gunner and driver are also a nice touch. Bonus points for interior detail. The back of it looks a little bare and vulnerable though, and maybe some more tiles or grills on the sides would help smooth it out a bit.

I've been watching the progress of this WIP at the moment, what can be best described as a big cyclops space ring ship thingy, or simply as the 'Odysseus' I'm intriuged. I love that big neon eye in the middle, this thing looks like it would be right at home as some kind of crazy boss ship in Starfox. Can't wait to see it finished.
We also have a Salvage Craft from Spook Its design is simple and yet complex at the same time if that makes any sense. Gotta love the cutting laser and the little headlamp looking things. Even though its an industrial craft I think it could do with a bit of brightening up, perhaps a thin orange racing stripe down the middle or some smaller red highlights?

Now I've decided to experiment with something different this time. Instead of another recent Moc, I'm going to drag out a 'classic' Moc out to comment on.
So here we have Dan Jassim's A-Wing carrier. The absolutely fabulous predecessor and grandaddy of both the Dragonstar and Explorer. I remember seeing this back in 02 and being in absolute awe of the sheer size of the thing. You've gotta love the detail on this thing, like the launch bay, sensor array and the control tower. And its even got an interior whcih is totally cool.
Defiantly something to look back on for sure.

The Arcade's On Fire!

If you live under a rock and haven't already, check out The Arcade Fire's new song Intervention, if you look hard enough you can find an mp3 lying around. It's got that same old Arcade Fire sound while giving a hint of where things could go. All hail the Canadian music scene.

Today's feature isn't microscale, as one might expect from me, or even space for that matter. Today's feature has some of the best building I've seen however, so take a good look. It's the Frankfurt Train Station, I've never been to Germany, thus I have never seen the thing in real life - so whether or not this is an accurate interpretation I don't care. What I do care about, it the amazing amount of detail this thing has, and the amazing techniques it uses! The curved arch is a wonderful example of simple techniques put to amazing uses, and the effect is a smooth - yet still textured - curved roof. This model achieves something I always love, it doesn't immediately appear as LEGO. That I think, makes the penultimate MOC: the ability to take a very recognizable medium and use it to such profound reaches. So take a good look at this one, it's inspirational.

Know Your Onion

Today we have a special feature: Some (most, I hope) of you should be familiar with Mike Yoder's work, and would know that he had a bit of a fall from the community a short while back because of personal issues. It was a grave wound to the building community, and me personally. But luck have it, he's back.

We're in the gods favour today, as he comes forth from [seemingly] nowhere with a model bearing that good 'ol yellow colour scheme that's some familiar with him since that move. For added flavour though, there is a red stripe (yipee!). The Code Enforcer carries a similar construction theme to most of Yoder's recent works, but there's a good deal of improvement among the finer details - and the photography is crystal clear this time, it seems to have escaped the usual compression blender. I'm liking the railgun on this thing, he says it's his first attempt at one and it turned out pretty damn well - they may be basic, but that just leaves less room for error. I'm particularly liking that this model doesn't seem to have any barren spots, that is noting that looks like it was given second treatment or looks unfinished.

An awesome return from an awesome builder. I'm really liking those rotating front guns. Its sad to see someone go, but all the better to see them come back, so: welcome back Mike.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

First snow today, mostly gone now but the fact remains where the snow doesn't. Its been a gloomy week, and I think my mood really depends on the weather and this week was pretty cruddy weather-wise; maybe this first snow could signal a change. Some thing to look out for: Nick's new team blog Review'd with Chuck, Jordan, and Andrew.

Some may recall my fondness for creations flown under the Neo-Classic Space flag. If not, then now you know. Why bring it up? A quick scan of brickshelf today revealed a gallery by Molly Friedrich which held an interesting model. The other two builders I've featured with this style (seen here: [link]) still had a very conservative restyling of the classic-space theme.
Molly on the other hand, produces a Neo-CS model that looks rather dashing. The other examples retained that very blocky look of the old CS models while updating curb appeal or building techniques, Molly's seems to attack both with a high degree of change. When I first saw the brickshelf I though this was someone's interpretation of an Arwing from Star Fox, colour scheme seemed right. Now the building styles of an Arwing and any CS spaceship are quite different, thus my surprise when I discovered the truth. I'll cut to the point: this thing looks profoundly more deadly than other CS or Neo-CS models, and I like it. It helps too that this thing is built in two 'modules'. I look forward to more, and hope this gives some effect on future Neo-Classic Space models.

Another interesting thing to bring up today is the discussion on Classic-Space.com about the proper grammatical usage of the term LEGO. Is it a Noun, or an Adjective? And does The LEGO Group dictate to the public how to use this term?
My take on it, and you can stop reading now if you don't care: Whenever I've used the word Lego, it's always been in direct reference to the Company or it's product. And thus, perhaps in casual conversation with another Lego enthusiast the word itself is all that is needed to convey what you're really denoting. However, I agree that when speaking to a mind uneducated on how the term should be properly used (and by should be, I mean how it's creator and owner tells us how it should be used) that one should use terms like LEGO Brick, or LEGO Justice. Why? Because enthusiasts of Lego know that when someone says Bricks, or Lego they know what that someone is talking about - however when talking to a non-enthusiast they might see all building block toys as the same thing, thus one must define that they mean the products of the LEGO group.
The most popular corrected usage of the word is Legos [Lay-goes], as in "I want some legos". Personally I've never really used the term and thus it does seem wrong to me. What ever your opinion is, make sure to read the topic and post your own thoughts on the subject.