What Planet is This?

I remember when I was a kid reading a book about future predictions that was written in the early seventies and being amazed by it. Then just last week I rediscovered the same book and was blown away by it once again. For example do you know that by the year 2015 we'll be living in cities on the moon and using magnetic tape to record sound, data and audio? I also discovered Paleo-Future which is a fascinating little blog that specialises in showcasing the future that never was. Simply put, a collection of future predictions from as far back as the 1880's. My fav would have to be Quasar and it's curiously named buddy "Maid Without Tears" M.W.T doesn't look like the kind of robot that would be content with serving tea as snapping spines clean in half looks more like its kind of thing. Quasar is slightly less intimidating due to looking somewhat like a piece from a snakes and ladders game. Don't let that catch you off guard though because rest assured it's probably the brains behind the robot revolution against humanity. Don't drink that tea, lady! This amusing post shows off some Parisian artwork made in 1910 envisioning what life would be like in the year 2000. I love how in the future personal flying machines and drive-by wine waiters co-exisit so happily and how mechanical arms will do everything for us.

Another one of my discoveries was the exceptional conceptart.org which is incredibly useful for dissolving particully stubborn builders block. The concept art ranges from pictures of freaky genetic freaks of nature all the way to intergalactic starships and Mechs. And now it looks like it's time for a word from our sponsor.

Tired of your old cramped Moonrover and the way that it stuggles to accend the sides of even the feeblest craters? Do onlookers laugh at your outdated Starcrusher-battlecruiser that takes hours to disintergrate a single planetoid? Or maybe you're just in the market for a new family starwagon? Here at honest Frank's Intergalactics we've got a huge range, I guarentee it that I've got a good deal for you right here. Just take a step into the lot.
The Y-24 Spiral is quite a dreamy piece of geometry suitable for your next bombing raid, cosmic assault or freighter escort operation and it's only had one previous owner, a Mr Paul Cyberhawk who only used it on Sundays to take it out on planetary assaults. That's not your kinda thing eh? Well if you're looking for something more in a giant arachnid killing machine well I've got just the ticket for you. The Lime-Quad is just what you're looking for with only one previous owner a gentleman by the name of Mr. Shine. It features excellent rear suspension, leather trim and it's one of the easiest Spider Mechs on the market to park thanks to the abdomen mounted rear vision camera.

Now come over and have a look at this here Starfighter, what a beauty we just got this in on Thursday off a bloke by the name of Jeremy. It's called the Avarice and its got an excellent warp-drive that'll take you from here to Jupiter and back in the blink of a Morlocks eye. Some people say those old geared thrusters are a little dodgy on these early models but I wouldn't listen to them. But if you're looking for more of an anti-fleet starfighter I'd suggest the Spiteful Dagger from Alan-Industries which features quite a lovely paint scheme and comes with bonus optional extras such as sunroof and external heavy blaster pods. Just don't put excess weight on the struts as they tend to bend on these older models. I know your type, you're looking for a freighter for heavy hauling aren't ya? I shouldn't be telling you this but out the back we've got some new stock out back that you might be interested in so let's just say it fell off the back of a truck shall we? Well go no further then a genuine Patrick Patwood series Spaceship Parts Freighter which is a quality piece of machinery. Check out the sleek skeletal H-Superframe and the roomy bridge which features an excellent view and for a small extra charge I'll throw in a coat of aero-shine to protect that lovely finish. So how about it, interested in buying anything so far? Well, come back anytime then..

A drum role is required for the introduction of next segment but since we've blown the intire Masoko Tanga budget on elaborate sportscars and labor saving mechanical arms you'll just have to imagine one. Start those drums right now as I announce this weeks Award 'o' Shame winner which was sent in to me via anonymous email. Some person by the name of tomm has decided to grace Brickshelf with pictures in glorious of a weird blue thing which is either some kind of adult toy or a salad eating utensil. After further perusal of his gallery I discovered something that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. Tiny custom Mythbusters Minifigs which are quite accurate and quite creepy. Congratulation tomm, enjoy your award. Feel like getting involved in the spirit 'O' shame? Anything done by the Lego Community or by TLC is elegible for the award, if you wish to dob something in please shoot off an email to me or leave a comment below with the details or url. If you're nomination is chosen you might win an exciting prize like a monogrammed Jpeg image or maybe even an enveolope full of irrelevant newspaper clippings. Wow.

The time has come and we've reached the end of another post, whether you've been a long time reader or if this is your first time I'd like to say thanks. And tonight whether you be with partying with friends and family, drilling for oil on one of our nations many oil-rigs or serving time in one of our nations fine penitentiary's have yourself a happy new year.

Synaptic Circuits De-luxe

As usual, apologies for the lack of updates. This time of year is far too hectic and way too time consuming for everyone as you all no doubt know from personal experience. Rather than building further upon that rant I'd rather just jump right into the Mocs straight away starting out with the entries for Goldman's control the action comp first.

Tukguy's Analyze is best described as a Medical examination that would not be too fun. There 'aint no lolly pop at the end of this ride but it looks as if there may be a one or two during the ride, all-though probably icy-cold, stainless steel and fairly unpleasant. It's got cool hose usage and Minfig cleavage but not nearly enough spinning blades of medical death in my opinion. Note the rows of hoses sitting offside looking rather unsettling. I love the array of lights, bells and whistles arranged above the MRI machine reminding me of a pilot-fish using its natural light to lure the unwary into its maw.
Arpy brings us "Incompetencing the world to its doom"which teaches us valuable life lessons such as that opening up an intergalactic conduit between universes is a bad idea if you're just the janitor. And also that parallel dimensions are not all inhabited by future Dystopian society's and mustachioed evil dopplegangers but sometimes by pan-galactic monkeys with neon hooks. I adore the little greeble pit on the left and the Bionicle parts usage on this Moc is gorgeous. Just check out the way that the orange tubing is weaved through the ball sockets to create a rim around that X-pod middle which then expands outwards into a weird tentacled battering ram tipped with a silver Bohrok hand shield. Lovely.
Yoder satisfies the blood-thirsty side of us all by showing us the titular 'Better Axe Somebody' If you're Friday nights always seem to be terribly dull and passive why not take the family out to the Friday night Axe fights? Enjoy the excellent slanted killing floor, marvel at the cages behind the fighters which no doubt house wild beasts and socialise with hordes of fellow blood crazy spectators. Don't forget to admire the skeletons in the pit too. BYO melee weapon.

The short and fast Moc round-up starts here with Legoloverman Blue Canary which mixes old-space with new-space with sexy results. The solar panels on Bluetiger7's S2 satellite are constructed with rows of trans-smoke 1x6 slopes which look fantastic . Also from the same guy there's a nifty little space caravan with a compact design to be admired. The Riqueza gas miner shows that Jerac's Microscale stuff just keeps getting better and better. It's got detachable containers, teeny tiny hangers, gas tanks and lots more. Another venture into the world of Microscale is the SORS Romeo 3 by Arpy, the runway and the the docking claw score definite points. And finally from B-shelf user Giters there's an unusual snub nosed work in progress, nice work keeping the shape streamlined and I think the canopy placement looks pretty darn good

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Now I present a new regular feature for my posts. It all started when my constant and violent abuse of the random folder button brought me to Rweseloh89's B-shelf gallery. Deep in its murky depths on a dusty and forgotten shelf I discovered the frankly amazing and self explanatory "Award 'O' Shame". I thought it was such a good idea that I decided to steal it. This week the first Award 'O' Shame goes out to Brickshelf user Sheep33177 who was so elated with his Spongebob minifigs that he decided to photograph and post them into and under every single folder category on B-shelf. The runner up is Pepa Quin and his Mouse Droid which was also discovered on B-shelf. Thank you for your contribution Mr. Quin but I'm afraid nine slightly varying pictures of the same three piece droid isn't nearly enough. Also, I was severly disappointed in the lack of instructions. Congrats to our winners. If you've got someone or something in the Lego Community or Company you would like to nominate for the prestigious Award 'O' Shame just shoot of an email to me, leave a comment or perhaps shoot off a flare or two into the air. Groovy..

Now finally here's today's random Brickshelf gallery find of the day is the Lightning hotrod which includes a Lego John Travolta. But don't let that spoil this great little Moc for you, I think this Moc belongs to that fifties movie Grease but I'm not sure. I've never seen the Movie but I feel incredibly dirty for knowing that its features dated teenage rebellion musical numbers and stared Olivia Newton John. Now if you'll excuse me, at twelve I'm booked in for a lobotomy at the Analyze med table in to remove all knowledge of the film "Grease" because I feel terribly dirty. It's either that or the slightly cheaper option of good ol' bleach and steel wool.

In Rainbows

Good evening everyone. I'm usually apologizing for a lack of updates, and I could continue this trend but beating a dead horse isn't very fun. I'm in that last year of school where you have to decide what the hell you want to do with your life and apparently there is a lot of work to go along with that. Had a nice holiday in the form of a school trip to Italy, it was real nice to be somewhere else for a while. Plenty of shots on flickr from that trip, and there'll probably be more come Christmas when I get a full account. Here are some pretty examples:






So with my mind still in other places and boat loads of work ahead of me, LEGO has essentially been put on the back burner. I haven't even really been keeping up on most everybody else's work. So far be it for me to try and keep you posted and informed on current works, when I myself am not. This would be a post where brickshelf's random feature is highly lucrative and ideal - however the days where said feature would be ideal and the days where said feature actually produce ideal results must run on separate calenders. Instead, I did indeed find a recent piece. A piece, as in one, so I'll try and make this long winded.

I don't really think the Arvo brothers have actually ever made anything that on some level (most often on many) I don't love. I choose the term love over like here because there's a hint of jealously and admiration, as opposed to just general interest. Their recent make of Giger's Alien is creepy, smooth, and organic and inorganic in the same TV dinner. There's a certain feeling in this, and most arvo pieces, that every element put into place on the final model is the only one that would work. Every element flows so well that you stop looking at the model as a collaboration of different shaped ABS blocks and more as something that has been sculpted. Each section moves so seamlessly into the next that the model transcends its own medium - which I believe is a concept I've ushered as one of instant gratification on this blog. Adding to this is the idea that the build itself still isn't enough. If the Arvos had simply built this Alien, posed it in some classical contrapposto with less movement than a mortared brick and taken the photos in a gloomy basement apartment with the flash on - chances are it would still be seen as a high point of building achievement. That, however, is not what we get. What we get is an Alien in some sort of dynamic post-kill contemplating pose (with drool for extra glam) captured with such beautiful photographs that even if I put the Lego builder in me aside, the photographer in me steps forward to give worship. All this knowing how hard black Lego bricks are to photograph.

True to Giger's vision (award for the most phallic head ever), the Arvo's produce another stunning work. And with that I'll probably be silent for sometime again, so if you would mind Laura, get me home tonight.

Fed and Watered

Rather than boring you with boring tales of an ultimately inane and crap-ulouse nature I'd thought I'd strap on my goggles and bathing cap and dive headfirst into today's Moc's straight away.

Introducing the titular Jaguar Force mecha by corebookg7 of Brickshelf. I have no idea if this Moc is an official alternate model or just a fan built alternate but either way it's a pretty fancy looking feline vision of loveliness. The side boosters/ cannons look right out of some fancy anime mecha show and those paw/toe claw wrenches are quite cute as is the sword-tail.
The cockpit on this however is quite crap, pull the minifig out and it'd look about a hundred times better. At top speed, (assuming he hasn't fallen out by then) the poor guy would have a spine similar in appearance and density to that of a large sock filled with lemon jelly.
Having nothing to do with either footwear or sugary desserts is the MaK Fireball SG which is a lovely old fashion diving bell style hardsuit by Tromas. The hatches on this thing are absolutely ace with no pun intended, the ace and bullet hole decals add a lovely layer of personality to an otherwise fairly drab Moc. And I like that little spoiler thing sticking out of the shoulder chillin' on the back there. But's this Mech's suffering an ailment that's seems common to a lot of mechs, the dreaded tiny feet syndrome. Niels Bugge's Railgun spider might have a lame name but it doesn't suffer the small feet disorder most likely due to the fact that it's an awesome phallic spider cannon death machine usefull for defending planets and shooting cans. The big gun of the Spiders namesake is fairly impressive. I love the way the monorail noses form an attractive boomerang/ U shape which sandwiches in the greebles like tasty cream filling. Great use of cockpit domes, the ones behind the gun stacked up in that peculiar vending machine/ can dispensing machine fashion are uniquely awesome. The cockpit placement on this couldn't be more perfect.

Also under the Lame parts contest umbrella we have the Anti Satellite patrol buggy which features a slightly smaller gun but however utilises a Castle Roof and a basketball hoop in an interesting way. It's even got a little control room instead of a back seat which is not really a room as such but more of a control-hole for the techs to sit down in and do some serious controllin' and shootin'. In a minor nitpick it's a shame that those windshields aren't made in a six stud length variety, cause the 4x4 one is adequate but ultimately sucky.
The Accentor by Nic Dean has a crap name that makes it sound more like a brand of escalator than a VTOL killing machine. Any boring and generic name like the 'Predator', 'The Stalker' or the'Phantom Sky Cougar Delux' would be way better. Trivialities aside it has some decent but fragile looking rotors and a really neat flowing tail design. The ramp is cool but I can't help wonder just how much you can fit in the interior which is hopefully practical and not just for looks. Which is precisely what Felix Brun's Spacecrane v2.0 is all about, a beautiful exercise in function over form. A lovely old-school cockpit choice and two big pneumatic cylinders on top which look great but there really is an absence of hoses. Surely a solid and manly industrial craft such as this needs far more hoses to pump around various fluids which are no doubt vital to lifting stuff.

David C's Crimson Angel support craft is pretty cool, what stands out on this for me is the engines that sit neatly tucked in underneath the lame-part cowling. But the rest of it to me seems fairly boring as I feel like I've seen it before. Hippotam has built a handy Space roller which is just dandy for dealing with the pot-holed space-roads and troublesome protesters of the future. I particularly like the sporty stabiliser fins and the knee height doors. Who here hasn't found themselves sitting and thinking to themselves that construction vehicles also need fancy sports versions? Just imagine a star studded movie premier with all glitz, glamour and fancy cars. Rolling up to the red carpet is a sleek cherry red cement mixer with thick black tinted windows. The Gull wings doors elegantly slide upwards open. It's Ferrari's newest model of course, the Concrete Panther. On slightly less insane plane of thought there this Hardsuit by Incayne with is kind of similar to the diving bell hardsuit that was observed earlier but much more jolly and plump. And it gets bonus points because it shares a name after a totally awesome song and because it's also packin' a shoulder mounted spoiler too. Ley Ward/ Whateverly's has presented the Eye in the Sky which is a huge space donut thing that features a cool focusing ring of transparent goodness that shoots lasers. I guess it kind of looks like a gigantic magnifying glass with a broken handle.

Also, I saw this on B-shelf and thought it was somewhat kinda cool. May it bring much joy & happiness.

Death is the Road to Awe (dancing with myself)

Sorry for the lack of posts from me, I went on vacation. I didn't build much over the summer, threw out some stuff at the end, but now I'm in school and the building is grinding to a halt. But, I have been working on the website! You may have noticed the header change here to better fit in with the main page. So check out http://masokotanga.unicornbreak.com to see the intro page that took me much longer than it should have! Both sections are up, however the extent of both is limited. The galleries all look fine for me, but apparently the font didn't embed because whenever I view a gallery on another computer all the writing is 'off'. Sigh. The Art section of the new website is sauntering along, the galleries there will be similar but different in presentation. Making a website is quite the frustrating project, and unlike the guys at Next-Gen Design I don't have Kepplah to code monkey for me. Also, watch 'The Fountain', buy the soundtrack, and die happy.

This post has been mulled over for a while, so I'm not going to give much of the average variety. No, today's update will run more like The Histories than any sort of review show. Today I'm going to look at my preferred topic, Microspace, in retrospect. A search on Lugnet of 'Micro' and 'Space' comes up with a few topics reaching back 11 years, with MOC topics showing up around 9 years and the first with pictures still accessible at 7 years ago. There's a topic from Jon Palmer talking with Mark Sandlin about what would become Zemi's SHIP Gallery (also 7 years ago), 6 years ago Bryce McGlone talks about a Japanese page of micro-mecha originally link to by a fellow by the name of David Perry - the page has since moved and my amazing ability to not understand the Japanese language leaves me to think said content is long gone.
This seems to be the main problem with looking this far back into the LEGO community's past without any real strategy or tangible sources; links dry up and folders are lost to the ages. However, one sees the names of those who are quite famous in the community today, Mladen talking about some micro-mecha, a link to a page once containing some works from Ken Takeuchi. I guess that is one problem of not being in community back then.
I think microspace has always been at least the hidden passion of some LEGO builders, the more popular solution is to build space ships in scale to Mini-figures, this gives a better sense of realism and allows for a pretty detailed interior - featuring spacemen. But somewhere, someone never has enough pieces to build their dream boat in scale to a mini-figure. What do you do? One way to realise the vision, at least partly, is to build it at a reduced scale. While I wouldn't say microscale was a bastard child of the space community (it was liked) it never garnered any glory or popularity until it's first mention on the Lugnet .Space Timeline: "Paul Baulch takes microfig scale to a whole new level". These are among my favourite all time LEGO creations, and the most inspiring: The Lance of Athena, and The Empyrean Flame. I think any space builder who knows which end of a drill bit to use knows at least one of those names and the creation behind it. Those two ships really gave microscale a name, and started a slow rise in microspace building. They were built a while ago if you judge it against a time-line of the community - against a time-line of LEGO, the revolution of more shaped slopes had come, though not to the extent we enjoy today. As it was, the Lance did something that few had really seen with any larger build (whatever scale it may be): it had shape. This wasn't your everyday box with decorations of Greebs and guns, this was the real deal. Both are huge, representing an enormous investment in parts seen most effectively in the repetition of numerous types of slopes. Both the Lance and the Flame are great milestones in Microspace, and though techniques may have improved you could argue that we've never really seen anything of their stature since.
Things become a little harder to trace in a timeline from here, I turn to the search engine on Classic-Space to see what comes up. There's a few results that talk about micro-gravity and renders, a few small ships by Sastrei, some of my own earlier attempts. Over all there's some interest in mircoscale but nothing monumental.
So the next great piece I found was the micro dioramas of Mark J. Stafford. Great because they were an entire setting of micro, one could see how different pieces interacted with each other and in turn create a better sense of scale between them all. The Octan Refinery does a few things: it shows us the great extent greebles can have on micro, they're not the same as greebs at minifig scale but work to convey more robust industrial workings of a ship (or anything else); it also shows the effective use that simple slopes can be put to to achieve shape. Baulch's big work showed this to some extent, but the size of his two more well known ships defeated this aspect.
The refinery seems to have opened up a new can of Microscale, and the summer of 2006 is filled with wondrous creations from a plethora of builders: Peter Reid, and Justin Vaughn. It was about this time, spring '06, that I began to try and microscale in earnest. I'd been building for a few years now, but it wasn't until Mike Yoder came on the scene that I really wanted to try and be better. I think Mike said once that it was some of my microscale that helped inspire him to build microspace himself, so I felt obliged to try and offer some friendly competition when he floored me with his awesome building skills. The result of this was the Lancaster, the first in a series of three capital ships that were an on-going experiment for me. I feel like sometimes I build in stages, currently I'm trying to design civilian ships and see what space is like from a non-military view. When I built the Lancaster I was trying to build a capital ship - what does a ship need to be a flagship? It must be big, powerful, but must be a multi-role ship. But every ship needs to have some focus to it, otherwise it's slightly good at everything but very good at nothing. After the Lancaster was the Emperius, now with focus on a carrier and long range weaponry. It was still missing something, and I grasped for over half a year to find the right design. I was no longer sure what it was I was looking for however. Mike continued to kick ass, and the building genre was growing (and growing). When I finally pumped out the Eos, after I think seven separate attempted builds, I felt that I reached a milestone. The Eos itself was a pretty shapeless ship, and yet somehow I still admire its beauty - I achieved with it a great advancement in my skills concerning its individual parts, even if as a whole it was visually disengaging. But as I pushed my limits with larger ships, a new builder was experimenting with more manageable sizes: Spook. When I first saw Spook's microscale it was a little chunky and uninteresting, but his skills grew quickly and he soon surpassed me with both style and skill.
Microscale as a building genre was now quite established and diverse. Content that the style had picked up, I turned back to my own progression as a builder. I had achieved what I wanted in terms of technique, so I turned to experimenting with shape. I had quite a few stagnant ideas sitting around from my quest for the Eos, so I knew where to start. I wanted big guns, and classic style. This came together in the Argos, which of all my ships contains the most striking shape - especially for it's size. By now everyone was looking to try their hand at a microscale design, but it wasn't the typical fad bandwagon - it was a much slower build up and obviously is more open-ended than any fad. Lukas, J5N, not to mention Nnenn who had been building the scale for some time now. There was/is even talk about collaborating a microscale space base for conventions, along similar ideals of Moonbase; and rise of a special flickr group, one which breathes on a regular basis.

And there it is, a small history of Microspace. A little bias, and probably missing a lot, but there it is. The interesting thought I'd like to leave you with is this: What will the next generation write on this subject? Who will be remembered as doing what and what models in specific will earn respect as the time goes by. I'm sure there were more microspace builders back in Baulch's fame, but I wasn't there and now we see the things that get remembered.