The Golden Gate

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It's the most recognized bridge in the world, one of the top 10 tourist destinations on earth, and it gives me no small sense of pride that it's in my home state of California. Now it's a gorgeous MOC that spans over 12 feet. I have to confess I am a bit jealous of attendees of BrickUniverse this weekend in Raleigh NC who get to see this stunning work by builder Rocco Buttliere in person. Click through for many more pictures and loads of information and history on the bridge, it's truly a labor of love.

LEGO Builder's Habitat

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Every LEGO builder has one of these: their own build area.  A LEGO room.  A LEGO lair. . .AKA LEGO Man Cave.  Shall I go on?  I think you get the point.  Every LEGO builder organizes his collection differently, an aspect that become quite unique and creative on its own.  Now, pictured in this scene by Jsnyder002, many of our build areas probably look like a bit of a mess.  How familiar does this room look to you?  Is it like your collection, right now?  Furthermore, this "Out of Time" creation depicts the last few minutes a builder has to build and enter for a contest.  Sound familiar?  A lovely and true to life scene!

Out of Time
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Handful Fighters

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In time for the home release of Rogue One, Tim Goddard celebrates by creating an awesome small version of the now-famous U-Wing!  To make it even better, Tim added a small squadron of X-Wings to the mix for a wonderful display piece!  Tim was even able to get the folding wing feature to work on the U-Wing!  Pretty neat.  How are you celebrating the release of the film (besides watching it)?!  May the Force be with you.

U-Wing
UWing open
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Coyote Mech

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Here on the central coast of California we have fairly few predators. There's the occasional mountain lion, black bear or bobcat, but those are pretty rare. Far more often we see coyote, but they just look like wild dogs, not anything nearly as intimidating as this mech by builder ToyForce 120. I also assume the local mammals are glad this is just a figment of his imagination.

LEGO Mech Coyote-01

Queen Vs Powerloader

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It seems like the AFOL world has gone Brickheadz crazy, but I'm sort of ok with it as long as cool stuff like this keeps cropping up. Ripley herself would be proud of these adorable Queen Alien and Powerloader from builder GolPlaysWithLego. But that doesn't mean the drama isn't there, any second now Ripley's gonna cry out "get away from her you brickhead" and toss her in the airlock.

Xnmrph vs Pwrldr
Xnmrph vs Pwrldr

Eleven

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I can't help but look upon this MOC by Ochre Jelly with a certain amount of pride. Just yesterday I was scrolling through old messages to my wife and reading correspondences from BrickCon last year and I came upon one that said "Getting Iain hooked on Stranger Things". If you haven't seen the series you need to, it's awesome. This is Eleven (011), the young heroine from the series. And now thanks to this I'm craving waffles, thanks Iain.

Eleven from Stranger Things

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em

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Here's a little dose of nostalgia, it's Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots by BrickNerd's own Roy of Floremheim. I can't calculate the endless hours we spent playing this as kids, it was a childhood favorite. Not only is this a fun miniature reproduction of the Marx classic game, it's even got play features. To see it in action check out this video.

 

Tetsuo City

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I've never seen this haunting image of Neo-Tokyo's dystopian harbor with Tetsuo's face, I'm not sure of it's origins. But the awesome LEGO depiction of it is by builder gan.marco, and it's excellent. It's also enough to make me think to myself that it's been too long since I've watched Katsuhiro Otomo's animated classic and masterpiece Akira. Time to break out the DVD.

AKIRA_2019 Neo-Tokyo Tetsuo City-8
AKIRA_2019 Neo-Tokyo Tetsuo City-2
AKIRA_2019 Neo-Tokyo Tetsuo City-5

Palutena

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Feast your eyes on this stunning figure by Eero Okkonen, his eighth entry in this round of the Iron Builder extravaganza.  Note the large green Duplo grass piece which is the required element.  At first glance, such a piece would seem to be a serious pain in the backside.  But if you're creating a Goddess of Light with long, flowing green hair, it might be the first thing you dig out of the parts bin.  Beautiful!

Palutena

Prepare for Launch

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With the recent discussion about the latest LEGO Ideas project, let's look at a microscale space shuttle preparing for launch, built by Chris Malloy.  This little display is packed with some nice examples of NPU of basic parts, not only on the shuttle, but the support structure as well.  It appears that a new generation is off on a new adventure. . .in spaaaace! 

Space Shuttle Indefatigable
Space Shuttle Indefatigable
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

LEGO In Hot Water After Unveiling Major Spoiler Set

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The LEGO Group has found itself is a bit of trouble after unveiling a new set. The outcry has been severe with the announcement of LEGO 040117 The Destruction Of Jedha as an upcoming May 4th special purchase. The set depicts the aftermath of the destruction of the ancient Jedi city of Jedha, a tragic moment in the film Rogue One. "I can't believe they would reveal such a major plot point like that" said Star Wars super fan Iain Heath. "This is an outrage, think of the children!". The LEGO Company has released the following statement:

The LEGO Company has had a long and prosperous partnership with Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. We understand how this set could be misconstrued as a "spoiler" but it's been four months since the movie came out, where have you been?

The set is one of the largest ever with 7332 pieces and is going to be available in stores only on May 4th 2017 as part of LEGO's yearly "May the Fourth" celebration.

BB-8 Gets Upgrades (Or Costumes)

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Who knew that BB units could be customized to such great lengths?  I wonder which option Rey will go with first. . .  Builder Pangeran Panda has designed a grand total of 12 different modifications for one of our new favorite droids.  It also appears we have been given the crossovers between Star Wars, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Pokemon, and Hello Kitty that some fans may or may not have wanted.  Which model is your favorite?

bb8s
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here. 

Cookie Monster Got His Hair Dyed

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Yet another incredibly creative build from this month's Iron Builder competition.  Legopard, one of two competitors, has brought your childhood monster-under-your-bed concept to life.  To me, though, I see a green version of Cookie Monster (not exactly sure why, I think it's the eyebrows and eyes).  I guess you could say he was looking for cookie crumbs underneath this child's bed.  Instead, it appears he found LEGO bricks and a top.  A wonderful concept that was arranged perfectly!  I'd love to hear how exactly the builder came up with this idea. . .

The monster under your bed
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Nathaniel Stoner

     My name is Nathaniel Stoner, and I am an very active LEGO builder.  I mostly build in the themes of castle and science-fiction, but I also dabble in other genres and create occasional random MOC's (My Own Creations). 

     When I was younger, I would get and build small LEGO sets for my birthday, but I was never really into them.  When they fell apart, I would become frustrated attempting to put them back together and would throw them in a box in my closet.  I couldn't stand them!

     Then, miraculously, I became addicted to the LEGO brick later in my teen years.  Ever since, I have continued to build up (pun intended) my collection of bricks and to expand my knowledge of techniques and building skills.  LEGO is truly more than a toy, its an art form and a way to express yourself.

     For the most part, I collect LEGO Star Wars (mainly the minifigs), which is probably my favorite LEGO theme.  I have a fairly decent collection, including some of the original 1999 sets, such as the Snowspeeder, X-Wing, and Naboo starfighter.  I also collected LEGO the Lord of the Rings when those sets first came out.  The minifigs are great, and the story remains one of my favorites ever. 

     My hope is to inspire other young (and perhaps even older) LEGO builders to unleash their inner creativity!  You can find me on my Flikr here.