Comments on: Studies in lego miniature.

Studies in lego miniature.

boo_radley — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:56:30 -0800

Although there is something appealing about large models in the Lego world, such as a 3,000+ piece Star Destroyer, there is a bonsai-like appeal to mini- and micro- scene creations, such as Chris Deck's approach to modelling the same Star Destroyer in just seventeen pieces. Through clever and unorthodox thinking, a menacing 5 story tall AT-AT can be produced in in a mere 41 pieces.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:56:39 -0800

Chris Deck's specialty of Star Wars minis isn't the entire scope of this intriguing hobby, though. mocpages.com has an entire directory dedicated to not just space ships, but an enormous array of intricate landscapes and buildings, including this light-up cityscape and alien abduction. Of course, when your subject is one of the world's most largest and most recognizable buildings, you have a lot of leeway on how "micro" your micro representation is. There's also this amazing model of Minas Tirith which manages to be a micro-scale model despite dozens of studs across, made by Bruce at MicroBricks. For intricate studies of more mundane objects, visit Moko's blog. Miniature beds, sinks and other items designed with a minimum of bricks and a brilliant eye. [all of this started with a visit to Brothers-brick]

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:01:52 -0800

These are fantastic! I never thought I'd describe the Death Star as "cute".

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:02:02 -0800

Until now I never realized the AT-AT was so... kawaii. I am disturbed by this realization.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:02:16 -0800

On preview: doh.

By: spock

spock — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:12:16 -0800

I just know somebody is thinking MeTa to complain about the empty lines at the end of your post.

By: evilangela

evilangela — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:14:14 -0800

Death Star != Star Destroyer

By: French Fry

French Fry — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:14:44 -0800

That's the Death Star. Nerd War apon you.

By: French Fry

French Fry — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:16:12 -0800

Very charming and cute however. lego joy: the "man" legs on the AT-AT are... fantastic.

By: Rangeboy

Rangeboy — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:18:13 -0800

Death Star != Star Destroyer Indeed. Your nerd license is hereby revoked. Turn in your pocket protector.

By: dozo

dozo — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:18:20 -0800

Thank god someone else geeked out first and called out the Death Star thing. Great post though.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:19:18 -0800

Oh, jesus.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:19:39 -0800

Huh. If I want to really irritate his mother, I could always blow $200 to get my son the star-destroyer one, if I can find one on eBay.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:20:37 -0800

See, I was going to use a star destroyer, but then I saw the death star, and that worked in better with the tiny model because it was cuter, and oh god I am not good with Star Wars how did I get here.

By: steef

steef — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:35:52 -0800

Those are so small. S-M-all. (We forgive your faux-pas, boo. It was like a Star Wars spoonerism.)

By: grouse

grouse — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:38:16 -0800

This is totally totally cool. Thanks so much boo_radley.

By: French Fry

French Fry — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:49:18 -0800

Yeah. I would have been fine if you had said it was a can of pork, as long as the links lead to tiny lego awesomeness.

By: Democritus

Democritus — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:50:15 -0800

Here's the LEGO Star Destroyer.

By: Midnight Creeper

Midnight Creeper — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:51:50 -0800

Could a LEGO Star Destroyer beat a LEGO Battlestar?

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:55:52 -0800

Not if these guys have anything to say about it.

By: quin

quin — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:05:05 -0800

A friend of mine was big into the Lego Star Wars vehicles a few years ago. He had just gotten done building one of them (I think it was the X-wing). Just for fun, we decided to try to figure out how big a model Death Star would be in the same scale. It worked out to about one and a half kilometers in diameter. We wanted to try to figure out how many pieces that would be, but then we got distracted by something shiny.

By: TheNewWazoo

TheNewWazoo — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:05:12 -0800

This totally inspires me to go out and buy a bunch of Lego and build mini things and put them all over my cube. Now, if only I had a cube...

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:09:09 -0800

"Now, if only I had a cube..." ...then you could have lots of little cubes in your cube. HUMOR! AHR AHR!!

By: pax digita

pax digita — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:33:14 -0800

quin, you just reminded me of the time my brother and I were looking at a 1/48th scale model of a "Dauntless" SBD and thinking about building a replica of the Big E's flight deck and "island" (superstructure) -- we realized that even if we got the thing started, we wouldn't be able to use much of our basement for anything else.

By: chrominance

chrominance — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:48:57 -0800

I don't know any kid who ever put together the giant 1,000+ piece Lego sets; we were always putting together ramshackle spaceships and airplanes out of whatever pieces didn't get lost under the couch that week. As such, people like Chris Deck are more faithful followers of the Lego ethos than the people Lego itself hires to build those huge, accurately modelled sculptures out of 2x4 blocks. What kid had millions of 2x4 blocks in every colour imaginable at their disposal? We were lucky if we had enough wheels to put together the crazy 18-wheeler double-decker big-rig with lasers and missile launchers we could see in our minds' eye. One day... one day...

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:06:18 -0800

quin, you just reminded me of the time my brother and I were looking at a 1/48th scale model of a "Dauntless" SBD and thinking about building a replica of the Big E's flight deck and "island" (superstructure) -- we realized that even if we got the thing started, we wouldn't be able to use much of our basement for anything else. I saw that basic setup (can't remember which carrier it was; I don't think it was the Enterprise) at an air museum in Wisconsin. And it was hella cool.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:13:54 -0800

3,000 pieces? Pfft.

By: chemoboy

chemoboy — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 14:16:21 -0800

This brings back memories of my waning days as a lego-maniac. Unsatisfied with the (upon reflection, rather substantial) collection of legos I had in creating vast dioramas, I decided to scale things down substantially. A small handful of pieces was a gigantic spaceship, with a crew so tiny they were invisible. A single piece could be a dome of a future city. It took a little to convince my brother to change scope so drastically, but when we did, the natural disasters and space battles were truly apocalyptic. I wonder where I packed my legos ...

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:27:04 -0800

"I don't know any kid who ever put together the giant 1,000+ piece Lego sets; we were always putting together ramshackle spaceships and airplanes out of whatever pieces didn't get lost under the couch that week." Yep, that was me too. Legos were my primary toy, we didn't have all that much money, so I didn't get quite the pile of fancy new toys that many other kids got, so I would just build my own "playsets" out of Lego bricks. Mom could afford to buy another Lego set every year, so eventually I had quite a lot of them! Last time I was in a toy store, I was kind of dismayed to find that there weren't any big sets of just... plain, assorted blocks. Everything on the shelf was those pre-made sets of specific items, lots of Star Wars sets for instance, with all sorts of custom shapes made just for those sets. Apparently you can't just buy a box of 500 or 1000 assorted pieces anymore, unless you order plain bricks from the Lego website. When I was a kid in the early 70's, there just wasn't quite such a variety of pieces - I remember when blue, yellow and black came out! Wow! After just red, white and transparent, that was mind-blowing! :) I think it might dampen creativity to make all these pre-set kits - I think it was highly stimulating to us kids to be forced to try to build complex things from just plain ol' bricks. I remember making a pretty serviceable Fokker Triplane (with motorized propeller!), but I was annoyed that I didn't have enough red bricks, heh! Plus tons of Star Trek stuff, cities, dirigibles, buildings with elevators... just out of a big box of random pieces.

By: Soulfather

Soulfather — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:19:01 -0800

Chris Deck's approach to modelling the same Star Destroyer I agree that it doesn't matter what you call it, it's still cool. But I have to mention another point of order. Death Star or Star Destroyer, it's not the same one. The little 17-piece guy is the Death Star, destroyed in the Battle of Yavin; the 3000-piece kit is the Death Star II, destroyed four years later in the Battle of Endor.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:00:21 -0800

Nerd.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:40:18 -0800

We were so poor we used breadsticks and croutons found out back in the dumpsters behind the Olive Garden. We used to dream of Legos. I hate my mother.

By: gergtreble

gergtreble — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:23:55 -0800

Soulfather: you mean this one?

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:30:47 -0800

and oh god I am not good with Star Wars how did I get here. It's a trap!

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:46:36 -0800

Last time I was in a toy store, I was kind of dismayed to find that there weren't any big sets of just... plain, assorted blocks. The last Lego patent expired in 1988. If Lego had stuck to making normal blocks, they wouldn't have been able to compete with other manufacturers. By doing Star Wars, Sponge-Bob, etc, tie-ins and cross-licensings, they can differentiate themselves and make a buck.

By: grouse

grouse — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:41:24 -0800

If Lego had stuck to making normal blocks, they wouldn't have been able to compete with other manufacturers. I dunno. Even as a kid I knew that Tyco Blocks sucked.