I just came up with this great new LEGO technique. I don’t know where the inspiration came from, but I know it will have millions of uses in everyone’s MOCs! I haven’t seen anyone use this one yet, so I figured I would post it and share, just in case anyone might need it one day. So, please, if you use it, make sure you credit me. Thanks!

OK, in all seriousness, why should we have to credit ever little thing we use in a MOC? Are people that vain as to think they need credit for a technique that they “came up with”? I for one don’t credit people when it isn’t deserved, and most of the time it isn’t. I credit those who ideas I have coppied exactly, for example the brickfa, I credited Mike because I took it exactly from him. However, if I had just used the idea of the minifig hands on the clip plate, I wouldn’t have said anything about Mike.

This post inspired by The Brothers Brick

Oh, and OMG! I Blogged!

Today, we shed a tear for the beloved RAMM theme developed and monopolized by NickD. After a long struggle with noob cancer, it finally passed away yesterday due to complications. RAMM had a long, full life. It had contests, fanboyz, and even crappy models wanting to be the theme. We salute you RAMM, and we hope you have peace in your next life.

You all know a few things that really get me on MOCs. I shouldn’t have to go through them again and I wont, because I’m lazy. Flickr user Spacie 11′s MOC, the AP-27 displays another one of my pet peeves, the hinge brick holding the front windscreen on. Yes, that bugs me. It takes away from the flowing shape of the rest of the craft. Everything curves and flows except for that single hinge in front. It sticks out like a sore thumb. We are all guilty of using this technique at one point or another. It’s the easy way out most of the time, and most of the time it ruins the flow in one way or another. He did succeeded in creating a decently shaped cockpit, but he also succeeded in ruining some good flow he had going…

Oh, and I don’t feel like going through this for grammar and spelling, because, well, I’m feeling lazy today…

Time for the next post from your “douchenozzle, cocksucking, little man-bitch, assmunching, holocaust denying, psychopathic troll” of a host. Thanks for the new name Peter, I love it!

Anyway, onto the real business: Starcraft and Starcraft MOCs. For those of you who don’t know Starcraft, it’s a very popular real time strategy game. The game has been gaining more and more popularity (or so it seems) as the sequel comes closer to being released. With that popularity there come the MOCs (just look at Halo). Flickr user AGI-bear has attempted one of the larger vehicles in Starcraft (on the Terran side), the Battle Cruiser. This MOC, while having the main shape, some of the correct colors, and at least some of the needed greebling, doesn’t quite hit the bulls-eye on the look. The color itself looks to be very messy. Red highlights being thrown in a lot of spots that just don’t seem right. It also seems that the greebling went just a bit over the top as well. The reference image that I linked to previously shows a rather smooth ship with a few greebs. One final thing that bugs me is the massive amount of ball turrets used. Yes, the reference shows some guns right there, but nowhere near the amount he has used. I guess I’m just being picky, but, I don’t really care.

It’s that time a year again. The days get a bit shorter, the air starts to cool, kids start to go back to school, and LEGO starts to find out they have leaks they need to plug. This fall, it seems that new LEGO Star Wars sets are to be expected, and oh are they some great sets! Let me go through each one, and explore the greatness to a further extent:

-Freeco Bike (?): This wonderfully designed penis speeder bike has all the features a speeder bike should have. A long nose, a cockpit, little engines, and landing gear. Yes, for what will probably be $15-$20US you can own this wonderfully random assortment of white parts. But, hey, if you don’t like those, you could always buy it for the figures…

-Droid Tri-Fighter: A blast from the past. This set looks fairly identical to the original Droid Tri-Fighter from back when Episode 3 was still all the rage. Actually, I am hoping it will be similar to the original, because the original had some great parts (awesome bricks anyone?). But, knowing LEGO, the design will be less complicated, price jacked up, and include random figures that they throw into most every set now…fucking Battle Droids anyway…

-TIE Defender: Yay, another excuse to use the TIE fighter cockpit. Really, how many more of these do we need? Well, at least it isn’t a redesign of any of the previous TIE variants we have had. It does use grey instead of blue like the others. What the hell LEGO, “good job” on this one…except, it’s probably gonna be a bit pricy, and probably a bit fragile…

-Battle Packs: Sigh…seriously LEGO? More Battle Packs? I really should be use to these by now, but I just don’t want to be. LEGO took away the cheap sets, that had a lot of pieces for a great price (Tri-Fighter anyone?), took out all the pieces, added 4 figs, and a hand full of parts, and called them a set. Hell, if I was a collector of minifigs, or cared to have a huge army of them, it might be fine. However, I’m more of a piece collector, and these battle packs really don’t have anything worth buying.

So, to summarize, I’m not very thrilled with the new Star Wars sets, but obviously others are with comments like these:

Omg o.O

The battle packs look awesome!

Woah….

I’m sold, how ’bout you?

You wanna talk about repetitive, look at that shit by flickr user pepaquin. What the hell was he even thinking when he built 8 of the same damn thing. Seriously, what the frak is this StarCraft shit. Some stupid videogame? Or is it some porno that he and a few others enjoy? Either way, the design sucks, the colors suck, and hell, he sucks……not to self, stop blogging when drunk….

edit: yes, this was a joke. Yes, PepaQuin knew about. Yes, he lol’d. So, people, get your heads out of your asses and lol too…

Have you ever looked at a MOC and wondered why something looked really familiar? This could come from the MOC being an exact copy of another MOC. It can also come from the MOC being inspired by another MOC. Finally, if could also be because the MOC pretty much uses the same exact design as other MOCs a builder has made. For example, perterlmoris’ latest MOC, the LF-1400 Zarfly takes the same frame as several other MOCs and just adds wings, a few other parts, and calls it a new MOC. Though, perterlmoris is known to do this. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is a decent little MOC, but nowhere near the greatness his fans on flickr are claiming it to be:

Jake Parker says: Super nice design!

Pain Parade says: Sweet design, very original.

JPascal says: Refreshing!

It seems to me, looking through his starfighters set on Flickr, many of his fighters look nearly identical to at least one other (if not more). Using the same frame over and over again seems like it would be more restricting then helpful. Finding one thing that works and using it over and over again with very little change not only limits what your MOC will look like, but it also hinders your expansion as a builder.

Many young fans of LEGO want to be exactly like these builders. Build what they build, eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep, etc, etc. I say, that really isn’t something you want to strive for. There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from a builder, but make things your own. One does not get better by just copying the MOCs of others, instead you just become a carbon copy of the person you so worship.

Oh, and what the hell, they linked to me recently: Visit twee affect and Brick Flotilla while you are at it…

Safety is, to my knowledge, something I don’t think many LEGO builders think of. It was obviously not on the mind of flickr user, pyrefyre when he built his TG-9e Speeder Bike. His bike, from what I see, is a combination of normal motorcycle and future flying stuff (like most speeder bikes). You have handlebars, a small engine area (I think), lights, a seat, and a windshield that would tear your face off if you stopped to quickly. I don’t know about you, but I sure love a blunt piece of glass staring me in the face while I go 100+ MPH on my fancy speeder bike.

Also, that driver can not be comfortable, or at least it doesn’t look like it…

BONUS RANT

This rant has nothing to do with the MOC itself, because, heck, I can’t even find anything wrong with it (besides being based on Halo). This is about the presentation of the pictures. I can understand watermarks on some MOCs, as long as they don’t detract from the MOC itself. But, putting a full description, a long name, your name, where it is from, etc, on the picture is just distracting from the MOC itself. As a wise man once said:

Let the MOC speak for itself – Don Solo

If you haven’t figured out by now, one of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of cockpit detail (if you didn’t know that, you know now). Like I said in my previous post, if you are going to have a pilot, at least give them some resemblance of a control interface. Flickr user, Mister Cold, is the latest in the long list of offenders. His MOC, The Eidolon-Class Submarine, has some decent design features. It has a cockpit bubble, a spacious interior, a chick pilot, and no controls. Yes, in this sub you have to just hold on, sink to the bottom, and hope people remember you are down there. Unless, of course, the ballast controls are missing too, then you are just screwed. Of course if your goal is to send a manned disposable drone to the bottom of the sea, then hell, this sub is perfect!

Also, the little gap between the top and the rear engines(?) kinda bugs me…just so you know…

There are many things that manned fighters need. For example, they kinda need weapons (they are a fighter after all). Manned fighter also need cockpits, because, well, they are manned. Inside those cockpits, they also need some kind of control interface. The interface can be nearly anything, but it has to be there. Cyberlizards latest MOC, The F-83s Hurricane, is an example of complete lack of a control interface.

This MOC, for everything good about it. The detail, the color, heck, even the overly smooth look of the wings, is sorta overshadowed by the lack of finishing detail within the cockpit. With as much effort and work that was put into this MOC, it’s a shame to see it dwindle as the finishing touches are put into place. Right now, the pilot is just sitting there, grimacing (probably from the lack of controls), and looking quite uncomfortable. Basically, what I’m getting at is this: if you take the time to build a cockpit enclosure, take the time to build the cockpit interior. It makes a MOC just that much better.

Now, on a different note, for those of you who have read this far. Yes, this Blog is only a couple days old. Yes, it has already stirred up controversy. Everyone thinks that one can not be a truly critical person without the possibility for people to do the same to you. Well, some of you may be right, however, how you went about saying it wasn’t necessarily correct. Yes, I know some of you wont agree with what I have to say here, and yes, I know some of you will think ill of me, and that doesn’t bother me. I have a right to my opinion, and so do you.

So, without any more delaying, I will tell you who I really am: Turkguy19. Also known as TG19, and asshat to most. So, now you know my stuff, and now I can get on with my blog.

Oh, and one final thing. The post-one-pic-with-all-angles-possible thing, kinda annoying. I know it has been on The Brothers Brick, I know nnenn does it, but that doesn’t make it good. It’s annoying when you have to click through to the max size in order to see any detail in a MOC. If you don’t have a pro account on Flickr, just post a couple pics, and then link to a brickshelf gallery or whatever.