Terrain Workshop: (Clone) Trees 27

After reviewing and sorting the BrickCraft Christmas sets, I stumbled across the Axle Connector w/Clips piece from the Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  This led me to thinking about my original Clone Tree design and how I could update it with the new piece.

This starts with two Clip Leaves from the Miniso Toys Sunflower set.  The next piece

is the Axle Connector w/Clips piece from the Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  The next

piece is an Inkwell from the Make-It Blocks Birds 3 set.  The final pieces are two

1x1x2 Round Bricks from the Brix Record Player set. This gives us a 1 Hit tree that

is 30 feet tall and roughly 8 feet from edge to edge in 6P scale. Granted, it costs $16.22

to build this but you also get four Frames and a ton of extra parts out of the deal.

To build two of these you'd need another Miniso Toys Sunflower

set and Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  This brings the total price

to $26.19 but that means each tree is only $13.10 each.

The usual size comparison.  I hope this gives people ideas

or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: (Clone) Trees 25

Until this point in time I've been building my tree designs from Lego parts.  But I've recently reviewed a few non-Lego building block sets that have some useful parts for building foliage so I'm going to combine them into one build.

This starts with two Clip Leaves from the Miniso Toys Sunflower set.  The next piece is the Pin Connector w/4 Clips from the Miniso Toys Multiflora Rose set.  The next piece is three 1x1x2 Round Bricks from the Brix Record Player set.  This gives us a 1 Hit tree that is 21 feet tall and roughly 37.5 feet from branchtip to branchtip in 6P scale.  Granted, it costs $13.25 to build this but you also get four Frames and a ton of extra parts out of the deal.

Brickshelf gallery.

You might even go a little crazy and buy a second Miniso Toys Sunflower set for two more Clip Leaves.  We'll swap out a 1x1x2 Round Brick which changes the parts total to seven.  This is still 1 Hit but the remaining 1x1x2 Round Brick is under the Height Minimum for Cover so it doesn't really matter.  This version is roughly 30 feet tall and 25 feet wide in 6P scale.  This version costs $18.25 to build this but you also get five Frames and even more extra parts out of the deal.

Brickshelf gallery.

If we wanted to buff this up to a full 2 Hits we could add a 1x1x2 Round Brick back in and use four of the Brown 1x1 Round Plates from the Miniso Toys Sunflower set to expand the piece count to twelve.  This also give us enough height so we can change the orientation of the Clip Leaves to give this version a different look than the others.  This version is roughly 39 feet tall and 10 feet wide in 6P scale.  It still costs $18.25 to build this but you also get five Frames and a lot of extra parts out of the deal.

Brickshelf gallery.

Size comparison pictures with the usual suspects.

I'm not sure where I'm going to use this design but I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds. Flickr Page.

SingleBloks

For a very long time people have been wishing for a Bricklink-type service that catered to Clone Bricks.  Well, apparently someone was listening because SingleBloks now exists.  Yes, it's only for Mega Bloks.  Yes, the interface is clunky.  Yes, the selection is limited.  But it's a step in the right direction for those of us looking for -- one type of -- individual clone bricks.

Thanks to Zerovirus on the MFZ Discord for the info.

Double Set Challenge: Blok Head City Builder

Five years ago I came up with an expansion for my Single Set Challenge, the Double Set Challenge.  It's nowhere near as popular -- I think I'm the only one who's tried it -- but I still like the idea.

So when the Blok Head City Builder set came along and I commented that it needed one more Ball Joint Plate to be awesome, I figured I'd take a shot at a Double Set Challenge with it.

Flickr page.

Granted, it does violate the first rule I set down, it has more than 50 pieces -- but I'm going ahead with it anyway.

First Build -- The Frame I wanted to build when I did the review

(2Rd [ventral gun] 2B [leg armor] 1G [motor stacks]).

Second Build -- Another Battle Cart Frame (1B [cockpit armor]

 1G+d8 [extra wheels/no ranged weapon] 2Y (sensor arms]).

Third Build -- A crappy little Station.

So from two sets at $8.00 total I managed two Frames and a

Station.  Six sets would get you six Frames and three Stations

-- for $24.00 -- which is a decent starting squad.  All you'd need

is something for SSRs and a Ruler and you'd be good to go.

Build Journal: Handmaidens Revisited

Back in October of 2019 I created a Frame I came to call the Handmaiden, out of Make-It Blocks pieces.

Just to recap it's composed of parts from the following sets and quantities: London Bridge (x2), Golden Gate (x2),

Windows & Doors polybag, Sydney Opera House, and Empire State Building.  So that's seven sets at $1.00 each

to make one Frame without attachments.  You also have plenty of leftover parts.

Realizing I needed more attachment points, I added in the Clip Plates from the Fire Rescue set.  This would allow me to attach systems to one arm and one leg of the Frame.  That also changes it to eight sets at $1.00 to make a single Frame without Systems.

Flickr.

Frame Parts List

4070 Brick, Modified 1x1 w/Headlight (x8) (Primary color)
47458 Brick, Modified 1x2x2/3 No Studs, Wing End (x2) (Tertiary color)

3005 Brick 1x1 (x2) (Primary color)

2555 Tile, Modified 1x1 w/Clip (x4) (Primary color) 

2555 Tile, Modified 1x1 w/Clip (x6) (Secondary color)

3024 Plate 1x1 (x2) (Secondary color)

3023 Plate 1x2 (x2) (Primary color)

3023 Plate 1x2 (x2) (Secondary color)

3021 Plate 2x3 (x2) (Secondary color)

4085 Plate, Modified 1x1 w/Open O Clip Thick (Vertical Grip) (x2) (Tertiary color)

3794b Plate, Modified 1x2 w/1 Stud w/Groove (Jumper) (x1) (Primary color)

60478 Plate, Modified 1x2 w/Handle on End (Closed Ends) (x4) (Secondary color)

41740 Plate, Modified 1x4 w/2 Studs with Groove (x4) (Secondary color)

4599b Tap 1x1 w/o Hole in Nozzle End (x4) (Secondary color)

54200 Slope 30 deg. 1x1x2/3 (x2) (Secondary color)

3069b Tile 1x2 w/Groove (x1) (Secondary color)

I also changed the Stations.  I made them taller and used more pieces from the Sydney Opera House and Fire Rescue sets.  I'm trying to find Tiles in different colors to differentiate each of the Stations (I'm 2/3 of the way there.).

Station Parts List
553 Brick, Round 2x2 Dome Top (Undetermined Stud and Bottom Type) (x1) (Secondary color)
3004 Brick 1x2 (x1) (Primary color)
11211 Brick, Modified 1x2 w/Studs on 1 Side (x1) (Primary color)

3069b Tile 1x2 with Groove (x1) (Random color)
3938 Hinge Brick 1x2 Top Plate (x2) (Tertiary color)
3937 Hinge Brick 1x2 Base (x2) (Primary color)

4032 Plate, Round 2x2 with Axle Hole (x4) (Tertiary color)
87747 Barb/Claw/Horn/Tooth - Medium (x4) (Secondary color)

85984 Slope 30 1x2x2/3 (x4) Tertiary color)
3794b Plate, Modified 1x2 w/1 Stud with Groove (Jumper) (x4) (Tertiary color)

3031 Plate 4x4 (x1) (Tertiary color)

Realizing I wanted to keep it as an "All Clone Parts" build, I went with a third party manufacturer -- Brick Warriors -- to get the parts I wanted to use as Systems.

Top row: Vengeance AR (Direct Fire), Tower Shield (Defense),  Lantern (Movement), and Chakram (Spotting).

Bottom row: Bear Trap (Melee), Resistance Sniper (Artillery), and Land Mine (Single Shot Rocket)

All of these were available in a fourth color which was used to set them apart from the main body of the Frame.  I tried to keep the squad all Make-It Blocks.  I have enough Minifig Shovels in Black to act as melee weapons for the entire squad.  But I don't have enough other cool parts in Black to make all the Systems.  I did need the 48729 Bar Clip and 4274 Half Pin from the Make-It Blocks Zombie 1 set to attach the Movement system though.  Which bumps it up to nine sets at $1.00 to make a single Frame without Systems.

Build Journal: Handmaidens

Last week I reviewed a bunch of Make-It Bricks sets.  DarkSyntax made some mock-ups on Facebook of frames made from the parts in the Landmark sets.  I figured I'd give it a shot too.  This is what I came up with.  The name was inspired by a comment from Shades Corvid.

Brickshelf gallery.

I started with the London Bridge and the Golden Gate sets.  This gave me plenty of Headlight Bricks, Tile Clips, and Taps to play with.  I added in the Windows & Doors polybag for Bar Plates, 1x2 Plates, and 2x3 Plates.  Reaching back into the Golden Gate set, I took the 1x4 Mod. Plate w/2 studs, the 1x2 Tiles, the 1x1 Plates, and the Cheese Slopes.  This gave me a body, an arm, and a leg.

Up until this point I had been using a few elements from the M-IB City Patrol set to fill things out.  I removed them and started looking at other elements in the Landmark sets to use.  Looking at the Sydney Opera House set, I grabbed the Wing End Bricks for the cockpit and 1x2 Plates for the legs.  I used 1x1 Bricks, 1x2 Jumpers, and 1x2 Plates from the Empire State Building set.  I also grabbed another London Bridge and Golden Gate set to finish out the legs and arms.  So that's seven sets at $1.00 each to make one Frame.  You also have plenty of leftover parts.

I went a little crazy and made three, with Stations.

If you want to try and build one of your own, here's the parts list.

4070 Brick, Modified 1x1 w/Headlight (x8) (Primary color)

47458 Brick, Modified 1x2x2/3 No Studs, Wing End (x2) (Tertiary color)

3005 Brick 1x1 (x2) (Primary color)

2555 Tile, Modified 1x1 w/Clip (x4) (Primary color) 

2555 Tile, Modified 1x1 w/Clip (x6) (Secondary color)

3024 Plate 1x1 (x4) (Secondary color)

3023 Plate 1x2 (x2) (Primary color)

3023 Plate 1x2 (x2) (Secondary color)

3021 Plate 2x3 (x2) (Secondary color)

3794b Plate, Modified 1x2 w/1 Stud w/Groove (Jumper) (x1) (Primary color)

60478 Plate, Modified 1x2 wHandle on End (Closed Ends) (x4) (Secondary color)

41740 Plate, Modified 1x4 w/2 Studs with Groove (x4) (Secondary color)

4599b Tap 1x1 w/o Hole in Nozzle End (x4) (Secondary color)

54200 Slope 30 deg. 1x1x2/3 (x2) (Secondary color)

3069b Tile 1x2 w/Groove (x1) (Secondary color)

Flexo

Back in September of last year, I mentioned a Kickstarter by a Lego-compatible 3rd party company.  Looks like they are back again with new shapes and colors.  I'm debating backing this so I can review their parts.  Their flexible nature could make for some neat innovations in building and, that triangular plate combined with Padlock Plates could make a really neat tripod core.

An Interesting Kickstarter?

Atomic Bricks on Flickr has started a Kickstarter to raise money towards creating a mold for these designs so they can be made in ABS plastic.  Now I'm generally not a fan of using minifig-scale weapons for MFZ but, I'm always a sucker for minifig shields and some of those weapons look pretty good.

Blog Flogging 2

Here's a couple of blogs that might be of interest to the community.

I stumbled across Bricks & Bloks while looking for info on a polybag.  This site reviews both Lego and clone brick sets so it'll be of interest to those of us who are heretical in our construction ways.

Brickset introduced me to another new blog, The New Elementary.  This site features articles on new Lego pieces.  This one looks really interesting, keep an eye on it.

Purity 7: More Mech Madness

I hadn't planned on building another mech using the Character Builder Dalek Minifig.  I had an interesting idea though, so I went ahead and threw together most of the remaining parts.  I think it turned out pretty well.

The gear piece on the right arm has already been swapped out for a dark bley version.  The helmet is from a Kre-O micro-Transformer package.  And I think it really gives it a good look.  If you look in the Brickshelf gallery, you can see pictures of it without the helmet and you can see what I mean.

Brickshelf gallery.
Flickr page.

Here's a picture of the two designs together.

Purity 6: Dalek Droid

As I mentioned in this post I intended on building a frame with parts from the Dalek "minifig" from Character Builder.

Here it is.

I used the base as part of the torso and the head as a sensor dome.  Right now it has    (2Y/Gd8/2W) for systems.  I may add    for the giant hands.

Brickshelf gallery.
Flickr page.

Purity 4

Stumbling around on the Kre-O website has yielded some unexpected fruit.  Apparently you can order replacement parts.  Here's the ones from the Battleship: Alien Strike set as an example.  I'm not sure what the parts or shipping cost may be but, this may be a way to sidestep buying entire sets and just procure the interesting -- and unique to Kre-O -- pieces you want.  Which is kinda funny since I was lamenting, to myself, the lack of a Bricklink-type site dedicated to Kre-O pieces.

Purity 2

We continue with the use of non-Lego parts in MFZ builds.

LowestFormofWit is back at it again.  Tablescrap Bug.

And again.  ST-28I F-type "Seraph" - Paladin variant.

Milt69466 continues as well.  Little Dragons Company.

These are two older ones from LowestFormofWit.

NR-31d "Vavasour" Artillery Variant.

NR-47 "Marquis".

Here's a shot of several of the parts used by LFoW.

After seeing a few KREO sets on the clearance shelves at a few retail stores I've honestly thought about jumping on this bandwagon myself.

The original "Purity" post can be found here.

Purity

There are members of the Lego community who feel that building with another other type of connecting block is heretical.  Lego was the first and we must remain pure.  This includes use of third party creations such as Brickarms.

There have been a few people lately in the MFZ community who are testing that orthodoxy.

The first was the ST-57k Sumu by milt69466.  It's made mostly from Kreo.

Then the A2b Angelus Type 2 by Rasann/Kastor the Chinchilla.

milt69466 strikes again with the ST-61k Yellow Tiger and others.

This modified Chub with MegaBloks parts -- called the ST-28I Paladin -- by LowestFormofWit looks really sharp.

And finally, combining MegaBloks and Kreo, LowestFormOfWit's NR-31 Vassal.

Makes you think, no?