He's at it again.....

OK, so you may recall me waxing lyrical a while back about an amazing LEGO model of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid lovingly constructed by Ed Diment (Lego Monster). It's probably the most impressive LEGO creation I've ever seen, to be honest. Well, as evidenced by his Flickr stream, the guy is absolutely prodigious, pumping out amazing creation after amazing creation on a regular basis. His latest MOC particularly caught my eye :

Amazing ! Having spent much of my childhood building Airfix kits of Spitfires (and tearing my hair out trying to paint them neatly), this LEGO creation really brought the memories flooding back. I love it, and I want one. Really badly. I even contacted Ed to ask about possibly reproducing his model, at which point reality took hold when he told me that it was an "insanely complex build" containing about 3,500 pieces. I'm not generally one to shirk a challenge, but if even Ed reckons it's insanely complex then I reckon I'd better just save myself a world of pain and pass this one time. :-)

While I'm on the subject of amazing MOCs, another recent creation caught my eye - "Three Story Victorian with Tree" by Mike Doyle (!snap! on Flickr) :

Absolutely jaw-dropping. I showed the pic to a few non-LEGO-loving friends, and nobody could quite believe that the model was built from LEGO. The attention to detail is unbelievable, and it's truly a marvel to behold. Mike estimates that his creation contains between 50,000 and 60,000 pieces and took him around 450 hours to complete. I can well believe it - stunning !

I never cease to be amazed by the levels of creativity, ingenuity and artistic ability in the LEGO community. And in case you're wondering, the word "artistic" was deliberately chosen - some of the many fan-built creations out there are as much "art" as any fine oil painting or stone sculpture. Interestingly, the world outside the LEGO fan community is starting to cotton on to this, as evidenced by the amount of publicity that LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya has been getting of late. Nathan is a full time freelance artist who creates sculptures out of LEGO, and you can check out some of his work here.

"Bedroom" by Nathan Sawaya

Even a cursory search on the internet will reveal a multitude of superb LEGO fan creations, and it's hard to keep track of what's new. To that end, I'm indebted to a number of websites which sift through many of the creations out there and bring some of the best to our attention. One site which I've increasingly been visiting of late is the excellent The Brothers Brick, which highlights great new MOCs on a regular basis. I've added the site to my list of recommended links in recognition of my increasingly frequent visits, and in the highly unlikely event that the webmasters are reading this, thanks for the great site guys, and keep up the good work !