LEGO Ninjago Fighting Platform

Hello again, and thank you for your support on my LEGO Ideas creation, Elegant Dance Platform!

If you haven't seen the original project yet, check it out, support on LEGO Ideas, and share! Be sure to sign in with your LEGO ID and click "Support".
LEGO Ideas, Elegant Dance Platform

I would like to share with you a variation of the LEGO "Elegant Dance" Platform, but it's ninjas fighting instead of couples dancing.

Check it out in action:

One of my favorite themes is Ninjago, and the mechanism of the dance platform is perfect for doing Spinjitsu moves. It really looks like all the Ninjas and their weapons are lashing out to attack the enemies. The only differences between this variation and the original dance platform is the minifigures and a change in gearing to make the Ninja's spin faster.

Updates, and New LEGO Ideas Project

Hello viewers! I'm sorry I've been gone for 4 years. I've been busy with school, but I still enjoy building with LEGO bricks.

I recently posted a new creation on LEGO Ideas. It is the Elegant Dance Platform, and I think you'll be interested.

LEGO Ideas Elegant Dance Platform

This is the Elegant Dance Platform. It is similar to a music box with the dancing figures, but this one is made out of LEGO pieces, with a few extra features. This Dance Platform allows pairs of minifigures to dance around in a circle, as well as orbit a central point, which resembles some Waltz dances.

I've made some videos of it in action on YouTube as well. The model can be hand-operated...

or by the LEGO Power Functions M-Motor

Please sign up for a LEGO ID, show your support, and share it with your friends! 

Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for reading this awesome blog. I know I haven't been up for the rest of the year, but toughest part of school has taken my time away. I know it is almost 2014, but before this year ends, I want to say Thank you to all the amazing viewers who made this place awesome.

I know I haven't been up since August, so I will say my holiday greetings now:

Happy Halloween,
Happy Thanksgiving,
Merry Christmas,
and Happy New Year!
better late than never!

Thank You!

LEGO Palace Cinema and Modifications

Hello and here are some modifications I made to my LEGO Palace Cinema.

In general, there were some big modifications, and small modifications. I will point out my favorite mods and ones that seem to be an issue in the reviews.

Here is the Palace Cinema

Some of the reviews complained about the roof not being completed. Because I don't have the correct parts, the best that I can do is to top off the roof. 

One of my favorite mods is this rolling screen. You can see it utilizes a set of bevel gears to transmit the motion to the rubber wheels that turn my custom rolling screen. 

Here is my custom movie projector and platform. The platform was raised by one brick to allow a custom gear box. The movie projector can also hold a light from the power functions light. 

By removing the diagonal window, the platform, and the pillar, you can see the motor, gears, and universal joints. 

The seats are staggered so that the audiences' heads don't block others from viewing my iPod Touch. The red curtain is removable for easy installation. 

A hole behind the exit sign allows the iPod Touch's USB cable to connect to the device. The movie playing is the trailer for LEGO's new movie:"The LEGO Movie". 

The exit sign can be removed to access the volume controls easily. 

Minor modifications were made here. I added some at the bottom. and removed the rail.

Here is a video showing the rolling screen. The screen features the titles of two movies both developed by LEGO. 

And there it is, the modifications for my Palace Cinema. I'm pretty sure you can use your own mobile devices, and play videos for your minifigures to watch. 

Battle Tank (Inspired by Laval's Royal Fighter)

Thank you all for waiting for a new post from this blog. It has been about three months since my last post. Thankfully,all of the school work is done, and my vacation began. We are really thankful to have awesome viewers like you who never lost faith in this blog no matter what situation. This blog has surpassed 4,000 views, and that is another achievement we are thankful for. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Here is a small model for now, and I plan to do something a bit bigger later on, so stay tuned.

I was inspired by Laval's Royal Fighter from the LEGO Legends of Chima theme, that I wanted to make my own tank-like vehicle. Of course this is way smaller, but what was most inspiring was the treads, and the turret on top.

The Turret can rotate a full 360 degrees, and has a spinning machine gun. 

There is room in the cockpit for a minifigure, and space in the center section for any supplies or materials

Disassembling the model a bit reveals the gears inside the turret, and the treads that allow the machine gun to move as the vehicle moves on the ground.

This vehicle over all is a nice solid and strong vehicle, and might go well with my white vehicle collection (You might remember a previous post).

Thank you all again for waiting very patiently. I know this may have been hard for others, but I'm glad to have came back for more awesome models.

Working Metronome

Some of you may remember the LEGO Violin I built a year ago. For this year's music themed model, it will be a working Metronome.

I was inspired by many of my friends who supported me in the LEGO Violin. For this year, that same support helped me in this model. I was also inspired by someone on YouTube called IsogawaYoshihito. He built a mechanism for making a tick-tocking sound device. I modified his design into a metronome.

The metronome starts at 208 beats per minute and then quickly drags to 168 beats per minute in about 22 seconds, then 132 beats per minute another 22 seconds later. Then it stops completely due to loss of potential energy in the wind up motor.

If you have trouble playing too fast, use this metronome to help you decelerate to a desired speed. 

Custom Decorations for Minifigures

Hello Fans,

Thank you for visiting this blog. I know it has been a very long while since I last posted, but school has bogged me down. Thank you again for your patience and your understanding.

School has taken my time from building with LEGO, but it has not taken my time away from LEGO related activities. So today's post will be about designing your own decorations for your own bricks, minifigures, etc.

There are already companies who make decorations for you, but they cost money. I will show you how to do this by yourself.

I will guide you through the steps I took to achieve a nice decoration for a LEGO minifigure.

1. Scan a LEGO element.
If you have a scanner, use it to scan a side of a LEGO piece that you want to add a sticker onto.

2. Upload and Edit
Upload the scanned image into your computer. I will use Microsoft PowerPoint to make decorations. Please use any program that lets you import images and at the very least draw shapes, lines, etc. In this image, I wanted to make a custom tuxedo for my minifigure, and I used a blank torso as a guide to how big the image should be.

3. Begin Editing.
Use the tools provided in your program to edit or add to your sticker. In Microsoft PowerPoint, I used shapes and colors to make a suit. You can see the image that I scanned, and the shapes I made to make a suit.

4. Test fit
If your decoration has color on it, I recommend you first print it out gray scale just to make sure that the sticker fits. Once it fits, print it out in full color.

5. Cut and paste
Cut out the image to fit your brick, and stick it on with any adhesive. I just use tape so that I can easily remove the sticker if I needed to.

6. Done
After the sticker is pasted on, you are done and you can continue playing with your LEGO, or make more stickers.

You can see in this image, my minifigure has a white tuxedo on. The female minifigure's dress was also edited to five plates high instead of 6 plates high (2 bricks).

If there is anything you feel is missing from this tutorial, please comment. The comments I get are sent to my email, and I can check what you commented.

Thank you again for your patience.

Jesus On the Cross

I know it has been a while, and I'm sorry this post came very late. But school has been tough, and even though I got two weeks of winter break, all of the days were busy with school work.

Anyways, I was able to finish the homework and had some time to make something that was supposed to be for the Christmas season.

I know the image quality on my camera is terrible, but the camera was my iPod Touch camera, and the quality on that camera is usually not very good.

For those who do not know the life of Jesus, here is a quick overview.

Joseph and Mary lived in the Israel. God gave Mary a baby.  She gave birth in a shed in a manger, and the new baby was named Jesus. Jesus saw sinless and he performed wonderful miracles, taught valuable lessons, and healed others from their illnesses. Jesus was executed at around thirty years old even though he has not done anything wrong.

In the bible, It says that Jesus died for our sins, then he rose again and came back to life three days later.  

We celebrate Christmas to celebrate the life that Jesus lived that no one on Earth could live: a sinless life. The bible also says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believed in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." -John, Chapter 3, verse 16. This means that God loves everyone on earth. He also gave us an opportunity to believe in the story of Jesus' Life before we die on earth. Then, those who believed in him would have their souls lasting forever.

The Bible also says that all people fell short of the glory of God, and all have sinned. In Romans, Chapter 10, Verse 9, It says "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

If you know you have sinned and know your life is out of control, you can be saved today by praying this prayer:

"Dear God, I know I have sinned, and I know I have fallen short. I know your son Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I ask for your forgiveness. Amen. "

If you prayed this prayer, I congratulate you and hope your new life with God is the most amazing, never-ending relationship you ever experienced.

Team Fortress 2- Sentries and dispensers

Here is another video game developed by Valve called Team Fortress 2.

Team Fortress 2 is a First Person Shooter developed by Valve (The same company that developed Portal 1 and 2). It doesn't really have a story line, but requires an internet server to play multi-player with others around the world. There are nine playable characters with different and unique personalities, traits, and characteristics that may or may not help you in the game. The characters are called, Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, and Sniper. Each character has it's own set of weapons to shoot. Players can choose to be in two different teams (red and blue). Their costume and weapons will be in their team colors while they play the game.

I have never played Team Fortress 2, but I find lots of interest in both Team Fortress 2 and Portal, which are great games by Valve. I basically looked at game footage, screenshots, and images online as reference to make these sentries.

In this specific post, the Engineer may build sentries, automatic defense systems which shoot on their own, and stay in one place. There are three stages or levels that a sentry can have. The dispenser is like a vending machine that allows any player to regain health or ammo (I think).

Stage 1 Sentry

Stage 2 Sentry

Stage 3 Sentry (Same as Stage 2 with the middle part)

Dispensers

Blue and Red teams' sentries against each other. 

Some people say Mac vs PC. How about Turret vs. Sentry.
(Turret from Portal 2)

Sentries focus their shots on Turret in the center

Portal 2: Updates, News, and More

I know I haven't been posting a while but school is my top priority. I have been building models of cool things, but I didn't have the time to post them. Thanks for your patience.

Missed out on my first Portal 2 project? Click here: http://4bricktime.blogspot.com/2012/05/portal-1-2.html

If you are not familiar with LEGO CUUSOO, it is a place where you can submit a model, recieve 10,000 votes from all around the world, and depending on how good and appropriate your idea is, the LEGO Company may make a model of your idea. You can check out more by clicking here: http://lego.cuusoo.com/

Before you get confused, I am NOT the creator of the idea "Thinking with Portals" on LEGO CUUSOO. My models may look the same, but that was because I was very inspired by the project so much, I wanted my own model. I continued my own Portal theme even though on LEGO CUUSOO, the LEGO Portal project recieved its 10,000 votes because if the LEGO company doesn't make the Portal sets, I have my own version.

Now... Let's get to my custom models...

The entire Portal line-up: Wheatley, Turret, Atlas, Potato version of GLaDOS, Chell, GLaDOS as a robot (Inside orange portal), P-Body, and Companion Cube.

The only differences were on the Co-op bots Atlas and P-Body. the legs are new to allow them to stand, and the arms are now using more detailed pieces. Atlas has his shoulders raised just like in the video game. 

GLaDOS as a robot on the stand. 

Back side has details. There is supposed to be a ring of white panels around the top of the robot, however I ran out of white and smooth 2x4 pieces to make the ring. 

Chell and her new portal gun with GLaDOS Potato on the operating end. 

Wheatley head can be interchanged with the GLaDOS head. Notice the stalemate button behind him. 

Tree House

With some time on the weekend, I was able to build something even with school in the way.

Here is a tree house. It uses a tree inspired by the LEGO Medieval Market Village with a small building on top. There is many details inside and outside the tree house.

Here is the tree house, a tan building with red roof and red outlines.

A string ladder can get you to the top.

A red sandbox with a sand castle, water moat, and water around.

There is a tire swing to have fun. It was built in a different way that the way you would use your tires.

The interior has a ladder, a table, and a treasure map to find treasure.

You can look closely at buildings and sights far away with the advanced telescope.

Use the winch to bring water up into the tree house easily.

The roof can easily be removed to allow playability inside the tree house.

Bring your girlfriend to the tree house...

♥ And gaze at the stars together. ♥

Big Spy Plane

Sorry for not posting for awhile. I will be going back to school soon. I know I will be very busy that year, and I'm afraid I won't be posting for a while. I will post something when I have time. I apologize for any long break that there is to come for the rest of this year, and next year.

Anyways, lets get to a model which is very much inspired by The Avengers, and based on a LEGO set that has already been out for a while: The Quinjet Aerial Battle Set.

I wanted to get one, but I had the pieces to make my own, and I wanted it to be a MOC (Popular LEGO term for My Own Creation). 

Here is the plane which is similar to the version in Avengers. Only the color scheme, and the design of the wings and engines are different.

The cockpits and middle section can be opened to allow easy access. The version sold by LEGO lacks this feature.

The wings have tiled details, and cannons.

The rear has an opening door for figures to get in or out.

This guy is proud to serve this nation!

An attachable string ladder can easily be attached on, making resuce missions easier.

Holding on for dear life!

This is a 6 second video about a pop up minigun. This feature was seen in The Avengers.

Helicopter with 4 sets of propellers

Here is a model which I don't know if it exists or not, but my imagination came up with the design.

You can see the shape of the helicopter is kind of like the LEGO Police Heavy Duty Helicopter, only this design  heavy duty in weapons.

The rear

All the propellers spin together by a simple gearing system beneath the  model.

The interior is split into 2 sections: Monitor room, and skydiving launch room. 

A closer look at the control panels.

I wanted to use strings in the model, but in LEGO Digital Designer, strings weren't available in the mode I was using. The chains will make do.