Tell the world the universe belongs to us today!
May 2012 Nintendo Power, pages 94 & 95 — my ground-breaking interview and photo spread! Buy five copies for your mothers, as instructed by Dr. Hook in the hit song “Cover of Rolling Stone!” By the way, I picked up three copies of this issue at Nintendo World Store in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, and yes, I showed it off to a bunch of the employees!
-Baron von Brunk
(photo by Tim Sypasong)
The illuminated Super Mario Bros. question block nightlight! Lit up like a Tiffany Lamp and using the same stained-glass techniques of my airship’s stern, this little box was inspired by the sexy geeky burlesque girl Luna Chase, who does a Super Mario striptease using a similar illuminated question block! The tile pattern is based off a sprite from the original Super Mario Bros., and mixes red, yellow and orange transparent pieces. I also reused the clear stanchion technique from my airship to create the illusion of hovering yet again!
This project was intended to be built simultaneously with my airship, and was supposed to sit on the ship’s same table to make a giant Mario-themed diorama. I put it on the backburner and just now picked it back up, and made the final touches and electrical work. The actual lamp is a small corded candelabra base, and the bulb is a small 7 Watt incandescent bulb; I also experimented with using a 20 Watt Halogen 300 luminen bulb, which was much brighter, but produced a lot of heat — and I feared it would melt the LEGO bricks!
The person who sold me the tiles (for the lid) was Dave Lovelace, creator of the popular “Retarded Animal Babies” cartoon series; and he’s the owner of a large LEGO parts store on Bricklink.com! He deliberately gave me free extra pieces in the hopes that I’ll create the question block efficiently!
-Baron von Brunk
At last, the long-anticipated 3-D instructional guide of the ever so popular LEGO / Game Boy / Transformers mashup! In the link below, you’ll see step-by-step building instructions, in addition to a complete list of parts, resources where to download the custom labels, and further reading — like making your own multicolored clones and design variations…
http://www.instructables.com/id/LEGO-Game-Boy-Transformer-Official-Parts-List-/
Some of the 3-D CAD renders which you’ll see in the guide:
-Baron von Brunk
Behold: Domaster & Tetrawing — heroic Nintendobots! Transforming from Game Boy system & Tetris game to robot & bird, and back!
Update 4/11/2012 - Want to see these bad boys mass marketed in major retailers? Then help support the latest CUUSOO entry! If we gain 10,000 supporters — who support by simply joining, voting and commenting, and NOT through donations — LEGO will personally consider having this sold as a real toy!
Update 4/8/2012 - The instructional guide is now completed and ready for viewing on Instructables! Parts list, transformation cycles, and information on obtaining pieces — all included!
The name Domaster is an amalgamation of “Dot Matrix with Stereo Sound”, the blurb written above the screens of old Game Boys. The name Tetrawing was coined by New York burlesque girl Dangrr Doll (@dangrrr_doll on Twitter) who does a nerdy Tetris-themed routine with D20 Burlesque!
This project was the sequel to my popular Nintendo/Transformers crossover, “Plasmashock” the NES Zapper. I spent about a month or so (give or take) working on this Game Boy and cartridge — the latter of the two took freakin’ forever to engineer properly. The final touches of the Game Boy came the custom water-slide clear decals that I printed for the first time ever, and surprisingly didn’t screw up a whole lot (aside from the obvious crooked “Nintendo Game” half above the right thigh of the robot). Also, the “Dot Matrix” label printed out much darker than expected on my laser printer, ergo it’s hard to see — but the blue-on-gray text for the buttons and Game Boy logo look damn fine! As for Tetrawing, his sticker is actually a high-res computer printout on glossy paper, cut apart like a puzzle and decoupaged to his LEGO frame with the help of Elmer’s Glue.
The 2 AA battery blasters are a nice touch, if I must say so myself. It wasn’t really difficult trying to engineer a sturdy but hollow system for the back of the legs to keep the two batteries — if anything, the head and arms took the longest to build on the robot. The arms turn sideways and fold behind the screen, whilst the head is attached to a series of hooks and hinges to fold back. The robot’s feet fold at 90° angles and then slide into the lower legs. The legs rotate and form the bottom of the Game Boy. I used tiles to create the D-pad, A & B buttons, and the Select/Start buttons — which also took some time to figure out — originally I had planned to use thin, small gray bars to be the Select/Start buttons, and even tried using the small headlight clips from Star Wars Clone Trooper helmets.
-Baron von Brunk
Here it is, the final version and high-res display of my newest creation: Plasmashock, the NES Zapper pistol / Transformers ultimate geeky crossover!
For its transformation mechanism, I built it more similar to Megatron rather than Shockwave; both Transformers used their gun handles as legs, only Shockwave formed his arms to make the barrel, whilst Megatron’s arms formed the stock, and his barrel was a separate attachment (which became his fusion cannon in robot mode). Henceforth, when Plasmashock transforms into robot mode, the orange Zapper barrel becomes his side gun!
Some original Transformers (notably Starscream/Skywarp/Thundercracker) would only transform as toys by removing/adding multiple pieces, such as fists and landing gear, whilst others could easily switch back and forth by folding joints — Plasmashock does both; to go from gun to robot, his trigger becomes removed and attached to his head to make face decorations, and the barrel of course separates to make the side gun. Otherwise, the legs fold from the gun handle, the arms are made from the stock, the head rotates and rests inside the chest.
-Baron von Brunk
P.S. - I plan on making a large replica of a Nintendo Entertainment System that transforms into a giant robot, much akin to Metroplex and/or Fortress Maximus! Stay tuned, loyal Brunkamaniacs.
If you think this looks badass thus far, wait until you see this fucker transform into robot mode! (coming soon, later this week when more parts arrive in the mail!) I’m drunk.
In anticipation of my new Super Mario 3 airship project, here’s another component of my planned LEGO Mario large diorama — Ludwig von Koopa, the coolest of the seven Koopalings! Ludwig (or Kooky in the cartoon show) was always my favorite villain in the series, and as a child, I drew fan art of his doomships. Unfortunately, Ludwig and I fought to the death in episode 7 of “Julius Saves the Mushroom Kingdom.”
This was recently created over night on Saturday, December 11th into Sunday morning. The actual figure itself is quite flimsy and rickety, which caused a lot of problems with taking pictures (notably the arms and head kept snapping off). Also, the current makeshift lighting I have set up casts a rather unpleasant shadow on the background, however it sort of allows you to more easily see his white claws.
- Baron von Brunk
D20 Burlesque, with its large fan base of assorted freaks & geeks! Anja Keister flaunts her stuff as being the greatest fantasy for nerds since Slave Leia! For those of you in the New York area, check out D20’s extensive lineup of creative and geeky burlesque shows!
This is one of my few custom projects that actually uses techniques outside the traditional realm of LEGO — the Aperture logo on the back of Anja’s orange jumpsuit has been superimposed with Photoshop. I rarely ever use computer effects (aside from hue/lighting) to modify my projects. Otherwise, everything is what you see. The lighting was done in a makeshift lightbox in my closet with a single white daytime CFL bulb as a brightness source, with white balance settings rigged up on my camera.
The Portal cube stage and Robo-Cthulu were made first, then each minifig was specially selected from my collection. The audience members are shown as:
Star Wars:
Various:
Some of these minifigs are in fact rare discontinued figures that I’m deliberately showing off — the Batman, Darth Maul, Boba Fett and yellow-skinned Harry Potter to name a few!
All I have to say is…
… All I have to say is, our partner is going to SHOCK the world.
Because, he is none other than…
THE SHOCKMASTER!!!
I think that was Uncle Fred!
- Baron von Brunk
Project originally built in August 2009, article migrated to Tumblr on 8/21/2011
Way back in my old apartment in Lancaster, I randomly decided to build this replica Ecto-1 upon recently moving in and setting up my then-new LEGO table!
And finally, the best part was when Lancaster City’s outdoor market was viciously ravished by the green ghost, and Egon had to assess the situation! The innocent bystanders are my pals Miles, Kat, and Kat’s dog Calder.
The fisaco was so catastrophic, that the road ended up warping and the town’s infrastructre began to shift into multple conflicting angles of perspective!
Project and article originally created on 7/15/2008, migrated to Tumblr on 10/16/2011
Professor Oak: Your Porygon has gone and evolved into a massive battle tank!
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
“PORYGON, GO!! Bite off that retarded Slowbro’s head!”
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Think back to the golden days of the Pokémon fad. Like most things I enjoy (that everyone else also enjoys), I was a fan of Pokémon long before it was a hot topic craze. In fact, I liked it before it even came to America. When the huge boom of Pikachu and Snorlax merchandise made it to the shelves in 1999-2000, all of the kids at school went into a frenzy as if it’s the new Coke, meanwhile I on the other hand said, “Cool, it’s about time they bring this stuff to mainstream.”
But anyway, enough of my scoffing. When I first got into Pokémon (or Pocket Monsters as it was originally called) in 1998 during 8th grade, Nintendo Power magazine had art sections where readers could draw and submit Pokémon pictures. I flipped through the pages of the Pocket Monster comic book and came to the conclusion that the blocky-looking Porygon seemed easy to draw, and thus I made fan art based on Pokémon #137.
Detailed Weapons Analysis!
When I got around to playing the games in 2000 (both GameBoy and Trading Card Game), I instantly got ahold of a Porygon and donned him my personal favorite. I was the only person I ever knew who used one as a primary fighter, as opposed to the common trainers who merely caught them for the sake of adding the rare Pokémon to their collection. There was always something about Porygon that made him seem really cool, therefore I couldn’t resist making one out of LEGO! Now, as the Pokémon mythos explain, Porygon is a virtual 3-D monster created on a computer and brought to life. Well, if I can write my own rules, then in my personal storytelling, I used my wicked programming skills to hack into the Saffron City mainframe and then altered Porygon’s Poké DNA to suit my needs. The final result: A giant mutant robot Porygon larger than a Cadillac El Dorado, and equipped with machine guns, rocket pods & missile launchers!
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In my GameBoy games, I always named my Porygons “Starscream” after my favorite Transformer, who also shares a color scheme similar to my favorite Pokémon. Well, this fancy robot Porygon is nicknamed “Supertzar”, obviously from the totally boss Black Sabbath song! No Mudkip, Lugia, Ho-oh or even a fleet of Unowns can withstand the might of my red and blue beast! For a size comparison, I have added a mini-Mudkip into the shot so you can get a feel of how awesome his size and strength is!
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Within his innards lie a highly advanced command console that could put NASA’s Space Shuttle to shame. It’s also got jet engines on the feet to give it that power-gliding boost, as well as folding wings that reveal auxiliary arsenal. In full attack mode, Supertzar’s wing’s emerge and his feet fold backwards for better aerodynamic performance. Its tail contains a pulsating ion cannon to disable the electronic circuitry of electric-type Pokémon. I mean, after all if this thing is now a flying-type, it’ll need a competitive edge against thunderbolt wielding foes! Hey, as long as we’re at it, I’ll go the whole nine yards as to say its eyes can emit a seizure-inducing radio signal to strike confusion into the brains of opponents! I mean, if the original Porygon could in the TV show, then why not?
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“Bristling with rocket pods, Gatling guns and cannon — the latest in technology to slay the foes of Mammon!” - The Reaganator by GWAR
The Baron builds everything from massive robots, to historical scenes -- even burlesque dancers! These particular projects date back as far as 2008 and continue through the present. You'll also see some LEGO-related work, such as his paintings, tattoo designs and vector illustrations!
Everything you see here was made by him, unless specified. No rip-offs or re-blogged posts from other users, folks -- this is all 100% pure Brunk! Baron von Brunk has had his work published in Nintendo Power (May 2012), Nintendo Gamer U.K. magazine, CNN Geekout and MTV Geek!
