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
(click on the above picture to see a full panoramic view!)
Here it is at last, the finalized version of the massive Super Mario 3 airship project that I’ve been gradually working on since November 2011! Initially planned to be much smaller and streamlined, this titanic brute ballooned up to a larger scale, and used over 8,000 LEGO pieces in its completed form — as well as electronic components, such as lights and audio. The bulk of the ship is built entirely from reddish-brown pieces that resemble wooden planks, to create the effect of a rickety, wood ship made from logs, such as in its respective video game. Rather than have this ship docked on the ground, I used the magic of transparent-clear LEGO pieces for stanchions and columns, to keep it suspended several inches off the ground (as well as its small fleet of miniships flying)!
This ship has been gradually worked on throughout the winter season, with lots of downtime due to parts shortages. Constructing the ship itself wasn’t a challenge or time consuming, but waiting weeks on end for packages to arrive from Bricklink.com would often cause major delays. For example, the 2x2 round brown bricks constantly ran in short numbers, yet were vital for making the roofs and bodies of the ship’s sections, and I’d generally buy large packs of 300 pieces just to make one side panel. You’ll also see something odd about the arrangement of the bricks: the side “logs” face sideways (studs to the left), yet somehow have studs embedded in them to face upwards. This engineering strategy came to me while I was drunk one night a few months back, where I managed to come up with a method of building a traditional flatbed boat hull, with sideways-facing “wooden” panels attached to the sides using Technic pins — almost like rivets on a boat.
These photos were taken just recently by my friend Roz, who was more than eager to grab her Canon Rebel SLR and come to my house in Queens for a grand photo session in order to help out her burgeoning portfolio. The ship is currently set up in my spare room in my attic apartment, and for lighting, we used two bright white daylight CFL bulbs. These photos are essentially shown here in chronological order, starting with the large panoramic view shot — that was taken first, when we were still calibrating light arrangements and debating to use the flash or combine the CFLs with the default incandescent bulbs — hence the strange mismatched cloudy light balance for the first two full-ship images. Eventually down the line, we found out which light settings worked best, and thus took better photos:
Hovering over a 6-foot folding table!
The bow (front) of the ship was the first part to be constructed. It’s an elongated traditional-looking ship front, with a pointy blade for a figurehead, a subtle nod to the Super Mario 3 cartoon series “Doomship.”
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
- 
The Bullet Bills being fired in mid-cannon blast!
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
Why, it’s those pesky Mario brothers, up to no good!
To escort the ship are several “miniships”, based off the ones first encountered in Bowser’s Dark World of Super Mario 3. These little buggers constantly kept breaking and falling down, as their narrow clear stanchions were very rickety and vulnerable. To create the illusion of the ships flying chaotically out of formation, I would stack smaller ships (hovering) on top of larger ones, to avoid having them all bunched together in a large swarm — as the ships in the game were spread out and came towards the screen one at a time.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
The very back of the ship — the stern, and its main cabin — have a large warp pipe to transport people inside, just like the end of each airship level in the game. And unlike other LEGO warp pipes that I’ve seen online, mine is virtually round (not square), and totally hollow — meaning, you can in fact drop stuff down the pipe and make it end up inside!
As mentioned previously, this ship is named “The Fireflower”, and to flaunt its name, the command bridge of the stern has a giant 16 cm stained-glass window — with a 6 watt lightbulb rigged up to a 9V battery for illumination like a Tiffany Lamp!
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
Please note: this isn’t the full, completed circuit as originally planned. Long story short, the electrical infrastructre was made before the circuitry was complete, and at the last minute (before the pictures were taken) my wires came loose and wouldn’t work — which were hooked up to a small silver on/off switch (not shown) — therefore, for the sake of the photo, I tore out the switch and simply directly connected the two battery wires to the lightbulb base itself.
Inside the cabin (the stern’s 2nd floor) you’ll see mosaic tilework of classical artwork…
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
Although, since this ship is set up in my tiny, cramped attic with a triangular roof, the back of the ship was difficult to photograph, hence the lack of appearance of the Mario tile, as well as the incomplete images of the Pihrana plant’s body (which was elongated).
The ship’s stern was quite heavy, and the most difficult to attach the clear stanchions to the bottom, unlike the bow and middle sections, in which I could easily lift with one hand. The stern is so big and heavy, that in order to place the columns on the bottom, I had to basically “jack it up” like changing the tires on a car, by placing it on top of a square box, putting stanchions in each corner then sliding the box out of place. Despite its great weight, the ship’s stern holds up pretty well and sturdy. The stern has three hinged doors: one on the bridge’s deck — a.k.a. the computer room (first picture), a barn door in the very bottom rear (middle picture) was intended to be an aircraft launching deck, and of course a hinged door where the warp pipe and inner lights/battery attached to (above photos). The third photo below is the top hinged door of the ship’s bow.
Click on thumbnails to enlarge…
- 
- 
Once we wrapped up shooting the pictures, something awful happened: the support kicker to keep the top-most door open came loose, thus violently swinging the stern’s high trapdoor shut — in the complete opposite direction, which forcefully tore the whole right side of the stern off! The roof and warp pipe fell to the ground and completely crumbled to pieces, and are now awaiting repairs. Below is a shot of the back end of the ship, with its bridge’s trapdoor open, as well as the top door (where the pipe, lightbulb and 9V battery stood) missing! Fortunately, the strong structure of the ship stood virtually unharmed following the accident, and the entire stained-glass fireflower window was untouched.
“2nd floor: hardware, children’s wear, lady’s lingerie… Oh, good morning Mr. Koopa! Going dooowwn?”
-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.
Plasmashock!
Transforms from NES Zapper pistol, to robot and back!
Plasmashock is gallant fighter from the Nintendobots faction, battling the evil forces of the Segacons!
These are the preliminary photos taken of my latest creation; later this week, I’ll re-shoot this robot with my professional makeshift light rigging for better image quality.
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.
The final touches of my LEGO airship are coming along swell!
The Fireflower stained-glass window, with the lights off!
Coming soon: a full photo session of the final completed airship, and two more LEGO-Nintendo geek projects — a light-up lamp of a Mario question block, made of clear pieces (like the stained glass window), and a Transformer, that goes from robot to NES Zapper pistol and back; all LEGO, all made by me! Stay tuned, kiddies!
-Baron von Brunk
Here are the first eight red-shelled Koopa Troopas to man my ships! I’m awaiting for more parts to arrive in the mail, then I’ll make eight more troops — green shells! I’ll probably designate 3 or 4 soldiers to be be winged Koopa Paratroopas to float around and escort the ships.
The red-shelled koopas have curved slopes, as the green-shelled ones will have regular 45-degree angle slopes; green curved 2x2 slopes aren’t available (in production from LEGO), so I’ll have to make do with what’s possible.
Here’s my imitation of that iconic photo of the construction workers sitting on the girder structure of the Empire State Building…
My dirty secret: I hired independent contractors to do the plumbing in my ship, and look who I ended up using! Hopefully those two brothers don’t sabotage my men’s room urinal.
Below: The completed fireflower stained glass window!
Below are some more work in progress photos of my ship, namely the transparent stanchions to create the illusion of hovering in midair!
As of now, I’m awaiting a few more bulk parcels of LEGO bricks in the mail, hundreds of parts total — in order to make the final touches. More transparent stanchions will be used to raised the sections higher off the ground, and more divisions with cannons & propellers will be suspended from above the middle portion of the entire vessel.
I’m trying to aim for the end of January to finish the whole project. Step 1) Finish the damn ship! Step 2) Hire my friend Roz to photograph the ship from different angles, in order to make promotional images and prints for sale. Step 3) With the fancy new photos taken, I’ll plug this site and its content all across the internet! Step 4) Arranging to have my ship displayed in a public art gallery in the SoHo Gallery for Digital Arts! Step 5) Conquering the Mushroom Kingdom!
Current piece total: Over 7,000 LEGO bricks!
- Baron von Brunk
It’s really beginning to look more like an airship!
The ship is essentially three large sections, with an entanglement of girders, propellers and steel beams in between (not shown yet). Currently under construction is a small fleet of mini ships with jet engines, and to create the illusion of flight, I’ve made pillars from transparent LEGO bricks! I apologize for the quality of these photos; I didn’t set up any special lighting or use any fancy settings on my camera.
The middle portion is currently about to contain a small cargo of crates (those yellow cubes) in order to mask the MP3 sound system, with small speakers embedded under the gray bedding plates.
Well over 6,000 pieces are being used!
The two Italian-American plumbers run amok on a small section of my ship! They’re even in fireflower mode!
This portion of the ship is intended to be in the middle, and shall serve as the cargo area. I’ve built several yellow crates to stack up in the middle of the hull, and on the top I plan on adding a canopy with cannon armaments!
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!
