[MOC] Phoenix Fireball

[Toys N Bricks]

This week's cool creation is from our forum member vynsane. More pictures available at Flickr.



Permalink: http://toysnbricks.com/blog/moc-phoenix-fireball/

[Transformers2]

I like the figures. You mix the agents bad guys with city figures?

[vynsane]

Wow, thanks for the add - that was fast!

I saw a dearth of multi-passenger flying cars out there, and wanted to make a four-seater. This was the outcome. I designed it in LEGO Digital Designer (using 'Universe Mode') and then found a java program that allows you to extract a parts list, which can then be saved in BrickLink wishlist compatible XML format!

It features opening doors and luggage compartment - the opening compartment is the luggage area, not engine compartment - it's a rear-engine flying car

I like the figures. You mix the agents bad guys with city figures?

Yeah, the guy in the 'shotgun' seat is the tourist from 'Robo Attack' (I LOVE that guy, he looks so happy to be alive) with different pants and the hair from the bad guy in another Agents set. The girl in the back is actually the 2002 figure from the Vintage Minifigure Collection series 5 with the an Agents bad girl head and red Exo Force hair. The guy in the seat behind the driver is basically just the skater from Collectible Minifigures series 1 and the driver is a Space Police 3 Snake head w/ blue Exo Force hair, dark blue jacket torso and the orange pants from an Agents bad guy. The Exo Force hair just seems futuristic to me.

Also, just updated it with some back-story:

Phoenix Corp. does it again with the 2278 Fireball, an instant classic flying car with room for a driver and three passengers.

With a X/K-11 Dark Energy Emitter on anti-grav duties and dual Hurst Matter/Anti-Matter colliders on forward propulsion, the Fireball gets you there fast, in style AND comfort.

At an altitude of 3,000 metres the patented ForceShield windscreen extends to a bubble canopy for high-altitude and space flight, where the air purifier can pump the gaseous mixture of your choice into the cabin.

[Ice]

Wow, thanks for the add - that was fast!

Your most welcome! We're everywhere in the LEGO Community.

It features opening doors and luggage compartment - the opening compartment is the luggage area, not engine compartment - it's a rear-engine flying car

There was no description anywhere so I had to make assumptions . Sorry about that. Its now fixed.

[TClone]

Hi, there-Vynsane-I've been working on a model in Digital Designer. But what's universe mode?

[vynsane]

There was no description anywhere so I had to make assumptions . Sorry about that. Its now fixed.

Thanks, yeah - I uploaded them late at night figuring no one would see them until I had the opportunity to do some write-ups... guess I was wrong

Hi, there-Vynsane-I've been working on a model in Digital Designer. But what's universe mode?

LDD Universe Mode lets you use basically every LEGO element in current production in any color LEGO uses. You have to register at Eurobricks.com in order to find out how to unlock the program in this way: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.p ... opic=40794

[calvinwashere2]

Nice work Vynsane! The combination is well executed and the mix of figures makes it very unique. Do you typically design in digital designer first? How much time did it take to put this together if you had to estimate all your sessions (assuming it wasn't an over-nighter which would make it all the more amazing)?

[vynsane]

Nice work Vynsane! The combination is well executed and the mix of figures makes it very unique. Do you typically design in digital designer first?

Thanks, man! No, this was my first exercise in using LDD to fully realize a MOC before building it. While it's a lot of fun just throwing bricks together, my collection is still limited - LDD allows you to build unfettered by limitations, which is pretty awesome. I then found a Java JAR script that extracts the brick data from your .lxf file, and can output a bricklink wantlist compatible XML file which allows you to just upload to BL and buy away! I deleted the pieces I already had from the BL XML file, and ordered the rest. I can't say it's cheap this way - the above ended up costing about $90 when all was said and done. It was a lot of money for the figures, engine pieces and that one 1x10 slope piece for the 'tail', although I did buy a bunch of extraneous stuff to make some of the minimum buys. Also, before shipping I think it cost $70, so there's that! But it's definitely a way to achieve your vision.

How much time did it take to put this together if you had to estimate all your sessions (assuming it wasn't an over-nighter which would make it all the more amazing)?

I think the LDD design came to fruition over the course of a couple of weeks. I had been working on it prior to Father's Day and initially wanted to get it done in time to order the stuff to build it that weekend, but I wasn't nearly close enough to finished to do that. As my BL orders came in, I pieced together what I could, so it came together over time. The building of the piece didn't take longer than a few hours, though, if I cut out all the waiting in between deliveries. There were some running changes I made to the structure. LDD will only get you so far, but once you have the actual bricks in-hand you find out some connections aren't so solid... or that you completely deleted a necessary connection and the piece is just floating there . So it was still a case of throwing bricks together, you just know which bricks to have available.

[calvinwashere2]

Vynsane, some good points and tips you brought up. I learned a couple things just from what you said that I'll keep in mind for the future, thanks for sharing those insights!

[vynsane]

Not a problem. Just FYI, the Java program I used is called 'Brickhelper' and can be DL'd here:

http://www.blarworld.net/software.html