The Animal Kingdom Roundup

Who would of thunk it? I propose a challenge that we build vehicles with animal names and it turns out to be the formula for raging success. Jane Goodall and Carroll Shelby would be proud...um...because...one is a zoologist and the other a car designer. Get it? What do you mean not funny? Well I've had no sleep last night so the humor is only going to go downhill from here. The vehicles, on the other hand, are all top notch. Read on to see what I mean.

When a building is shaped like the items it sells, it is called a Duck. Shut up, it just is! Which means this first entry built by J0n4th4n D3rk53n is probably called a duck even though its shaped like a fish. Confused yet? I'm not. I mean, who wouldn't be proud to own the new 2011 Fishmobile? According to Jon, it boasts terrible handling and a cramped cockpit. But its a total chick magnet just like the wienermobile...which is a chick magnet for what I presume to be a different reason.

Speaking of chick magnet, for Jonathan's second entry he reaches for his trusty yellow pieces once again but this time ups the horsepower with this badass '69 Barracuda. This thing actually, literally totally is badass! The taillights are not to be missed as well as the white center stripe. Nothing says macho aggression like the '69 'Cuda!

When you trade macho aggression for sensible practicality you get the '74 Audi Fox, the third and final entry by Jon. He rounds out this trifecta of yellow vehicles nicely with this stunning entry posted exactly on his 13th birthday...which means Jon is now finally old enough to be on flickr legally. That's great. Its nice to know all of our LUGNuts members are abiding by all official rules to the letter. With this entry, Jon drives slowly, safely and sensibly into his teen years.

Never made to be driven slowly, safely, or sensibly is this entry by Steve "kwycstix" Walker. Its a Pontiac Tempest GTO convertible. What is such a car doing in an animal themed challenge? Well, the youthful market nicknamed this badass ride the Goat, even though Pontiac was hoping to market it as a GTO Tiger. The styling and paint scheme was inspired by Chip Foose so Steve calls it the Goosed Goat. Shouldn't it be a Foosed Goat then?

Lino Martins (hey, that's me!) Had a strong hankerin' to build something green, yellow...and different. For these reasons I have spawned the John Deere Model 3203 Compact Tractor, suitable for all your farming needs. I picked this particular model because it best suited the parts I had available in green and yellow and there were several very clear images online. It turns out, the reason there were so many clear images...this model was recalled due to a potentially stuck forward drive pedal. Awww nuts!

If I submit an entry this early in the challenge, its almost a sure bet that I have something else in the works. This other something came later in the form of a red '53 Buick Skylark. Its been almost a year since I built a car from my fave era, so it was nice to get back to my roots with this baby! This Buick sports a sideways opening hood, an extended rear deck with spare tire, half-stud offsets galore and plenty of tricky build techniques to keep any Lino fan coming back for another look.

Nathan Proudlove must have had the same hankerin' for green and yellow as I did when he came up with this late 60-ish custom Ford Bronco (with apologies to Tim, that Ford hatin' bastard!) Nathan tells us this was a fun and relatively quick build and the chassis is a modified version of the technic tow truck from a couple years ago. The suspension looks great and I'm just digging the lovely dark green to go with the yellow and white. Its refreshing...like a lemon/lime popsicle!

I like Nathan in the sense that he's the king of building under-appreciated, underdog cars. No exception to this long tradition is this new Volkswagen Rabbit truck just brimming with crazy 80's colors and design. Just look at that crazy purple zig-zag stripe...its like a test pattern when the cable goes out! These colors together would have freaked out my camera...purple would have turned blue, blue would have turned an uglier blue and the white background would have become a hot yellow or orange and sadly this is why I don't build many blue or purple things. Kudos to Nathan for pulling it off nicely.

Nathan is also the king of Batmobiles. An animal themed challenge without a Nathan-built Batmobile just wouldn't be right. Which is why I'm glad he squeezed this Bat Tumbler in just before the deadline...actually a half day late, but who cares! I noticed it arrive just as I was writing about the VW Rabbit so his timing couldn't have been any more perfect in my book.

Dohoon Kim builds himself a Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Super Snake. Why thats like two or three animals rolled into one, all of them super scary and aggressive! I suppose on some weird planet or a parallel universe there exists a real animal thats a Mustang Cobra Supersnake. I bet totally ripped muscular guys would fight it with a battle axe while a shapely naked woman wraps around his leg just like in a Boris Vallejo painting. Who said fantasy art was cheesy?

Ralph "Mad Physicist" Savelsberg graces us with this very cool Caterpillar transport truck (or Cat transport for short) which is almost like two animals wrapped into one. Nope, it doesn't conjure images of buff guys fighting monsters with swords while submissive naked maidens wrap around their legs so I have no reason to use the fantasy painting analogy again. Damn you Ralph and your sensible, conservative ways!

Although somewhat unintentional, Aleksander Stein is happy to finally have an entry that fits a LUGNuts challenge. Its a 1975 Ford WT9000 inspired by the "Blue Mule" from the movie "White Line Fever", a 'trucksploitation" film starring Jan-Michael Vincent. I had white line fever once. It made me want to drive a truck load of manure into a giant neon sigh of the corporation that done me wrong. That'll show 'em not to mess with me! But seriously, cool truck.

Speaking of haulin' giant loads, Bricksonwheels wanted to be part of the fun and did what he does best...building big rig trucks! This time he pulls off a sleek black and purple Peterbilt car carrier rig. What's it doing in an animal themed challenge? Well, it runs on a Caterpillar engine, a C15 700 hp one to be exact and that makes it a bit of a beast then, doesn't it? When you build as big and cool as bricksonwheels the only answer to that question is a resounding yes. Yes it does.

Dylan Denton shows off some considerable skill with this sunny yellow '67 Pontiac Firebird convertible. I firebird is a mythical animal, a phoenix really but still fits well enough in this challenge. Plus it was called a Pony Car so that works too. Wow there's a lot of convertibles in this challenge! You all must be thinking about sunny weather while you plow through two feet of snow. Incidentally its been unseasonably warm and clear here in Seattle this whole month. Great for me...sucks for the rain forest.

New guy Lego Junkie shows the animal kingdom some love with this CAT 350-L Excavator. This industrious little MOC moves pretend dirt from here and then dumps it over there...then does the whole process all over again. All day long! Vrooom, vrooom VROOOOOM! Ok, ya gotta admit, it is a pretty cool little excavator.

Oldeconoline is new to us but has old in his name. Anyway, he had an older neighbor who was into old Studebakers (didn't we all?) so that's why he graces us with his first ever LUGNuts entry...a Studebaker Lark. First we had a Skylark, then a Lark. Actually in order of appearance on the challenge it was Lark first, then immediately followed by the Skylark...so cool juxtaposition there. Anyway, we hope this will be the first of many challenge entries from Oldeconoline. Maybe someday he'll build an old Econoline.

Get yourself a cup of coffee, this is going to take awhile. Make sure you're comfortable and under the blanket. Lego911 never disappoints with his multiple entries. Someone gifted him with a whole slew of light blue bricks so in turn, he gifts all of us with this '58 Chevy Impala hardtop sports coupe. Neat!

The laymen builder would have stopped there, but 911 graces us with another light blue creation, this one a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Super Bird. I was secretly hoping someone would build one of these and there we have it. This is a car like no other.

They go and make a huge Transformers movie and Lego911 builds the Chevrolet Camaro 2010 'Bumble Bee' to start off his usual late month marathon. While these Bumble Bees are a common sight at the theaters and the road, 911 tells us real bumble bees are becoming more and more scarce in the Northern Hemisphere due to some unknown phenomenon that appears to be killing them off. Not good news when agriculture and plant pollination relies so much on them.

If the bumblebee is rare, even rarer is the mythical thunderbird seen only by Native American shamans during their hallucinogenic vision quests. This Thunderbird is a dark red Ford from the year 1957 and is seen in my dreams.

Next on the Lego911 slab is a Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider. An animal based challenge would be incomplete without one of the Ferrari Spiders. Like nearly all Ferraris, this one is shiny red.

In the animal world, there is several species of spiders, all of them vastly different from one another. The same holds true with the automotive world. 911 proves this point with this Alfa Romeo 1962 Giulia Spider Series 101. Neat!

Lego911 was hoping that Pininfarina would reveal their latest showcar, the Alfa Romeo Spider, at this week's Geneva Motorshow. Unfortunately this hasn't materialized so instead he presents us with the slightly older 916 Series Spider as a replacement.

Then finally, he presents us with what no animal themed challenge should be without, the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. This car is as sleek and graceful as its namesake. The chrome sidepipes are just simply put...awesome.

Tim "Rabidnovaracer" Inman must have been lurking outside my window this month. All month long, I collected images of the AMC Marlin. I enjoyed its fastback look, I pondered how it would be done in Lego, even started adding parts to my Bricklink wishlist. Seeing I'd have no time to complete the Marlin, I figured I could save it for next month as anything by the ill fated AMC line can be considered a lemon. Then Tim goes and builds this stock car, thereby taking the wind out of my sails. At least he did a great job of it. Tim tells us the decals were stolen from his mom's Creative Memories stuff. Hah!

This challenge has been a great month for big rig trucks. probably because many are powered by huge CAT engines. No exception is this wonderful green Peterbilt 359 logging rig built by Maciej D. This color scheme makes us all green with envy. Green like The Incredible Hulk. Hulk smash little man! Thats all I got for jokes on this one. Told ya it was going downhill in the humor department. Lets move on.

With no shortage of jokes comes Tim "Gambort" Gould and his rather neat three wheeled Scammell Scarab mechanical horse. I never even heard of the vehicle until now but it looks great. Don't miss a whole slew of Scarabs over at Tim's photostream.

Ricardo "Biczzz" Prates doesn't often join us in the challenges, but when he does you can't help but feel that something spectacular had just happened. Take, for instance, this Shelby Cobra. Stunning from any angle, Ricardo captures the Shelby feel with skills reserved for only the most top notch of builders. I've never had a warm and fuzzy feeling from a cobra before. Usually they just scare the bejesus out of me.

For most of the challenge I almost wrote Raphy off as one of them missing kids on the milk cartons. But in the last dog days of the challenge, he shows up with a vengeance and submits first a version of the Batmobile like no one has ever seen.

Then, roaring, growling and burning rubber comes Raphy's mini '07 Mustang. Without the roof it looks a little low, but you know, with the right tools you can turn any rental car into a convertible.

Next on the Raphy slab comes the '69 AAR "Cuda. (As in barracuda) The hood seems a little long and the roof a bit flat like the Mustang but Raphy informs all would be ignoramuses that AAR stands for At A Racetrack. And now you know, you dumbasses. Sigh...crass aggression at such a tender young age.

But wait, there's more! Next he graces is with a '99 Firebird. I don't know, maybe it needs to be 5-wide to match the tires. I like the silver blower thingy. Lets see, what can I do for a joke...green like the Hulk? No. Boris Vallejo painting? No. Refreshing like a lemon/lime popsicle? No. Ok, I got nothin', lets move on.

Now here's something I can sink my animal claws into...a Bowler Wildcat. Here it is demonstrating its extreme off-roading abilities by climbing a rock. You gotta admit the photography is pretty good on this one. Cool!

And finally, Gold 2 finishes us off with this MMV Ursa Clam Bunk Skidder. MMV means...uh...I don't know, Ursa means bear and clam is also an animal so take your pick. it was built on Mars and here we see it hauling away tree stumps as everyone knows logging is big business on Mars. Yep, its true.

Well that was fun! Our next challenge is called Lemons Or LeMans...the only challenge that dares you to build either a crappy lemon or a super fast LeMans racer. Will you go for fine tuned performance or ill functioning tail lights? Will it be fame and prestige or burning oil and humiliation? Only time will tell. Either way, stick around as I'm sure its going to be a wild ride!

Blockbuster Mission Roundup!

What do you get when you create a sequel to the most popular and exciting challenge of all time, put the main hero in peril and add a legion of super spy agents to the mix? Well, just like Spiderman III, the turn out on this one wasn't as blockbuster as I had originally imagined...but the few vehicles built were pretty damned awesome! Lets check 'em out!

Ralph "Mad Physicist" Savelsberg never disappoints when he builds cars...or anything for that matter. This time he boiled up a stunning '71 Buick Riviera boat-tail...a pretty sexy car for being a product of the 70's. Agent Janus is in peril and who better to rescue the good agent than Ralph's version Agent Killinger? As Ralph says, "Agent Killinger, who owes his name to his love for suits, hats and Tommy guns. Oh, and to the fact that he's a highly skilled killer..." Now that's exciting!

J0n4thn D3rk53n dismisses the fact that this is a sequel and mentions nothing about Agent Janus being in danger and does nothing with the legion of potentially exciting new agents named in the challenge. Instead he goes back to the original challenge and introduces Agent Janus all over again posed next to his generic European Luxury/ Sports car. Predictably his Janus is just like James Bond except his code name is 006, not 007. I presume 006 likes his drinks stirred, not shaken. See what I did there?

The challenge stated that you can include any other agent you see fit, so Steve "kwycstix" Walker adds the famous Vin Diesel of XXX fame with his iconic '65 GTO. You can tell that minifig there is Vin Diesel because he's bald and has a scowl...oh, and also he seems to have two tickets to the gun show!

Next Steve adds another made up agent...this time Agent Redd Neque and his modified Suburban. Heh, Redd Neque...thats funny! And check out his mullet. That reminds me, if you want to see lots or red necks, mullets, and outfits too shameful to mention, visit peopleofwalmart dotcom. Its totally hilarious!

Yanno, rescuing Agent Janus from certain death requires a backup communication team. This is why Steve built a disguised phone service truck to help the other agents find our missing hero. Included is Agent Andy Marcus (Agent AM) and Agent Fred McCorkin (Agent FM). AM/FM...Does this mean one likes rock and roll and popular music while the other likes talk radio and oldies?

Next Steve whips up some much needed class to this joint with the ever sophisticated Agent Cooper (he's rich as evidenced by his top hat and tie) and his classy '75 Cadillac Eldorado Coupe. I bet he knows the correct placement of the salad fork when setting the dinner table.

Remember that challenge "At The Races"? Well Steve surely does. He conjures up the sultry baddy, Lady Venom for his final entry. This time she's involved in the rescue effort for Agent Janus and is wearing an impossibly tight dress that overly accentuates her "muffin top". You kids look that up and get back to me.

Ed Bricks sort of relives the original Janus challenge all over again by presenting the Agent's undercover truck in the form of an 80's era TV truck. Its fitted with the latest gadgets, tracking devices, weaponry, remote control cameras and long range communications devices. Speaking of suped-up 80's era trucks, this kinda puts me in the mood to watch A-Team.

Charger Hornet takes this challenge (and his photoshopping abilities) to a whole different level! Not only does he build a sweet 1973 Mercury Cougar, but he portrays it as an old postcard ad for a pilot episode show called "Agent Janus-MIA" featuring the quintessentially 80's looking undercover cop named ...wait for it...Flamer Johnson! Charger tells us that the show was pulled due to "high cost" and reruns of The Love Boat were aired instead. This could also be why this challenge was sort of sparse.

Raphy tries out a new style he calls "City-Power Racers. This...um...flying truck has working 4-wheel drive and is driven by none other than Deep One himself. In the challenge he dispatches a legion of special agents, but in Raphy's world Deep One does the job himself. Which is a refreshing change from sitting around and slurping milkshakes at Command Central. Sounds like a dream job to me!

Speaking of dream job, Lino Martins toils over what was his (my) most difficult car to date...the Volkswagen Beetle. This little car intimidated me for as long as I've been building vehicles but I finally tackled it...and this one is tricked out with required equipment for any special agent...an ejector seat and a Brickarms arsenal in the trunk. Some of you might recognize my version of Agent Killinger from the Venture Bros. "My name is Henry Killinger, und zis is my magic murder bag."

Wherever the kidnapped Agent Janus has been taken to, rest assured that Tim Inman will build an all terrain vehicle to handle any extreme environment. He chose Agent Thor as his rescuing agent and he goes nowhere without his suped-up 1972 Chevy C30 pickup called "Silverback" This truck features a winch, off-road lights, roll bar, monster V-8, hidden weapons, heavy duty suspension, oh and some custom fitted tank treads in place of tires. Bitchin'!

Azaghal Gabilzaramul has the hardest name to type (besides that J0n4th4n guy) but builds cars and minifigs that are easy on the eyes. Here we see the sultry Agent Midnight in her sleeveless suit and tie. Its sort of what the big angry dad from American Chopper would wear if he had to go to a wedding. Even though Agent Midnight looks the same age as the other agents, legend has it she's been around since Christ was a kid. She bought her car new in 1954.

Here in the states, when you have an emergency, you dial 911 for help. When you have a challenge emergency and need to beef up an otherwise sparsely populated challenge, you call none other than Lego911. Here Peter saves the day at the last minute with multiple entries. First Agent Phoenix bursts into flaming action with his jet pack and fiery hot "Blue Devil" Camaro.

Next we learn that Agent Janus has a sister and her name is Zoe Claudette...or Agent Z for short. She drives a totally sweet 1953 Buick Super Convertible in dark blue. She lives and works in Cuba where her classic car wouldn't stand out so much...ecxept for its many hidden suped-up special agent features.

Next we meet Agent Veridian in his Rapid Deployment 7-seater Ford Territory Turbo SUV...for an Agent Squad in a hurry and when you absolutely, positively gotta get seven people there in no time. There's also plenty of room for all their weapons in the trunk. And plenty of cup holders!

Peter then presents probationary Agent Natasha. Ah, I remember her! A step up in power and poise from her previos smart car, this very special engined Fiesta Zetec-S is just what this fast-girl-about-town needs to get from A to B in deadly style. I Hope she finds and rescues Agent Janus!

But if Natasha doesn't save the day, this tag team effort will. What turned out to be the most popular agent in this challenge...Agent Killinger teams up with Agent Beast in their heavy duty deep-communications Landrover Defender (in Millitary Ambulance disguise). The back unfolds to reveal a giant radar tracking device.

Every secret agent saga needs bad guys and lego911 delivers baddy Kilingrad Karl in his sweet 1955 Buick Century. He's from the East Russian Mafia as evidenced by his fur hat and is in Cuba hell bent on capturing Agent Janus and his sister Zoe. Oh no!

In the challenge, I wrote that Agent Janus was captured, hurt, and blinded hanging upside-down in a moving truck. I wrote that it smelled bad but even I didn't know the nature of the truck. Well leave to to Lego911 to show us the truck that is transporting the good agent and illustrates in no unclear terms where the smell is coming from. It turns out its a cleverly built zoo animal transport truck complete with a giraffe and an elephant. Now that's a stinky situation!

But last but not least, Agent Nero races to the situation at neck breaking speed in his special Ford Mustang GT. I presume the fallen Agent Janus will be in good competent hands once Nero saves the day! This sweet GT is a fitting wrap to a rather cool challenge. Thanks everyone who participated!

So lets see what happens in this month's exciting new challenge called "The Animal Kingdom". Anything goes, whether you build a Chevy Impala or a Ford Pinto, we take inspiration from our furred and feathered animal friends. Its already shaping up to be a pretty interesting challenge so lets see how it all unfolds. I'm pretty sure we can all come up with some pretty stunning animal inspired creations!