= Models      = Reference      = Interactive

	October 31 - November 6, 1999 HLDC (Halloween LEGO Design Contest) Matthew Verdier, Felix Greco, & Anne Sullivan	Matthew, Felix, and Anne got together and held an unofficial design contest specially tailored toward Halloween. They received twelve entries in the horror category, five entries in the sci-fi category, and three entries in the fantasy category. To find out which entries won, and to see all the others as well, follow the link!
	October 24-30, 1999 craigo-lego Craig Hamilton	Very little at this site is pure (as in unadulterated) LEGO®, but all of it is pure fun, and even die-hard purists are encouraged to have a look. in ways which maintain the general LEGO® look and style. The results are so exquisite that they could easily pass for prototypes of future product lines. The site is divided into approximately seven pages, some of which are difficult to reach because the links are obscure. Note in particulate that the transy-lego-vania page has two follow-up pages, and the super craigo-lego and SCI-FI craigo-lego pages are sub-pages of the main page. Craig devotes a good amount of text to design notes and even has a separate page of tips & techniques about painting. The alien from the Alien movies on the sci-fi page is incredible, as are also the 10 DC Comics comic book characters on the super craigo-lego page and many of the transy-lego-vania inhabitants. Star Wars Episode I fans will also get a kick out of Craig's Queen Amidala minifig with a massive hairdo.
	October 17-23, 1999 Dan Jezek's Big Big Big Classic Pirate Ship Dan Jezek	Witness Dan's latest creation: a classic-style pirate ship as immensely beautiful as it is beautifully immense. To this, Dan has committed nearly his entire collection of Pirates sets, as well as three 1200-piece tubs worth of yellow and black bricks. More than a dozen photos and descriptions detail the intricate nature of the ship, which includes 30 cannons, a three-cell prisoner hold, a floor-to-ceiling treasure map, a storage hold for ale, a weapons room, and much more. The main cannons appear on the two decks below the main deck, while the stern rises four stories above the main deck, making for an aft total seven stories high! The bow and stern, specially hinged, both open up to reveal several large rooms, while the main hull of the ship is multiply separable, revealing the ship's innards through several cross-sections. Very cool! Warning: The entry page for this ship currently contains a hidden frame containing an auto-starting and ever-looping sequence of cheesy MIDI background music. To circumvent this feature, open the ship_bottom.html frame in its own browser window and exit the original as quickly as possible.)
	October 10-16, 1999 Tom Sciortino's LEGO® Creations Tom Sciortino	Tom has kept careful records of many of the space and military models he has designed and built over the past 12 years — a variety of items from "ridiculously over-powered" attack fighters to assault helicopters to transforming vehicles. High-quality raytraced renderings of some of the models are shown, along with LDraw building instructions.
	October 3-9, 1999	Spotlight on Programmable LEGO® bricks in the Classroom Back when we adults were kids, if we got caught playing with LEGO® bricks in school, they'd likely be taken away from us pretty fast. But things are different now, as that wonderful thing called the Internet shows us. Classrooms all around are buying RCX bricks and adopting them into the "official" childhood learning experience. Fifth graders are building robots; sixth graders are collecting data with their own scientific instruments, and so forth — all made with LEGO®. Over 20 years ago, Seymour Papert was writing about the benefits of learning via such "constructionist" environments, but today with the LEGO Group's educational division (LEGO DACTA), armed with little yellow programmable bricks, it's as easy as pi (err, pie) to make it happen in a school near you. This week we're featuring a Cool LEGO® Sight of the Week: the sight of kids playing and learning with our favorite toy (and not getting in trouble for it). Follow the links for a tour of what's happening... Site #152a   J & J's Robotics in the Classroom Janis Kam & Jenni McNally, Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, Ottawa, Canada Site #152b   LDAPS, Engineering and Science Curriculum for K-12 Chris Rogers, Ben Erwin, Tufts University Site #152c   Davis Creek Elementary LEGO® Robotics Projects Linda Hamilton, Davis Creek Elementary, WV, U.S.A. Site #152d   Lower School LEGO® Projects Richard Johns & Carol Rodine, The Blake School, MN, U.S.A.
	September 26 - October 2, 1999 BRICKWARS Joel Kuester	Here are nearly a dozen of Joel's own versions of official vehicles and ships in the Star Wars universe, with even coming soon (according to Joel). If you have a slow modem, you may want to put on a fresh pot of coffee because there are more than 40 bandwidth-gobbling GIF images. (These are well worth the wait if you're a Star Wars fan.) All of the models are very good, and the Imperial AT-AT, the Millennium Falcon, and the Slave I models are particularly excellent. Also, don't miss Joel's Technic-fig scale version of Anakin's Podracer—wow!
	September 19-25, 1999 Minifig Museum of Modern Art Ashley Glennon	Ever wondered what for art minifigs might create? Here is a stunningly original and colorful site dedicated to modern art, with a delightful mix of styles, themes, and media spanning several decades. Although everything here is seemingly either inspired by or imitative of actual exhibits, this remains, ironically, one of the most original LEGO® fansites ever created, for it is indeed no small feat to represent with such success the variety of artistic elements encompassed here. With more than 30 high-quality close-up photos, including also Ashley's contest entries in the upcoming Halloween Contest, this site is an outstanding treat.
	September 12-18, 1999 ldraw.org Tim Courtney (Project Coordinator) & Jacob Sparre Andersen (Server Administrator)	www.ldraw.org is a new launchpad and focal point for the LDraw project. In creating this new site, Tim has collected and organized many previously scattered materials into a common location and has given many of the resources a consistent and professional new look and style. So, for example, it is easier now than ever before to find and download the LDraw software, parts updates, and other related utilities and resources. New items include a webring, linking images, new reference areas (under long-term construction), and a dazzling homepage.
	September 5-11, 1999 MindStorms Info. Center Jin Sato	Jin Sato has probably forgotten more about building robots with LEGO MINDSTORMS than most people will ever learn in a lifetime. A dozen or so of presumably 30 odd robots are on display at Jin Sato's site, including LDraw instructions and POV-Ray raytraces of a classic 6-legged walker named Mushi-Mishi No.4 and other walkers. But most impressive is Jin Sato's astoundingly cool MIBO, a dual-RCX version of the Sony robotic dog Aibo. MIBO's pages include building instructions (in Japanese) with detailed close-up photos, some NQC code, and an animated GIF showing MIBO moving from a standing position to a sitting position. MIBO is a must-see!
	August 29 -September 4, 1999 Moonbase Io Andrew Todd Amacher	Set 300 years in the future, this is a rockin' page of sentient robots and countermeasure forces. The color schemes are pleasantly reminiscent of the official themes Unitron and M:Tron, and many of the models embody particularly gorgeous and innovative unique designs. Notice, for example, the innovative backward use of 4x10x2 cockpit canopy elements in the Command Cruiser model (commship3.jpg), the use of the long brown sloped pieces from the new 7111 Droid Fighter™ set in the UFO #1 model (saucer1.jpg), the squat-but-elegant shape of the Personnel Carrier (dropship1.jpg) and Command Cruiser (commship1.jpg) models, and of course the use of the new Star Wars LEGO hinges in the frightening three-eyed Mantid (mantid1.jpg).
	August 22-28, 1999 Original Lego creations by Rick L. Kujawa Rick L. Kujawa	Brilliantly engineered without the use of glue, Rick's gigantic free-standing space stations seem to defy gravity. (Perhaps they were photographed in Zero-G, as the astronauts in the model are standing upside-down. :-) The structures consist mainly of rectangular 1xN bricks connected at angles to give a pleasing rounded effect. In addition to the two space stations, there is an elegant bank skyscraper and several smaller models built from space-themed sets.
	August 15-21, 1999 NQC (Not Quite C) Dave Baum	NQC (which stands for "Not Quite C") is a highly popular third-party tool for programming the LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robotics Invention System. NQC is actually an ASCII-based programming language with multitasking and variables, which means that it's much more expressive than the graphical oriented software which ships with the RCX. (Children, however, may still find the LEGO software easier to use.) NQC is the brainchild of Dave Baum, who designed the language after the popular systems programming langauage C, and adapted it for embedded systems programming in the RCX. One beauty of NQC is that it produces programs which run right on top of the default RCX firmware, which means getting started with NQC is straightforward. Another beauty of NQC is that it adds variables, macros, and inline subroutines to the list of ways you can express yourself. And of course, since it's modeled after C, it's pretty easy to learn if you're already familiar with procedural programming languages. Since NQC is open-source software, it has been ported to multiple OS platforms. In other words, you're not limited to Windows; you can use NQC with Linux, MacOS, OS/2, and so forth. NQC also has an active community of users and developers working together to provide enhancements, informal technical support, and additional related tools. Dave maintains a helpful list of related items in the Other Pages section of his NQC website. (Note: NQC is an independent, third-party project which is not sponsored, authorized, or endorsed by the LEGO Group of companies.)
	August 8-14, 1999 legoland Bonnie King	Bonnie's "legoland," which she describes as "a happy place full of interesting creatures," is a strikingly original collection of pencil, crayon, and watercolor images — all representing models built from LEGO® elements. Click each of the thumbnail images to view short bios of many of the creatures.
	August 1-7, 1999 Ben's LEGO® Millennium Falcon Ben Fleskes	Weighing in at 15 pounds (9 kg.) and measuring more than 2 feet (67 cm.) in length, Ben's minifig-scale Millenium Falcon is an exquisitely crafted likeness of the heroic Star Wars ship. A rare, world-class masterpiece of LEGO® craftsmanship. Not only is the model equipped with motors, lights, and a sound element, but it also has a spring-loaded concussion missile launcher, a pneumatic loading ramp, and working pneumatic landing gear. Ben has left no stone unturned in the quest for realism; his model even uses old and yellowed elements in some places to simulate the dirt and grime of the real Falcon. Okay, get going then! Many great photos await you!
	July 25-31, 1999 Ludo's LEGO® Models Ludo Soete	There is a lot to see at Ludo's site, and many of the images are large file sizes, so if you're in a hurry, here are some recommendations: On the Houses & Vehicles page, don't miss the SideCar, the Dutch Channel Bridge, the Ferry Boat, the Combine, and the Carousel. On the Trains & Cars page, don't miss the Tip-over Prevention page and Ludo's electronic lighting and motorized-point add-ons that you can build! Monorail aficionados: don't miss Ludo's monorail point and reverse-switch motorization add-ons!
	July 18-24, 1999 Jeb's LEGO® Page Jason Baker	Jason's Starship Carrier Behemoth is one of the largest space cruisers around — measuring more than 3 feet in length and enveloping approximately 5 cubic feet of space. Inside, it's got a bridge, an engine room, a medical lab, bathrooms, showers — you name it — even a working crew elevator and a hangar with a ship elevator! Also, don't miss Jason's several-cats-long Aircraft Carrier and related military models, as well as several new pages of fighters and transports, and a sneak-peek at Jason's upcoming Osiris project. (Fans of the 1987 movie Aliens: don't miss the APC model on the miscellaneous spacecraft and vehicles page!)
	July 11-17, 1999 LEGO® Fusion Zlatko Unger	Here's a relatively new site with a unique look and a clean presentation. For sci-fi and/or military enthusiasts there are Zlatko's own personal models — a mech, a fighter, a speeder, a helicopter, etc. — all cleanly presented with thumbnails. And for general consumption, the big highlight here is the LEGO Evolution subsection of the Other pages. Ever been curious how certain types of repeated set designs have evolved over the years? Check out the 9 different fire stations on the Fire Station Evolution page, the 9 different police stations Police Station Evolution page, and the 5 different Technic car chassis on SuperCar Evolution page. It's quite interesting! Note: The text links on this site are hard to see, as the underlines have been forcibly removed from them using style sheets. But the links are indeed there if you're willing to do a bit of work to find them. (They tend to be in a slightly darker shade of orange/yellow than the main yellow/orange body text.)
	July 4-10, 1999 LEGO® Robotics Simen Svale Skogsrud	Among other cool things, Simen has designed, built, and programmed a two-axis visual scanner using his LEGO® MindStorms™ Robotics Invention Kit. Check out the scans it produced of two old-fashioned 12" vinyl record album covers! The style of Simen's site — beautifully designed web pages and high-quality photography and illustrations combined with thought-provoking text — is a blend of personal experiences and instructive narratives. The site is heavily geek-oriented in a fun and enthusiastic way, with lots of NQC code samples, diagrams, and under-the-hood close-ups.
	June 27 - July 3, 1999 Steve Campbell's Perilous Pirates Page Steve Campbell	This site is a must-see for all genres of LEGO® enthusiasts! On the Tales page, there is a short story (a first exciting chapter in what may hopefully someday be a complete tale) involving a merchant ship and its run-in with a bloodthirsty pirate ship. Exquisite photography and creative digital image editing come together here in an extremely professional way, which might even be said to rival official productions. The final image in the sequence could even be described as astonishing in its action and attention to detail.
	June 20-26, 1999 Marcus's LEGO® Pages Marcus Fischer Mellbin	Nine-year-old Marcus (soon to be ten) loves LEGO® building projects, especially Technic and LEGO MindStorms™. His LEGO® pages emphasize the constructionist theory of hands-on learning, in this learning through building in a LEGO® environment, and he discusses several projects he has completed, including which parts were the most challenging. At least one project was done for a school science project, and another was inspired by a popular book of technical illustrations.
	June 13-19, 1999 The Brick Apple Sean Kenney	Inspired by New York City, The Brick Apple is Sean's lavishly designed LEGO® city. You can enjoy the sights two different ways: as a guided tour or as a self-starting tour using a map. There seems to be about 70 or so photos covering 15 buildings, including helicopter photos from high above the city. The photography is masterful, by the way — not so much in the raw technical quality of the image files but in the composition and lighting of the shots — rarely does someone capture the essence of their constructions so intimately. There are also helpful auxiliary pages giving construction notes, background, a history of updates to the site, a hyperlinked index to all the images, and a delightful page of building ideas with several fine examples of the fusion of pen/pencil sketching and computer typography. A real treat, as well as an inspiration.
	June 6-12, 1999 Expert Builder: The Megaproject Showcase Allan Bedford	Here is a showcase of advanced and/or mega-sized building projects designed by various people around the world. The nice thing here is that in most cases Allan has carefully selected subsets of images from previously published material (with permissions of the site authors) and has organized it neatly into previews of the full sites, with additional commentary.
	May 30 - June 5, 1999 Stephen's LEGO® Brick Page Stephen W. Gabriel	Steve, an avid wargaming and LEGO® enthusiast, has created games based on three popular LEGO® themes: Pirates, Castle, and Space. The games are works in progress, but already serve as inspiration and useful working examples to other gamers, with detailed instructions and dozens of photos. The Pirate models here, by the way, are the exact models from the official LEGO® Pirates themes, while the excellent Space models here are Stephen's own creations.
	May 23-29, 1999 S.W.A.T.: Some Weird Action Team Nick Crocco	This is a battle-hardened collection of models depicting a futuristic wartorn timeline three decades in the future. Several characters, their flight suits, their vehicles, and their mecha are shown, along with character histories and a storyline.
	May 16-22, 1999 LEGO® AT-ST Page Shawn Sullivan	Shawn has created an absolutely stunning likeness of a Star Wars AT-ST out of LEGO® elements (this may well be the most world's accurate Star Wars model ever built from plastic bricks). What's more, Scott gives a detailed history of the model, along with various statistics, extensive comparative photographs and theory, construction notes, and a personal introspective on the trials and tribulations of getting something right.
	May 9-15, 1999 Elin's LEGO® Page Elin Övernäs	Sit back, relax, and take a virtual tour through Elin's elaborate castle creations. The Keep, still under construction, is a very large three-story building (three minifig stories, that is), with floor plans and graphical links to the individual rooms. Each room has its own web page, and each of these in turn has several photos with thumbnails and short narratives. In the Courtyard of The Keep, by the way, don't miss the innovative use of the red & black 3x3x6 corner wall element. The Town, also very large, is a multi-building creation which you can view from the outside as well as the inside, including other details. There is also The Forest and LDraw model renderings of Elin's Foregate and Bridge models.
	May 2-8, 1999 Ben's World of ABS Reinhard Beneke	A stunningly massive and gorgeous 3-mast, 15-sail, 4 ft. long (1.2 m.) pirateship greets you upon entering this wonderful site with oodles of photos of models that Reinhard has built (a secondary page dedicated to the pirate ship features many close-up details). Also shown are a few customizations to Model Team sets and a few Formula 1 race cars, and the rest of the site is devoted to LEGO® trains — featuring everything from a variety custom engines to huge bridges, spirals, and room-filling track layouts reminiscent of toppling domino spectacles, popular in the 1970's. Town fans: don't miss the city hall and house models on the Train Event page!
	April 18-24, 1999 Original LEGO® Technic Models Andrew Bissell & Steve Robinson	Here is a small but powerful collection of original LEGO® Technic models: two monstrous helicopters, a mobile crane, a hydraulic [pneumatic] "track machine" excavator, and a hydraulic [pneumatic] roll-on roll-off flatbed wagon for transport. All of the thumbnail images on these pages lead to larger images, many of which contain additional paragraphs of information. The models are motorized by at least two different types of motors, and you can download a couple impressive MPEG video clips showing the rotational mechanisms of one of the helicopters.
	April 18-24, 1999 Mookie's LEGO® Page Tamy Teed	This is a wonderful site featuring a selection of original castle-themed models. There is a lot to see and enjoy here, so if you're in a hurry or on a slow connection, a few places you might want check out first are the Nerstonia Castle, the Castle of the Littles, and Mount Kayveren pages. Tamy has also kindly provided LDraw instructions for several of her models, with POV-Ray renderings as well. The narratives at the bottom of the pages are given from the inhabitants' points of view, so you can learn a little bit about their lives by following along.
	April 11-17, 1999 Microfigure-Scale Star Wars Models Karim Nassar	"Microfigure scale" is an unofficial term coined by fans to characterize small-scale models about an order of magnitude smaller than the official Mini-Figure scale. Karim has built a large variety of models from the official Star Wars universe at this scale — and one even at a "nanofigure scale" — all out of small virtual LEGO® elements (courtesy of LDraw). The realism he achieves (or, rather, the trueness to which these models match the official designs) is incredible and has to be seen to be believed. A warning to purists: although these models use only official LEGO® element colors, some pieces shown have never been released in the color shown, for example light gray minifig hands, orange plate hinges, and black flower stems. This defect is insignificant, however, when compared with what can be achieved by removing such a restriction.
	April 4-10, 1999 Joe's® MindStorms Gallery Joe Nagata	Here is a bright site devoted entirely to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robotics Invention System. The Gallery is a large collection of robotic creations covering everything from one- to four- to six- to eight-legged and humanoid robots, to inchworm propulsion, pneumatic propulsion, climbers, walkers, missile launchers, even a low-resolution scanner, an analog clock, and more! The Laboratory section contains beautiful diagrams depicting gear ratios for various standard, crown, and worm gear configurations. Note to non-Japanese speaking readers: Joe is planning an English translation of the site.
	March 28 - April 3, 1999 Pat's LEGO® Space Craft Page Pat Justison	This is a relatively new site with just a few models, but each model is delightful eye-candy for fans of sleek-looking, heavily armored space ships. Pat's ship designs are inspired by various sources, and you can see some of those coming through, but overall they represent a unique look and feel, particularly in the use of sloped bricks, angled plates, decorative tilings, and facet-to-facet inversions. Each model, by the way, is shown from a variety of viewing angles; although these alternate views may at first seem to overlap one another in coverage, many do contain special close-ups of the models in different configurations, for example access panels and engine flaps — all great food for thought.
	March 21-27, 1999 The Animated LEGO® GIF Terminal Chris Spencer	Need an animated GIF to liven up your LEGO® web page? This is the place. Chris has been creating, collecting, and organizing oodles of animated LEGO®-related images for many months and has a sizeable collection to share. Credit is given to the individual artists who designed the images, and permission to redistribute them was of course first obtained.
	March 14-20, 1999 LEGO® City Homepage Björn-Alexander Schmidt	There are actually two cities here: the first being a little Town on Earth and the second being a little Space colony on the Moon. What's unique is that everything has been modeled with virtual LEGO® elements and rendered using Anton Raves's outstanding POV-Ray library. From the main overhead starting view of each "city" in the LEGO City section of the site, you can click on various minifigs and vehicles to take a customized tour through the landscape, seeing many objects up close and suggesting names for the inhabitants wandering around and doing work. The Gallery is also a nice collection of rendered models.
	March 7-13, 1999 Tom Owad's LEGO® Macintosh Tom Owad	No computer company in the world sells laptop computers with LEGO® studs on them, nor does the Lego Group sell accessories for laptop computers. But that didn't stop Tom from assembling his own hybrid machine from a pile of Apple® Macintosh® laptop parts and LEGO® bricks. It's unique. It's twisted. It's cheerfully colored. And best of all, the knobs and ports are all still accessible!
	February 28 - March 6, 1999 Joe's LEGO® Page Joe Davenport	Joe is just getting started with web pages, but you wouldn't know it because he is off to an incredible beginning with zillions of photos showcasing his LEGO® town and other creations. Although most of the photos are ¼-size thumbnails for now due to space limitations, plenty of details can still be seen in the high-quality thumbnails. In addition to Joe's huge 64-square-feet sprawing town with an exquisitely crafted cathedral, town hall, and hotel, you can check out Joe's minifig-scale models of various agricultural equipment (based on actual products), a super-realistic B-17 Flying Fortress, and, coming later, an expanded section devoted to trains. (By the way, don't miss the impressive Track Installation Crew model.) Many little details help round out the experience and make this site a real pleasure to visit, for example the girl carrying her lunch tray to a table in the elementary school lunchroom and the minifig worker taking a coffee break high up on the Skyscraper.
	February 21-27, 1999 Robin's LEGO® Zone Robin Werner	A prolific builder with a fondness for skylights, stairways, and high levels of realism, Robin has put together a site showcasing his myriad of train setups and other models (many of which have even won awards at train shows). Some of the images are very large, but they're well worth the wait as they're packed top-to-bottom with inpirational eye candy. M:Tron fans: don't miss the Galaxy Magnetizer, inspired by the official LEGO® model 6980 Galaxy Commander — it's a beaut! Town fans: don't miss the large-scale International Airport!
	February 14-20, 1999 LEGO® City Fire Department Eric S. McDonald	The LFCD is a primarily text-based site dedicated to Eric's humongous collection of fire-related LEGO® town models. The amount of detail in and breadth of the coverage is amazing: history, maps, budgets, annual reports, salaries of town employees, etc. But in addition to the text are dozens of photos of Eric's 16 (wow) fire stations and over 100 (wow wow) fire apparatus units, spanning everything from firetrucks to utility trucks, helicopters, haz mat trucks, water carriers, fire boats, and more. Most of the models are official LEGO® models from sets, either built according to the instructions or based on alternative models, but you can also find pictures of many of Eric's own models, some of which are even designed after actual fire stations in Minnesota. If you're in a hurry, don't miss the Utility 1, Utility 3, and Utility 4 trucks and the Fire Department Headquarters Building (all of these can be found quickly from the Pictures of Apparatus and Stations page).
	February 7-13, 1999 Michael's LEGO® Page Michael Hopkins	On the entry page, Michael says to "sit back, relax, and enjoy" the pictures of his creations. Some of the models and pictures are so impressive, it's hard not to sit on the edge of the seat. Michael dedicates a couple pages of discussion to computer image manipulation, so you can see some of the photographic techniques he used. The military tank and Ninja Superfortress models are chock full of interesting details, accompanied on the web pages by thoughtful commentary and a refreshing variety of camera angles.
	January 31 - February 6, 1999 Bricklyn, NY Brianne, Justin, & Graham Peter	Using BrickLINX, the Bricklyn Online Directory, you can take a virtual tour of the many establishments in Bricklyn, another wonderful LEGO® city full of character as well as characters. Bricklyn's web site is set up to resemble the online presence of a real city, each page with its own design, commentary, and interlinked banner ads. (Some of these, such as Blockman's Flowers, are fun parodies of real-life businesses.)
	January 24-30, 1999 Calum's LEGO® Page Calum Tsang	Check out Calum's LEGO® town Saraville, which is still under construction at the time of this writing, but which is teeming with minifigs hard at work (that's how LEGO® towns get built, after all). Custom-designed trains run through the heart of Saraville, integrating nicely with sophisticated Technic machinery such as loading cranes. The HDTV Mobile Truck is a particularly wonderful piece of work, with a completely hinged and opening side and rear for storing equipment such as the LEGO® Steadicam™ (a brilliant must-see mini-model with building instructions).
	January 17-23, 1999 LEGO® Castles Robert G. Carney, Jr.	Once in a great while, a new LEGO® fansite pops up out of the blue and astounds everyone with some sort of completely amazing construction. This week, Robert announced his website showcasing his collection of LEGO® castles. It would be an understatement to call this collection amazing, for each one of these castles qualifies as a completely amazing construction! Nineteen (wow!) castles are shown. Each is a beautiful work of art, masterfully detailed and carefully modeled after actual European castles dating back to the 12th Century. And as if that isn't enough to completely bowl you over, here's the most amazing part: less than one third of all the castles Robert has built are shown. To date, he has built 68 castles!
	January 10-16, 1999 Olivier Goubeau's LEGO® Page Olivier Goubeau	Do you remember Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice in the 1940 Walt Disney classic Fantasia? Well, here he is built out of 4,500 LEGO® elements and standing 85 cm. (33½") tall in a highly detailed and stunning likeness. (Olivier says that nearly 120 hours went into the creation!) Even more detailed is Oliver's gray and black medieval castle, demonstrating not only that sloped roof pieces are unnecessary but also that careful use of rectangular bricks may even be more versatile for roofings with complex shapes. Only half a dozen photos of the castle are shown, but the photo quality is high enough to appreciate the richness of detail in the architecture and in the activities of the inhabitants.
	January 3-9, 1999 1998 rec.toys.lego Ancient Theme LEGO® Building Contest Erik Wilson	Behold — here are the finalists in the 1998 rec.toys.lego Ancient Theme LEGO® Building Contest, an unofficial LEGO® building contest hosted and judged by Erik Wilson in late 1998. Prepare yourself for jaw-dropping monstrosities and beautiful design innovations. Erik's Colosseum of Rome, by the way, seems to defy all the rules of rectangular LEGO® physics — truly amazing!
	December 27, 1998 - January, 2, 1999 Helioforge's Fun with LEGO® Pete W. Storonskij	Except for a pair of Star Wars T.I.E. Interceptor wings which appear from time to time, these models are actually built using real LEGO® elements. The magic is in the delicate arrangements of dozens of large Exploriens and U.F.O. panels which come together to form grand, geometrical patterns representing everything from a carousel to a cathedral to several types of spacecraft. Many of these would surely be quite a treat to see in real-life, illuminated by blacklight and suspended in mid-air by thin wires!
	December 20-26, 1998 Elwood & Bubba's Big, Big Ship Derick Bulkley	This ship is to the Pirates theme what Ed Boxer's castle is to the Castle theme — a magnificently detailed work far exceeding the size and sophistication of official sets, yet remaining true to their flavor. The photos are a bit blurry, but you can still appreciate all the details since there are many close-up shots. The physical presense of the ship is marked by its three extra-tall masts, its several decks, its more than twenty cannons (all retractable with gunport covers), and its dead-serious front end. Delicate touches of color and detailing with arches, sloped bricks, railings, and realistic anchor mechanisms round out the design most beautifully. By the way, you can choose to view the photos individually or all together as a single monolithic web page. This is a nice choice seldom offered!
	December 13-19, 1998 Erik's Fortuna Journal Erik Olson	Grand-prize winner of Erik Wilson's 1998 rec.toys.lego Ancient LEGO Building Contest, the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia by Erik Olson is a tribute to ancient Italy's largest temple complex. Measuring five feet in width and covering many baseplates, this model is as grand as it is inviting. The blue-grounded courtyard is actually the top side of the bottom-most level, whose giant interior must really have been something to explore. Although the real temple contains yet one more level beneath, the essence of the temple is captured beautifully. You can even see quite a few in-progress construction photos.
	December 6-12, 1998 Tom's LEGO® Page Tom McDonald	Here's a relatively new site which is just getting started but already contains some pretty juicy building ideas. The space models here are very cool and include LDraw instructions for several of the models, including an intricate minifig-sized Workbot comprising 26 pieces! Town and train fans will enjoy the San Brickcisco page. But what will really blow you away — even if you haven't ever tried to make a minifig-scale guitar — is the Brickenrocker Guitars page: This is a must-see for anyone and everyone. Recently, Tom made a creative breakthrough in minifig guitar design by discovering that the small hinge fingers of the type used at the ends of 1x2 plates and on certain short rods are compatible with the open holes in 1x2 grille tiles — so not only do Tom's guitars look good, they look just right!
	November 22-28, 1998 LDLITE Paul Gyugyi	LDLITE is a magnificent new piece of software which displays LDraw-style models on your screen without your having to launch LDraw. Its input is any .DAT file — which can come from a disk, a web page, or even an e-mail message or a newsgroup — and its output is a colorful and beautifully shaded graphic image in a window on your screen. You can even watch the elements be drawn step by step. Once you have LDLITE, you wonder how you ever lived without it. When it is set up work with your web browser, it is possible for you to click on a .DAT-content link and see a model before your eyes seconds later. Clicking a link and seeing a model is, by itself, nothing revolutionary, but what is so wonderful about all of this is that the .DAT content is 50 times more compact than GIF imagery, and you are not limited to preselected views or time-steps. Moreover, since .DAT content is text-based, it is perfect for inclusion in e-mail and newsgroup messages. LDLITE uses LDraw parts files directly, so you do need to install LDraw before LDLITE will function. Please refer to Bram Lambrecht's excellent LDraw & LEdit Tutorial for more information about LDraw. Once LDraw is installed, there are additional configuration steps for LDLITE which are explained on Paul's page. You may need to consult a DOS or Windows expert for some of the steps (budget in a couple hours and a large pizza). LDLITE is currently available only for Microsoft's Windows, but Linux support is in the planning stages.
	November 15-21, 1998 Prince Strondheim's Castle Matthew Verdier	Nearly sixty photos detail Matthew's giant new LEGO® castle, which covers a dinner table. It's been built as a modularized mega-model, meaning that it comes apart into several segments, each of which can be studied separately (see the Blacksmith Shop and The Keep pages for examples). Even better, you can see directly into one of the halls because its entire wall has been designed to swing open and closed on hinges. Dual viewing angles (inside and outside) are shown of the gorgous dual-portcullis gatehouse with drawbridge, and the whole interior is carefully detailed with busy workers and a legion of armed guards.
	November 8-14, 1998 Gary Istok's Pictures Page Gary Istok	These are some of the most amazingly detailed and realistic architectural models to be shown in a long time. Showcased are several of Gary's masterpieces: a Museum of Art, two red cathedrals, an 18-story hotel, a 21-story office building, a 25-story Art Deco style plaza, a gorgeous yellow and black City Hall, a yellow and blue Romanesque Revival Train Station, a striking 4-tower blue and red Scandinavian Castle, and steam train engine All models feature exquisite detailing and realism for a major treat.
	November 1-7, 1998 Carl's Amazing Homepage Carl Kuhne	Put on a fresh pot of coffee and curl up for a fine half-hour experience at each of Carl's four amazing LEGO® town-based themed setups. Each setup is monstrous (in a good way), covering approximately forty baseplates and containing hundreds and hundreds of minifigs each doing something unique. In the Lego Metropolis setup, there is a park, an art gallery, a television station, a post office, textile stores, office buildings, a hotel, condominiums, apartments, gas stations, street musicians, and much more. In the Race Track setup, there are multiple grandstands, a pit lane, a first-aid post, and multiple concession stands serving everything from pizza to suds. In the Harbuor setup, there is a pier, cargo trains and cranes, loading docks, police and coast guard, and much more. In the Resort setup, there is a beach (with a volleyball area), a marina, boat rides, wind surfing, stables, games of chance, and a sprawling dance club. There is a lot of material here, but you'll thank yourself for being patient as it downloads, instead of skipping portions. Many pages have subtle jokes in the photos and dry humor in the commentary — all adding to the overall treat Carl has served up.
	October 25-31, 1998 Gerry's Classic LEGO® Cars Gerald Cohen	Here's a great peek back to an era when the LEGO® Group still made toy metal cars. What's especially interesting is that LEGO also made plastic bricks and specialized pieces intended to be used with the cars. See Gerry's Accessories page for some real surprises!
	October 11-17, 1998 ULV–017 Terry Keller	Is it a mobile science and exploration lab? Is it a battle-tank? Is it a futuristic über-motorhome? In some sense, it's all of those and more. The ULV–017 is Terry Keller's latest masterpiece — an example of truly first-rate model building on all levels. You're guided page by page through the workings of the ULV–017, from the dizzying array of exterior functions to all the nifty interior gadgets and auxiliary equipment, all with excellent pictures and commentary. This is that very rare kind of meta-model you could actually play with for hours on end and not get bored.
	October 4-10, 1998 LeoCAD Model Gallery Leonardo Zide	More and more people are using Leonardo Zide's LeoCAD modeling software to create representations of their own models and of official LEGO® models. At the LeoCAD Model Gallery, which Leonardo has set up, you can find LeoCAD data files for over 100 official sets and for several original models which people have designed and contributed to Leonardo's archive. Thumbnails are also shown for each model, which makes for very friendly browsing.
	September 20 - 26, 1998 Mike Steele's LEGO® Castle Page Mike Steele	Here is a stunning black and red castle encircled by a windy road from the main gate to the drawbridge and built upon a multi-level foundation of BURPs ("Big Ugly Rock Pieces") and bricks. Architectural close-ups and grizzly battle scenes help illustrate the complexity and size of this fortress. See if you can find the secret revolving door!
	September 6 - 19, 1998 Bram Lambrecht's LDraw & LEdit Tutorial Bram Lambrecht	Get your printer ready — this is the tutorial you've been waiting for! Hot off the press and more than a year in the making, here is an in-depth starter's guide and tutorial for the ever-popular LDraw (and LEdit) modeling software for LEGO® enthusiasts. You'll find 15 easy-to-follow LEdit lessons and 3 similarly friendly LDraw lessons, with over 100 carefully cropped screenshots — the likes of which rival the quality of documentation commonly found in popular commercial software packages. [Note: The sets of LDraw tutorial pages look very similar at first glance, but are actually slightly different. Each is intended to be taken after a specific LEdit tutorial.]
	August 30 - September 5, 1998 Matthew's LEGO® Page Matthew Verdier	Visiting the models at Matthew's site almost feels like viewing photos of a LEGOLAND® theme park; the castles and cathedrals are large and cleanly designed, use lots of cool and highly-desired pieces, and sport realistic details like flying buttresses, gables, trefoil arches, quoins, and several different styles of turrets and battlements. The photos are very telling (and inspirational!) with little need for text, but you'll also need an alert eye to catch all the details.
	August 23-29, 1998 Allanton NZ Allan Smith	More than 50 delightful photos on more than 30 pages await you at this site devoted to a new LEGO® town with plenty of personality. The images speak for themselves, in their sophistication and in their subtle humor, and it is highly recommended that you bear with the download speeds if you're accessing from a slow connection. There are lots of good cross-theme ideas here, especially (for example) on the Haunted House and Village People Outdoor Concert pages. Train fans—don't miss the super-tall diesel engine models!
	August 16-22, 1998 Pacific Northwest LEGO® Train Club PNLTC	Several adult LEGO® enthusiasts have banded to form the Pacific Northwest LEGO® Train Club and a companion web site to document and synchronize their activities. This site is particularly well organized and easy to use, with growing image galleries and events calendars. PNLTC members also share information in their Tools & Specs section, which helps them better organize large-scale events. By the way, don't miss the BAT (Build A Train) Animated GIF Gallery for some creative examples of how to make non-annoying animated GIFs. (And finally, it should be noted—contrary to speculations last week—that this site definitely supersedes all others in varieties of train models. You'll be amazed. Notwithstanding, of course, Larry's models still represent a delectable selection.)
	August 2-8, 1998 Larry Pieniazek's LEGO® Page Larry Pieniazek	This is an absolutely prolific site with so many photos (now approaching 300) that you might want to plan ahead and set aside a couple of hours or more for browsing it. The models, which cover various real-life themes such as Trains and Town, are representitive of the state of the art in LEGO® modelling — with many new innovations dreamed up by Larry and friends. (It's left as an exercise for your enjoyment to discover these!) You'll probably see more varieties of functional LEGO® train-car and train-related models here than anywhere else on the Web today, and one begins to wonder how the lot of them might compare to those seen at LEGOLAND® theme parks. But there's more than Train items here — don't miss the miniature golf page and birthday ideas pages. And for netizens who want an extra measure of security, Larry also offers a Trusted Intermediary Service.
	July 26 - August 1, 1998 BamBam Sproat's LEGO® Page Barbara Sproat	Those of you who remember the space creations of Barbara's husband Jeremy (see Past Pick #83) are in for another painfully pleasant experience — this time for Town models. All of the Barbara's models are given with full LDraw instructions and on-screen sample images. If you're in a hurry, don't miss the incredible Construction vehicles (all of which are sorely missing from the official product line), the space-looking Heavy-Duty Pulling Truck, the two-minifig-wide and computer-laden Spy Van, and other vignettes such as the the Lite Stand, the surprisingly realistic My Cats page, and the Gumball Machine page (which contains several great ideas for what to do with that clear 2x2x2 crystal ball element).
	July 19-25, 1998 LEGO® Auto Factory CODES Lab, ECE Dept., University of Massachusetts at Amherst	Using a small collection of sensors, motors, and a whole lot of ingenuity and LEGO® Technic elements, a team at the ECE Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has invented a computer-controlled machine which automatically assembles small LEGO cars on an assembly line built from LEGO elements. Extensive imagery accompanies the a narrative tour through the factory.
	July 12-18, 1998 Dave's LEGO® Blitz David Mercil	Dave's LEGO® Blitz is a high-energy mind-blast with a unique balance of seriousness and playfulness. There is much more here than first meets the eye, so pay sharp attention to all of the hyper-links as you treat yourself to everything from roller coasters to marble shooters, insect mazes, high-rise buildings, a 3000-piece F-16 fighter, a biblical temple, a working pinhole camera built using LEGO® pieces, and more...
	July 5-11, 1998 Ben's LEGO® Station Ben Fleskes	Much more than a train station (as the name suggests), this site showcases Ben's personal LEGO® train model designs and even a large Millenium Falcon model. From a Custom Amtrak Train based on real Amtrak trains and the LEGO® Metroliner, to a beautiful LL928 4-4-0 steam engine, a self-propelled Old Time Trolley, some serious Freight Cars, motorized vertical-lift bridges, and a huge Union Station, this site packs a whallop of inspiration and ability. The 3-bay 9V train engine Roundhouse with gentle curves and motorized turntable in truly a sight for anyone — not just Train fans. For events and other table set-ups, check out Ben's custom-designed Modular Tables.
	June 28 - July 4, 1998 Fredrik Glöckner's Technic Designs Fredrik Glöckner	Although there are words to describe the sheer coolness and sophistication of the Technic car and truck models Fredrick has created, the photos he provides say much more than anything I could ever try to write. Dozens of close-up photos are accompanied by interesting commentary and nearly all of the models have a short "fact sheet" at the top of the page to give you a sense for the size and other features. The models here have a high level of realism, both mechanically and visually, especially the incredible Classical Racer car.
	June 14-20, 1998 LEGOS City Guide: San Dilego Roby Sherman & Heather Tudhope	A unique combination of parody and original work, this site is a tour de force in town webification comprising over 50 web pages with over 250 images. Many levels of subtlety make for many layers of treats. There is something for everyone here, and those who make it through all the pages are well rewarded.
	June 7-13, 1998 Antony Lau's LEGO® Page Antony Lau	Treat yourself to Antony's delightful original models and his variations on several official LEGO® models. Dozens of photos appear here across several themes -- even several "maxifig"-scale vehicles. Definitely do not miss the models on the Military Page! The use of tan coloring and other Adventurers-originated elements makes for unprecedented realism. (Also note the ingenious use of pirateship mast segments as tank cannons.)
	May 31 - June 6, 1998 John Willoughby's LEGO® Page John Willoughby	Accompanied by numerous photos, short video clips, and useful commentary, the six legged walker and pendulum-based clock here are interesting Technic challenges. But the truly amazing Technic wizardry here is John's computer-driven mechanical CNC, which actually draws on paper with a pen. Although the unit does include non-LEGO® stepper motors and a few custom electronic circuits, it consists mainly of actual Technic elements, and the results are impressive.
	May 24-30, 1998 Legobot Headquarters Mike Wampole	This week's pick is another energetic site devoted to the art of transforming LEGO® models, or Legobots as they are called here. This site is rich with imagery (I counted approximately 170 photos of 32 different models) and organized into manageable chunks. If you're pressed for time, make sure to check out the Arachnid model on the Destron Update page, the Creed model and the whimsical Land-Whale model on the Junk Bots Update page, and the Big Green model on the Guardians page. Note also in various spots the innovative use of a technic peg to convert a minifig-scale weapon (for example, a halberd) into a Technic-figure-scale weapon (examples of this can be seen in the Dragon model on the Destron page and in the Blitz model on the Guardians page).
	May 10-16, 1998 Rob's LEGO® Creations Rob Farver	If you've ever wondered whether anyone can actually build serious things with LEGO DUPLO® bricks, you've got to have a look here at Rob's DUPLO® trainstation, which even has a roof made of bricks. Also check out the artful one-story house with attic, which features quoins and a solid blue roof built using two different angles of sloped bricks from a large number of LEGO DACTA® roof packs.
	May 3-9, 1998 QuickCam™ Camcarts Ralph Muha	Read all about Ralph's motorized LEGO® carts, cranes, and booms for Connectix QuickCam™ CCD cameras. Several designs are shown, with historical discussions, case analyses, and thoughts about gear ratios and motor efficiency.
	April 26 - May 2, 1998 LEGOtures Dennis Chidley	Here are more than 50 comic book super-heroes, modeled by Dennis as minifigs. To top it off, they're all ray-traced (created entirely inside the computer -- no carving up plastic), but you almost wouldn't know it because they look so realistic. Some liberties are taken with minifig body-part shapes (antennae, custom face masks, shoulder pads, wider capes, a special shape for Tick's head), but many could-have-been-messy-hack-jobs are supplanted by actual LEGO® elements, for example the rod clips in the Gates minifig, the curved and inverse-slope bricks and in Monstress and Incredible Hulk, and a 1x2 brick to give Fantastic Man an impressive height. Many liberties are also taken with colorings, for example transparent legs and arms in Invisible Kid and Invisible Woman (which look pretty darn cool), and general body colorings. These may frighten purists away, but in the final analysis, seeing is believing. Skeptics really ought to check out Joker on the D.C. Super Villans page and Superman (JLA:Yr 1) on the Justice LEGO of America page. On your way out (or in), don't miss the everyone.jpg image, which you can get to by clicking on the minifig holding the hit counter in the upper-left corner. Zowie!
	April 19-25, 1998 Jeremy's LEGO® Page Jeremy Sproat	This site is an absolute must-see for anyone interested in spacecraft, aircraft, mecha, riot control droids, and high-tech weaponry in general. Taking the art and science of LDraw modelling to new heights, Jeremy displays over 20 masterworks of his own design -- each with several paragraphs of commentary, several viewing angles, and downloadable, fully-componentized LDraw instructions. Not only does each model stand on its own as a compelling work of art, but the collection of models as a whole represents a coherently integrated meta-work of art. Even the background image on the main page is an original concept which ties in with the models. Go there now, but we warned: The model designs are so intensely packed with creativity and innovation that experiencing them may be as painful as it is pleasurable.
	April 12-18, 1998 Michael Ulring's LEGO® Castle Michael Ulring	This moat-encircled fortress, spanning half a ping-pong table, represents a landmark in narrative-style building which must be seen to be believed. The site itself is short and to-the-point, giving a couple dozen JPEG images and almost no descriptive text; yet many of the photos are so crisp that they nearly speak for themselves. As can be seen from the Overhead View image, this is a courtyard-style castle with hyper-abundant minifig activity. Several Interior Closeups show these activities in more detail. The use of color here as a design element is intriguing, spanning almost the entire LEGO® spectrum of color but avoiding gawdy combinations. Further, the variety of colors adds a certain life-like randomness to the dwellings, and suggests historical developments and refinements by the inhabitants over the years, while a carefully-selected variation in architectural styles suggests both multi-cultural influences and local innovations in craftsmanship. These attributes are natural byproducts of Michael's 5-year construction effort, in which this castle represents a culmination of several previous works. The castle is also a living artwork in that it remains both constructed and under construction, as Michael adds new structures and new inhabitants whenever he has spare moments away from school.
	March 8-14, 1998 Guz & Rodd's 3D LEGO® Models Gustaf Brundin & Ronny Sandberg	The ray-traced images here are quite good. It's true that the color palette needs adjusting (for example, the yellow here is too green and should be more orange; the solid blue and transparent green here are too bright and should be darker; and the transparent red-orange here is a bit muddy), but if you ignore that, then these renderings are technically great -- especially the flawless treatment of decorated (pre-printed) elements. Notice, by the way, the graceful renditions of Technic Flex tubes, which defy the traditional boxy ray-tracing look.
	March 1-7, 1998 Ain't It LEGO® Derek Schin	Check out Derek's amazing Star Wars models, including minifig-scale replicas of the Millenium Falcon and the Mos Eisley Cantina! Also don't miss the cool use of pirateship mast segments in the BattleTech models here, as well as several custom-designed LEGO® traincars and Town models, including an innovative use for Divers porthole walls. Derek's site is also the official home of the RTLspeak and LEGO Code documents, which Derek created. What's your LEGO code?
	February 22-28, 1998 Terry's LEGO® Pages Terry Cruse	First up here is a must-see minifig-size model of the infamous cruise ship Titanic, built of course entirely out of LEGO® pieces. The week that this model went up, Terry's site received more nominations for CLSotW than any other site to date. Also in the world of large models, Terry has built a recreation of Stone Mountain, Georgia at the time of the American Civil War, with a bit of historical commentary, written as a small story, to accompany the photos. Finally, don't miss the King Kong Pigs out on Islanders page, and check back periodically because Terry rotates his pages through viewing cycles.
	February 15-21, 1998 Fred's World Fred G. Martin, M.I.T. Media Lab	Here at Fred Martin's site, you can learn about Meme Tags, Crickets, the Programmable Brick, an active LEGO baseplate, and several other related research concepts and projects at the M.I.T. Media Laboratory. These aren't official LEGO® products, but they are nevertheless great food for thought. Lego has announced in a major publicity campaign that the forthcoming LEGO® Mindstorms Robotic Invention System product line was developed in close cooperation with the M.I.T. Media Lab. The Lego Group has been working with the Media Lab to link computer programming and LEGO® bricks since 1984. In addition to all of this, Fred also provides the text of several related papers he has written (as well as the complete text to his PhD dissertation Circuits to Control: Learning Engineering by Designing LEGO Robots). Of these papers, The Art of LEGO Design is well-suited to a general audience and contains some interesting geometrical observations about LEGO® elements.
	February 8-14, 1998 Jason's LEGO® Pages Jason Mantor	Here is a great reference and creative site with a large focus on providing a much-needed service to LEGO® fans on the Internet. First and foremost, Jason has created a database front-end to the massive archive of photos at the world-famous LEGO® fansite known as the Pause Magazine LEGO Reference Guide. Using a variety of search criteria, you can now very rapidly find information on virtually all LEGO® sets ever produced. Second, Jason has also set up Jason's LEGO® Exchange where people can post and browse information about sets they have for sale or are seeking to buy. The information you submit stays around indefinitely, and you can modify your information directly online whenever you like. Third, Jason runs auctions from time to time and now provides an interactive interface for bidding on the items he has for sale. In addition to these services, Jason also demonstrates his LEGO® raytracing skills and provides an unofficial glossary of LEGO®-related jargon which incorportates some of the terminology which has sprung up over the years in the USENET newsgroup rec.toys.lego.
	February 1-7, 1998 Tim Rueger's LEGO® Pages Tim Rueger	Here is a fun potpourri of LEGO® fandom. Check out Tim's LEGO Favorites for photos and commentary on some of the greatest LEGO® building sets of all time, and also check out Tim's Creations and over 16 complex monorail track layouts in the Monorail Templates section. And if you have any really old LEGO® sets with worn stickers, Tim demonstrates the power of the computer age in his Restored LEGO Stickers section, in which he has digitally scanned, enhanced, and reprinted several tattered stickers from some of his favorite childhood models. In the "before" and "after" photos, you can see that the results are striking!
	January 25-31, 1998 Iain's LEGO® Amusement Park Rides Iain Hendry	If you like amusement park rides, you're going to love these masterpieces of engineering. About 30 rides are described in text, and about one-third of these are accompanied by photos. Three of these rides, which Iain calls The Big Three, are pure mind-numbing brilliance. And it should be kept in mind that Iain is only 16 years old! Ian has long had a fascination with amusement park rides, motors, engineering, and (of course) LEGO® Technic, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds over the next 10 years for this creative engineer.
	January 11-17, 1998 Ron & Randy's LEGO® MechWarrior Page Ron & Randy Perovich	They don't look like they're made out of LEGO® pieces, but they are! This may well be the most amazing collection of LEGO® based mecha ever created, with gritty dirt, smoke, and battle scars on the actual models, and digitally enhanced special effects such as lasers, rocket thrust streams, smoke, steam, dirt blasts, and fog in the photos, (some of which depict wonderfully gruesome battle scenes). Ron and Randy achieved weathering and scars on the models using spray paint and enamel...and, of course, keen attention to detail as well as excellent artistic sense. All of these "modifications" are impressive, but one which is particularly beautiful is the painted canopy on the Timber Wolf model, in which a transparent fluorescent yellow-green 6 x 8 x 3 Aquazone half-dome top has been painted gray but leaves six window facets like a real cockpit canopy. (Star Wars fans will enjoy the resemlance to the Millenium Falcon cockpit windows.) If you're on a slow Internet connection, you're really encouraged to stick it out and get through everything, as this site is second to none in its area of focus. And even if you're not into "this sort of thing," there are many great, ingenious new uses of elements from which to learn a few tricks (admittedly, most of these are new ways to create weapons, but it's the Zen of it that matters here). Note: All of the models shown on this site are creations by Ron and Randy using LEGO® pieces, except the photo near the top of the entry page, which is presumably from FASA Corp.
	January 4-10, 1998 Brixton, U.S.A. Chris & Kay Myers	Here is another charming LEGO® town, complete with a hospital, a church, an elementary school, stores, and more. There are many subtle life-like details to keep an eye out for, and this is half the fun. One other nice touch here is that most the pages have building hints which describe the origins of certain models, pieces, and stickers, and which generally give more details about special items in the photos. (A warning to LEGO® purists: some of the models contain building pieces from an imitation brand known as Tyco®.)
	December 28, 1997 - January 3, 1998 Ed Boxer's Crown Cathedral Ed Boxer	This week's pick is Ed Boxer's third Internet-showcased LEGO® masterpiece: a beautiful, modular cathedral covering an area more than 11 standard 32x32 baseplates. Like Ed's castle two years earlier, this is simply a must-see for all LEGO® fans, and has been voted for by a very large percentage of stoppers-by. Note that although this is technically an update to a previously picked site (two of Ed's earlier models), the main purpose of Cool LEGO® Site of the Week is to focus attention each week on something truly outstanding or of widespread appeal, even if it may be part of a larger site.
	December 14-20, 1997 Sean's LEGO® Universe Sean Amlaner	Here's a site for folks with a twisted sense of humor -- robots that squirt acid and hospitals under attack by mecha. The last image in this photo-rich site is one of Sean's Junkyard of miscellaneous "extra town parts." It's interesting, yet surprising since Sean seems to have a knack for finding new uses for otherwise "specialized" pieces. Ever wondered what to do with all of those black 2x2 round-bottom discs that come in Town boats and other sets? Check out the R.E.B.E.L. Mine Layer. In the Weapons Archive, click through the dozen or so handheld weapons, many of which are really ingenious designs. For example (if you're into this sort of thing) check out the way a pnematic "tee" connector between a stop bushing and a cross-block connector becomes a hand-held Ion Cannon, and the way some other reasonably common elements become a hand-held Hornet Missile Launcher. For a couple bloody image-enhanced battles, check out the R.E.B.E.L.'s Abandoned Airfield and the Robot Ship pages. In the Stolen U.S.S.E. Robot Specs section, don't miss the brightly-colored minifig-size Ski Bots and heavily-armed two- and four-legged combat vehicles. I'm also pretty fond of the R.E.B.E.L. Mountain page, which uses cardboard boxes and tubes to their maximum potential in LEGO® context. There's a lot more at this energetic site than than can be covered in a short review, so just explore and have fun. Note that beyond the pictures of Sean's own creations, there is also a small archive of fan-created role-playing games for LEGO® enthusiasts.
	December 7-13, 1997 Edward's LEGO® Page Edward van der Jagt	Have you ever wondered what an entire ray-traced LEGO® town might look like? Here is the beginnings of one called L3G0-town, created using Paul Gyugyi's L3G0 ray-tracing library, and currently covering about 100 standard baseplates in size. The main aerial view is a client-side image map, so you can click directly on buildings in the aerial view for close-up views from the ground -- or you can use the textual links below the aerial view if your browser doesn't support client-side image maps. Say, what do you suppose that hydroplaning speedboat is running from?
	June 20-26, 1999 Monorail Bubble Station James Mathis	James has built a gorgeous multi-story monorail station, complete with a spiral staircase and dozens of other tasty details.
	November 30-December 6, 1997 James Mathis' Page of LEGO® James Mathis	James has LEGO® truck and traincar building down to a science. Well, actually, to a fine art. Here you will find some of the most detailed and eye-catching Town models on the Web today. Close to 100 high-quality photos of over three dozen models were captured on James's flatbed scanner. Thumbnail images accompany many of the photos on the index page. The innovative construction vehicles, cargo monorail, and the Road Show Truck and Trailer Playset models, among the other gems here, are really amazing works of craftsmanship.
	November 23-29, 1997 LEGO® Baseball Stadium Steve Bonaci	Take me out to the ballgame, minifig-style! Here is a giant, 20-cubic-foot LEGO® baseball stadium with an enormous wealth of detail, including bleachers, bullpens, dugouts, concession stands, bathrooms, locker rooms, a pressbox -- even a luxury box level. Blinky neon letters and animated ballpark foods add to the ambiance in the nearly two dozen web pages covering every aspect of this superstructure. If you want to get a quick sense of the size before proceeding to the rest of the imagery, start with images number 4 (Home Plate) and 5 (Third Base Line).
	November 16-22, 1997 LEGOray David Pritchard	Egad! -- these renderings are intensely realistic! Other than that, there's not much more that can be said -- the beauty here speaks for itself. The GIF animations, by the way, are both well worth the wait.
	November 9-15, 1997 Unofficial Page of Unofficial Instructions J.D. Forinash	If you've ever wondered whether there are building instructions on the net for people's own personal creations, here is a site with a growing list. (Another such list is Steven Walter's LDraw site, which was featured here on July 27, 1997.) Quite a few links are organized here, with the majority of the models existing in LDraw form. If you're a space fan, don't miss the link at the bottom of the page which takes you to some of J.D.'s own cool space creations (for now, without instructions, but with photos.)
	November 2-8, 1997 Chaot!X Homepage Lutz Uhlmann	Foremost here in the reference department is a gigantic reference to LEGO® pieces, including (optionally) pictures. The list is based on the LDraw parts selection, so it is quite large, and it uses official LEGO® part numbers found on the bottoms of the pieces. It's interesting to browse the list in numerical order and watch the progression of pieces over the years, since lower numbered pieces tend to have been released earlier. In the programming department, Lutz has written a conversion utility called L2P which converts LDraw files into POV-Ray files. Along with this is a POV-Ray library of LEGO® elements. The results are quite impressive, and Lutz has written a tutorial to help you get started as well as several significant sample creations to woo you. Although this tool may appeal to a narrow audience, the results it helps you create can appeal to everyone. Finally, in the classic modelling category, you can see some of Lutz's creations in his personal gallery of images. Excellent overall graphic design, great background imagery, and a few clever animated GIFs help round out the fun experience here.
	October 12-18, 1997 Zacktron Alliance WWW Site Tim Courtney (with Brandon Grifford)	Take a stroll through the intricate political and tactical history of the Zacktron Alliance, a Space theme from the creative and prolific minds of Tim and Brandon. Much of the Zacktron guide is still evolving, yet there is plenty to digest at the present time. What makes the Zacktron content exceptionally interesting is that it was created by two fifteen-year-olds with creative talents well in excess of their years. This site is also the home of the Zacktron Building Contest and the unofficial LEGO® Maniac's Web-Ring. Many fan-created LEGO®-related sites are listed here, with more added every week. Tim is also starting to publish some of his original models in LDraw format.
	October 5-11, 1997 Coby's Ray-Traced LEGO® Mania Coby Bassett	Reaching new heights in LEGO® ray-tracing photorealism, Coby has modeled over a dozen official classic LEGO® Space theme models, with more on the way. All of the images are excellent, but four that really stand out are the 6950 Mobile Rocket Transport image for the camera angle which puts you at minifig eye level and makes the transport seem 20 feet tall, the 6952 Solar Power Transport image for the menacing look and innovative lighting, the 462 Rocket Launcher image for its temporal fading to illustrate the rocket tilt mechanism (you may have to adjust the gamma of the image or brightness of your monitor to appreciate the subtlety), and the 493 Space Command Center images for their sheer beauty and feeling of being right there alongside the minifigs. Also don't miss the Tron page in which Tron's disc, based on the 2x2 radar dish element, lights up the image in a true-to-the-movie fashion. This particular page should definitely be very interesting to watch develop as new items are added. Although these images achieve an extreme level of realism at points, it should be noted that this occurs more on the holistic level than at the detailed level. That is, the constituent LEGO® elements modeled are not as realistic as they could be -- for example, the sloped bricks are smooth rather than lightly textured, and the spaces between bricks are a bit larger than reality -- but Coby's lighting and camera skills easily make up for these shortcomings. A stereo pair, if added at some point, would certainly also increase the level of realism.
	September 29-October 4, 1997 Thomas's LEGO® Page Thomas Burger	This is another wonderful LDraw devotee page featuring several airplane models, more than a dozen trucks, buggies, race cars, and a school bus, and more than a dozen train cars, including even a boat transportation car. In the train section, the Railroad Tie Remover is a must-see even for non-Train fans, as is also the stand-up construction barrier at the top of the Town page. If you are fortunate enough to have two Metroliners, you can build a Metroliner Baggage Car from Thomas's instructions, which are available as inline images. Many other of the models come with downloadable LDraw instructions in the form of ZIP files. Finally, Space and Blacktron fans in particular should definitely visit the Blacktron The Lost Generation section, including the monstrous yet growing space station Shiva. Warning:  If your browser supports the <BGSOUND> tag, you will be forced to hear background music when you enter this site.
	September 21-27, 1997 Shep's Cool LEGO® Place Chris Shepherd	If you can find your way through the thicket of exclamation points, animated GIFs, bright red "NEW!" markers, and Technic-beam separators, there is some really cool stuff to see here. The motorized Sternwheel Paddleboat is particularly impressive, not only because it worked the first time on its maiden voyage, but also because it's attractively detailed and measures in at a full 5½ feet long! Another large model here is the 40-inch-tall revolving Lighthouse, the view of which from the base, amusingly, begs for a closer look to see if it's real or made of LEGO® bricks. Hardcore Technic fans should make sure to visit the Walking Dog, Mechanical Arm, Loading Crane, Clock, and miscellaneous technical drawings, while Train fans can delight in the dozen-or-so Train models Chris designed, although the photos are somewhat small and blurry. Finally, if you're the compulsive sorting type, you may enjoy the photo of Chris's storage drawer system in his My LEGO Room photo, which also shows a few models neatly lined up.
	September 14-20, 1997 Robotic Design Studio Wellesley College	Robotic Design Studio is a multidisciplinary course at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Using LEGO® pieces and a variety of motors and sensors, students design, build, and program their own robotic creations. A dozen creations from the 1997 session are shown here along with brief descriptions. Some of these creations are capable of sophisticated autonomous behavior, for example navigating a maze or playing a game of "tag."
	September 7-13, 1997 James' LEGO® Village James Trobaugh	While you're touring the many pages devoted to James's large LEGO® village, take note of the many custom-made signs that adorn the various shops, businesses, and vehicles -- while these are not official LEGO® stickers, they add a special dimension and an extra level of realism. For a nice example of LEGO®/non-LEGO® fusion, don't miss the construction scenes on the Government Services page, in which painted backdrops appear. In place of recommending further specific pages for viewing, it is recommended that you visit the entire site page by page, even if you are on a slow connection. Although the images load slowly due to being reduced on the client side, they do expand very quickly from thumbnails to full-size images -- assuming your browser cache is set properly -- and although the photos are not 100% sharp, the lighting on the scenes is excellent. Overall, this site is full of many fun surprises and smirk-inducing creative commentary. Finally, James has started a list of LEGO® imitators (clones). One page you should definitely check out is the Blocko page, which, very interestingsly, is an uncanny, totally shameless rip-off of LEGO®, right down to the same style of building instructions!
	August 31-September 6, 1997 Mars Base Ben Vaughan (with Jeff Elliott)	"The Badger is particularly well suited to urban engagements." This excerpted sentence is representative of the voluminous interesting commentary and historial and manufacturing details which accompany the photos at this energetic, inspirational site. Mars Base is home to the 137th Batallion of the SpaceCorps, a security force supporting Explorien missions. Several mecha, lots of ground and air vehicles, and a few space cruisers comprise the SpaceCorps, with more on the way as they become declassified. Step-by-step building instructions are given for at least two models at this time.
	August 24-30, 1997 LEGO® Space Pirates Home Page Steve Tonner	This site is relatively unique in its pseudo-realist approach, which almost borders on storytelling. Combining official LEGO® models with models of his own design, Steve has created a hybrid world of models with dimension and character, accentuated by crew logs, photos of day-to-day life at the base, and humorous commentary. Droids play a significant role in Steve's world, although they do suffer from certain drawbacks, as amusingly demonstrated. There are quite a few links here to follow -- mostly interleaved with the text -- so you may want to keep an eye out for a few pages such as the DY-47 Medium Cruiser, the swing-wing Scout Ship, the Personal Jet Backpack, the Raven Project, the Colonial Navy Hunter (a beefed-up version of the official LEGO® model 6982 Explorien Starship), the wicked-cool Deep Space Freighter, the Colonial Government Prison System, and the Principal Characters page, which introduces you to the cast and crew.
	August 17-23, 1997 Bob's LEGO® Page Bob Klimasewski	This site contains, hands down, the most impressive collection of home-made minifigs ever put on display. Modification Master Bob, using Krazy Glue, model paint, and a sharp X-Acto blade, has created stunning likenesses of over sixty characters from Star Wars and Star Trek (including the Borg). All are excellent, and some are absolutely amazing. Bob's work clearly demonstrates that official LEGO® minifig designs have barely yet scratched the surface of what can be done with figurines of this size. Also on display here are technological models including the bridge of the Enterprise-D, with custom-painted bricks and control panels for increased realism. These models are so excellent that if someone walked up to you on the street and showed you pictures of them, you might be convinced that they were official models.
	August 10-16, 1997 Steven's LEGO® Ray Tracing Steven Reid	In the Gallery here are a dozen cool ray-traced LEGO® models -- a potpourri of themes from Basic to Castle to Space. Note that three of the models here are renditions of classic sets approximately twenty years old -- including the beloved Alpha-1 Rocket Base, a Shell Oil Rig, and the classic 70's Apollo 11 lunar lander, complete with planet Earth in the horizon!
	August 3-9, 1997 Bri's LEGO® Page Brian Ward	The main attraction here is Brian's Spaceport, complete with pneumatic-action hangar roof, space port bar, and mean-looking guards. This is one of the oldest LEGO-fan sites on the web and one of the very first to show minifigs interacting in a large setting. Two years after its creation, it shows no signs of losing appeal. Also on display are Brian's entries in the 1995 Summer Internet Building Contest, both of which do very well crossing thematic boundaries. The Crane is a space-style model which incorporates a variety of Technic parts for doing neat things, and the Train model is a functional LEGO® train built in the much-celebrated Blacktron I color scheme. Finally, if you are a fan of the Adobe PostScript programming language, you'll enjoy Brian's pages of LegoPS samples. LegoPS was written years ago by Stefan Gustavson and may have been the first publicly-distributed, fan-created LEGO modelling package.
	July 27-August 2, 1997 Wombat's LDraw Page Steven Walter	This week's site celebrates the ever-popular LDraw package for creating step-by-step building instructions for your own LEGO® models interactively on your computer screen, and remembers its author and designer, James Jessiman, who, tragically, passed away late last week at the youthful age of twenty-five. His invaluable contributions to the online LEGO® community will not just be remembered but revered. A gallery of more than 75 models by more than a dozen LDraw devotees is showcased at this week's site. Note that complete step-by-step building instructions for the holy grail of all space sets, the Galaxy Explorer, are given on the Space sub-page in LDraw's native .DAT format. Two other official LEGO® space models also appear here. It has been said about James that no one loved LEGO® so much as he. Witness the very existence of LDraw, and the myriad of pieces and models it handles, as a living testament to the truth of this statement. It should also be added that James greatly loved people, for his untiring devotion to LEGO® was exceeded only by his untiring devotion to his users. James, your contributions over the years have been so incredibly appreciated. With great sorrow we bid you farewell, and promise you will never be forgotten.
	July 20-26, 1997 Bob's LEGO® Page Bob Hayes	This week's pick is a relatively new site -- a short but sweet homage to Star Wars featuring a raytraced T.I.E. (Twin Ion Engine) Fighter model composed of, naturally, LEGO® elements. The quality is absolutely first-rate, and photorealism in this arena is, today, still rare. Even if you don't have the means or desire to create your own copy of the model, you are still encouraged to browse the delightful step-by-step instructions and parts list, both raytraced.
	July 13-19, 1997 T.E.K. Legoverse Terrell Keller	This energetic site is divided into two major categories, each of which is further divided into three subcategories. The first major category is the Legoverse Force Review, consisting of Air, Space, and Assault models. One of the first things that struck me about this site was the innovative use of various round elements in gun turrets. One such innovation can be seen in the excellent close-ups of the Daimön air fighter. Another thing that struck me was the creative use of hollow Space wheels as rocket engines. This is something people have been doing for a long time -- but Terry takes it another step by using Technic gears as axial turbines. Check out the tasty Destruere interceptor model for a great example. Moving on to the Space subcategory, don't miss the ACM EXP Light Attack Fighter with its forward-swept wings, the Scorpion Attack Fighter with its unique shape, and the Devastator Fighter with its incredible degenerate-matter accelerator guns and vectored thrusters. The Assault Drop Ship is an amazing piece of work with numerous hatches and canopies for quickly deploying a crew of "autonomous combat mechs." The ACM level-2 and ACM level-3 are some of the coolest-looking mechs on the web today. The other half of the site features non-Legoverse models, coming from Star Wars, Star Trek, and from the military. The Quadex Kyromaster image on the B-Wing Starfighter page, by the way, shows a really neat use of the conical 4x4x2 brick which commonly appeared as a giant thruster in classic Space models. On the E-Wing page is another great example of engine turbines and a new use for Technic axle extenders and worm gears. It almost seems as though Terry has a magic gift for turning any given LEGO® element into a weapon component of some sort. If you're into that sort of thing, you definitely won't want to miss the F-15-inspired fighter model -- especially the underside -- which is quite heavily laden with weaponry. Note that you can access the Central Technical Blueprint Repository for step-by-step LDRAW renderings of the models. This section, however, is a work-in-progress, although some models already available now. Innovative uses of pieces, judicious use of non-square angles, careful attention to color, excellent photography, and densely packed useful commentary make this site an exceptionally inspirational treat for Space fans.
	July 6-12, 1997 Max Braun's Original LEGO®Creations Max Braun	Here, among other models, is a giant LEGO® wasp with enough hairs and legs to cause nightmares. The design is gorgeous, with a multi-segmented tail and octagonal glowing eyes. Dual pincers in one of the close-ups look as though they may start moving at any moment and devour a stray finger. This WaspZUKI model is a descendant of an earlier model which took 1st Place at a regional building contest. Also on display is a giant windmill standing over five feet tall, complete with a minifig-scale observation deck, cafe, gear house, and grinding room, and several more traditional models such as a pirateship and a sizeable bust of the 19th Century Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Note the refined use of sloped bricks in the Schubert model, particularly in the facial regions.
	June 29-July 5, 1997 Erik Wilson's LEGO® Creations Erik Wilson	This site showcases several years worth of Erik's model building, so there is quite a bit here to see. If you're short on time, I recommend starting with the Temple of Christiansen, the Billund Temple, and the Marble Statuary on the Acropolis Project page, the Landrover, the Alternate Space Themes (some of these are a real hoot), the Spyrius vs. Space Police Chess Set, the French and English Napoleonics pages, the Early Wild West Theme page, the Castle Stuff page, and John Marlin's Battleship Washington. Also check out the "auctionbot" which Erik's brother Rolf wrote. This auctionbot is written in Perl and comes with source code so that you can run your own automated auction.
	June 22-28, 1997 Cameron's LEGO® Page Cameron Barnett	In an unprecidented and realistic level of mayhem, fifth-grade student Cameron has reenacted a historical battle between the English, the British, and the Scottish. The dates an exact locations of the battle aren't given, but perhaps this is to encourage research on the part of the reader. Hopefully this site will be an inspiration to historians and LEGO® fans alike, as it shows us a new way in which LEGO® can be used as an educational tool.
	June 15-21, 1997 Minx's LEGO® Fan Pages Minx Kelly	This is a gigantic and wonderful site with nearly 200 photos of Minx's own LEGO® creations. The main attraction is BunnyLand, an extensive amusement park covering a 6-foot by 12-foot area of floor and containing bumper cars, carnival games, a race track, a ferris wheel, a food court, a gift shop, a Jacob's Ladder, an ampitheatre, a carousel, a pirate show, a kids playground, a whirligig, toilet stalls, tram, and an amazing rollercoaster made from monorail. Somehow, Minx has even managed to use 5 of the curved monorail tracks in a 450° ascending/descending spiral. If you've ever wondered what the large clear rounded domes from Paradisa sets could be used for, this is the site to visit. Check out the Aviary model, which integrates these pieces exceedingly well. As well as these and other models, this site also contains an extensive LEGO-fan link collection, descriptions of some fun games to play with LEGO® bricks, a summary of Forestmen and Dark Forest sets, a list of female minifigs, a complete listing of all Pirate System and Paradisa sets, a personal account of the first "LEGO Fest," held during the summer of 1995, and a light-spirited page entitled "You know you're addicted to LEGO when...” Finally, if you dare enter the PG-rated section of this site, you should definitely seek out Rod's Nightclub, a model with a level of realism unparalleled by any other bar/nightclub model on the net today.
	June 8-14, 1997 Transforming LEGO® Art Joel Kuester	Combining a love for Transformers toys with a love for LEGO®, Joel has created several unique models, from a boombox to various types of vehicles, which transform by moving hinges into heavily armored robots. What's most amazing is the amount of complexity that is hidden when the models sit in their native state. (This site appears to be under construction or repair; a few links are broken, but not enough to spoil the fun.)
	June 1-7, 1997 Metrolegoland Joel Ward	Take a tour through lively, sprawling, and inspirational Metrolegoland, a town built entirely of LEGO® elements. Envisioned by its creator as a downtown area of a Legoland County, this bustling metropolis has many attractions. From the spacious Bricken Estates, a four-story apartment complex, and the Eckert Building apartments, to the lovely Sebastian Townhomes, comprising a variety of housing styles and colors, this is a city with ample housing for its many residents. The Gateway to the City page is particularly impressive, with a view of two busy main streets and intersections. Another major section of town, the Government Complex, includes a prestigious Mayor's Mansion, a four-story Legoland County Building, and a two-story Legoland County Library currently under reconstruction or deconstruction (depending on how you interpret the text) due to a recent town catastrophe. Down the street from the government complex is the three-story Legoland Centre Parking Deck, capable of holding dozens of automobiles (this page is a must-see). Right next to the parking deck is another must-see page: the LCIC Building, an eight-story beautiful red, black, and yellow communications tower. Don't miss the supplemental links on this page which give you two additional views with fun details on the street. Opposite the LCIC Building and adjoining the parking deck is Thorntree Square, a five-story office tower with a plainly visible McDonald's on the bottom floor for an extra touch of realism. There are of course several over places to eat, as well as a gas station, and a TABank which cleverly integrates two tall white door pieces with a 10x10 notched quarter-octagonal white plate. Also shown are two buildings which used to be part of a former Lower Metrolegoland: the large, brightly-colored Palmer Building / Legoland Emergency Center, and the several-baseplate-long Cornell Center. On the main picture of Lower Metrolegoland, by the way, check out the sloped baseplates! Wow! At the time of this review, there are approximately 20 pages to see, making this a fairly large site to tour assuming you read all the text (which is recommended). This is the kind of site you grab some cookies and milk or a large cup of coffee and curl up with for a half hour.
	May 25-31, 1997 Bram's LEGO® Page Bram Lambrecht	James Jessiman's versatile LDRAW software package is becoming the premiere tool for CAD rendering of home-brew LEGO® models. Bram is a self-taught expert in LDRAW and is developing a tutorial to help others. (When the tutorial is completed, it may well be selected as another Cool LEGO Site of the Week pick, based on its utility.) On display at Bram's site today are a delightful bunch of models Bram has designed and rendered using LDRAW. I recommend checking them all out, but if you're pressed for time, start with the Space Cannon (part of the Interstellar Battleship page), the Alien VT-7 (based on the offical LEGO® model 918 Space Transport), the Alien XF-4, the X-Oid Mech, the Ice Planet: The Dark Side train and walker, and all the Star Wars models. (Warning: At the time of this writing, the Star Wars intro page suffers from an auto-loading MIDI music file.) This site is one which is sure to continue evolving in great ways. LEGO® purists should beware that Bram has taken some liberties with colors, for example creating green and brown versions of pieces that don't (yet) exist in green and brown.
	Oct 25-31, 1998 Promotional LEGO® Set Database Huw Millington	Huw has recently updated and upgraded his Promotional LEGO Set Reference into an active online database. You can display sets in a range, search by keyword, or display a specific set by number if you already know it — and all the search results come up showing thumbnail images.
	May 18-24, 1997 Huw's LEGO® Pages Huw Millington	There are many areas of this great site to explore. If you're at all curious about what going to LEGOLAND is like, or want to refresh your memory, Huw has taken several dozen high-resolution pictures of the giant models at LEGOLAND Windsor, which you can enjoy simply by clicking. This is a must-see for all LEGO® fans. Rounding out the reference material on this site are complete scans of the 1997 UK Spares Catalog (useful information for LEGO® fans that the official LEGO® web site unfortunately does not provide), a virtual catalog of 1997 European (non-U.S.) LEGO® sets (yet more useful information not found on the official LEGO® web site!), and a splendid guide to 1970's LEGO® Sets, complete with photos and excellent narrations. If you're an Aquazone fan, don't miss Huw's original creations, complete with step-by-step building instructions that you can download. If you own Visio 4.0, a popular graphic design software package, you can also download a copy of Huw's Visio LEGO shapes library, which contains several hundred shapes for drawing your own creations.
	May 11-17, 1997 A History of Transportation Jim Hughes	This site is a work in progress, at this point featuring a 1:20-scale model of the 1903 Wright Brothers Flyer and built from over 700 LEGO® Technic pieces, and an extensive reference of Technic elements complete with photos and part names. Excellent page layout and graphic design are characteristic throughout the site.
	May 4-10, 1997 Alain Surdez's LEGO® Creations Alain Surdez	What this page lacks in narrative text, it makes up for in photos that speak volumes. This is a serious study in amusement park design -- here you can see a carousel, two ferris wheels, an airplane ride, a "zipper" (a ride with two counter-weighted cabins in which the passengers are inverted at the top), and an "octopus" (a fast, emetic ride with several smaller rotations inside a larger rotation). Not only do the models make judicious use LEGO® Technic parts and motors, but they're skillfully colored as well, with bright colors on the cars and cabins, and with dark and muted colors on the beams and motors. The mechanizations are so realistic that the pairs of horses on the carousel, for example, actually move up and down -- 180° out of phase. Now that's attention to detail!
	April 27-May 3, 1997 Altered States LEGO® Page Joseph Gonzalez	Joseph is carving himself a niche by specializing in new alternative designs for official LEGO® models. Of course this is something every LEGO builder does, but the difference here is that Joseph creates interesting models by re-using pieces in a given set without mixing in other sets, a particularly difficult challenge traditionally undertaken only by a divine few at LEGO Systems. By designing alternative models that give even the best model on the back of the box a run for its money, Joe helps illustrate how truly flexible the LEGO building system is, and how far you can go with a single set, even in the face of concerns about too many specialized pieces. One look at the King's Castle and Explorien Starship alternate models and even the biggest skeptic can see the light. Step-by-step building instructions are provided for several of these original designs, for example the BT Screamer, using pieces from the 6981 Aerial Intruder set, and the Stellar Scythe, using pieces from the 1789 Star Hawk II set. Beyond that, there are original models of the usual type to see here, and a small collection of LEGO-published dioramas -- all good inspiration and food for thought. The bandwidth at this site is high, but it's worth an exhaustive self-guided tour, even if you have to do it in several sessions.
	April 20-26, 1997 Doug's LEGO® Technic Images Doug Carlson	Inspired by the post-apocalyptic 1977 movie Damnation Alley and by the work of fellow LEGO® Maniac Cynde Callera, Doug has created a motorized Tri-Star Wheel machine out of LEGO® Technic which can walk up stairs almost as easily as it can roll on flat ground. Detailed photos show the construction of the design, and an animation shows the machine in action. For even more information and a full history of and follow-ups to this project, follow the link to Cynde Callera's Tri-Star Wheel page.
	April 13-19, 1997 Skull Craag Keep Dan Jezek	Here is a wicked, massive, no-nonsense LEGO® castle built atop a rocky layer of BURPs. (BURP is a rec.toys.lego acronym for Big Ugly Rock Piece.) The BURP layer sits atop a 4x4 matrix of 32x32 baseplates and elevates the castle from the surrounding moat, with additional green baseplates sitting atop the BURP layer at the base of the castle. Spooky walk-through skull decorations, a frighteningly tall tower with attic, and other treacherous skeletal surprises greet the unsuspecting visitor. Close-up photos show that a lot of thought went into the details. Like Ed Boxer's castle, this is the kind of detailed model you could spend hours admiring and playing with.
	April 6-12, 1997 LEGO® Technic Mustang Jonathan Stephenson	Here is a black 1994-95 Ford Mustang convertible built out of LEGO® Technic pieces. The replica is striking. Lots of clear images and narrative text also make this a real treat.
	March 30-April 5, 1997 Greg's LEGO® Page Greg Williams	If you liked the movie Aliens, you've got to check out the LEGO® models Greg has built. Remember when Ripley battled the queen alien in the loader? Check out Greg's loader model in the Aliens Hardware section. Remember the nearly-indestructable battle-tank? Check out the Greg's brilliant Aliens APC model, tastefully built in Blacktron-I colors and complete with a command console and weapons rack. Using James Jessiman's LDRAW program, Greg even produced step-by-step building instructions for the APC model, as well as building instructions for a minfig-scale Alien! Finally, if you're old enough to remember Space: 1999, don't miss the Eagle model, which is impressively accurate.
	March 23-29, 1997 Ed Boxer Goes Downtown Ed Boxer	Cool LEGO® Site of the Week's first winner Ed Boxer is at it again, this time putting together a high-rise business district featuring a variety of architectural styles -- just as you might see in an actual older city. There is a bank, a department store, an art gallery, a pizzeria, a newsstand, a seven-story office tower, a park, a town hall, a three-story mall with working elevator, a police station, a luxury hotel, and a bar & grill. Many of the buildings open up so you can see what's going on inside.
	March 16-22, 1997 LEGO® Technic Models by Svein Erling Lode Svein Erling Lode	Combining his passion for LEGO® Technic with his passions for cars, mechanics, and design, Svein has created more than a dozen sophisticated Technic models and put them on display at this site. It's pretty cool to see a pneumatic LEGO® hand holding a pilsner glass!
	March 9-15, 1997 Leo's LEGO® Designs Leo Dorst	This site is an inspiring mental and visual treat. With a few exceptions, every model on display comes with hand-drawn building instructions -- some in color, all technically excellent. Many models even have sub-pages which pop up when you click an image. There's a lot here if you follow all the links, so if you're in a hurry or just want to get a taste of the illustrations, you might want to start with the Office page, the Track Crossing page, and especially the working LEGO® clock page.
	March 2-8, 1997 LEGO - At Jacob's Jacob Sparre Andersen	Simply put, this is a cool all-around LEGO® fan site. There's really too much here to describe in a paragraph or two, so I recommend just picking a direction and following it. Some highlights you might want to keep an eye out for are the Star Wars index page, the Trains page, the Jungle Bridge, the amazing Houses and Furniture pages, and if you're into Space creations, also don't miss Jacob's Ryu, Black and White, and Swan models, as well as his numerous wing design experiments. In the reference section, you can also find pictures of many historical LEGO® sets in catalogs.
	February 23-March 1, 1997 James Jessiman's Unofficial LEGO® Pages James Jessiman	James was one of the first LEGO® fans ever to create full-color building instructions on the computer. Using a program called LDraw, which he wrote and which you can download a copy of, James documented the step-by-step building process for several models he designed. (At least one model has over 60 steps!) These creations are a great example of how several LEGO® sets can be mixed and recombined. Examples here use parts from Train, Model Team, and Technic sets. The other half of this site contains a gigantic LEGO® parts list. Over 650 unique parts are categorized here, with pictures and an availability graph showing color versus year. Two excellent sample pages showing James's hard work are the 6000-6099 page, which pictures the baseplate from the Aquazone set 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab and some other large pieces, and the 3024 page, which even by itself is a monumental color categorization achievement. Though this list is a work-in-progress, there are really quite a lot of pieces already categorized, and James is always adding more and making improvements to the listing interface. If you take the time to browse the entire parts list, you may be surprised to see pieces you never knew existed!
	February 16-22, 1997 The Minifig Generator Suzanne Rich	[This week's pick is so unique, it gets its own new category "Interactive."] The Minifig Generator is a great exploration toy for kids and adults alike. Using your mouse, you select LEGO® body parts (heads, torsos, legs) from a list on the screen and create new combinations instantly before your very eyes. Click on a head, the head changes. Click a different torso, the torso changes. Want different legs? Click different legs. Want something different altogether? Click the randomizer button and watch the computer shuffle in its own choices. The results can be frighteningly amusing! When you're ready, you can "build" your creation into its own floating window, give it a name, and print it out. The design is simple, elegant, and intuitive. The Minifig Generator requires Netscape 3.0 or higher.
	February 9-15, 1997 Anton's 3D Gallery Anton Raves	In this shrine of LEGO® fandom, Anton Raves pays tribute to over two dozen official LEGO® model sets and mini-figures. Using POV-Ray software, Anton "photographs" virtual models that he creates inside his computer in exacting detail. The final images, which nearly pass for photos, are the result of many hours of delicate and painstaking 3-D modeling work, for which Anton demonstrates a clear gift.
	February 2-8, 1997 LEGO Stuff! Daniel W. Ruby	Ever wish you were a LEGO® minifig? I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Daniel's Kings of Suburbia page. Using ray-tracing techniques, he has superimposed the faces of several famous historical entrepeneurs onto LEGO® minifig heads, creating remarkable likenesses. I couldn't help giggling in admiration. A contemplative-faced minifig portrait of Daniel also appears on his homepage and in his Plastic Self Portrait image. If only we could all do this! Space fans should also take note of Daniel's cool Star Wars Trilogy models and other original space designs. And finally, don't miss the "Hold it right there, Tex" image -- if you're a graphic designer and into LEGO®, it's a nice piece of work that makes you say, "Dang, why didn't I think of that?!"
	January 26-February 1, 1997 Invisible Web Page Richard L. Jenkins	Richard takes fan-created LEGO® model building instructions to a new level with professional-looking step-by-step illustrations which include sidebars, sub-steps, and connecting arrows. The 7-step Shark Skimmer is built using pieces from the offical LEGO set 6115 Shark Scout, and if it weren't for the prominent legal disclaimer on his page, you might otherwise think this was an official alternative model. The 19-step Cargo Command Center, featuring pieces from a mix of many official sets, is to this reviewer's knowledge the largest fan-created building instruction manual online to date.
	January 19-25, 1997 Santa Maria Cathedral of the Crusader Michael Dorneich	Inspired by the Christchurch Cathedral of New Zealand, Michael has created a large, beautiful cathedral out of LEGO® bricks. While the cathedral itself is a sight to behold, several of the items found inside are also particularly entertaining: the Organ, the Crusader Crypt, the Crucifix (which ingeniously uses the articulated-arm skeleton minifig), the Altar Area, and the Dome Angel. In one of the night images, the cathedral looks almost realistic with the glowing lights and simulated stained glass using transparent colored bricks.
	January 12-18, 1997 rec.toys.lego LEGO® Set Review Archive Joshua Delahunty	This is the official home of the rec.toys.lego LEGO Set Review Form, a sophisticated no-nonsense review format for LEGO® sets which has been in existence for nearly three years now and has become the de facto standard for reviewing sets in the rec.toys.lego newsgroup. At the time of this writing, there are over 50 reviews archived at this site.
	January 5-11, 1997 Steve Gustafson's Original LEGO® Creations Steve Gustafson	Cygnus is a highly-detailed mech robot with serious weaponry. A dozen operable joints, as well as working hands with three fingers and a thumb, complement this beautifully-designed model.
	December 22 1996- January 4, 1997 John's Old Job John Kelly	LEGO-maniac John Kelly, who once worked as a Model Builder for LEGO Systems, Inc., gives us an exciting behind-the-scenes pictorial and narrative tour through the construction of a gigantic LEGO® model for the LEGO Imagination Center in Minneapolis.
	July 5-11, 1998 Jeff's LEGO® Page Jeff Christner	Jeff has moved and expanded his site to cover the Nova Township in which Sixby Fire Tech resides. The new sections are every bit as impressive as the earlier ones, and some tips are shown on how to integrate non-LEGO® train coupling and switching technologies for additional realism.
	December 15-21, 1996 The Sixby Fire Tech Home Page Jeff Christner	Here is a unique approach to LEGO® web site creation: a minifig-scale mock fire supply company "Supplying Fire Apparatus to the LEGO World." You'll find 3 kinds of pumpers, 4 kinds of ladders, 4 kinds of airport crash/fire/rescue units, and 10 kinds of various fire equipment. Beautifully designed models and first-rate photography make this site a real pleasure to visit.
	December 8-14, 1996 Karim's LEGOmania Karim Nassar's Original LEGO® Creations Karim Nassar	This week's pick is long overdue -- this is actually two sites, since Karim has some great models at both. Space fans will enjoy Karim's A-Wing Fighter, Raven, Spyrius Intruder, Titanium Gander, DragonFly, Space Police Eliminator, and Nemesis models, as well as the neat things from other themes.
	November 24-December 7, 1996 LEGO® on my mind Erik Brok	Superb graphic design and an abundance of useful LEGO® information and sophisticated LEGO® models come together in this great site. Step-by-step visual building instructions accompany almost all of Erik's models. I found the Mechanical Joystick, the Overview Sheet of the Blacksporien Shuttle, the Wheeled lizard, and the Steam locomotive particularly engaging. Another large part of Erik's site is devoted to mini-essays and outstanding technical illustrations in Erik's "Legeometry" section -- the mathematical geometry of LEGO® elements.
	November 10-23, 1996 Milla de Cresa II Joseph and William Swan	Stand back! Joseph Swan and his father William have constructed an insanely large LEGO® city covering 200 square feet of living room floor. A monorail runs throughout the city, which is home to skyscrapers, department stores, retail stores, restaurants, a gas station, a hotel, a library, a bar, a church, a dockyard, and much more. Humorous commentary and labels on a scanned graph paper map add to the fun.
	November 3-9, 1996 The Programmable Brick Project MIT Media Lab	Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have created a programmable brick capable of connecting computers both to the real world and to LEGO® elements. The programmable bricks are not currently available commercially, but we can only hope that someday perhaps they will be. Showcased here are many student-created models and interesting discussions.
	October 20-November 2, 1996 Roy Gal's LEGO® Page Roy Gal	Here you'll find scans of almost every LEGO® catalog cover and catalog sheet going back to the late 1970's! You can also see pictures of recent McDonald's LEGO® Happy Meal packages and an old Pepsi promotional LEGO® set. Rounding out the scans is a complete 1996 Vendor's catalog -- not something you see often! For your reading pleasure, there are scans of some LEGO®-related magazine articles, including a Computerworld article about unauthorized LEGO® web pages. And finally, don't miss Roy's cool Town models and setups!
	October 13-19, 1996 Star Wars LEGO® Mini-Figures David Oakes	LEGO® purists beware! David has knifed, dismembered, sandpapered, painted, and superglued several Mini-Figures into remarkable likenesses of a few favorite Star Wars ANH characters: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, C-3PO, R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader. Each comes complete with a close-up picture and instructions. (Is that Han and Leia holding hands in the second picture?)
	October 6-12, 1996 The ADEQUATE.com LEGO® Maniac's Guide Patrick Delahanty	Every major city needs an on-line guide to all the stores in the area which sell LEGO®. Patrick, with the help of some other LEGO Maniacs in the area, has created a gigantic list of stores in The Boston Area LEGO Maniac's Guide, which rates retailers on their supply, price, and variety of LEGO® products. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend. Also reviewed and rated are a few dozen official LEGO® theme sets. And you can check out some of Patrick's cool space creations! In December 1996, Patrick also added a search engine which is smart enough to pick only LEGO®-related web sites.
	September 22-October 5, 1996 Weird Richard: A LEGO® Odyssey Richard Wright	This site claims to be "The absolute best site for educational applications (lesson plans, group activities and project ideas) for LEGO® products. Created for teachers, parents, and students." Wow! -- It's hard to describe the content-rich site other than simply to say that there are bazillions of photos of LEGO® models in the Library section, dozens of animations in the Movies section, and tons of ideas in the Activities section. There's so much here, you could easily spend a day or more going through all the links in detail.
	September 8-21, 1996 Matt's LEGO® Train Depot Matthew Bates	This site is devoted entirely to LEGO® trains. Here you will find a most excellent discussion of track geometry, a History of LEGO® Trains, a Hints and Tips section, and dozens of track layouts with interesting discussions. There is also a comprehensive guide to all LEGO® train sets, past and present, complete with fact sheets and descriptions. This site is one which reminds us how badly the official LEGO® site is in need of fun and useful information for LEGO® Maniacs. Once again the fans are triumphant.
	September 1-7, 1996 Fibblesnork LEGO® Guide Todd Lehman	[Well, I feel kinda like a goober-head here selecting one of my own sites this week, but it was nominated about a month ago and has been voted for repeatedly since... so I guess I don't have much of a choice!] This site contains a comprehensive cross-referenced guide to LEGO® Space, Castle, Pirate, Aquazone, Wild West, and Time Cruisers sets (with pictures!), as well as a sophisticated rating system, an on-line LEGO® Survey, and an HTML version of the rec.toys.lego Auction & Shipping FAQ.
	August 18-31, 1996 Rem's Ravin' LEGO® Page Remco Slotboom	Remco takes LEGO® raytracing to a new level with stylistic background and terrain imagery in his Rambler model, which also sports a set of beautifully raytraced step-by-step building instructions.
	August 4-17, 1996 The LEGO® Purists Page Randall Barker Steve Hartman	Unbelievable! That's what you'll scream as you admire the pictures of the Millenium Falcon and Shuttle Tyderium models at this site. Built entirely from LEGO® pieces, these models look as close to the real thing as you can get. Though Star Wars fans may be the only ones who appreciate the likenesses, many other treats have been designed in, such as retractable landing gear, folding wings, loading ramps, rotating interior gunner cockpits, and working lights.
	July 28-August 3, 1996 Will Chapman's LEGO® Page Will Chapman	For some really sweet animated GIF's, check this out! But this site is much more than that. If you're a train fan you'll love the pictures Will has taken for several years at the Annual Model Railroad Show in Seattle. He also created a LegoServo motor which he uses in some of his models. And if you're into LEGO® Christmas ornaments, this is the place to come.
	July 21-27, 1996 BriCad Home Page Carsten Gnörlich	Carsten has Model Gallery feauring several models of his own LEGO® designs. Each model is shown with step-by-step building instructions drawn in the time-honored tradition of the official sets. What Carsten has achieved is something the Official LEGO World Wide Web Site has yet been unable to provide for us: cool models with complete instructions. As a bonus, if you run the Linux operating system on your computer, you can download the interactive BriCad software Carsten used to create the drawings.
	July 14-20, 1996 Gyugyi Cybernetics Paul Gyugyi	Paul's been at this LEGO® ray-tracing thing for years and has many neat homemade virtual models to dazzle you with. Space fans: check out Paul's new Unitron and Explorien theme models, as well as his own Reptron theme. You could say that Paul is the "father of LEGO raytracing" as he has inspired many others over the years with his great work.
	July 7-13, 1996 Suzanne's LEGOphile Homepage Suzanne Rich	This new site is a rare treat which promises to unfold in wonderful ways over the coming months. The heart of the site is a LEGO® town called Legopolis. There's a lot here when you follow all the links, so if you're crunched for time, I'd recommend checking out the Hole-in-the-wall Bar page, the Cozy Yellow Cottage page, the Bathroom page, the Flower Seller page, the Citizens pages, and the Mini-Figure scale medieval Chess pages first before a return visit. This site would be great for the pictures alone, but what makes it really great is the combination of the pictures with Suzanne's special brand of humor in the words accompanying the pictures. You can also download some cool background images for your web page and stroll through the "LEGO-Cam" gallery.
	June 30-July 6, 1996 Ben's LEGO® Page Ben Vaughan	Ben elevates high-tech weaponry to an artform in this page showcasing some of his original LEGO® models. If terms like co-axial machine gun, twin dorsal laser turret, multi-directional drive, twin heat dumps, and short-range radome get your building juices flowing, then you will be suitably impressed as you browse Ben's mech and military masterpieces.
	June 23-29, 1996 The Construction Toy Homepage Joe Lauher	This web site is devoted to construction toys, primarily LEGO® Technic and Model Team: Each month, this site features a different LEGO® set; Joe builds the model and then takes superb photos from various angles. The Model of the Month feature goes back to January, 1995. There is a comprehensive guide to Technic and Model Team sets, complete with pictures. There are pictures of early LEGO® Hobby Sets. You can find LEGO® Idea Book covers going back to 1980, and LEGO® catalog covers going back to the late 70's (including Samsonite-era LEGO® catalogs). In 1995, Joe hosted a Summer Building Contest. You can see pictures of the 37 entires and the winners. Space fans: check out Joe's original Spyrius Quadropod model.
	June 16-22, 1996 Ben and Jer's LEGO® Raytracing Ben Jackson Jeremiah Johnson	Ben and Jer have created dozens of absolutely first-rate renderings using POV-Ray. Their specialty is Mini-Figures. On the Town theme page, don't miss the 6314 City People image...pure genius. On the Pirates theme page, don't miss the ranks of Imperial Guardsmen. On the Castle theme page, don't miss the 6075 Castle. On the Trains theme page, don't miss the 4554 Metrostation. Two seasonal Christmas images make use of green conical LEGO® trees.
	June 9-15, 1996 Pause Magazine's LEGO® Reference Guide Lou Zucaro	Best known for its extensive collection of catalog scans, this site offers a great look into the entire LEGO® product line: More than a dozen theme pages, all with pictures. A section devoted specifically to this year's product line (both U.S. and European). In the works, a comprehensive list of all LEGO® sets, arranged numerically and alphabetically. Space fans: check out Karim Nassar's wickedly cool models on Lou's Original LEGO® Creations page.
	June 2-8, 1996 Ed Boxer's LEGO® Castle Ed Boxer	In this large, sophisticated castle with many rooms and levels, Ed has created a masterpiece. Even Space fanatics agree this is a gem. Interesting commentary accompanies more than a dozen photos. Most impressive is the attention to detail at all levels, from the decorative balcony and turret tops to the skilled use of color throughout. This model will be an inspiration to builders for years to come, and we are proud to select it as the first Cool LEGO® Site of the Week.

Cool LEGO^® Site of the Week is Copyright © 1996-1999 by Todd Lehman.