Pirate Catapult Game

Time for a fun, interactive LEGO creation! Me and my brother love playing with this! I made it Pirate themed, but you can make it any way you want.
The pile of round 1x1 bricks over there are your projectiles (We refer to them as soda cans, since that what we pretended they were at one point.), you use the catapult to launch them at the target. Landing on the different towers or colored zones gets you points.

Picture of the target of the catapult.

An open treasure chest and two barrels give lots of points if you land in them!

Landing the soda can on one of the towers gets a lot of points!

Here you can see the barrels I included in the stands for the towers, sticking to the pirate theme as much as possible.

Here's how I built my catapult. You could do it countless different ways though.

I got several different technic bricks and an axle. Some important elements are a large base so it doesn't flip over, a long plate or otherwise for leverage and a bucket of some sort to hold projectiles. I used a cauldron, but you could use anything, even build a box out of bricks!

Let's start with the base. I added various tiles and grilles to add some texture. Raise up where your catapult arm will attach a few blocks off the ground.

I strung two technic bricks on the axle to start.

Then the longer ones.

And finally, the cross shaped hole technic bricks to stop the other bricks from sliding off.

Now I attach the arm to the two center bricks.

And set it on the base. Ready for launch!

Yes! Landed in the chest! Twenty points!

Action shot!

Close up of the anchor and chain hanging off the tower. There's also a sextant sitting up there on the tower, along with a chest that you can get points for landing in.

Here you can see one of the chests and a cutlass, as well as all the different colored scoring zones.

A pistol, golden telescope and a pirate flag to add to the theme.

A ship's wheel and a pirate hat, complete with plume, adorn this tower.

Picture of the bottom.

Here's my scoring guide:
Black-----------1
Dark Gray----2
Red--------------3
Yellow---------4
Blue------------5
Light Gray---6
That Hole Behind
The Chest-----7
Chests---------20
Barrels--------30
Flag Tower---10
Chest Tower--12
Wheel Tower-15
Balancing it on any small object, like the sextant or the cutlass is worth fifty points, but it's unlikely that will happen. Also, there's an optional five point bonus for turning the steering wheel.
You can build any sort of target with any sort of theme. There's a game similar to this in my brother's LEGO play book, a giant castle with different colored scoring zones and things to land in like ours has. Even a flat set up of multicolored plates on the floor would work!
Enjoy!

Microscale Challenge: Pirate Ship

Another microscale challenge between me and my brother. We think of an object, then scour our collection to build a microscale version of it. Microscale is fitting as much detail as you can into the smallest amount of pieces.

His

Mine

Here's comparison of the two. Mine won, since it has less pieces, which is the point of microscale. Ignore the shell logo on the sail, I couldn't find a tile that was plain white. My other options were a car wash, a hammer, and the US flag.

Here's how to built his ship.
You'll need:

• 2 tan 1x4 plates
• 2 tan 1x3 plates
• 1 tan 2x3 plate
• 1 tan 1x2 plate
• 2 brown 1x1 plates
• 2 white 1x3 bricks 
• 1 black telescope
• 1 tan  1x2 grille
• 1 dark tan jumper plate

Place the 1x4 plates on either end of the 2x3 plate.

Place the 1x3 plates on either end of the 1x4 plates.

Place the 1x1 plates on the bottom to fill in the gaps.

Add the grille and 1x2 plate on the sides. I'm not sure if he made it uneven on purpose, or if he couldn't find the right pieces.

The jumper plate goes in the bottom of the boat.

 Now add the telescope to the jumper plate. On top of the telescope, stack the white bricks for the sail.

 Here's how to build mine. You'll need:

• 2 brown 2x2 inverted slanted bricks
• 1 white 2x2 tile
• 1 brown round 2x2 plate
• Ping-pong paddle like white piece found in an 80's police set

Attach the inverted slanted bricks together back to back using the round plate.

Add the mast. If you don't have this piece,  be creative and think of a substitute.

Now add the sail and you're finished. There's a few ways I'd improve it a bit, such as adding two stacks of two 1x2 brown plates on either end to make the ends curve up a bit, but fewest pieces was my priority when building this, so this is how it turned out.

Microscale Imperial Shuttle

I designed a microscale version of an imperial shuttle from Star Wars. There are official LEGO Sets for both a smaller and huge imperial shuttle. We own the smaller one. I decided to make my own, as small as possible imperial shuttle.
The imperial shuttle is a vehicle from Star Wars, if you didn't know.
Here's how mine turned out.

 If you want to build it, here's how.
You'll need:
For the Shuttle:

• 1 white 2x4 double slanted plate
• 2 white jumper plates 
• 1 white 1x2 plate
• 1 white 1x1 slant
• 1 white 1x2 slanted brick

For the Base:

• 1 gray 4x4 plate
• 1 gray 1x4 tile
• 1 gray 2x2 plate
• 2 gray 1x2 tiles
• 2 gray 1x1 tiles
• 1 gray jumper plate

 Let's get started with the shuttle. First, put the jumper plates on the double slanted plate.

 Put the 1x2 plate on the jumper plates.

 Now stack the slanted rick on the 1x2 plate. I couldn't find a way to attach the cockpit to the rest of the shuttle, so that's why we have the base. The main part and the cockpit are attached to the base rather than to each other.

 Place the 2x2 plate in the center of the 4x4 plate.

 Add the jumper plate next to the 2x2 plate.

 Now fill in the edges with the tiles.

 Attach the shuttle to the 2x2 plate and the cockpit attaches to the jumper plate.

 Ta-da! You are finished with my design for a microscale imperial shuttle.

Microscale Challenge: Shark

Me and my brother competed to see who could make the best microscale shark. Here are the results.

His

Mine

 We unanimously agreed that mine won, since the point of microscale is the minimum amount of pieces, but both turned out fairly well. We both built them in less than five minutes using pieces from our collection.
Here's a comparison of our sharks to a regular LEGO shark.

Baby shark doo doo doodoo doodoo

 Here's how to build his:
Pieces Needed:
(All pieces gray)

• 5 1x2 slanted bricks (You could also use a 2x2 slanted brick in place of two of the five bricks.)
• 1 1x2 brick
• 1 2x2/1x4 bending brick (That's not what it's actually called, I'm just making something up cause I don't know what to call it.)
• 2 jumper plates
• 2 1x1 bricks with one side stud
• 1 2x6 plate

 Place the bendy brick in 2x2 form on the plate. He says his reasoning for using this type rather than a regular 2x2 brick is that the hinge sticking out is the tail. (Amputated tail maybe? I don't know.) Place the bricks with side studs so that the side studs are facing out on either side as shown.

 Fill in the gap between the side stud bricks and the other brick with a 1x2 brick, then add the two 1x2  (Or 1 2x2 slanted brick) slanted bricks on the front.

 Place the two jumper plates on top.

 Attach the fins on top and on the sides, then you are finished.

 Now for mine. You'll need just five pieces:
(All pieces dark gray)

• 1 1x1 slant
• 1 1x2 plate with vertical clip
• 1 jumper plate
• 1 1x1 plate
• 1 1x2 plate with slant (You may substitute a 1x2 plate and 1x1 slant)

 Place the plate with clip on the plate with slant as shown. The clip forms the shark's tail.

 Put the 1x1 plate on the bottom.

 Add the jumper plate.

 And add the slant to the jumper plate for the top fin and you're done!