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 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!

LEGO Saxophone

This is a really awesome LEGO book. We get a lot of ideas from it and it has lots of cool ideas and tips. Here's one of the neat ideas we got from it.

We found a picture of a LEGO saxophone in the book. Our Dad plays the saxophone, so we decided to build it. Here are the pictures and how to build it for yourself.

My brother sings "Jack! Jack! I'm a LEGO maniac!" All.  The. Time. If he got anything from this book, it's that right there.

LEGO Saxophone

Pieces needed:

• 1 Goblet
• 2 Faucet pieces
• 1 1x1 plate with horizontal clip
• 1 1x1 round plate

(All the pieces should be yellow.)
Attach the clip plate to the goblet.

Now stack the faucets on top of the clip. One will be the mouth piece, one will be the handle for the mini figure to hold. Angle them accordingly.

Finally, add the round plate on the bottom.

Ta-da! Your saxophone is ready to take its place in a band!

Bonus picture of my mini figure playing the saxophone.