The comparison with the official 2014 Star Destroyer in the foreground shows how awesome and big this custom ship really is. Doomhandle’s ISD Tyrant is so massive, he was able to fit a hangar bay, multiple ships, and three levels of various rooms inside. The Tyrant is over 56 inches (1.4m) long and weighs approximately 70 lbs (32kg) with a full load (the interior adds a lot of weight). That makes it about 20 inches longer — and quite a few times heavier — than the classic LEGO UCS version.So it’s not just a gigantic MOC, but has awesome features inside, around twenty times the size of the official set. That’s the outside from all angles. And here’s the top level with the command bridge, the captain’s cabin, a conference room and a Sith meditation chamber below.Level two below has even more stuff, with a classic Imperial walkway, sensor and gunner stations, a medical bay, a turbolift and engineering stations. And below all lies level one, the largest section of the three.
This level has a barracks, a cargo hold with a detention center, and a pretty damn cool hangar bay with some TIE Interceptors, a Sentinel Class Shuttle and a captured Rebel fighter.Be sure to check out Doomhandle’s gallery for even more pics, zoom-ins and a showcase of the minifigs.Recently, I caught up with Ben Caulkins, who we . Over the course of a few days, we talked about his Halo Spartan/Master Chief armor, the Halo series, and Brickworld 2011. My story with the Halo franchise is actually a strange one. I never had an xbox, and I never even knew what Halo was until a few years ago, but I can remember the first time I played it. I was so young, I didn't even know what I was doing, who the bad guys were, or how to operate the controls, but I remember what it looked like: it was the level in Halo CE where you have to reenter the covenant's flagship, of course I didn't figure that out until many years later. After that, several years later, I met a guy while on vacation in Maine who I'm now good friends with.
He had an xbox and Halo 2 with him, so we played that. We never actually played it to win the game, we just sort of played it. I was still pretty young, and I payed no attention to the storyline, so I had no idea what was going on. Fast forward to spring of 2010. That same friend from Maine was at my house, and we were on the floor building, and I told him, "name something you want me to build." He said, "a warthog", so that's what I did. From then on, I started to delve deeper and deeper into the Halo franchise, and then, last summer, I was again on vacation in Maine, when I went over to my friends house, and as usual, we played Halo 2, but this time we actually played to win. Its not as if we had literally agreed to play it to the end, but rather there was now a determination to finish that hadn't been there before. Sure enough, within the two weeks I had been there at about one hour a day, we beat Halo 2. Then over the course of the last year, I bought Halo CE for my computer and played Halo 3 at a different friends house, so now i can finally say that I've played the essential trilogy.""
The root for the idea I guess could be my first attendance of Brickworld last year. The things I saw there really heightened my standards of building and I realized, if I was going to get any attention at all, I was going to have to go big! It was on a walk when I was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that I really thought of a specific thing to build: a Master Chief suit made entirely out of LEGO. Simafol had done it. Of course, it took a lot more thinking before I actually thought it would be possible."BC:"I knew I wanted to start with the helmet, so that's what I did. It took me three weeks and was an instant hit with the blogs, but that only lasted for so long before I was back to work. From that point on it was months of work constructing all of the different segments, and as I progressed I gained more experience, so some of the pieces of armor that I finished later in the process are actually of a higher quality than some of the earlier pieces. But in the end, it all came together beautifully."
MB:So, walk us through how you would put on this contraption.BC:"I put it on from the ground up, so naturally the first that goes on are the shoes. The legs can crack in half so I can snap them on over my legs. The thighs don't form a full circle, so those are pretty easy to put on. The belt can separate into two halves, so I put one on usually which sticks using Velcro, and then attach the other half to it. The next part is pretty difficult: the torso. Those thing that loop under the armpits can come off so I can put the torso on over my head, then the armpit loops reattach. Its a pretty tight fit, but it works... mostly. Next is the most hazardous part, the upper arms. I never really thought them through all that well, so the only way to put them on is to slide them up my arm, which is difficult because they're covered in Velcro, and my entire neoprene suit sticks to Velcro. Also, I made them to small, so whoever is helping me has to push really hard in order to get them far enough up my arms.
Once, in fact, one of them exploded because it couldn't fit on my arm...oops. Then the most irritating part: the forearms. They can crack in half similar to the legs, but there is a very precise place to put them on, and most of the time it ends up attached wrong, so I have to make my helper take them off and do it all over again. Afterwards comes the gloves, and finally the helmet. In the end, I feel very satisfied, and my helper is pissed at me for being so bossy, but I think he's a little satisfied too."So it does require an extra person...I was going to ask that. Ok, so let's move on to BW'11...How did you like general vibe from Brickworld? Was it better than last year's or about the same?BC:"Its difficult to judge this years Brickworld. My personal experience was very different as I was part of a group layout for the first time, so I got to meet some really awesome people. Also, I got a lot more attention from attendees due to the suit. But, as a person just visiting Brickworld, I'd say it was about the same.
There was no serious leap in the total size of the convention or the quality of the MOCs in general, but I should say that the quality of the MOCs is probably beyond improvement as many of them are superb. Now that's not to say I didn't enjoy Brickworld, I did very much, but it's just more of the same from last year, which is a good thing because that formula works."What was the public's reaction to the Halo armor?BC:"The public's reaction to the Halo armor was overwhelming. Everywhere I went I was followed by a crowd of people trying to take pictures. I ended up not moving for long periods of time as parents took picture of me with their kids over and over again. Also, I even had a few attendees following me who I had never met, so I guess its akin to stalking. If it wasn't for Nick Jenson (Nick Brick) I probably would have been trampled by a crowd of people, as he was the one made holes in the crowd for me to pass through (also, here's a bit of shameless plugging: check out Nick's Halo weapons, they are sick!).
As the man in the suit, I was constantly giddy with joy. Sure it was difficult to walk in and the crowds did get pretty annoying, but still, it was awesome to be noticed like this."MB:You (and I) attended the advanced mosaics workshop by Roy Cook. What did you think of it? Did you find it helpful, inspiring, or interesting in anyway? BC:"Although I don't plan on making mosaics in the future, I found the workshop very informative. I found his discussion on how he made his Halle Berry mosaic especially interesting, what with all the unique techniques that went into it."MB:Did you attend any other workshops or presentations from this year, and if so, which ones stuck out for you?BC:"My favorite workshop was presented by Jamie Berard (LEGO Creator designer) on what life is like as a designer in Denmark. Not only did it reveal some pretty interesting facts, but it also answered some questions that I had about LEGO product design. Plus it didn't hurt that Jamie is a really nice guy."MB:So at one point, you were given the epic privilege of destroying this cylinder of Brickworld 2011 made entirely of 1x8s.
What was that like? BC:"To be honest, I was actually kind of nervous. I was mainly concerned with looking like an idiot in this big bulky suit. Secondly, I was worried the suit would break, which of course it did, and I have yet to fix it. When Nannan posted the video of me knocking it down, I was worried that I would look really stupid. But when I watched it, I actually think I did a pretty good job considering the limitations of the suit. The only real problem is that you may notice that part of my knee armor is missing."MB:Overall, do you plan on attending next year?BC:"Absolutely, although I don't know how I could possibly top myself next year considering the standards that I have now raised myself to. But my goal is to win some kind of award, because the last two years have been teasing me with two nominations per Brickworld, and I thought I had it this year with the suit, but Ryan McNaught's massive Loveboat bested me at that. Anyway, I can't imagine not going to Brickworld again, because getting to talk to people who genuinely get this obsession with LEGO is such a treat, and how one forget the hundred of awesome MOCs populating the display tables.