27 | February | 2013 | Lee Battersby

I’ve been trying to whip up some enthusiasm for starting a Lego User Group in the southern reaches of Perth, without much in the way of success. One of the ways I’ve been trying is by starting a Facebook group: RockLUG. Feel free to join. There are a few members, but right now it appears to be a page dedicated to me whittering on about Lego to myself.

This month, I decided to try issuing a challenge: a remix, based on concepts I posted about here a couple of weeks ago. Basically, the idea is to create a MOC using only the pieces from one individual set.

I chose this one:

The Space Police III set Undercover Cruiser, 309 pieces and like a lot of Space Police III sets, filled with an array of odd and unique pieces. I love the Space Police III stuff: apart from designs which are as mad as all get-out, they invariably have a fantastic range of pieces and use a lot of unique, interesting parts, which meant I was confident of being able to come up with something a little wild.

In the end I came up with The Hopper, which is based around a technic-heavy armature designed to hold in place two swept wings at a really odd angle over the basic spine of the ship. Lots of greebles and an offset engine arrangement (more technic) made for a fun and (for me, at least) challenging build.

Check out those fins. Check out those fins!

“Did you get my best side?”

Yes. Yes, I did.

Underside: lots of technic pieces and a cannon. As it should be.

Stubby. Like a container truck without a container. In space!

Then, with half an hour before I had to pick the kids up from school, I started clipping things together at random and came up with a long, slim piece I dubbed The Copslider, utilising a ridiculously long nose piece and some rather traditional building shapes.

No, my kid didn’t build it. Shut up.

Cannons. You just gotta have cannons.

And I still had a bunch of pieces left over– lots of little, greebly pieces with no immediately apparent fit, so I might see what I can do with them just for the challenge of it.

So a fun challenge, but given I was the only one who jumped on it, perhaps not one I’ll be setting my LUG-without-a-LUG again.

Luscious Lyn has recently joined one of the strangest little groups I’ve heard of in years.

Zombies, Run is a downloadable exercise app that plays an ongoing post-apocalyptic narrative in which you, designated Runner 5, navigate your way through a zombie-strewn landscape, completing tasks and avoiding shambling herds of z-men by, well, running. It’s an extraordinarily clever conceit as well as yet another indication that SF is always amongst the first literary genres to take advantage of new technology. What’s more it is, according to the Luscious one, rather addictive. Which, let’s face it, rather the point when it comes to getting out there and exercising.

What’s more, the app is bringing groups together t talk about their experiences: Lyn is a member of a group based in Wollongong, along with fellow Clarion South alumni Laura Goodin. And now they want t-shirts.

Which is where the Battersby Family Art Machine decided to intervene 🙂

Miss 11 has designed a Zombie Run picture. I’ve designed a Zombie Run t-shirt. Master 8 has drawn a dragon, but then, that’s just Master 8 all over.

Lyn often plays the narrative while she walks the kids to school, and has taken to referring to them in her Facebook posts as Runners 5.1 and 5.2, so they just had to appear in the design. What’s more, I’ve managed to do what it took Aiden 20 years of computer games and unemployment to achieve: I’ve turned them into shambling, flaky skinned zombies of the first order.

Here’s the proof of concept sketch for your entertainment. We’ll be getting it up onto Cafe Press soon as I have a few days to design, layout and paint a final version.