Traditional Nexus Farce: IoI Vignettes

[Brigs]

As the title implies, these are the vignettes which accompany Nexus Farce: Ingress of Imagination. Below are alternative views of the models and a brief description.

 

Chapter 1 - Johnny Thunder and the Quest for the MacGuffin

"Johnny Thunder and the Quest for the MacGuffin"

Much of this model's inspiration ostensibly comes from classic Adventurers sets and the slightly more recent Indiana Jones sets. The eponymous MacGuffin is a Voltstone from the Insectoids theme, which is called an Imaginite Crystal in LEGO Universe. Includes one Johnny Thunder and one affable dismembered skeleton.

The symbol behind our hero is a simplification of the insignia seen inside the Nexus Temple in the story cinematic trailer. The elevated region is also shaped after the insignia. The First Builders and Mythran apparently have a penchant for triangular geometries.

A dozen of those useless flick-fire projectiles are embedded in the wall, and to their right is that one conspicuously protruding brick.

A couple friendly swinging blades are suspended to the left, and the obligatory lava pit sits beneath.

Skeleton.

[Brigs]

Chapter 2 - Typhonus

"Typhonus's Study"

I think the title's pretty self-explanatory for this one.

Impeccably preserved.

The globe is circumscribed by a Belville bucket handle.

There's a stud at both ends of every shelf. Each "book" is a 2x2 plate, with a 1x2 slope at the end; 1x2 brown panels span the gaps.

Gallifreyan display panels? Typhonus must be a Time Lord, and the Venture Koi is his TARDIS.

 

Good evening.

[Brigs]

Chapter 3 - Albert

"Pants Party"

In all of its glorious inebriated splendor.

This one's my indisputable favorite of the batch. Notion Potions are actual consumables in LEGO Universe. I represented it with this obscure piece in trans-medium blue, which works surprisingly well.

Anyway, this acid trip is the spawn of the progenitor to this story, which was originally titled "Expedition". Albert had a really depressing and cliche-ridden backstory that surpassed the nebulous PG rating back then, which this parodies in an only slightly less objectionable form.

 

But enough of that; the morality police may be surveilling us!

[Brigs]

Chapter 4 - Albert's Abode

"Albert's Abode"

Albert's unassuming home is a relatively simple model; nevertheless, it was a very fun build with plentiful visual gags. Grass and flowers can be seen in the forefront, alluding to the "inexplicable" building ordinances requiring one wall be absent, a quality not unfamiliar to the buildings of the LEGO City line. The municipal government believes this open-air approach to housing encouraged community interaction and carried with it other societal benefits, such as economical government surveillance. 

 

Decades prior, criminals had attempted to gain entry to homes with intent to ransack via windows and doors to the front and side of houses, and almost immediately discovered this approach carried with it certain challenges; It could be very difficult to open them from the outside when their knobby little hands which couldn't work their way into the grooves. Others took an only slightly more pragmatic approach, opting to forcibly disassemble walls and the like, but this could cause quite a din and alert the entire neighborhood to the burglary.

 

More recently, with the national enactment of these housing stipulations, one particularly bright young criminal mastermind, known by his surrogates only as "The Fourth Law-breaker," proposed something remarkable: instead of going a traditional route, prospective burglars might simply slip in undetected through the unobstructed back. In the next year alone, the crime rate septupled; violence and house-fires were on the rise as well, prompting municipalities across the country to commission new police buildings, fire stations, and the occasional underequipped hospital, bleeding dry funds for other expenses, such as parks, infrastructure, and economic development projects.

 

"The Fourth Law-breaker" became very rich as a result of his discovery, enabling him to possess an influence over various authority structures, including the police department. The architects of the prisons built flaws into the cells, enabling allied parties easy escape from their captivity. Lawmakers figured it would be personally advantageous to look the other way meanwhile kicking the cylindrical tin container down the pavement. Thus the problem pervaded society: burglary on the rise, increased funding for new police and fire equipment without confronting the core issues, and an appalling underrepresentation of women in the workplace.

 

...oh sorry, there was a model, too?

The terrier's "eyebrows" are the handlebar mustache accessory, and the tiles on the wall are supposed to represent letters from the cryptic "language" used in the Great Minifig Mission, creatively dubbed "Minifig"; the written form of which curiously resembles the faces of a six-sided dice, and contains a series of dot configurations which conveniently correspond to the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

The refrigerator (Fridge Logic) and lighting fixture (Lampshade Hanging) are an unapologetic nod to TVTropes, a serious ailment which conditions its victims to a perpetual cycle of link-clicking until your browser gets tired of all the tabs you've opened and will probably never get around to reading. And yes, my primary motivation for including the terrier was to give Typhonus a "Pet the Dog" moment.

I...didn't plan to ramble on like that. Sort of had a fuzzy idea of that background in my head for a long time. Is that sort of commentary appreciated? Let me know in the comments. Or don't. I probably wouldn't.

[Brigs]

Chapter 5 - Assembling the Build Alliance

"A Perplexing Demonstration"

 

Typhonus is a rather eccentric fellow, and his estate reflects this. This room houses some of his most eclectic artifacts, situated on pedestals in the back, which will be addressed from left to right. The first is a 2x4 brick from the Modulex line. Bricks at this scale were long considered a physical impossibility, and scientists have speculated that they may in fact be native to an adjacent reality.

The second is the Kanohi Pakari Nuva, the Mask of Strength; this miniature version of the mask comes from one of those Bionicle Pen sets. Prior to this, I had experimented creating a body to fit this unique head size. There is a discrepancy between this depiction and the story, the latter of which says the Kanohi was a Miru. Unfortunately, these pens are really hard to come by, so I made do by decapitating Onua.

  It isn't quite visible, but Johnny Thunder's trademark fedora is right behind the blonde, suited fellow. For whatever reason Typhonus had decided to store it in his collection, either because of its historical significance, or he just likes to gloat. The fourth is a Znap connector, another obscure element which has mystified researchers for several zillenia. The last is...well.

The prototype Imaginetic Spatial Distortion Array is held together by an Aeroblade from Ninjago. The bald, mustached fellow is molded after Arthur C. Clarke, a novelist remembered for, among other things, giving us Clarke's Laws. If you don't know what these laws are, google them and then re-read the chapter. It'll be about 35% more funny.

[Dazzgracefulmoon]

wow dude. not only are your stories great, but these vignettes are just icing on the cake!

[Brigs]

Chapter 8 - The Smothering

"Gratuitous Minor Skirmish"

 

The Ministry of Narrative is the governmental body responsible for the handling of all information disseminated to the public. The potential implications on the narrative field of the Imaginetic Spatial Distortion Array drew the scrutiny of the Ministry, seeing it as  an asset to exploit or a liability in the hands of the enemy. The Protagonist Smothering Agency (P.S.A.)  is the enforcement division of the Ministry, squelching dissidents and interrogating rival factions. Jerk Bowel's character is fashioned after 24's Jack Bauer, who is a federal agent and will at least once a season remind the audience of this. Jerk has also infiltrated Chapter 5's vignette, and can be seen performing surveillance on behalf of the Ministry. 

Fire elements have a small crevice in which all sorts of accessories can be lodged. That little projectile lodged in the fire element is a floodlight accessory used in those weird Clone Wars sets. 

I've been looking for a place to use the gauge assembly (seen at the top right) for a while now. It consists of a Life on Mars engine piece for the frame, Zurg's power level disk, and a minifigure hand for the dial. I don't have a witty conclusion for this one. Maybe I'll make up for it next time.

[Brigs]

Chapter 9 - Space is a Figurative Ocean

"Hael, no!"

 

Typhonus's contact proved less reliable than he had hoped...

Above Hael Storm is the conveniently minifigure-accommodating air vent, with this grille as the access point. The bottom of the ventilation system employs these containers for an industrialized appearance.

This one was a challenge to shape. Though nearly invisible from interior shots, the sloped walls are lined with hinge bricks for a nice 30-degree angle offset. This model finally presented an opportunity to use the large Insectoids appendages as support beams. The guard's innards are spattered across the floor, leading me to question why the LEGO Group ever thought producing this element in red was a good idea.

[Brigs]

Chapter 10 - Templar

"Sir Oppressalot Arrives"

 

According to the Great Minifig Mission, Duke Exeter is suggested to be a more subversive individual than we see him later on.

 

It can be surprisingly difficult to format terrain. You have to keep up with all those layers, and if you get a color wrong or a slope in the wrong place you may need to completely uproot half the model. These small, curved slopes do wonders for landscaping, and I still have several large Pick-a-Brick cups' worth of them for a later use.

There isn't really all that much to say about this one, other than please pity your local landscapers.

[Phantom Terror]

That mini Onua is brilliant!

[Yamyam]

Amazing MOCs, Brigs!

[Brigs]

Chapter 11 - Executive Meddling

"Head Separator"

 

The head separator was the first model I built for the Nexus Farce, as a diabolical proof of concept. The model had to be rigid enough to support the mechanism, while maintaining the pseudo-medieval aesthetic. Duke Exeter's gun consists of the standard ray gun and the crown of that unmemorable Witch King character from one of those Hobbit movies, which has an odd resemblance to Kini Nui.

Side view. At the top, there are railings extending inward along the headlight bricks. The Brick Separator is attached to a slider meshed between the railings, with two chains connected to the slider assembly. The mechanism is operated by twisting the wheel away from the victim's head, pulling the chain down, drawing the slider assembly along with the brick separator forward.

And you better believe it's functional.

The head is pushed along the neck protrusion ("spine") and released with a satisfying pop. Needless to say, this is one of the best models I've ever devised.

[Wirza]

Can you please give instructions of some sort for the head separator?

[Brigs]

On 10/9/2016 at 10:34 PM, natcO said:

Can you please give instructions of some sort for the head separator?

It's now on my to-do list. I'll probably work up an LDD model and generate some instructions from it later this week, depending on my schedule.

 

Chapter 12 - Gallant V

"The Sanctuary"

 

The story direction for the Ingress of Imagination was drawn from three primary sources: The LEGO Universe Cinematic Trailer, the Great Minifig Mission, and this author's personal insanity. In the Great Minifig Mission, there were a couple activities in which visitors to the LEGO Universe website could fill in the blanks to complete a transcript of Typhonus's audio journal. The Imagimeter "shards" were a set consisting of three 2x2 tile bricks. Popular opinion is that the Imagimeter pieces seen in the story trailer were located within the structure on Gallant Five. 

 

For some inexplicable reason, the Great Minifig Mission states that the compasses were smashed to prevent anyone from following them. But why wouldn't they just hide them in the Venture Koi, or toss them into the local sun? Frustrated with being unable to come up with a logical explanation, I just had Duke Exeter make up a reason for me.

In the foreground, out of focus, rests one immobilized Albert. The remaining members of the team can be seen ogling over their discovery. 

The First Builders seem to have been pretty fond of triangles and the number three, so I tried to work it into the architecture. The cube upon which the Imagimeter pieces lie is of course emblematic of the planet Crux. 

The floor pattern itself is a homage to the LEGO Universe logo; more specifically, the blue background behind the letters. This background also appeared in the LEGO Universe Prima Guide, though I can't seem to locate the original file. Aligning the bars and tiles to form the ellipses proved to be the most difficult part of this model.

On the whole, this the second most technically advanced and time-consuming model in the Ingress of Imagination lineup. 

 

I shall never surpass the genius of the Head Separator.

[TheDiplomat]

Did you post that anywhere else, Brigs? Because that's beautiful. It almost looks digital.

 

I'm sure others'd find the head separator fun too.