Monday, December 1, 2008

Fear and Loathing round-up

We've brought our much anticipated "Fear and Loathing" build challenge to a close and once again we've been graced with an onslaught of great entries...this time all about phobias and superstitions! To start us off, Lego911 gives us his unique interpretation of fear and loathing by digging deep into childhood memories and presented this black ‘61 Mercedes-Benz W112 300 SE Saloon driven by his creepy Gestapo music teacher!

Mercedes-Benz W112 300SE Saloon

911’s second entry…the Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider demonstrates the fear of spiders (Arachnophobia) and slips in a good “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” reference with fear of irate parents. I can totally relate to that one…my dad nearly blew his stack when I scratched the Aries K wagon. I’d hate to see what happened if it was a Ferrari!

Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider

The technical term is Phasmophobia or Spectrophobia: Fear of Ghosts. But newcomer TJJohn12 tells us “I ain’t afraid of no ghosts” with this iconic Ghostbusters wagon.

Ecto-1; 3/4 Front

Should I be attracted to Abbey? She’s dark, gothy and maybe a bit creepy, but a few months ago she and her Plymouth Rock were the subject of my dreams! Now Ed Diment (Lego Monster) once again teams up with Ralph Savelsberg (Mad Physicist) to scale up…and scale down their fiery ride with this four score Arsonaphobic entry!

Plymouth Rock Scales

Matt Armstrong wouldn’t be Monsterbrick without giving us all the heebie-jeebies! Here we see Death in a suped-up coffin rod complete with copious chrome and enough toxic exhaust to choke a village…oh, wait, that IS a choked village!

smoke n mirrors

New guy Raphael G shows some Maximaphobia (fear of big things) with these decidedly small Iron Goliath entries that come in blue and yellow flavors. See, aren’t they cute?



And what germophobe would ever want to set foot in this…or any other rat rod? Here Raphael demonstrates Limusphobia with this down and dirty rat rod Bonneville racer!



And Raphael throws a couple more entries our way with this little six wide van illustrating fear of thunder and fear of night and this low-down HydroRider representing...acrophobia.




Our resident Mad Physicist (Ralph Savelsberg) shows he can multitask with this awesome FDNY fire truck that covers not one; (fear of fire…Arsonaphobia), not two (fear of heights…Acrophobia) but three fears! (fear of loud noises…loud noise-aphobia) It even has motorized power functions!



Also Ralph covers the superstition concerning black cats with this sleek and sultry Jaguar Mk 2. Clever, huh? Between these entries there is one more phobia Ralph didn’t mention called Damnyouralphobia…or the fear of being outdone by Ralph! ;)




It turns out 40% of the world’s population is claustrophobic and Dylan Denton cleverly demonstrates this point with this cool little ‘63 Peel P50! Nothing screams “get me outta here!” like the confined Peel production car!

Peel P50

Then Dylan throws in Anemophobia, Anablephobia, Aeroacrophobia at no extra charge with this sleek roadster. I'm digging the trans-blue headlights!




Clowns are just plain creepy. Lino Martins proves this with his disturbingly coulrophobic entry called I Scream. It features a mini hot rod that launches out the back and buzz saw blades that come screaming out the front!

Coulrophobia...Fear of Clowns!

Tim Inman (Rabidnovaracer) shows some Necrophobia and maybe just a touch of Acrophobia with this slammed ‘68 Cadillac Hearse rightfully called…Dead Sled! Of course it comes with a coffin and the most menacing pipes ever seen.

"Dead Sled" 68 Cadillac Hearse


Fe2cruz’s little entry packs a big wallop with a phobia AND a superstition! Xanthophobia- is the fear of the color yellow or the word yellow. Yes, its true…I know someone who has it. But more amazingly, it turns out peanuts are considered a bad omen in auto racing. Who woulda thunk it?!

RUYLOp

And he clocks in with another entry, this one an amphicar. It derives from too many phobias to list, but notably hydrophobia (fear of water) and Teutophobia (fear of German culture.) Sorry, Hasselhoff!

amphicar


Nathan Proudlove shows us what he’s made of with this futuristic, super sleek Batwedge…yet another concept ride for the dark and brooding Batman. Be sure to check out the top view…the Batman Begins logo has cleverly been placed there. But with three Batmobiles built, do ya think Nathan really has chiroptophobia?

batwedge


First time challenge participant Firas Abu-Jabar surely doesn’t disappoint with this new GT500 Super Snake…illustrating the fear of snakes and fear of high speeds! Not only is this one of the more intricate cars seen in awhile, but check out that fully posable coiled cobra!

Shelby GT500 Super Snake

cbla_member makes up a new big word and shows us a phobia we all have but just didn't know it...amaxomaimouphobia...or the fear of riding in cars with monkeys. Laugh if you must...ok, I did...but enough people have envisioned this idea and deep down it probably represents a fear of not being in control of our own actions...and not trusting those who are.

Amaxomaimouphobia

Apple_Pie clocks in with this cool new hot rod that lists nearly two dozen phobias as its inspiration...too many to mention. Um...uh...we're just gonna have to take his word for it! Great hot rod though.



Duq squeaks in just before the deadline with a build he's been dreaming of for awhile now. He honors his own heritage with the most fearsome Dutch made vehicle ever...the DAF twin Turbo X1! And it turns out there really is a such thing as Dutchphobia. We're watching you, Ralph!

TinyTurboTwin

Newcomer V&A Steamworks takes a break from Steampunk creations to submit a vehicle that shows us the true meaning of acrophobia! This MOC is simple but effective! Yikes, I'm scared!
Fear of heights 2

Anyway, its been a great month! We've built a lot of awesome vehicles and learned a few big words while we were at it. Don't miss this month's challenge, All But Four...this one generously allows you to build any vehicle you want...so long as it doesn't have four tires. Should be fun!