Like peanut butter and jelly or biscuits and gravy, the combination of YouTube and LEGO is a match made in heaven. For one, it gives block builders an epic platform to socialize and comment on hundreds (if not thousands) of builds. Second, it provides the rest of us a chance to sit back and relax while watching insanse 10,000+ piece models come to life through time-lapses in mere seconds. And with last week marking the 60th Anniversary of everybody’s favorite toy brick, you know we’re in for some pleasant surprises. Among others, the LEGO Master Builders took over the Denmark-based company’s Connecticut-based US headquarters to build and document a giga-fantastic…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack.…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. SkillCoach | Two Fledgling Industrial Designers Vlog Their Way To Success Today’s Virtual Design Critique (VDC) is perhaps as much a design celebration as it is a critique. Its a celebration…

It wasn’t classified in any of the journals, but the muzzle horns looked vaguely similar to another Furzle Skorn we had seen on the upper ridge. This was certainly the right place. Now, all we had to do is lure out all fifty feet of it, launch the gelatin, and harness it with these links. Hugo Richard – Hugo has a odd attractive quality to his character design I can’t quite pin down. A range of concepts for warriors, assassins, sci-fi characters and much more, with some process thrown in. Alita – If you’re a Battle Angel fan, you’ve likely already seen this. If you haven’t, you must. Given its…

We’ve heard a lot about “personal” 3D printing in the past, but perhaps it’s time for “personalized” 3D printing. By “personal” 3D printing, I mean the ownership of a 3D printer and production of objects for personal use. This was, and probably still is, the vision for consumer-based 3D printing. While there was a great deal of buzz about the concept a few years ago, it didn’t take off for a number of reasons. But underneath that concept was a perceived need: making things that “fit” the requestor. “Fit” as in, “works better for me than a mass manufactured version”. Mass Manufacturing vs. Personalization Mass manufacturing is almost always less…

As many a designer or engineer knows, there’s no better way to learn than to jump in and get messy. Heck, that’s why the best way to learn a complicated CAD tool isn’t to read a book, but to get your hands dirty and make mistakes. Only then will your brain start to program the rights from the wrongs. Well, that same approach can be applied to just about anything—but off the top of our heads, we’re digging this project-based approach to Arduino consisting of 15 complete projects to get you on your way to becoming an Arduino ninja in no time. At just $9, this 15-project Arduino Bootcamp bundle…