BrickPharaoh

Here's a rundown of what I built for the BioCup 2024. BioCup 2024 R0: Journey to Mars! Journey to Mars by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "Seven years of astronaut school. Seven more years of travel... And here we are. RING RING RING .... Time to wake up." Built for the preliminary round of the BioCup. Theme: space. For this MOC, I combined the classic Lunar Buggy aesthetic with some modern concept art designs to yield this piece. The astronaut builds on top of a Technic Fig whose arms are swapped out for thicker-looking padded arms. The legs get a similar treatment with metal ingots in white. Merlin the deranged! by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "Merlin's newfound fascination with alchemy has yielded an array of.... interesting experiments, to say the least." Built for BioCup 2024 R1 Theme: Energy Subtheme: Chemical Building something interesting for this round was a real challenge. I toyed around with various concepts until I stumbled upon my limited collection of light nougat bricks.. and then a face emerged. Slowly over the next few days, I built up Merlin and the rest of the scene, inspired by an alchemical twist on the traditional Dungeons and Dragons evil wizard trope. The whole time I was building, you could hear me sing "Necromancer" by Judas Priest. In fact, this ended up being the theme song of this build, and Merlin was built in the image of Rob Halford, legendary musician and Judas Priest frontman, who's also a native Brummie! The gargoyles at the back came last; they were more of an afterthought that panned out quite well I must admit. Sadly, this MOC didn't make it through the matchup I was in, but I took it to my display at Brick Festival Birmingham the following day (Saturday 22nd of June), where it received widespread critical acclaim.

Great MOC! You seem to have a fascination with all things chicken... And in your case the egg definitely came first! Also like how you managed to incorporate all the colours of the Jamaican flag (dunno if that was intentional but I'm glad it happened either way).

"The knight-errant wearily plods on, in search of more desperate souls in need of his aid." Link to Instagram gallery of breakdown shots: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtzuBHnr_Ud/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== This MOC was my entry to Round 1 of the BioCup and, while worthy of an honourable mention by the judges, sadly did not progress on to Round 2. Being thematically compatible with the BBC #81 I've decided to enter it here for a chance at redemption perhaps? Let me know what you think!

Tachyon Thrasher "An alien robot bounty hunter from deep space. Executing his mission with ruthless precision, only for those deemed worthy of his service" My entry to the 2023 BioCup preliminary round!

I really want to see a shot of the crew, they seem like such a wicked looking bunch! I am also p jealous of all these lovely sails you have there XD I really dig the concept, though I wish there were some more bone motifs throughout.

King Mathias and His Royal Guard by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "At long last, His Majesty is crowned! Long may He reign!" Initially built as a spiritual continuation of the Knights Kingdom 2018 collab, this build has now been assimilated into my UK 2022 convention lineup. My display was called: CCBS Kingdom Figures. The build started off with a janky looking prototype of King Mathias, where the challenge was to sort out the appearance of the shoulders. Once I had the concept figured out, I trialled several iterations before I was happy with the end result. The throne draft came together thanks to a spontaneous handful of visits to my local PAB wall and some yet-to-be-sorted BL orders. It was left at 70% done in early 2021, when I first posted an earlier version of this design. Then in 2022, in the week before my first UK Brick Festival (May 2022), I hashed out the Royal Guards, which I aimed to keep simple yet detailed. Finally, the base, initially coming together during one of the slower events I was displaying at, was used to incorporate the entire build. Again, another spontaneous PAB wall visit was the source of all the white tiles I came to possess. Overall I am quite happy with the end result, and will be taking this along to some more 2023 shows before retiring it for next year. I would send it along to the US convention circuit but I don't think it's too feasible for me right now. Here's a link to an Instagram Reel to show you a full 360 view!

Commander Jax Petaflop by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "Let's get this show on the road, folks!" Originally started in August, held out for a while until the fortuitously timely occasion arrived (lol). Happy Lunar New Year!

Thanks, I was originally intent on a completely different visor design but sadly couldn't get it to work.

Dystopea Wolff - Main by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "A bounty huntress from the distant future, tasked with fixing the timeline by the Galactic Order." Been wanting to build this MOC for a very long time, and had a very rough draft of the aesthetics built a few months ago before I left for holiday. Managed to crank the finished version out over the Easter break. A total departure from my regular style, this build was epic fun to make! Let me know what you think!

BioCup 2022 Preliminary Round: The Predator and The Prey by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr Fun little (big!) frilled lizard on some sandy rocks. And an unsuspecting meal casually strolls past. What more could you want?! Thankfully, this made it past the prelims. Now onto R1, for a reptillian themed Kaiju (gulp)?! Stay tuned!

The Great Shogun (Samurai MOC 2022) by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr Progress shots: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17895699205452229/ Well, it's been a long and arduous journey with this #MOC, which I consider to be my magnum opus. Head on over to the link above to see how it all started! I've started this MOC over two years ago, and had made substantial progress towards this current version all the way back in Jan 2021, when it was about 75% done. Then life got in the way, and I had to prioritise other things, namely finishing my PhD, moving house, getting married, and a whole lot more. Since January I've been slowly reclaiming back some time for my #LEGO #hobby and I've been really enjoying it as of late. I plan to bring you guys a whole lot more in the coming weeks and months. For now, enjoy this MOC and please let me know what you think! I'll also take this moment to thank my MasterPiece friends for their constant encouragement and support throughout this journey, without whom I'm not sure this would have turned out nearly as good.

A shapeshifting bounty hunter who only has one purpose: to destroy. Full gallery on Instagram here Started work on this early last year but managed to find the time to finish it a couple weeks ago. It absolutely blew up on Instagram, so I thought I'd show it to you guys over here! Please feel free to share your thoughts on this MOC, and more importantly: Stay cool, BBC!

I love this, especially the weapon arm aesthetic which I think you nailed spot-on!

Thanks! Do make sure to check out the rest of the entries to the collab; there were some truly epic reimaginings, personally I can't pick a favourite (mine excluded as I'm only pleased with how Baranus V7 turned out).

Return To Bara Magna Collab Sahmad & Spikit (Baranus V7) by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "Was I afraid? Sure. But just like you could take a Thornax fruit and turn it into a weapon, you can take fear and turn it into anger. Fear is a rock you can hide under. Anger is a rock you can throw at someone else." — Sahmad, Sahmad's Tale Tuma: The Tyrannical by Mohamed Marei, on Flickr "I'm going to enjoy tearing that fancy mask from your face." — Tuma to Mata Nui, The Legend Reborn These MOCs were built for a collab titled "Return to Bara Magna", on Flickr/Instagram. The collab has been in motion since September of last year, and we've been working on finalizing the entries for the collab ever since. Links to the rest of the entries are available at the Flickr URLs. Let us know what you think!