The Brothers Brick

Today in New York, LEGO unveiled a massive model of an X-wing fighter from Star Wars. Built by LEGO Master Model Builders, it’s the largest LEGO model ever made. While TBB couldn’t make it to New York for the launch ourselves, we’re pleased to bring you a guest post by BrickJournal Editor-in-Chief Joe Meno.

The e-mail I received got my attention. It simply asked me if I was interested in having a personal tour of the “largest LEGO model ever built.” The note from LEGO had something to do with The Yoda Chronicles, an upcoming TV show on Cartoon Network. The clues given were that I would have to go to New York City and be taken to a hangar somewhere to see this model.

For me, a trip to New York City is a cheap flight and hotel stay, so I accepted the invite and a few weeks and one particularly long windy drive, I along with a few others arrived at MacArthur Airport on Long Island, to a hangar that looked like any other hangar, except for the LEGO logo on the door. We were met by LEGO staff, including Master Model Builders Erik Varszegi and Dale E. Chasse, who led us inside. The first things we saw were the bulletins on the wall and the computer, which displayed an X-Wing. Then we turned and saw the rear of a private plane… Or was that a LEGO X-Wing fighter?

It was! Only it was taller than us… I recognized the back knob gear to open the wings, but it alone was my height!

Walking around to the front of the fighter, Erik gave us some information about the model. In case you missed it elsewhere, here’s the short of it:

• Built from over 5 million bricks
• Depicts the iconic X-wing starfighter from Star Wars
• Built in the Czech Republic at LEGO’s Kladno Model Shop
• Shipped in 32 pieces to be reassembled at MacArthur Airport

From there, the plan was to separate the X-Wing into three parts to transport to Times Square: left wing, right wing, and fuselage. Some parts, such as the cockpit and outrigger guns were also removed for transport.

In the hangar, though, it was complete, as if ready for a mission.

Erik then showed us a neat surprise. With the flick of a few hidden switches, the X-Wing came to life with its engines glowing and powering up. The model has an internal lighting system and speakers, including woofers to give a deep sound to the engines. The rumble was one you felt as well as heard.

Nearby, sized-up minifigures of Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, and R5-D8 were also on display, along with Yoda wearing his “I Love New York” T-shirt, which was first seen on minifigures given out at New York Toy Fair earlier this year. While Jek Porkins was a minifigure in this set, he wasn’t present at the hangar, as he wasn’t finished. (He did make it to Times Square, though!) Beside the computer was a reference model and also a sample stud from the final model.

A quick explanation of scale: Because of the proportions of the minifigure, scale is often a fuzzy standard. For this model, the scale was determined to be 1:42, which is a pretty good approximation for kids. This will be important in a bit, so keep this thought. To understand the scale, take a 1-stud brick. The stud alone sized up to be 42 studs by 42 studs, making it almost the size of a large baseplate. This also makes the stud a little larger than the actual set. This makes details pretty easy to build, so every stud does have a LEGO logo on them.

The model also is almost completely composed of bricks, with only a few plates used for shaping.

Scaling to kids is important because the cockpit is meant to be boarded. The canopy doesn’t open, so a side panel is removed for entry. The interior of the cockpit is a photo station for kids to post photos online, so there are no details like the set, but a screen with a mosaic frame. The space is a little cramped for an adult, as I bumped my head on the cockpit glass.

After the cockpit visit, Dale asked me if I wanted any overhead pics, pointing to an improvised cherry picker in front of the fighter. I didn’t hesitate, and I was quickly held over the X-Wing. It was there that I found that my camera lens wasn’t wide enough to get the entire model in one shot. In fact, that was a running problem that Erik picked up on when he said, “Maybe we should have told you to bring a wide-angle lens.” Overhead, though, you get a real impression of the size of the X-Wing. The others with me took pics, and then Dale moved the cherry picker for some more shots.

After the overhead session, I got to see some of the computer work that was done. The model was digitally built around a metal armature, and yes all 5 million plus parts are on the file! That made the computer crash a couple of times, but I was able to see how each section was set up to fit with the others. The files are not that different from LEGO Digital Designer or LCad files, but they are much bigger.

Here are a couple photos showing the internal steel armature:

Our hour-long insider tour ended with a promise of secrecy until the official unveiling in Times Square. Many thanks to Erik, Dale, and the rest of the LEGO gang for showing off this awesome model!

And many thanks to Joe for this quick write-up while on the road from New York! Look for a longer article in an upcoming issue of BrickJournal.

Enough of you out there have joined the ranks of our readership since my last post about this that a brief reminder seems in order: If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, you can see when we’ve posted something new here on The Brothers Brick as soon as we post it.

As always, there are lots of ways to connect with TBB and get your daily LEGO fix from us elsewhere on the web:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Google+
• RSS feed
• Blogged by The Brothers Brick group on Flickr
• TBB’s official Flickr account

Finally, don’t forget that you can help define the “face” of TBB on Facebook and Twitter by submitting your LEGO photos to our TBB Cover Photos pool on Flickr.

There are various ways to avoid the big-blank-wall syndrome on different builds (Ships can suffer from it, Castles are prone to it, and some buildings for Town see it, too). I like to look at different ways to avoid that, and we’ve had some pretty fancy stuff here before.

Sometimes, though, simple is just fine.

Issac Synder has posted this lovely gatehouse, and the walls of the gate are simple but effective. I think it gives overall character to the build!

There’s some decent deals on Lego Star Wars sets on Amazon ranging from 20-34% off.

• 9488 Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Pack / $8.55 (34%)

• 75003 A-wing Starfighter / $17.99 (28%)
• 9492 Tie Fighter / $40.85 (26%)
• 9493 X-Wing Starfighter / $45.60 (24%)

There are also other Star Wars sets marked at 20% off. See the list of Lego Star Wars sets on Amazon.

A Pigs in Space reference is the best I can muster, for a post title, with a newborn napping on my arm. Regardless, this new offering from John Moffatt really caught my eye. The underlying ship is nice, too. Though I suspect this may be a case of photoshop, rather than true forced perspective, I still enjoy it.

I also, don’t see a big deal with the new Flickr. I was able to navigate the non-mobile site from my phone, and grab the links needed to write this post. I hope the building public will keep on posting!

Disclaimer – mildly sappy post to follow…

Remember this post I did a few months back? Well, I still feel the same about the online community, however, I now have some very serious concerns on where this community is headed…yes, and it is all due to the recent changes to Flickr.

I felt that these concerns were serious enough that it justified a separate post, as opposed to me simply commenting on Andrew’s again.

Really this is a personal plea to all those that feel it necessary to leave Flickr. I know many are very upset about the new format, have issues with the new pricing structure, and take offence to how Yahoo handled the system rollout. But at the end of the day is it worth the fragmentation of our community? Personally I don’t think it is. Honestly, I am not entirely happy with the new system, but I also don’t hate it to the extent that I want to see the history of what we have on Flickr lost.

At the end of the day there are no perfect solutions. I don’t think we can expect Yahoo! to go back to the old system, but I don’t think it is realistic to expect/hope for every contributing member of the current community to seamlessly move to an alternate site. Therefore I think that the only ‘solution’ is to wait it out and see what happens over the coming weeks.

This is about more than just Flickr and it’s individual users, this is about a thriving community of friends spread across the globe with years of history. The site may look vastly different, but as of right now the people are exactly the same. So before anyone rage quits, may I ask that you first stop, take a deep breath and think about our wonderful COMMUNITAY!

Most sincerely,

TR

Big group hug!

Surprisingly, many LEGO fans have never heard of the Ooni or of Galidor, LEGO’s failed action figure line and TV series from 2002. In my ongoing attempt to make Galidor cool, I give you the Ooni Brute. I envision him as a foot soldier of an invading alien army. His helmet assembly isn’t for breathing air, but for regulating internal body temperature because the Ooni are cold blooded.

The thing I love about rongYIREN‘s creations is his ability to pack in so much great design while maintaining playability. The Thumper is something the 10 year old me wishes LEGO had produced as a set so I could swoosh the removable, remote drone around while exploring an alien planet in a bouncy space rover.  That rongYIREN is able to do all this with a sparse part count is impressive, and is in keeping with the best of LEGO’s own product design.  Most adult fans of LEGO tend to build without thought to part limitations.  We create mocs that could never see production because it would be cost prohibitive to do so.  rongYIREN is that rare exception that is able to make great models without over building.  Why he isn’t already a designer for LEGO is beyond me. Hello Billund?

In other news, legorobo:waka snuck this beauty onto flickr, right in between a wall of large and generally unoriginal pictures expressing dislike for flickr. Consider it a mecha chaser.

The super cute Köf locomotive is one of the most distinctive shunters/switchers in the world. There are too many LEGO versions out there for me to link to, but this new one by Henrik Hoexbroe was pretty enough to force me to work out[1] how to use the new flickr interface for a blog post.

[1] It’s slightly more annoying to navigate, and way uglier. But all the old functionality seems to be there.

Builders are too annoyed with the new Flickr to upload anything, and we’re all too confused to find anything new to blog.

What do you think? Long overdue redesign or unusable “new web” garbage? Has Yahoo! jumped the shark? Discuss!

Although our next featured builder is guilty of using way too many first names, Tim (Gilbert_Keith) knows how to build a sweet looking castle. I considered blogging this when it debuted about a month ago and decided not to because I’m a jerk and I was probably distracted by something shiny. “Chester Keep” has everything a Castle fanatic should enjoy…clever towers, nice landscaping, a moat… the usual boilerplate. Tim commented on iBrick that his 3 year old daughter “totally leveled it” near the end of the build process, causing a long delay. I think most parents who build can relate to such a catastrophic event, I know I can.

Despite a rich history of his country’s basketball players who played in the American NBA to draw upon for inspiration, players like… Detlef Schrempf, Uwe Blab and Dirk Nowitzki…for some strange reason Alex Jones (Orion Pax) is still fixated on Michael Jordan. So journey back with Alex and TBB, to the 1990′s when grunge music, Pokémon cards and MJ ruled the planet. #23 also comes complete with his pet bull, on which he rides about dispensing justice and expensive footwear with a flaming sword!.

I’m not sure what to say about Alex’s solution for MJ’s visage…I mean, what do you say about Tim Allen in blackface? For more photos, head over to Orion Pax Designs.

David Roberts (David Roberts 01341) is under the influence and it shows. Dave cites nnenn, Peter Elson and Stewart Cowley’s Terran Trade Authority books as inspiration, which is as good as it gets for Sci-Fi ship design. According to the builder, the Wasp F1 is a high-speed interceptor designed to operate in space or the atmosphere. To me it looks like a paper airplane that has been painted by someone with a checkerboard fetish, but looks can be deceiving. The model features pop-up weapons, landing gear and something unique to Sci-Fi ships; an under-mounted cockpit.

You know I always like to hook up the stat-junkies when I can. The model is 86 studs long, with a wingspan of 40 studs. It weighs 1.45kg (3 lbs 4 oz) and is composed of around 2,000 bricks. With such a fine catalog of models, I’m surprised this is David’s first appearance on this blog of blogs.

French fan Théo‘s latest model depicts a terrifying past filled with adventurous biologists, mighty dragons, and a fair bit of Steampunkery.