The Brothers Brick

Ask and ye shall receive! In my recent post on the alternate Exo-Force design by anime director and mecha designer Shoji Kawamori, I asked if any Japanese LEGO fans knew of any better pictures of a completed Van Force mecha.

Azumu (of LEGO-BINGO, who it seems is much more consistent about checking Brickshelf than I am) responded:

Regarding instructions for Kawamura-sensei’s “Van Force,” gabriel-san customized the model a bit and uploaded them:
http://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=161353
There were a few places in the magazine that were hard to figure out, so it’s not a complete recreation, but I think it’s pretty much complete.

Thanks Azumu-san! So without further ado, here’s a bigger picture of Van Force:

Click the image (or the link Azumu-san provided) for the full gallery, complete with step-by-step building instructions! Awesome.

Oh, and those aren’t custom decals. Japanese LEGO specialty store Click-Brick handed out Van Force sticker sheets with the purchase of any Exo-Force set. Since The LEGO Company worked with Mr. Kawamori to design Van Force, I believe the sticker sheet is “official.”

Another update to Michael Jasper’s Characters gallery:

The name Nelson Yrizarry should be familar to regular readers of VignetteBricks and LUGNET (as well as The Brothers Brick). He and his brother Patrick are well-respected members of the LEGO community, and their creations are admired by LEGO fans everywhere. One of Nelson’s latest vignettes features a distinctly Japanese theme — the Hina Matsuri or Girls’ Day Festival.

Here’s what Nelson has to say:

In this MOC, a family gathers to celebrate the day with the pounding of mochi (rice cakes) in the traditional style – hammering it inside a large stone bowl. For those who have never seen this before, one person wets their hands and reaches into the bowl between hammer blows to fold the mochi over – timing is crucial! Everyone else helps to roll the mochi into smaller pieces.

A hina-ningyo doll is on display inside the house, along with something else… Don’t forget to enjoy the cherry blossoms!

Click the image to see the full gallery.

Today we’ll wrap up translations of Izzo’s series of Japanese proverb vignettes. I’ve said before that he’s presenting them in hiragana order, which means he created a LEGO vignette for each kana character in the Japanese syllabic alphabet. Some of you may be expecting 50 vignettes, but there are only 44. Let’s have one last Japanese lesson to explain why.

The Japanese alphabet, or Gojuon, is represented in two scripts (or kana), hiragana and katakana. Goju means “fifty,” and on means sound, implying that there are fifty kana in the Gojuon. Children memorize the Gojuon in tables. There are ten columns of five kana each. The first column contains the vowels; the next nine contain consonants combined with those vowels (plus an N sound in its own eleventh column that nobody counts). However, the “Ya” column includes two duplicate vowels, and the “Wa” column includes another duplicate vowel, two archaic kana (unused in modern writing), and the vowel “Wo” that never begins a word. Thus 44 instead of 50.

(Now combine hiragana with their corresponding katakana forms, Latin letters and numbers, and nearly 2,000 Kanji characters derived from Chinese — each with multiple possible readings depending on context, and you get an idea of how complex the Japanese written language is.)

Now, on to the final batch of Izzo’s vignettes:

Japanese: The seed of pleasure is pain; the seed of pain is pleasure.
English: No pain, no gain.

Japanese: A flower in each hand.
English: Have one’s bread buttered on both sides.

Japanese/English: Like attracts like.

Japanese/English: There’s an exception to every rule.

Japanese: Evidence instead of discourse.
English: The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Japanese/English: Fortune enters by a merry gate.

Over at I Love Cute LEGO! mumu has posted that he purchased the 2006 version of 9247 Community Workers (my previous post, which for some reason isn’t showing up on the main page or archives — weird).

Here’s the Brickshelf folder (when public), and click on over to mumu’s original post for deep-links in the meantime.

In addition to the two brown dogs, there are a couple note-worthy elements. Mumu’s close-up shots show a nice pin-stripe suit design and a tan, pocketed shirt design (different from the Star Wars version) I hadn’t seen before. I’m going to disagree with mumu about the all-smiley cast, though. I’m a fan of “face diversity,” and I’m also a bit disappointed that this set doesn’t have the rarish wavy black hair that was in the 2005 version. Overall though, a nice set of town minifigs.

Renowned anime director and mecha designer Shoji Kawamori (best known for his long involvement with the Macross series) was commissioned to create an alternate model for LEGO Exo-Force sets 7700 Stealth Hunter and 7701 Grand Titan. Instructions were available in Japanese action-figure magazine Figure King (フィギュア王 vol. 95, for those interested in trying to import it) and a special sticker sheet is available exclusively at Japanese LEGO stores Click-Brick. The alternate model is called “Van-Force.”

Naturally, the Japanese LEGO blogosphere buzzed with anticipation. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen any pictures until fairly recently, so I waited to post until now.

Courtesty Japanese tech blog B-log Cabin TP:

I’m hoping one of our AFOL counterparts in Japan will take some better pictures and post them on Brickshelf as well. (And here’s a note to ask for that.)

日本のレゴファンの皆様にお願いしたいことがあります。河村監督の Exo-Force 組み替え「Van-Force」を作ったお方がいましたら、写真を撮ってアメリカの皆が見れるように Brickshelf にアップ出来ますか？お願いしま〜す！ m(_ _)m

Name: Joe Kent
Occupation: Unemployed Boeing machinist.
Interests: The Sonics, the Sounders, the Mariners, the Storm, the Thunderbirds, and the SEAHAWKS!!!
Notes: Currently worried that the Sonics will leave Seattle (that jersey he’s wearing was expensive!), and the fact that the Hawks get no respect.

Edit (2/6/06): Stupid refs. That is all I have to say. Harumph.

Who knew that SpongeBob SquarePants was even broadcast in Japan? I didn’t, but apparently it is. As images of the new LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants line have trickled out, Japanese LEGO bloggers have weighed in.

Legolife posts his excitement for the line, stating that he assumed the SpongeBob theme would be DUPLO. As English-speaking LEGO fans on Classic-Castle and elsewhere have said, it’s a pleasant surprise that the denizens of Bikini Bottom, including SpongeBob himself, are minifigs. Legolife concludes by saying, “This is a buy.”

Over on LEGO-BINGO, Azumu expresses his ambivalence about a Japanese market for the line: “Where’s the target audience? … With holes punched in him like cheese, I just don’t see this M&M-like character as especially cute.”

Brick0937 says he’s never heard of either SpongeBob or Avatar before, and wonders if they’re popular. “When I first saw these, I thought they were LEGO knock-offs. ;-) I wonder where LEGO is headed…”

Well, I’m personally looking forward to these sets — at least the minifigs. My wife and I have been watching SpongeBob for six years, and it’s really, really funny in some subtly subversive ways. Let’s hope this line does well.

In the spirit of true Pan-Pacific cooBrickation, I’d like to present creations by non-Japanese builders from other parts of Asia and the Pacific Rim whenever possible.

Brickshelf user Legokinsfolk presents a scene featuring legendary singer Sam Hui:

Caption: “Sam Hui sings a song telling the student should not have dating too early and not play football so often, they should study hard.”

Izzo has finished his sequence of Japanese proverb vignettes. Now Bruce and I just need to catch up!

So let’s get cracking!

Japanese/Japanese: Fine feathers make fine birds.

Japanese: The mummy thief becomes a mummy.
English: Go for wool and come home shorn.

Japanese: The pestle handle I took hold of in the past.
English: Skills you learn as a young man don’t wane as you grow older.

Japanese/English: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Japanese: A sword returns to its sheath.
English: To kiss and make up.

Japanese/English: Penny-wise, pound-foolish.

Japanese: Carelessness is the greatest enemy.
English: Danger comes when you least expect it.

Japanese/English: The biggest trees give the most shelter.

Editing drafts of user guides is fairly dreary work. (Writing them is better, but not by much.) I usually listen to music, but every so often I have enough podcasts saved up that I dedicate one day to the musings of people I’ve never met. It’s like a call-in radio show, but without celebrity hosts! Just kidding, just kidding! If you’re actually interested in the subject matter, podcasts can be pretty entertaining.

I finally listened to BimPCast 19 (from a month ago), and listened to my first BrickNebula podcast. Steven Combs of BimPCast says that lots of things are going on in the LEGO Ambassador program, but if he told us he’d have to hunt each of us down and kill us. (He doesn’t actually say that.) The BrickNebula guys talk about Exo-Force, and how they don’t like all the new Star Wars redesigns, which actually came as a surprise to me. I like the music on the BrickNebula podcast — as crazy as it sounds, the western-sounding music really works (I’m clearly influenced by Firefly).

Speaking of podcast music, Sub Pop Records says on their FAQ that you’re free to use the music they’ve posted on their Multimedia page. From The Postal Service and Sleater-Kinney to up-and-coming bands you’ve probably never heard of (yet!), there’s some great stuff on that page.

And music makes a nice segue back into LEGO podcasts, because both BimPCast and the BrickNebula podcast are available via the iTunes Music Store. In iTunes, open the Music Store, click Podcasts, and search for “LEGO.” If you sort your results by relevance, the BrickNebula podcast and BimPCast should be your top two results. Subscribe and enjoy!

Joy just said:

“Get Mama’s plastic stripper shoes out of your LEGO box!”

Hilarious! (And she said “LEGO,” not “Legos.” Nice.)

Although Japan officially celebrates New Year’s Day on January 1st, until 1873 Japan followed the lunar calendar used by China, Korea, Vietnam, and many other Asian countries. The Japanese calendar is still full of many holidays that mark various important dates in the traditional lunar calendar.

One such holiday, Setsubun, is celebrated each year on February 3. In the past, Setsubun represented the last day of the winter months and the beginning of spring. Celebrating Setsubun involves the usual Shinto shrine visits, but you also toss toasted beans out your door and yell “Out with demons [oni]! In with happiness!” Pretty fun when everybody on your street is doing it!

To honor Setsubun, a couple of Japanese builders have posted really cool creations.

First up, mumu chases an oni away with handfuls of round 1×1 tan plates (I’m really diggin’ the giant oni head):

And PPB hero Izzo offers his take on the same scene:

(These builders’ awesome oni make my own no-face oni look pretty silly.)

Name: Patrick J. Robertscum
Occupation: Televangelist and paragon of moral outrage.
Interests: Blaming hurricanes on gays. Blaming terrorist acts on Hollywood. Bilking old ladies of their life savings. Railing against miscegenation. Spreading God’s love to people everywhere.