The Brothers Brick

Following up on my Pacific Northwest poet minifigs, here are a couple of my favorite 20th-century authors:

George Orwell (1903-1950):

John Steinbeck (1902-1968):

Ich culd hardlie beleve the gud fortun of myne internette serching whan varilee ich hapt upon ye blogge of the most estemed gentilman and scholare Geofrie Chaucer. Nay, the Lord hath not taken hym to bee His owne, nor hath he cesed his laboures in wordes nor in woolle. Verilie the flayme werre between the goode sirre and his erstwile frende and wanker of historick renowne Johannes Gowere (Chaucer doth pwn Gowere) inspireth me to facion smal plastick figgurs in honore of wun personne and jest at the othere.

Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343-1400?):

John Gower (ca. 1330-1408?):

Beholde ye readers the noble countenanse and liverie of Chaucer, the vapidde gaise and poncey attyre of Gowere. O snappe! Yea, myne mann Chaucer hath a posse, and ich am onesuch personne.

There’s something about the Pacific Northwest that I find poetic. The glacier-encased mountains in Montana, the wheat fields and orchards of Central Washington, the mist-covered bays and inlets of the Pacific Coast — I connect with the landscape in a way I’ve never connected with any other place.

And I’m not alone. Three of my favorite poets are so-called “Pacific Northwest poets.” I only say “so-called” because their poetic range and influence extend far beyond this little corner of America. These poets inspire me to write my own poetry (appearing soon in a literary journal near you!), but their inspiration can’t help but spill over into my other passions and interests. Thus, Pacific Northwest poets as LEGO minifigs!

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963):

William Stafford (1914-1993):

Richard Hugo (1923-1982):

Poets on Flickr (including a bonus T.S. Eliot and some other poetic minifigs coming up here on DB.)

Bill Ward just posted a cool old-fashioned fire engine:

Check out the photoset on Flickr and some background information in Bill’s blog post.

Here’s another one of my pre-blog creations that I just uploaded to Flickr — the dead parrot sketch (also called “Pet Shop”) from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”:

Click the image for the full photo set on Flickr.

Links to Nathan Sawaya’s LEGO PC (as featured in PC Magazine) have been circulating the Internet lately, but here’s something a little different: From Brickshelf user seb928, a working LEGO PC whose case uses iconic 70’s and 80’s LEGO sets, such as 375 Castle and 928 Galaxy Explorer:

I’m not sure whether this is weird, cool, or just plain adorable, but I was perusing some older bookmarks the other day and ran across these crocheted articles of minifig clothing by Brickshelf user silversmurfer’s wife:

Richard McCarthy presents a bunch of “random” minifigs, including a magician and a rock star named “Maxx Paulsa”:

And a third castle minifig builder officially makes it a trend! Jens just posted an update to one of my favorite Brickshelf folders, his “People, Warlocks, Wizards and other Persons.” The latest updates:

Side Note: Jens is a collector of rare-colored parts. The black beard, the red wizard’s hat, and the black polearm (among many other pieces in his collection) are all colors not available in sets released by LEGO.

Classic-Castle Forums user Josh Wedin joins marakoeschtra with a series of castle-inspired minifigures:

Today’s installment of marakoeschtra’s castle characters brings us an artist with his muse and a lord with some peacocks:

I was extremely pleased that Japan won the World Baseball Classic last week. Hurray! To honor this victory, Azumu presented several baseball-themed creations on LEGO-BINGO. Here’s my favorite — a mosaic of Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, by Brickshelf user junlego:

I’m really looking forward to the beginning of the MLB season. I’m even taking Monday, April 3 off from work to go see opening day at Safeco Field. I haven’t missed an opening day for four or five years now. Go Japan, go! Go Mariners, go! Go Ichiro, go!

Now here’s something you don’t see every day — a working LEGO pistol that shoots a Knights Kingdom 2 “maxi-fig” head (Izzo, you crazy genius!):

And an action shot:

Below “Vladek Gun,” the text says:

Aim for the target!
Charge, and fire!
Get ahead of your rivals!!!
* Target sold separately.

Hilarious!

Via Boing Boing, a Mindstorms lie detector by Michael Gasperi:

Wow. You won’t see very many Mindstorms creations here on DB, so if you’re interested in LEGO robotics, be sure to check out The NXT STEP and the nxtbot.com Blog. (Side note: The latter is sponsored by LEGO. Hmmm… How do I pick up sponsorship from LEGO? They could even pay me in bricks…)

A Swedish company called Clavia makes digital musical instruments, including a synthesizer called the Nord Lead.

Brickshelf user arvo has created a LEGO Nord Lead:

The figure skating World Championships are apparently going on right now, and Moko was inspired to create 2006 Winter Olympic gold medalist Shizuka Arakawa as a LEGO minifig:

Nice skates!

Friday brings us three more castle characters from marakoeschtra — Gypsies with a dancing bear, a hunter, and a butcher:

Kellog’s Eggo and LEGO revealed an inevitable (you know, “L’eggo my Eggo”) tie-in a while back — Eggo waffles shaped like LEGO bricks:

The reverse was also inevitable. Jonathan Eric Hunter (cre8ivejuan on Brickshelf) just posted Eggo waffles made of actual LEGO bricks:

EDIT (3/29/06): The folks over at a company called Strategic Name Development have a blog that’s actually pretty darn interesting, if you’re into names and nomenclature and words and things, like I am. They were kind enough to link here, so thanks guys!