The Brothers Brick

Until LEGO released the line of big construction equipment last year, LEGO vehicles were always on the rediculously tiny side. Set 1656 Evacuation Team (released in 1991) was no exception:

Pierre Normandin and Steven Asbury have recreated this set at a scale more appropriate to the size of our beloved minifigs:

A miniseries on TV in Japan called “Densha Otoko” (“Train Man”) told the story of a geek who helped a woman harrassed by a drunk on the train. As a window into Japanese geek (otaku) culture, it also included snippets of the protagonist’s favorite anime, a fake show called “Getsumen To Heiki Mina” (“Mina the Weapon-Bunny of the Moon”; rabbits live on the moon — didn’t you know?).

Brickshelf user nias has built an adorable Mina, complete with her double-carrot tails (or whatever they are):

Moko seems to be into power armor lately. Here’s a “Firefighting Suit”:

Perhaps this firefighter can help out the dude getting blown up (titled “Kaboom!”):

A while back I blogged about a power suit built by Brickshelf user drabadon. Now, Moko has joined the power suit club with his “Combat Suit” (apparently inspired by squieu’s Oratoku creations):

Name: Invidia
Mission: Making everything his own.
Origin: Evolved from the frog that the princess didn’t kiss.
Evil superpowers: Senses jealousy and envy in his opponents and twists those feelings to his advantage.
Notes: I made this one to express my jealousy that a certain Classic-Castle Forums member (and fellow Washingtonian) was bequeathed a large quantity of older LEGO sets. I was green with envy, thus Invidia.

…he might have to ride a bicycle instead (from nias):

Brickshelf user nias recently reorganized some photos, and several things caught my eye (more posts to come).

Here’s Hello Kitty:

So, what’s the deal with Hello Kitty? Brian McVeigh thinks he has the answer in an article titled “How Hello Kitty Commodifies the Cute, Cool and Camp: ‘Consumutopia’ versus ‘Control’ in Japan.” The summary:

Asked about Hello Kitty, respondents judged those interested in this ‘character good’ within a framework of freedom/self-autonomy versus coercion/compulsion. The former is associated with what may be termed ‘consumutopia’ (a counter-presence to mundane reality fueled by late capitalism, pop culture industry, consumerism), while the latter is connected to ‘control’, a critical view of self/collective relations that also comments on Japanese ethno-identity. Hello Kitty also demonstrates the need to focus not just on different tastes within a society, but also on ambiguous and diverse attitudes within the same individual. Such diversity allows Sanrio, Hello Kitty’s maker, to link within one individual different modes of self-presentation, chronologically corresponding to girlhood (‘cute’), female adolescence (‘cool’), and womanhood (‘camp’). Thus, as people mature, appeals to nostalgia encourage a reconnection with the past by buying products united by one leitmotif; same commodity, same individual, different ages/tastes/styles/desires.

ROTFLMAO! Absolutely hilarious, or not. :-/

The Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, with a one-month summer break and a short winter break over New Years. (Just for comparison, elementary school students go to school 240 days a year, compared to 180 days in the United States.) Since it’s mid-March, it’s graduation time! Sixth-graders are graduating from elementary school, ninth-graders from middle school, and so on.

To honor graduating students, Mumu presents a vignette:

And younger LEGO builder Legokou celebrates his own graduation from sixth grade:

Mumu’s caps and gowns are really nice, but what I like about Legokou’s version is that he includes cherry blossoms (always associated with graduation) and the black canister in which each student receives their diploma.

Taking another break from our usual Japanese fare, Brickshelf user Legokinsfolk presents Kwun Yam Temple. Here’s what Legokinsfolk has to say:

There is the Goddess of Mercy in the Kwun Yam Temple. The Goddess of Mercy has power to assume any shape to save those in distress. She is one of the most popular buddhas for her kindness among Chinese people.

An overview of the temple:

And my personal favorite, Kwun Yam herself:

The latest updates to marakoeschtra’s ongoing series of castle characters are a baker (yes, that’s a LEGO croissant), and a gooseherd, with an absolutely fantastic gaggle of geese:

As if the Star Wars MINI scale weren’t small enough, builders have also been creating “micro-scale” Star Wars vehicles for some time — especially since the release of 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer.

New Brickshelf user Greg Mote has just uploaded a bunch of micro-scale Star Wars vehicles that take this scale to a whole new level.

Millenium Falcon:

Sandcrawler:

Jango Fett’s Slave I:

And more. Very nice work.

A week or two ago, I posted about a small creation Ichigou made based on the long-running manga (Japanese comic book) series Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Well, Ichigou has been posting vignette after vignette to a Brickshelf gallery (as featured on VignetteBricks). It’s almost like Ichigou wants to dethrone Izzo as the king of the vignette series! ;-)

Anyway, Ichigou has kindly posted snippets of the scenes he’s recreated as vignettes. Here are a few rough translations:

Demon, Part 3
“Hey! Polnareff! I’m gonna bite that bauble of yers right off!”

High Priestess, Part 3
“It’s, it’s a stand!”
“It, it was disguising itself as the seafloor! It’s, it’s huge!”

Anubis, Part 3
“It’s under your chin, Polnareff!”
“What?!”
“It’s me, you idiot — the reminder of Anubis’ stand.”

This manga has a complicated storyline and deep mythology that’s unlikely to be meaningful unless you’ve read it. For example, “stands” are “manifestation of an individual’s innate power over the ‘ripple’ and represent the individual’s psyche.” Huh? If you’re interested, Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the storyline, characters, and terminology.

I’ve been making minifigs of my favorite musicians, bands, and composers for a couple of years now, quietly uploading their pictures to a Brickshelf folder. I’ve featured a couple of them here on DB, but I just uploaded all of them to a Flickr photoset, so I thought I’d highlight a few of my personal favorites.

U2, from the album art for All That You Can’t Leave Behind:

Johnny Cash (before I started taking straight-on photos):

Sleater-Kinney:

An Abbey Road vignette of The Beatles:

Rilo Kiley:

Death Cab for Cutie:

And last but definitely not least, Nirvana:

(Phew!!!)

Scott Quick (divepoet on Brickshelf) has posted some massive updates to his gallery — all very cool stuff. Here’s just a small selection.

A series of Shakespearean vignettes (which he showcased last year at Brickfest):

A micro-size Serenity:

A whole bunch of tiny little “Arrow Racers:”

Continuing from my previous post, marakoeschtra brings us a couple more cool castle characters — a shepherd and a blacksmith with his apprentice: