The Brothers Brick

Classic-Castler The Hordesman has just posted an interesting soldier that demonstrates another approach to Michael Jasper’s use of visors as neckwear:

But here’s another, even cooler minifig that I missed when The Hordesman first posted it — a “Hussar”:

Well, if Mike Yoder’s orbital docking station was “drop-dead gorgeous” (from my post last week), I’m not sure what superlatives apply to Mark Stafford’s micro-scale Octan Refinery:

Check out the unique micro vehicles with which Mark has populated his refinery:

Following up on his Moonshiners, Brickshelfer taltosVT has posted a pair of “coppers” with their phone box and classic police car:

Andrew Horvatits recently posted a series of wheeled bots. Here’s my favorite, the “SCREW Bot”:

Super cool indeed.

The city of Nikko in Japan is a major Buddhist and Shinto center, most famous for housing the tombs of the Tokugawa shoguns. German builder Thomas Bendt (Triathletus on Brickshelf) has just posted a recreation of the famous pagoda at Toshogu shrine:

The thumbnails in the gallery (and even the image above) don’t do justice to this stunning creation. Be sure to check out the full-size pictures in Thomas’ gallery. While you’re at it, be sure to check out other amazing creations by Thomas, including Pulguksa temple (in Korea) and a Thai temple.

Okay, another batch of minifigs I made a while ago that I never posted here and just uploaded to Flickr. :-)

From Wes Anderson’s film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, here’s Steve:

(Click the image for the full photoset on Flickr.)

With the Tommy gun in the new Batman sets, a spate of Prohibition-era LEGO creations seems inevitable.

I think Nathan Cunningham was the first to put the Tommy gun to use with his 30’s thug, but taltosVT has built a moonshine still, two moonshiners, and the wheels they’ll need to haul their illicit “hillbilly pop” to buyers:

Following up on his Avatar pictures, Lenny Hoffman has posted detailed images of the Bikini Botton and “Build a Bob” set from the upcoming SpongeBob SquarePants line.

Here are the minifigs, Gary, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward:

For today’s batch of minifigs, I present the X-Men:

And here’s Magneto:

Flickr user and Classic-Spacer Kotua has posted a cool Terran Vulture unit from the classic real-time strategy game StarCraft, based on an original LEGO design by Mike Psiaki. That, naturally, gives me an excellent excuse to post Mike’s original StarCraft creations.

Here’s the Vulture Kotua recreated:

Here’s Mike’s awesome Wraith:

Finally, several infantry units — Marines, a Firebat, and a Medic:

(If you liked these, be sure to check out Kotua’s version of the vulture, as well as my own Blizzard-inspired minifigs.)

Here’s another great koinobori, from Legokou:

New Brickshelf user SwordKirby64 has posted some cool spaceish minifigs with several interesting weapon designs:

In addition to his creations inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Stafford’s Adventurers folder includes several cool vehicles. Here’s a new one, a half-track for Sam “Lord” Sinister:

Be sure to check out his other vehicles:

May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan. Although called “Children’s Day” today, this day was in the past Boy’s Day, so many Boy’s Day traditions continue to be celebrated on May 5th. One such tradition is to fly multi-colored carp streamers, or koinobori — one for each male child in the household.

Japanese blogger inago100 has posted a nice koinobori:

Alan Saunders (aka Kaptain Kobold) presents a portrait of our relatives and ancestors:

That’s good old Chuck in the hat, a Neanderthal with the spear, Lucy, and a monkey.

Well, I promised more mecha, so here’s a totally sweet ninja power suit from DB and PPB regular Izzo:

And just for fun, Harry Potter’s Quidditch power suit!

Merkal Kahil has recreated several characters from the Disney movie Aladdin. Here’s my favorite, Jafar with Iago:

Name: Nahoa
Mission: Covering the surface of the earth in flaming rivers of lava.
Origin: Magma demon from the dawn of time.
Evil superpowers: Controlling tectonic activity. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

Name: Odji
Mission: Spreading plague and sowing discord.
Origin: Corrupted, reanimated mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Nephrotep III.
Evil superpowers: Summoning bubonic plague, anthrax, sleeping sickness, dysentery, cholera, etc.

Chris Doyle presents Robert Smith of The Cure:

Well, I never expected to be posting something by Classic-Castler Jojo here on PPB, but he’s just posted an exquisite torii in his “Things” gallery:

Jojo’s wonderful torii appears to be the famous “Floating Torii” at Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima prefecture:

Torii are found in or around Shinto shrines and other sacred places, most often serving as a gateway. (Although torii have been co-opted in western landscaping and architecture, torii are not generic gates, nor are they generically “Asian.” They have a specific religious significance and are distinctly Japanese, though similar structures do appear in other cultures. Using a torii as a gate in your “Asian-inspired” backyard rock garden would be like putting a Christian baptismal font in your TV room.)

Horace Cheng recently sent me an e-mail to tell me he’d built an Exo-Force alternate model called “Van Force” based on some information I’d posted over on Pan-Pacific Bricks. I checked out Horace’s Photobucket and was struck by another mecha he’d built, based on the Japanese animated series Patlabor:

Pretty cool stuff. Horace says he mostly used pieces from two 7712 Supernova sets. Be sure to check out Horace’s Photobucket if you’re interested in seeing good pictures of Van Force as well.

(Hmmm… Second mecha-themed post of the day. So, does this mean I’ll be posting more mecha now? We’ll see. They are pretty cool…)

I love micro and mini-scale creations. Teeny weeny cityscapes and itsy bitsy spaceships are just fantastic. Classic-Spacer Mike Yoder (mryoder on Brickshelf) has posted a drop-dead gorgeous orbital docking station, replete with a service shuttle, tanker, and mecha.

First up, an overview of the docking station itself:

Next, a closeup of the shuttle:

The tanker:

Finally, the mecha:

Lenny Hoffman has posted some detailed pictures of sets from the new Avatar: The Last Airbender LEGO theme in a Brickshelf folder. Check out the gallery for set pictures and Lenny’s full commentary, but here are a few close-up shots of the new minifigs:

I think this theme has some great potential for those of us who see sets more for their parts and minifigs. (Even though I watch SpongeBob religiously, I’d never even heard of this TV series until LEGO announced the license.) I’m really starting to warm up to the new flesh-toned minifigs, and these are certainly pretty cool. The torso designs look very useful, and the armor is absolutely stunning.

The non-disclosure agreement signed by participants in the Mindstorms Developer Program (MDP) expires today, so those of you who’ve been waiting for more information on LEGO Mindstorms NXT need wait no longer! Head on over to The NXT STEP for extensive coverage on this new product. Updates today include pictures, links to new Web sites, and previously unreleased information about Mindstorms NXT.