The Brothers Brick

Spaces are tight and land is at a premium in Japan. Sure, there are enormous construction projects like the Akashi Kaikyo bridge (the longest suspension bridge in the world), but most projects are on a much smaller scale. Always a nation that solves just about any problem with technology, a company named Chikusui Canycom manufactures construction equipment and utility vehicles the size of golf carts and riding lawn mowers (which they also make).

Always one to build just about any real-world vehicle in LEGO, Masahiro Yanagi has recreated several of these — what other word can I use? — adorable vehicles (click for full gallery with individual pictures and action shots):

Soren is an inspiration to us all. Sigh…

Here’s his latest, an MS-14A Gelgoog (info):

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Regardless of you are into Star Wars or not, it is impossible to not love Reto Geiger’s UCS-scale Tie Fighter.

It’s even got some mad light-up action!

Lukas has written (is in the process of writing?) a short article on what steampunk generally is considered to be. It is one of the best introductions to the theme I’ve seen lately, so I’d recommend having a look. Good work, man!

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A little something you might have seen in the latest issue of Brickjournal, Mark Stafford has finally put up pictures of the Gothica:

It fits in the same vein as his Big Boys Toys – lots of small stuff in a big, nice, package. Click on over and behold – there’s a lot to see there.

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Regular readers of this blog should be familiar with Nathan Proudlove‘s steampunk work, but I ran across this little beauty in Nathan’s Flickr photostream a couple days ago:

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I couldn’t help but steal that title from Lukas. A hilarious trend I’m seeing in my LEGO feed from Flickr lately is assembling small LEGO sets without opening the bag that the parts come in. Check out three “in-bag builds” from three builders:

Here’s Lukas:

TBB first-timer Tim Tosino:

And finally, Matt Hamann (aka jastermereel08):

Okay, so this wouldn’t work with the Star Destroyer or Death Star, but I’m going to have to try this the next time I get a small set.

EDIT: Commenters to the rescue. Matt credits Tim Gould and Jamie Neufeld as inspiration. Here are the in-bag builds that started it all — Tim’s on the left, Jamie’s on the right (click for full-size pics):

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Jens has built a truly incredible bridge for Colossal Castle Contest IV. Not only is the construction very unique, his landscaping is superb. The figures in the scene add a nice touch of life and the lost miner adds a hint of tragedy. Yet another masterpiece by an amazing builder!

Check out the gallery.

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In honor of Moko’s 18th birthday recently, I thought I’d feature a few of his latest creations. (Okay, so I would’ve posted them anyway, and they’ve already been Snoikled.)

I love the arms coming out of the new wheel well pieces on this “space mecha”, and the pink makes a surprisingly cool accent color (link):

I can’t find Moko’s blog post for this next mecha, so it might not be new, but it’s new to me and dang is it cool (another great find, Dez!):

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Angular and spiky, Sugegasa’s vehicles are rarely big, boring blocks of bricks. He’s recently posted three such vehicles:

(Link.)

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Moko is at it again, building mecha in addition to his usual minifigs, micro-vehicles, vignettes, and so on. Today’s batch brings us mecha from the Gundam universe.

Gundam RX-78GP01 “Zephyranthes” (info):

XMA-01 “Rafflesia” (info):

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While I’ve been busy hosting my brother and his wife, Izzo has continued his “Mechanimals” series. Click on over to his blog or Brickshelf gallery to see all of them, but here are a couple of my favorites.

Santa’s podracer (blog post):

This one may be my favorite so far — a mole mech (blog post):

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I’m a huge fan of minifig. As if he didn’t already have the best user name ever, he makes awesome vignettes and, of course, minifigs.

It’s been a while since his last series of figs, but his latest includes the boys from New York, the Beastie Boys from their “Intergalactic” video:

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This is an amazingly cool recreation of a Rembrandt painting, by Barbara Werth (found by Bruce).

Here’s the original, just to show how nicely Barbara captured the painting’s composition, lighting, and overall mood:

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Sir Lomero has built a cute little sampan. The tile work on the sides gives this a rather elegant feel and the lantern is a great design. But what really makes this stand out is the brick-built sail! The use of the wedges gives the sail a beautiful curve and makes this boat tand out. Good Job!

Check out the gallery.

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