Archive for January, 2007

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Wagiri.

Bruce wondered what ayucow’s recent, rather strange “Wagiri” vignette might mean. Here’s the vignette in question:

I wasn’t sure myself, so I checked out ayucow’s blog post, where he tries to explain:

This was my entry for the 5th Odaiba Click Brick Building Contest. It’s the sort of creation that causes one to struggle when asked “What is this?” If forced to answer, I would say, “After cutting a top sirloin or pork roast into thick slices, you’re all fired up and exclaim, ‘For dinner this evening we eat meat! Yay!’”

(The term wagiri itself simply means “cut in a cross-section” or “sliced in the round.”)

Mike Yoder, microscaler

Mike Yoder proves yet again that he is one of the best microscale space builders out there:

The ships are called the Rubicon, the Leatherback, Blackwater Gunship and the Laura Nicole respectively. They were built as part of a contest in the Classic-Space flickr group hosted by Nightowl. Nice work, Mike!

LEGO Shadow Art by udronotto

I’m starting to notice a beautiful trend in LEGO building on Flickr lately — LEGO as fine art.

Here are a pair of wonderful pictures from udronotto:

Of Strong Men and Elite Warriors

Martin Jaspers’ continues his castle characters with two great new figs.

The strongest man in town:

An elite warrior from Asia:

Is it the end of the world as we know it?

I don’t know about you, but I feel fine:

Thanks to Flickrite crissycri for the heads-up that my R.E.M. minifigs have appeared on the home page of the official R.E.M. Web site. Sweet!

Full size version:

Japanese History Vignettes by Enryu

Classic-Castler Enryu recently posted two vignettes inspired by Japanese history.

Here’s “Dappan” (more info in Enryu’s C-C post):

And here’s “Tachioujou” (C-C post):

LEGO MINDSTORMS Vending Machine by Ricardo T.

I’ve seen lots of cool creations on the various LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT blogs I read, but none of them compares to this working vending machine built by Ricardo T.

A few of my favorite features:

  • Working coin detector that returns correct change.
  • Five-key keyboard that supports input to order 57 different items.
  • Password-protected coin drawer.
  • Fanta! :D

(Read more in Portuguese on Forum0937, and in English on Ladrillitos. Thanks for the links, Juan Macias!)

SpookBots by Spook

Flickrite Spook has put together a nice little set of bots. Click the picture to get to his flickr account and leave a comment:

Outrider by Elliot Claveau

Elliot Claveau, or Ellio, brings us a ship he calls the Outrider. He does some interesting angle work on it – something I’d wish more builders would dare try their hands at. This makes the ship feel new and daring – a step away from the usual if you will - which more than makes up for some minor flaws it has (I’m not that fond of the engine, for instance).

Elliot has put up two galleries of the model, with different lighting conditions.

Armothe’s Domewalker

Armothe has put together a brilliant little walker. All of the stickers on it are custom made, and really enhance the model:

Jailhouse Rock!

My latest musical minifig is the late, great Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock:

Earth Park by Sachiko

Back on the old blog, I posted a couple times about a series of TV episodes in Japan called “LEGO King Championship.” You can read more about the show here, and see a YouTube video here. Unfortunately, the images I linked to in my original post quickly expired, and the YouTube footage doesn’t do justice to the creations.

After a very long wait (well, I’ve been waiting), Sachiko Akinaga has uploaded a great set of pictures that show off the “Earth Park” that won her the title of LEGO Champion:

Click the image for the full gallery on Brickshelf.

Rainy Afternoon in the Park

Paolo Manzi presents a beautiful photograph collage titled “Rainy Afternoon in the Park”:

The Biggest, Baddest Brute Around!

Mike Crowley (aka “Count Blockula”) presents the ultimate Super Mario Bros. boss, Bowser:

Up a hundred stairs and through a gate…

I can’t count the number of Shinto shrines I visited growing up in Japan. I visited plenty of shrines in big cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, but my favorites were always the small shrines tucked into a grove deep in a forest or perched atop a tall hill. No matter what one’s religious alignment, I don’t think it’s possible not to feel the pervading sense of peace and holiness in these beautiful, tranquil places.

Brickshelfer Paul Donis evokes a mountainous path leading to a shrine with his “Torii gate”:

(Via VignetteBricks.)