Monthly Archives: January 2007

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.)

Spartan M65 Hardsuit by lego2000

lego2000/m20xr has designed a hardsuit reminiscent of Maschinen Krieger, and it’s really rather cool. Here it is with an “optional 75 mm chain gun”:

Cheesy...in a good way...

LEGO Ambassador, Classic-Castler and LEGO builder extrodonaire Nelson Yrizarry has done it again and created his own new subtheme: CheeseBots. Wallow in it’s cheesy goodness, and check out the intergration of yellow minifig accessories, including mugs, lifes vests, jackhammer, goblets and more. His constuction techniques aren’t bad either. ;)

Lukas is out to get you.

Well, at the very least Lukas has a rather formidable assassin to send after you:

The claws are very cool, and seem to be constructed of Viking horns attached to those ever-useful binoculars. Excellent.

Today is the longest day of my life.

Speaking of builders on a roll, minifig is at it again as well. Here’s Jack Bauer from the TV show “24”:

Nice effect with the focus. We’re four hours into Season 6 now, and the world is a very different place from the one Jack left behind at the end of last season. Wow.

Of Skellies Black and Scary

I love it when Martin Jaspers gets on a roll. Here’s another update to his castle characters, a macabre crew of dark skeletons:

(As always, Martin only uses real, unmodified LEGO parts — even if they’re in unusual colors.)

Blogger Cory Doctorow as a LEGO Minifig

minifig returns to his “minifig blogger” series with Cory Doctorow, an author, journalist, and contributor to the world’s best blog, Boing Boing:

News: PicToBrick mosaic software now available

TBB received a message from LEGO Ambassador Juan Macias yesterday with a link to the Web site of a new LEGO mosaic tool, PicToBrick by Tobias Reichling and Adrian Schütz:

PicToBrick converts digital pictures to a format you can use to create mosaics. For LEGO fans, the software offers several cool features, including color and brick type selection.

To learn more about PicToBrick, read the full LUGNET announcement, or head on over to the English or German version of PicToBrick.de.

Tobias and Adrian are releasing PicToBrick under the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License. In addition to executables that work on Windows, Mac, and Linux, they’re making the source code available. Since they’re releasing PicToBrick as “donation ware,” if you like PicToBrick, be sure to support Tobias and Adrian! :D

The Kraken Awakes!

I have been meaning to blog this for a while and finally got myself in gear!

Paul Brassington has created a true masterpiece! Not only are his building skills something to die for, but he has taken great shots of the entire scene. Also, check out the nifty video of the flailing tentacles!

See his website here!

The spacey year of 2006

Lukas started it. Brenden soon followed, as did Michael. I figure it is my turn now. I give you: the best of space 2006. Linus-style.

Remember that this is purely my opinion and not a complete list of seeworthy things. There are plenty of good space builders out there – these are just my personal highlights. Also good to know is that I do this off the top of my head, so a better name might be “most memorable of 2006”. But anyway, let’s get to it.

Jerrec's TachyonFirst off, I’d like to recognise a certain individual as the most impressive newcomer. Jerrec is a builder whose works I hadn’t seen before 2006, and indeed, after he joins Classic-Space in February and begin to show his models there, they come at an increasing rate. With a wacky sense of steampunk humour, a great eye for microscale detail (as well as one huge great eye) and a very rapid improvement – compare this to this to see how he’s polishing his already distinct style – he has quickly established himself as a top builder in a short time. Good show Jerrec – I look forward to see what you bring us next.

And naturally after that, we get to best comeback. Molly was a few years ago active in the space community, building landmarks such as the Benevolent Grace and the Ves-X. She dissappeared for a while due to personal reasons, but now she’s back with a bang! Having already shown what she would have done had she recreated the official classic space line today, we anxiously await her big ship in the same theme. Stay tuned to her flickr account for more on that. Good to have you back with us, Molly!

And now that is done, we move on to some specific models. These, to me, really defined the space of 2006.

Best minifig scale: Don Wilson’s Hadrian’s Blade.
Many build minifig scale, but few manage to pack fun playthings and nice details in a good shape. Don did just that with the Hadrian’s Blade – traditional yet still unconventional, he managed to do what I’ll strive to achieve for the rest of my building career. Other nominees: Joel Larsson’s Ceasar, Mr. Stenz’s Kaiser.

Best steampunk/alt. techAdrian Drake’s Thomas E. Dewey.
I’m always a bit more critical when it comes to larger spacecrafts – oftentimes, they get hyped more than they deserve just because they are big. The Thomas E. Dewey is definitely not such a case. I don’t know if it is the Highwind-vibes, the unusual sculpting or something else, but this really is an outstanding model. Other nominees: Jerrec’s Monostomper, Jamie Neufeld’s Steamwheel.

Best organic creature: Nannan Z’s Cyclopean Virtue.
The Cyclopean Virtue does what it is supposed to do: being freakishly scary. Its unconventional shape and building techniques is something to admire, and since Nannan is turning it all into a series of creatures, who dares look away? Other nominees: Kevin Wurstner’s Alien infested corridor, Matt Forcum’s Void Jellies.

Best building: Keith Goldman’s Electric Boogaloo 2.
While there were many good structures and buildings built during the year, none combined sterility, few but well-placed colours and uncanny anglework like the Electric Boogaloo 2. Other nominees: Legohaulic’s Floating Rock, Gary McIntire’s Atmosphere factory.

And that would be my list. Combine it with the other three written so far, and I think you really get a good view of what 2006 brought.

But after such an amazing year, is there any chance at all that 2007 could ever be equally good? Of course there is. As long as good builders like those above, Giddens, Moko, Soren, Dennis and so on and so forth continue to produce good output we have a good base. But what is really exciting is the builders that are up and coming – e.g. Barbarossa – as well as those rumoured to get back into it again soon – e.g. Joseph Kazmo. These three categories of builders combined with those not yet seen promises a very interesting year – probably even more interesting than 2006.

Regardless, you can still count on TBB to bring you the best. See you in the spacey year of 2007!