Monthly Archives: March 2007

News: Traveller’s Tales Confirms LEGO Batman: The Video Game

Hot off the virtual presses over at 1up.com:

Traveller’s Tales, the makers of Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy are now one brick of a larger company, Warner Bros. Interactive. However, don’t worry about this changing their focus from brickology, because WB has them hard at work on their next game, Lego Batman: The Videogame. Most of the details, much like Batman’s true identity, are currently unknown about the game. It’ll release sometime in 2008 on the current and previous consoles, as well as PC.

Sweet! Or rather, w00t! ;)

BrickFest PDX is just around the corner!

Both Josh and I are headed to BrickFest PDX 2007 in Portland, OR this coming weekend. This is my second convention in less than six months, but I’m told that NWBrickCon and BrickFest are two very different events. I can’t wait!

(BrickFest 2005 photo from the Washington Post in Dan Rubin’s Flickr photostream.)

If you’re a reader of The Brothers Brick and will be attending, let us know and be sure to say hello if you see us! As I did for NWBrickCon last October, also I created a BrickFest Flickr group. Join up and add your photos from past ‘Fests, as well as the one coming up this weekend.

LEGO-Inspired Furniture “Bekky”

Italian design firm NOmadeDESIGN is selling the following furniture that should look vaguely familiar to readers of this blog:

(Via Marco Chiappa, via Spluch, via NOTCOT.ORG. Sheesh…)

Back in the USSR

I believe one of the privileges of this blog is that you’re allowed to post your own stuff. I’d like to think this one would have made it without it being mine but you can be the judge(s) of that. As such I present a Moscow in the 80s diorama by me. I’ll spare the details here but would like to hear back from anyone who has visited Moscow to let me know how accurate I’ve managed to be.

I’m on the farm again

Misterzumbi's Ursus tractor

Misterzumbi is, in my opinion, the undisputed king of wheeled vehicles. The picture is the link.

EDIT:
And since this is still on the front page I won’t make a new post for this beauty…

Stephen Hawking by Ochre Jelly

Seattle based builder Iain Heath (aka “Ochre Jelly”) apparently caught a piece of science celebrity news that I missed. Eminent physicist and A Brief History of Time author Stephen Hawking will be taking a ride on a plane that will allow him to experience weightlessness. To commemorate this extraordinary man and his extraordinary moment, Iain has created a miniland scale version of Professor Hawking:

Stephen Hawking

Be sure to check out Iain’s Flickr album, where you can see Professor Hawking riding around the surface of Mars, orbiting the Earth, and (I wouldn’t expect anything less from Iain) a 3D stereogram of the world’s favorite wheeled physicist, all in LEGO form.

Izzo’s Test 53

I love dark blue mechs.
Izzo never disappoints.
Here’s his latest:

(Via Moyblik.)

Nute Gunray by Moko

Though nearly everybody has used the head from Frankenstein’s Monster as Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray’s head, everyone seems to struggle with his headdress/hat. Moko also says he struggled, but I think Nute’s pointy hat thingie turned out rather well:

And a bonus Episode I minifig — a Naboo Security Force soldier:

See all of Moko’s Star Wars minifigs in his Brickshelf gallery.

New Exo-Force Alternate Model “Naoe-Force”

Japanese hobby magazine Figure King has featured alternate models for Exo-Force sets ever since the theme was first released in Japan, and the alternate models have been fairly popular with Japanese LEGO fans (at least the ones with blogs I read).

Anime director Shoji Kawamori has designed two “Van-Force” models, which you can read about and see pictures of here on The Brothers Brick. All along, Mr. Kawamori has worked with Japanese Master Builder Kazuyoshi Naoe (who also worked on the Pieces of Peace exhibit).

The latest issue of Figure King includes the following new alternate design, titled “Naoe-Force”:

Minerva-class Battleship by Hiron

If he’s not building mecha, Hiron seems to build great vehicles and vessels inspired by mecha-themed anime.

Here’s his Minerva-class battleship from Crusher Joe (Info):

(Via Masoko Tanga.)

Gospel train

Well first I’ll say a hello to Brothers Brick readers out there. I’ve been invited to cover trains and virtual LEGO creations (raytraced, rendered but definitely not real) for the blog. I’m very new to this whole blogging thing having started my own blog a bit over a week ago and you probably won’t get many words out of me usually but I’m pretty sure I know a good creation when I see one and I guess that’s what you’re here to see.

To copy-paste my profile on the Brothers Brick “I’m a builder with a short attention span and a lot of virtual bricks. I’m probably most known as a train builder and was involved in the creation of LEGO set 10183 (the Hobby Train Box) but I do a lot of other stuff too. I’m also a member of the LDraw SteerCo and a webmaster for the site.”

Anyway, on to the good stuff…

James Mathis' Cascades Passenger Train

When I was just starting out building properly with LEGO (as opposed to the mucking around I did as a kid and young adult) the train builder who inspired me the most was James Mathis. I’ve since had the honour of working with James on a couple of projects as well as the Hobby Train Box. As well as being one of my favourite train builders James has the added advantage of allowing me to introduce both my areas of ‘research’: trains and virtual LEGO.

Andreas Weissenburg's Bird

And to give you something brand spanking new (well almost) I’d also like to show off Andreas Weissenburg’s Bird.

And I think I’ll leave my inaugaral post at that. Hope it’s all worked OK.

LEGO 10182 Cafe Corner speed build video

Yay! Two days ago I came home from PoliSci and found a rather large package from Connecticut waiting for me on the doorstep! I’m still busy taking detailed pictures and writing up a review, but in the meantime enjoy this time laspe video of me building the greatest LEGO set ever. Over three hours compressed into five and a half minutes.