The Brothers Brick

LEGO fans all over the ‘net love the new Pixar movie Wall-E, and they show their affection for the film with wonderful LEGO creations too numerous to post individually.

First up, Mark Sandlin adds crushing action to his Wall-E:

Aaron Lemay goes super-small with his super-cute Wall-E built from only 11 pieces:

Jordan Schwartz breaks from the mold to build frustrated cleaning robot M-O (”FOREIGN CONTAMINANT!”), along with his own Wall-E:

While other builders go fairly large or very small, the Wall-E that legomocs built works rather well at a mid-sized scale:

Finally, reader Ryan captures Wall-E’s forlorn expression:

Previous LEGO Wall-E love on The Brothers Brick:

• Pixar animator Angus MacLane builds best LEGO Wall-E yet
• Brick-built Walll-E by Joe Meno
• Wall-E, the littlest and loneliest robot on Earth

Moko shows off his wealth of gold minifig accessories by displaying a dazzling army of golden knights. As with Moko, there are no custom pieces used in the display, but I’m sure the cost would be in no way under par of that in buying customs.

Over at the LEGO Ambassador Forum, we current Ambassadors were asked to build “a standard 8×8 vignette that represents [us] and [our] interests within the world of LEGO building and community.” Many of us came up with creative and interesting pieces; here are a few of some of the most recent ones:

(Below left) Yiu Keung from Hong Kong displays his miniature Green Grocer in the palm of a brick-built hand.

(Above right) Peer Kreuger from the Netherlands makes a working mini planetarium model. Check out the amazing animated image!

(Below left) Tim Gould from Australia portrays himself as the man behind the screen, sharing ideas through the internet.

(Above right) Mike Crowley from the US represents himself as a LEGO creation, having people “build” him to be the Ambassador they want to see.

(Below left) Danila Martyakhin from Russia creates a vignette called Equilibrium, featuring the ultra-posable biotic robot.

(Above right) I present my work called Just Add Imagination that uses spray-painted pieces and fishing lines to create the floating bricks effect.

(Below left) Andrew adds his belated vignette to Nannan’s post with many hats that represent many communities:

(Above right) Dan Rubin serves as a liaison and “noise filter” between the LEGO fan community and The LEGO Company.

Again, these are just a few of some of the amazing vignettes that the Ambassadors have made. You can see some more over at Klocki.

Adrian Florea replicates the “Jalopy” car from Half Life 2, which has the appearance of a partially built and customized 1969 Dodge Charger. Take some time to absorb all the gutted details, especially in the hood area. The model seems to feature a working steering system as well.

Those of you who were paying close attention to our coverage of BrickWorld 2008 probably noticed references to and pictures of the latest BrickForge accessories.

Thanks to Nannan and the magic of the United States Postal Service, here’s my review of the new items BrickForge will be releasing soon. In general, I’ll try to avoid repeating what I said in my original BrickForge review.

Naturally, the big buzz is about the new “Space Marine” armor. When combined with BrickArms weapons, the result looks remarkably like the Master Chief from Halo (we’ll be taking a close look at the new BrickArms prototypes as well):

The helmet will cost $1.50, the armor $1.50, and the visor $0.50. If I understand the grapevine correctly, these items will be available in red, blue, white, black, and sand green (pictured above, with BrickWorld-exclusive “steel”). I’m very pleased with the design of each piece, though I’d assess the color matching between BrickForge’s version of sand green and “official” LEGO sand green at around 90-95%, as you can probably see from the picture.

Personally, I was most excited by the new Roman helmets (two types), spear, gladius, and shield:

Most interesting, though, is the gladiatorial armor — specifically helmet and face shield for a Murmillon. The face shield fits over the stud on top of the minifig’s head, and then the helmet fits over the top of that:

I found that the helmet fit a little loosely (it popped off a lot) with the face shield, but fit snugly when directly placed on my gladiator’s ill-fated head.

New turbans can fit a little round cap or a special helmet:

Finally, Mark Sandlin and Chris Giddens worked with BrickForge to create a gun that would fit well with the design aesthetic of the loudhailer and other early Space accessories. Dubbed the “Megagun,” many of you have probably already seen Mark Sandlin’s photos of it, so I’ll just post a couple:

The Megagun has lots of places to attach LEGO, as you can see from the ridiculous gun on the right. :-D

As with their earlier accessories, the latest BrickForge armor and weapons work well with my LEGO. My favorite new items are definitely the Roman items, and I can’t wait to order a bunch when they become available from BrickForge in the next week or so.

Brickshelf user Elalfreddo demonstrates that you don’t need to use ‘advanced’ techniques to create a good design. His signal tower is a straight studs-up building dressed up by a clever use of colour to create texture. Very effective and a good lesson.

I also need to mention that I have a nostalgic soft spot for the mail bicycle.

Flickr user Chrispockster makes a diorama depicting a retro space landing on the fictional planet Nidoria. Some highlights include the organic alient plant life and the interesting color choice for the planet’s surface, which I think might just be plain yellow shaded dark during the photography process. The final result looks great.

Peer “Mahjqa” Kreuger gets light on his feet to recreate the title scene from the 1952 musical Singing in the Rain:

(Via VignetteBricks.)

Tim “RogueBantha” Goddard has made quite a name for himself with his microscale LEGO Star Wars creations.

Tim’s latest is a modular Imperial base called Mustaneer (not to be confused with the far more distant Mustafar):

The base has a rack for a squadron of TIE fighters, a landing pad for an Imperial shuttle or landing craft, and an AT-AT garage. Even cooler, the AT-AT garage doors open and close on tracks:

There are lots more photos in Tim’s Imperial base photoset on Flickr.

Peter Reid’s series of Neo-Classic Space vehicles evoke simultaneous feelings of awe, jealousy, and nostalgia.

For Pete’s latest, he gives 497 Galaxy Explorer the contemporary treatment:

Pete’s use of modern bricks and current building techniques, applied to the shapes and colors of LEGO from the Classic Space era, results in creations that combine the best of both worlds.

Jerak uses brown in his most recent creation to construct a heavily armed micro spaceship called the Juggernaut Fortress, based off the Clairconctlar Pinnacle. It is worth checking out the bottom of the ship, equally full of details as the top and in my opinion wouldn’t look so awkward to be cruising upside down.

As part of LUGNuts‘ “Show your age” contest, Lino Martins rolls out yet another jaw-dropping tribute to the open road.

Lino’s 1971 Cadillac Eldorado:

Sweet ride, Lino!

Rong Yiren has continued his primal bot series with a couple of action-packed dioramas.

Primal Bot Melee:

Jabberwocky Surprise:

I’m loving these little guys.

I had the pleasure of meeting Pixar animator and LEGO fan Angus MacLane at BrickFest 2007. When I saw the first trailer for Wall•E (in theaters Friday, June 27), I knew we should try to do something special. Our exclusive interview with Angus and first look at his LEGO Wall•E follows.

The Brothers Brick: How long did it take to build your Wall•E?

Angus MacLane: About seven hours over a span of three years. I started building the LEGO version of Wall•E around the same time he was being built in the computer in late summer of 2005. I had been waiting for some treads to be released, and with 7258 (the “Wookie Attack” set) I got just enough tread links for two treads.

The color scheme of Wall•E wasn’t settled so I stared building with all light grey. I wasn’t totally happy with the results. The treads were too small and pretty flimsy. I put him on the shelf and went back to work.

Then the snowmobile and bulldozer came out in 2007 and I had my tread solution. So I rebuilt him at the beginning of this year with the proper colors as we were finishing animation production. I’m proud of the overall proportions, but the eyes are still a bit too off for me.

TBB: Do you think that working on the movie gave you any special insights into the design of the LEGO Wall•E?

Angus: Having stared at this robot for 3+ years, I was extremely familiar with the proportions and functionality of Wall•E. It helped to know his design, but that made it hard to make the usual compromises when converting items to LEGO form.

TBB: How does your “day job” as an animator influence your LEGO hobby?

Angus: Mostly I build with LEGO as a way to unwind from a day spent in front of the computer. The tactile nature of LEGO can be much more satisfying than working in the often intangible realm of the computer. Also, a large part of an animator’s job is to clearly communicate an idea through the pose of a character. I think this is similar to building with LEGO where part of the goal is to sculpt clear shapes that communicate the purpose of the creation.

TBB: Has your LEGO hobby helped your “real” job in any way?

Angus: LEGO gets you used to thinking and designing in three dimensions. It has really helped my ability to visualize spatial relations. This is especially useful when working with artists and technical directors to take 2D designs and successfully turn them into 3D character models.

Also, when building with LEGO you often have to simplify or caricature the intended form. This is similar to caricaturing motion and simplifying acting ideas, which is an important part of the animation process.

TBB: Do you share your LEGO creations with your coworkers?

Angus: I have a small area in my office where I have my MOCs [My Own Creations] on display. Sometimes I get comments form coworkers. The question I always get is- Is that a set? Why don’t they make that? It’s very flattering to hear, but I know that they probably aren’t familiar with the latest and greatest from Brickshelf, so they have little to compare it too.

TBB: Do you check Brickshelf and Flickr for LEGO creations?

Angus: Sometimes. I mostly check out pictures that have been linked form blogs such as Brothers Brick, Klocki, etc. Favorite builders include: Mladen Pejic, Izzo, Gla Gla, Arvo Brothers, Count Blockula, Chris Giddens, LEGOhaulic, and Soren Roberts.

TBB: What’s your favorite LEGO creation inspired by Wall•E?

Angus: I was pretty blown away by Joe Meno’s Wall•E. I struggled with Wall•E’s eyes for a while, and Meno’s solution is really great. I was also impressed that he went for the arm stripes. Plus it’s motorized. Pretty amazing creation of a character from a movie that hasn’t been released.

TBB: What are your thoughts on the various LEGO games?

Angus: I’ve only played the Classic Star Wars game. The play control is pretty good and it’s fun to play. The animation is fine, but I wish that there was more truth to materials in the animation. Something about seeing the knees on minifigs kind of freaks me out.

If the only joints that moved on the characters were the wrists, heads, and legs, the animation would be a lot more charming. I realize this would limit the movement, but it would feel more like LEGO and less like clay. It would also be about 78% funnier. Which is a big win in my book.

TBB: Have you built anything from the other Pixar films that you’ve worked on?

Angus: I took a pass at the Omnidroid from The Incredibles. At minfig scale it’s a bit too chunky for my taste, but I haven’t gotten around to rebuilding it properly. I built the Luxo lamp which is a bit more on model. I also built a Monsters, Inc. door station that is to scale with the action figures.

TBB: Which Pixar film (feature length or short) is your favorite?

Angus: That’s pretty hard to for me to decide. Toy Story is the only feature that I got to see as an audience member, rather than as a crew member.

Probably The Incredibles is my favorite feature and Luxo Jr is my favorite short.

TBB: Okay, we have to ask this. :-) Why aren’t any of the main characters in Toy Story or Toy Story 2 built from LEGO?

Everybody has toys from their childhood that are very special and meaningful to them. For me personally that would be Classic Space LEGO, Fisher-Price Adventure People, Original Star Wars 4″ line and the first 3 years of the small GI Joe line. You’ll notice that the toys of the Toy Story world are loosely based on or inspired by toys that are pre-LEGO. So I don’t actually know the answer to your question, but I’m guessing it’s because the original character designers did not happen to grow up with LEGO as a major influence. As to why there hasn’t been many Buzz Lightyear LEGO MOCs that would be due to the relatively new arrival of lime green and the shortage of purple.

A huge thanks to Angus MacLane and Pixar for this interview. Be sure to check out all of the rest of Angus’s Wall•E photos on Flickr.

LUGPol member Kris Kelvin has built a rather cool, custom version of Archaon, Lord of the End Times. For you pathetic non-gamers, that’s a character from Warhammer Fantasy Battle (I had to go look it up myself).

…gently down the stream to the Fabuland Riverbank. SlyOwl’s newest creation is an incredible piece of eye candy. From the flowing river to the autumnal tree, from the exotic cheeses to the lightup fireplace, this creation is bursting with whimsical details.

Smod showcases a survivor repairing a really great four-treaded mech in a snowy landscape — his entry in the Picking up the Pieces contest:

Ask and you shall receive. Jesus Diaz has worked with LEGO to put together answers to all the great questions LEGO fans threw his way earlier this month.

A few favorites:

I want you to ask the Lego gang for the definitive answer on the plural for Lego bricks. Is it, as we Brits say, simply Lego, or is it, as some Americans insist, Legos?

Actually both the Brits and the Americans are wrong—but are all forgiven! “Lego” is an adjective and is not meant to be a standalone name. It should always be Lego bricks, Lego building, Lego products, etc.

Why do Lego look so delicious but taste so bad?

As your parents probably told you when you were young, there are some things that shouldn’t be eaten. Lego bricks are one of them. Please keep them away from your mouth.

Read Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego on Gizmodo.