Yearly Archives: 2008

New Jersey kids build giant Hanukkah menorah from LEGO

New Jersey newspaper Asbury Park Press reports that members of the Chabad Jewish Center in Toms River, NJ built an enormous LEGO menorah for the beginning of Hanukkah this past Sunday:

Rabbi Moshe Gourarie said, “A lot of darkness can be dispelled by a little light. What this world really needs, more than anything, is light, positivity and goodness.”

Read the full article on APP.com.

A very trolly Christmas to you all!

Even trolls enjoy trimming the tree and roasting, uh, marshmallows over a roaring fire, as Aaron Andrews demonstrates in this vignette:

The floor and rug are beautiful, and the shield above the fireplace is a nice touch.

Monster Claus will eat your cookies drink your milk, and harvest your soul!

Andrew Colunga‘s “Monster Claus” is already making the rounds on the Internet. It’s a particularly big hit with law enforcement officers, for some reason…

Personally, I like the milk and cookies.

Edit: The e-mail I got had a catchy title, with no link to the Gizmodo post it was taken from. Apologies to our good friend Jesus for ripping off his post title. Oops! Also via Neatorama.

Battle cruiser HERMES

Luis from HispaLUG presents this heavily armed space battle cruiser spanning 39.8″ or 127 studs. This microscale SHIP, labeled the Maximum Force Station, is sure to strike fear into the hearts of its enemies. There is a backstory behind the build written in Spanish; I regret that my Spanish skills are not proficient to understand the writing.

Tears as moondust

Mark Stafford‘s latest work depicts the collision of a military dropship into a space school bus in this unprecedented tragic accident on the moon. The effects of the collision are constructed realistically with trailing flames and explosion blasts. The whole scene is expertly frozen in space.

Jehkay’s trooper is in the zone

We’ve come to expect excellent mecha from Jehkay, but I particularly love the posing and photography in this one:

Here’s a more standard shot, showing the unique intakes built from fairly standard bricks and the awesome face, which incorporates a hinge piece:

The precarious civilization of Shannon Ocean

Shannon Ocean has titled this sculpture “Delicate Civilization” — with a couple important messages worth clicking through to Flickr for.

The asymmetrical microscale city is excellent in its own right:

It’s still not too late to give LEGO for Christmas or Hanukkah!

If you’re like me, you’re probably panicking a little bit about what to get your loved ones for the holidays. Hanukkah began last night at sundown, and Christmas is only three days away! Like many retailers, the LEGO Shop now says that they can’t guarantee shipment by Christmas. What to do?

Why not give a LEGO e-Gift Cardicon?


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Available in denominations from $10 to $500, it’s the perfect last-minute holiday gift!

Big Bens Bricks wheels

BBB wheels ad
(Advertisement by Anthony Sava featuring his Hudson 4-6-4)

Since it’s the season of giving I felt it was timely to remind our readers of another great LEGO supplementary piece manufacturer: Big Bens Bricks LLC. Ben Fleskes has been manufacturing high-quality ABS wheels for LEGO trains for a few years now and it’s almost impossible to build steam trains without using his excellent products. The wheels are designed to be fully compatible with standard LEGO train pieces with diameters and spacing chosen to fully integrate with the regular system. There’s even LDRAW parts for instructions.

As one recent convertee puts it they allow him to

expand my building options by embracing the supplemental elements produced by community members in order to complement the excellent range offered by LEGO.

On a personal note along these lines, BBB wheels are the only pieces not produced by TLG that I will use in my own models.

Swoofty Truck

And as Peter Norman demonstrates in the above truck design they are not just for steam trains. You can also see how close they match to the (later released) official small wheels with the rubber bands.

Ipswich public art in LEGO, aka IpsArtLego

Inspired by the Ipsart site closed down in 2006, Ed Broom set about recreating the public art in and around Ipswich, Suffolk, UK using nothing but basic LEGO bricks in “traditional” colors:

As you can see, Ed also photographed his homages in sight of the original artwork.

For lots more, check out Ed’s IpsArtLego photoset on Flickr.

Truckin’ with Firas Abu-Jaber

This fantastic big rig by Firas Abu-Jaber evokes the classic sets of the Model Team series — sets like 5580 Highway Rig (1986) or 5571 Giant Truck (1996).

A LEGO big rig has never looked so realistic or so good.

The snowpocalypse is upon us!

After arriving home from sunny New Zealand, I’ve been watching the snow accumulate here in Seattle for the past week.

Many parts of the United States have been gripped by an Arctic freeze, inspiring Improbcat to dub our collective freeze the Snowpocalypse:

This looks like a great set of vehicles for navigating the frigid wasteland, and a cool group of minifigs to hang out with along the way.