The Brothers Brick

For a LEGO fan theme heavily influenced by Jules Verne — whose work includes From the Earth to the Moon, Around the Moon, and other space-faring 19th-century novels — there’s rather a dearth of LEGO steampunk creations set somewhere other than the surface of the Earth.

Tyler Clites fills that gap with his great set of vehicles. That’s a great, atmospheric photo (above), but the ships are worth a look on their own, too:

See more photos on Brickshelf or MOCpages.

With a full interior and removable roof for access, Nash‘s Mobile Medical Unit is just the kind of LEGO model I’d love to see as a set.

This little spaceship by Hobo4Evar is very pleasing to look at – I love the light gray/dark blue/trans orange colors, and the cockpit windshield is wonderfully done.

The ball-shaped cockpit on this Tse-Tse scout, by SlyOwl, is incredible. I should know, I tried building one today. I failed.

I’d always admired the great fire engines by Steven Asbury and Ralph Savelsberg, so when I built a fire house for Zombie Apocafest 2008, I knew I needed a fire engine like theirs.

The fire engine seats four and includes various compartments for their equipment. See more photos on MOCpages or Flickr.

Chrispockst has created disturbing and disgusting wasteland full of toxic spills, rotting corpses and creepy mutants.  Surely I’m not the only one reminded of Half-Life and Half-Life 2…

Just in time for the premiere of the new (theoretically final) season of Battlestar Galactica, Ochre Jelly treats us to a batch of miniland-scale characters from the show, including Six, a toaster, and Baltar:

But my favorite is the cigar-chomping Starbuck:

Check out all of Ochre Jelly’s Battlestar Galactica creations on MOCpages while you watch BSG tonight.

And in case you missed it last week, OJ’s teaser trailer:

Registration is now open for BrickWorld 2009, the annually held LEGO convention in Chicago. Last year the event attracted around 300 attendees and dedicated 20,000 square feet of ballroom space to display their amazing LEGO creations. For only $50, you can register for this four day event hosted at the luxurious 5 star Westin Hotel & Convention Center.

You can check out photos from previous years’ conventions on the Flickr pool. Also, you can read my last year’s overage of the event on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Of course, I’ll be planning to attend this year’s BrickWorld, and I hope to see some you there!

From left to right: Chris Phipson, me, Keith Goldman (present in his shrine), Mark Kelso, and Brian Kescenovitz.

Speaking of Brian Kescenovitz, his latest fighter fits within the constraints of the SCI-LUG Small Fighter contest on Flickr.

The fighter must fit within 14×14 studs and no more than five bricks high, but check out how the nacelles unfold in flight:

The dark green is gorgeous, and I love the use of Midgard Serpent heads as cowlings on each nacelle.

The third issue of Hispabrick Magazine has been translated from Spanish into English and is now available for download.

This issue includes:

• An article by the Arvo Brothers about their Ghost in the Shell Doll sculpture
• Interviews with Brian Kescenovitz and Tormod Askildsen
• An overview of LEGO-related books
• A history of LEGO Pirates
• And much more!

Congratulations to Carlos Mendez, Lluis Gibert, Iñigo Lazcanotegui, and the rest of the team at Hispabrick Magazine for another excellent issue.

Gary McIntire was featured on CNN today, talking about his work on the Miniland version of Barack Obama’s upcoming Presidential Inauguration at LEGOLAND California. Here’s the video:

Also check out the photo gallery from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

(Hat tip to my brother in San Diego for the photo link and to Daniel Brown for the CNN link.)

Matt de Lanoy (Pepa Quin) is anticipating the release of StarCraft II with his week-long build of the Banshee aircraft. You can check out the official StarCraft II Banshee page to compare resemblances to the game art. Looks great Matt, way to gain the early field advantage!

Rod Gillies is one of my favorite Steampunk builders and lately he has been very prolific. Each of his recent creations deserved to be highlighted but there were so many. Therefore…it’s roundup time!

First up is the Steamflier, belonging to Clyde Vernon Cessna. I’m loving the wings on this one, as well as the upside down rowboat. Sure, that’s been done before, but this they really work together well here.

I’ve always liked those Victorian Penny-farthings, with the giant front wheel. The American Zephyr (built by Davis and Harleyson) is a great take on the old design.

Last in our roundup is the Land Rover, driven here by J.K. Starley. The sheer bulk of this makes me laugh. I love the fenders and those wheels are awesome.

By now, most of you who don’t rely exclusively on The Brothers Brick for your LEGO news have probably encountered all the grainy, blurry photos marked “Confidential” circulating on Flickr, Brickshelf, and elsewhere. With no specific policy in the past, we’ve pointed you to these now and then. We ourselves have never been a source or conduit for such leaks, of course, but we are a LEGO news site, and we’ve felt that these were newsworthy enough to share with you.

With this post, I’m announcing that The Brothers Brick will no longer be posting pre-release set lists, retail catalog scans, leaked prototype photos, and other very early LEGO set news.

Here’s the thing. Solving LEGO’s information security issues isn’t up to consumers like you and me; the LEGO Group needs to figure out how to keep confidential things confidential. Nevertheless, LEGO frequently asks fan sites to remove leaked photos, explaining that these leaks can enable other toy makers to come out with competing products earlier and hurt LEGO sales by making fans hold off on buying sets now in favor of sets later. (For the record, The LEGO Group has never attempted to exert editorial or any other kind of control over The Brothers Brick. Update: Okay, just once.)

But none of that is why The Brothers Brick won’t be posting links to these scans and photos.

When photos of the Power Miners sets were first leaked, the comments about them were nearly universally negative. When higher-resolution photos became available, opinions started to turn, and with the actual release of the sets, it feels like many of us have actually found a lot to like in this new theme.

It can be fun to say, “How much do you think it will cost?”, “Do you think it will be available here in Mozambique?”, “Wow! Is that a new X piece?”, and the standard “Meh.” Following the comments on the most recent set of leaked images, I see this pattern repeated over and over.

Discussions about very early LEGO news are speculative at best and frequently seem to be proved wrong in the long run. Therefore, I believe they add little value to the conversation taking place within the broader LEGO fan community. I’m announcing this decision in an attempt to raise the level of discourse between all of us LEGO fans.

Who am I to dictate what you talk about and how you talk about it? I’m just a blogger and a LEGO fan, but I hope that The Brothers Brick and you our readers can lead by example with the sort of mature, thoughtful discussions we’ve been having lately with the Power Miners designers.

So, what think you, dear readers? Cop-out? Cave-in? Sell-out? Or can you get on board with this? Let us know in the comments on this editorial.

Steve Witt, the LEGO Community Relations Coordinator and also one of the three honchos overseeing the LEGO Ambassador Program, has a new blog he’d like you all to know about. There, you’ll find both LEGO and non-LEGO related posts, all so you can get to know better “the man behind the curtain.” Meanwhile, you can check out LAML Radio’s recent podcast interview with Steve here.