The Brothers Brick

Steven Marshall has put his orange bricks and the new Power Miners rollcage piece together to create this beautiful minifig-scale forklift, complete with actual rear steering!

Andrew Lee (Wintermute/Onosendai) has built quite an awesome pirate mecha. He has proven once again that he is the master of sticker use, using only official LEGO stickers. The weapons compliment is very nice as well, from the arm blades for breaching space-galleon hulls to the grappling hook.

Shannon Young won the “Best in Micro” award at BrickCon this past October, and he recently (finally!) began uploading detailed photos to the City of Shannonia Visitors’ Center on MOCpages.

In addition to the downtown core he began with nearly two years ago, Shannon has added a coastline, landscaping, and outlying suburbs.

Jamie Spencer (Morgan19) has been known to create incredible minifigs in the call of a contest. This time, Jamie makes his first sculpted and painted pieces. Check out the full gallery with descriptions on Flickr (or if you prefer Brickshelf).

Not just in my own creations, but in stuff that other people build too! Jarek has built a new three-winged drone fighter that strikes me as being super-keen. He’s made great use of stickers, as well as the formerly useless spring-loaded dart gun.

Adrian Florea has built a spectacular utility ship. Not content to just build a great space ship, though, he’s captured it in the midst of an explosion. I love how Adrian has managed to capture the energy and motion of the explosion.

New stuff by Brent Wolke (thwaak) has been absent for far too long but he has, at least, made a lovely return. The Blunderbuss provides a welcome return to his world of Magic Punk.

I promise, we are not in fact contractually obligated to blog all Portal or Valve-inspired LEGO creations. But this Spontaneous Portal Generator Prototype II (aka Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device) by Neaku (also on Flickr) definitely caught my eye:

Via BioniBlog, where Ean has a nice overview of the latest Bionicle Building Contest over at BZPower.

In surprising post-Toy Fair news, 10194 Emerald Night just showed up on the LEGO Shop website.

The set appears to include several new parts, including large wheels (drivers? Tim?) unavailable to LEGO Train fans for many years except in the form of custom elements from Big Ben Bricks.

It’s unclear (to my untrained eyes, at least) whether this set represents the promised evolution in LEGO Trains after the demise of both 9-volt and RC trains.

UPDATE: And here’s the official word from LEGO (missed it earlier):

February 18, 2009 – In acknowledgement of the many fan blogs and posts in the last week we are writing to confirm that The LEGO Company will be launching the #10194 Emerald Night Train in late March / early April via LEGO Shop at Home and LEGO Brand Retail.

The #10194 will first be unveiled simultaneously at Brickfest PDX in Portland, Oregon and Wunderwelt Modellbau in St. Pölten, Austria on March 27 & 28, 2009.

Attached are approved marketing assets from The LEGO Company that help depict the details for this great new product. Also listed below is some brief product information with pricing for the #10194.

And to think there’s more………but we’re saving that for the fan events on March 27 & 28 as mentioned above.

Look for more information on the #10194 Emerald Night Train in the March 30th issue of the LEGO Shop at Home Catalog and online at www.LEGOshop.com.

#10194 – Emerald Night
Ages 14+
1,085 pieces
Pricing:
US $ 99.99
CA $ 129.99
AU $ 149.99
UK £ 68.50
DE € 89.99

UPDATE 2: And here are some pictures:
Pic 1, pic 2, pic 3, pic 4, pic 5, pic 6, pic 7, pic 8 and more details.

With piston-powered wheels, this train is an all-new LEGO® classic!

Here comes the Emerald Night! Build this incredible classic-styled train with loads of amazing details, from the steam locomotive with furnace to the opening tender and dining car with removable roof, opening doors and detailed interior. Measures 68 cm (27.2 in) long! Includes three minifigures, elements in rare colors and all-new large train wheels with piston motion!

This classically-styled train features a steam locomotive with furnace, opening tender, dining car with removable roof, opening doors and detailed interior!

• Train measures 27.2 inches (68cm) long!
• Lots of authentic touches including elements in rare colors and all-new large train wheels with piston motion!
• Includes 3 minifigures!

I love the back-story for Fedde’s new diorama. Robotic life on this alien world evolved naturally somehow. I’ve come across that concept in fiction a few times, and it’s cool to see it appear in brick form. The little trucks are also adorable.

Og ride good. Proudlove build good.

We’ve blogged our share of LEGO motorcycles over the years, but it’s always a pleasure to find someone new who contributes his or her own unique style to these two-wheeled death machines.

Brixe (Brixe63 on Flickr) builds in a medium scale somewhere between the minifig and Miniland scales we’ve seen more commonly.

MV Agusta 750 S:

Moto Morini 3 (L) and BMW R60/6 (R):

Harley Davidson:

Check out lots more angles on these bad beauties on either Brickshelf or Flickr.

Andreas Weissenburg (grubaluk) is a mixed virtual and real life builder who is both one of my favourite renderers and one of my favourite designers. He doesn’t fail in either regard with this beautiful rendition of a working BR 78 DRG tank engine. Not only is it an absolutely excellent render but the model itself stands amongst the best. The use of the top hat is particularly clever.

I also highly recommend going on a good perusal of Andreas’ Brickshelf account.

Bruce Lowell loves a good double-double. He’s re-created an In-N-Out Burger in stunning detail. He’s captured everything right down to the X of palm trees marking the spot. Speaking of those palm trees, check out the awesome rendition of dried leaves. Make my burger animal style.

Or perhaps from the future. Spook‘s new motorcycle certainly looks high-tech, that’s for sure. I love the windscreen, which is a difficult part to work with.