The Brothers Brick

LEGO magnets and keychains are notorious for having glued and otherwise mostly useless minifigs. In news sure to excite those of us who love LEGO Star Wars minifigs but can’t afford to buy every single set, the latest batch of magnet sets apparently include “real” minifigs!

From the Clone Wars animated series, Yoda, Mace Windu, and Count Dooku:

From the classic trilogy, Boba Fett, Princess Leia, and Imperial Guard:

From the prequel trilogy, Anakin Skywalker, Naboo Pilot, and Darth Maul:

UPDATE: Here are pics showing how the minifigs do come apart. Hurray!

Before:

After:

From Bricks to Bothans re-launched today with a new look, more news, and a new attitude. The biggest change for regular visitors of FBTB.net will be that LEGO news will cover all licensed themes, not just Star Wars.

In particular, I’m looking forward to FBTB’s upcoming coverage of Toy Fair New York! (Graphic by Mike.)

On a personal note, FBTB was the place where I first “de-lurked” and joined the online LEGO fan community, so the site will always hold a special place in my brick-built heart. It’s great to see the current admins taking the site in a fresh direction, and I look forward to spending more time on FBTB in the future.

All the good times on the old forums have been archived, so you can still go back and revisit the final zombie apocalypse, but head over now and register on the new FBTB Forums.

Inspired by the houses of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, SoftaRae constructed a very elaborate facade of the Victorian architecture that measures 15 inches wide and 2.5 feet tall.

But I know what I like. Daniel Z has created a very cool castle scene. I know that the buildings in the middle ground are from the Medieval Market set, but that doesn’t detract from the cool original aspects of this creation. Daniel has managed to stack several layers of detail into a small space, giving a fantastic sense of depth. Don’t forget to check out the crooked rocks either!

Dragon Boat Racing is really something to see. Something about the beautiful boats, the splashing and the spray, the fierce competition….quite a rush! Stephen Chao‘s rendition definitely does justice to these colorful speed demons of the water.

Tim isn’t the only guy around here who likes a good LEGO rendition of a robot. Tadashistate has posted a new robot that’s quite interesting. The neck guard is a really nice touch, and the weapons are quite original and different.

This two-seat roadster by Rupi is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Looks like it can do Zero to Win without breathing heavy…

Andrew Lee has finally done something that I’ve been hoping someone would do for years. He’s built a space ship inspired by Warhammer 40K’s chaos forces. The Skalathrax features uses repetition of form to achieve a complex surface, especially along the top, which is almost spinal. Although I’d like to see some even crazier stuff – like more spikes – this creation captures the feel of chaos excellently. My favorite thing about this ship, is how Andrew built it modularly, so that it could be easily transported. I hope he makes some more components as well, a fleet of ships with interchangeable sections and weapons would be really cool.

From the shadowy depths of Victor Vitale‘s mind comes a nasty little critter. Beware the RockBug!

This beautiful Rong Yiren could work equally well in a microscale layout as it does here populated by Rong’s iconic primalbots:

But Rong Yiren’s latest is just an excuse to go back a couple weeks and blog my favorite creation in quite some time — “A Museum in an Alternate Universe”:

See more of Rong Yiren’s creations on Flickr or MOCpages.

Moko says that he set out to build an airborne Patlabor mecha, but that it turned out looking more like an RGM-79 GM instead.

Awesome, either way.

The Job Muller Contest, on Classic Castle, has certainly been generating a lot of great entries! Here are some of my favorites.

‘Shroom Whisperer by Foamrider:

Ye Olde Toliet Salesman by Life Unscripted:

Sanitizers by Shmails:

Richard McCarthy enters the Job Mullers Contest with the “WhiteKnight Pacifist Supply.”

Richard has incorporated cool techniques like a building angled against the base and a big barrel built from tubs. Check it out on Flickr or click through to Richard’s blog for detail and interior shots.

The Starfighters group on Flickr is hosting a “Show Us What You Got” Starfighter Contest. The rules are simple: “build an original starfighter, and make it awesome.” The prizes include custom models from Peter Morris, who’s also among the panel of judges. The contest runs until March 31st, so there’s plenty of time to perfect an entry.

Above creation by Nnenn

Jas Nagra has built an exciting new starfighter, which may be for the contest that’s just started over on Flickr. In addition to achieving an interesting shape with some cool angles, I think he’s done some excellent work creating the effect of panel lines. The detailing on what would otherwise be rather bland surfaces is quite nice. I also think that the pink dots add just enough color.

Note: I am a judge in the above-mentioned contest. My posting about this creation does not mean that I have pre-judged the competition. Nor does my failure to blog an entry mean that I don’t like that entry enough for it to win.