The Brothers Brick

LEGO Star Wars fan Starstreak knew for certain he was going to find a rare limited edition Chrome Vader minifig in an unopened set! At first, you might think he glued back the box, but I assure you the box was legitimately never opened. The video that he posted is too awesome to deny because it’s 100% genuine.

And by the way, he did not video-tape every box he opened :)

We’re not averse to highly customized minifigs here on The Brothers Brick, but I personally prefer a LEGO-only solution when it’s possible.

Jordan Schwartz (Sir Nadroj) shows us that Watchmen characters can be created using a mostly purist approach — with a little help from Photoshop for Dr. Manhattan:

See individual shots of Jordan’s Watchmen minifigs on MOCpages.

Ralph Savelsberg (Mad Physicist) has made a wonderful model of the De Havilland Mosquito used by the RAF in World War II. His proportions and clever cockpit designs (as well as the special working features) are what really make Ralph’s planes stand out from the usual offerings.

I blogged the 7th annual Original Model Contest last week, but winners hadn’t been announced yet.

Sachiko Akinaga now has the final list of winners.

First Place: “Howl’s Moving Castle” by TEN (more photos):

Second Place: “Memories of a Dream” by Mokuami:

Third Place: “Goldfish Balloon” by Sachiko Akinaga:

Fourth Place: “Animal Happy Cake” by Kana-Oyako:

Fifth Place: “MSN-100″ by Tuwake-de-Sondake:

Alan Yap sent us a link to his LEGO version of Springer, one of the Triple Changers from the Transformers comics and TV show:

I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so be sure to check out the full gallery on Brickshelf and Alan’s description on MOCpages.

Ricardo Silva (evildead1980) has built an awesome little vignette with the new pirates. The use of flaming hair from the Agents sets as a cannonball is positively inspired. The long thin base is also a nice trick, it gives a nice sense of scale.

The Brick Time recently revised an earlier version of the Admiral Benbow Inn. Most notable among the changes is the new roof, which is built from cheese slopes using a clever but simple technique. There’s about 2500 of these roof tiles in the overall 9000 piece diorama, making it quite an impressive build.

The F550-Nautilus Fighter by Ben Jarvis is crazy beyond my imagination. It consists of an intricate skeletal shell laced with tubings. I still can’t put my mind to it.

The fire engine I built last year was mainly inspired by other LEGO builders, so I wanted to design something from scratch on my own. Here’s the result:

My brother sent me a link to the S&S Fire Apparatus Co’s awesome Wildland Ultra XT, and I just had to build this amazing vehicle — used by the US Bureau of Land Management and local departments where brushfires are common, such as the San Diego Fire Department.

Check out more photos in my LEGO S&S Wildland Ultra XT photoset on Flickr.

EDIT: Replacing entire post.

Occasionally, we’re sent links to LEGO creations that were clearly not built by the person who posted them. It’s usually fairly obvious — the person has re-posted a particularly well-known creation or collected and re-posted LEGO creations from several different builders spanning several different styles.

Earlier today, we got a link to a Flickr photostream that included copies of Micah Berger’s creatures. They looked familiar enough for me to make the connection (and link to Micah’s Brickshelf gallery), but it’s been a few years since we first featured them, and I simply didn’t take the time to double-check that the LEGO creations were truly original.

Sadly, they weren’t.

Plagiarism is not cool, not okay, and will never have any place here on The Brothers Brick. Apologies to our readers for not doing our “due diligence” in this case, and thanks for understanding.

Bill Ward has recreated sculptor Robert Indiana’s iconic “LOVE” sculpture, both in original form (below) and “LEGO” form (above).

Read more about both sculptures on Bill Ward’s Brickpile.

This awesome video is making the rounds on the ‘net, but for those who haven’t seen it yet, check out David Gunstensen’s stop-motion movie of minifigs building the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon:

Building the LEGO Millennium Falcon from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

As originally featured on Gizmodo.

Soren Roberts may be best known for his mecha, but this tank certainly demonstrates that he’s capable of building outside his comfort zone. It’s frequently when a builder leaves the genre he or she is best known for that truly interesting things happen.

Now even folks that weren’t even originally part of the coordinated effort on www.neoclassicspace.com can’t help but get in on the action. I love what Aaron Andrews (DARKspawn) has just posted, a classic-spacified version of an Apollo Lunar lander. AWESOME!

Paul Meissner (Legosamurai) has built a cool new mecha. He’s done a lot of really cool detail work here, like the boosters on the legs and back, and the reserved use of stickers and decorated tiles. I absolutely love the head, it’s a perfect part choice. It even opens to accommodate a fig, but still has an awesome bulbous shape that looks armored and ready for space. I don’t know what the big rod sticking out from the back is, but I assume that there’s some explanation I would understand if I watched Gundam or something.

Adorably awesome. What more is there to say about these mini-minifigs by libertyandvigilance?

Fradel Gonzales (Slice151) has just posted a cool little power suit for his LEGO figs. I like his style of beefier looking mecha, it’s nice to see a little variety from the standard frail-looking anime styled stuff. This power-suit has some nice play features (like the opening cockpit) and looks very posable too. I like that you could play with it without worrying about it shattering into a million little pieces.

LEGO Shop at Home has 7680 The Twilight on sale at 50% off starting this morning for all countries. Don’t hesitate to get this limited edition set for cheap while supplies last!

It looks like the March Neo Classic Space project is off to a rousing start.

Some really excellent creations have been posted already, like the ones by Mark Sandlin (right) and Tim Goddard (below).

Mark has built a very cool ship. I love the fins, and the slight angle he’s put a traditional windscreen piece at. Tim has built a really cool ship, with a cool windscreen orientation, and then put it on a landscape with some very interesting alien plants.

EDIT (Andrew): I feel compelled to add my own favorite, less vehicular Neo Classic Space creations — Thomas Öchsner’s “Universe of the Floating Rocks”:

I’m sure most of us remember the scene from the opening of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where teen aged Indy chases down some relic thieves on a train.

Brian Williams has built an amazing rendition of that train. Complete with a chase over a flatbed car. He’s made some excellent custom stickers to add the extra details specific to the movie as well. I just hope that there’s a lion and a whip inside there somewhere.

He’s also built some other great Indiana Jones creations, like the tank to the right, which are on his flickr account.

Chris Wunz (wunztwice) crosses the Castle/Space barrier to give us the Nightfox pursuit fighter.

For his “first real attempt” at a LEGO space creation, Chris’ fighter is full of cool details and interesting techniques, from the angled cockpit to the landing gear.

My latest is an interplanetary probe. I wanted to stick with the mix of angles from equilateral triangles and more simple bilateral symmetry at a smaller scale than many of the other creations in the theme. I also wanted to do something a little bit different with the engines.

The Northland Grimmhaven display from The Brick Time appeared on Brickshelf recently after being displayed at an exhibition in Berlin. This diorama no doubt has much details packed in, especially the the robust plaza at the back.

You can find the builder’s recently created Flickr gallery here.

Sugar, spice, and everything nice, these were the ingredients chosen, to create the perfect little girls, but Professor Utonium accidentally added an extra ingredients to the concoction–Chemical X. Matt Armstrong (Monsterbrick) has added another ingredient to his miniland scale rendition of the Powerpuff Girls, LEGO. I think he did an especially nice job on the shoes.

While Jehkay’s new defense drone pretty much looks like it’s just a couple of boxes from above, it’s actually a pretty cool creation. Underneath the two boxes there’s a cool array of weapons and equipment. The eye or whatever it is in front is pretty cool too. He has also found a very interesting color to use for the background of these shots, I rather like it.