Monthly Archives: June 2009

BrickWorld 2009, Friday June 19th

Continuing coverage of this year’s BrickWorld, I bring you photos from Friday of the four day weekend event. A few noteworthy news items to mention include an unofficial announcement that LEGO will be producing Disney themed sets starting with Toy Story, Cars, and Prince of Persia. Also, BrickArms and BrickForge bring new items and colors to the show, which will result in our usual review soon. Stay tuned as we bring you more coverage from the front line.

Meanwhile, check out more pictures taken by Chris Edwards, Bill Ward, and Bluesecrets.

LEGOLAND California is hiring model builders

Some of you may already be aware because this announcement came out earlier this week. I ran across it when reading posts by Ryan Wood on From Bricks to Bothans (FBTB) and Mariann Asanuma on the flickr LEGO group. I post it here for good measure. Apologies for not giving the scoop on this earlier, but here’s the quick and dirty: LEGOLAND California (LLCA) is hiring model builders.

Not only are they hiring, part of the application process looks fun. On Wednesday June 24th and Thursday June 25th, they will be holding a competition at LLCA in Carlsbad, where applicants will be tested on speed, skill, teamwork and creativity. Initial events will be on the 24th and finalists will move on to additional activities on the 25th. The 6 winners will be helping design the Dune Raiders attraction in California as well as advance design work for the parks being developed in Dubai and Malaysia.

Go to the online application here and search in the “CREATIVE/DESIGN” category. Model builder will be the only option in that category. I won’t reinvent the wheel as far as giving the details of the job qualifications. Ryan, Mariann and the official job description all do a good job at that, so I encourage you to link to those resources.

Jabba Ears

Believe it or not, the picture above is relevant. The silly person posing with Jabba is Andy Grubb, a model designer at LLCA, and Jabba was built by Bill Vollbrecht, who is also a designer there. From hanging out at LLCA all weekend with several model builders, one important tip is that handinesss is handy.

Green flags in Tehran

Moritz (nolnet) watches the news, and so do I.

Go Iran

They’re coming for you!

This wonderful vignette entitled “Ranidaphobia” by Matt S. (Plastic Matt) expanded my vocabulary AND entertained.

Matt Ranidaphobia

I’m in the mood for vignettes apparently.

Every little thing he does is magic

Could be just a big blog-crush, but everything posted by Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) seems to be worth showcasing to the world. Simple and really creative.

Caffeine Desk

This latest vignette is apparently the result of “messing about” when Rod didn’t have much time to build. Rubbing in his skills.

BrickWorld 2009, Thursday June 18th

BrickWorld kicked off today in Chicago with over 550 attendees displaying 25,000 square feet of LEGO creations. The event tops records as the largest convention in the US. Over the course of the weekend I will be uploading pictures to my Flickr gallery in addition to collecting links to photos by other attendees. For now, here are pictures from the setup day.

Meanwhile, you can also see more photos from Joe Meno and Bill Ward. Coverage of the opening ceremony and more will begin tomorrow.

Colonial Marines APC & Power Loader from Aliens, by Larry Lars

Larry Lars has been on a bit of an Aliens kick lately.

His Colonial Marines APC is the latest in a long tradition of LEGO creations inspired by this awesome vehicle, but Larry’s version has some excellent turrets and sweet angles.

LEGO Aliens Colonial Marines APC

The Power Loader looks ready to take on the alien queen.

LEGO Aliens Power Loader

Some say the world will end in fire...

LEGO 1970 Ford Pinto

For the most recent group challenge, LUGNuts co-founder and LEGO Ambassadors nominee Lino Martins built a 1970 Ford Pinto. The rear of that car looks like it’s on fire! Oh wait, it is — it’s a Pinto.

Some say in ice...

LEGO AMC Pacer

Straight out of Wayne’s World, it’s party time (excellent!) in Nathan Proudlove‘s AMC Pacer. Another entry for the LUGNuts “Fire and Ice” challenge, Nathan’s Pacer even has Lambo doors.

Mrs. Monster takes to the skies

It might not be enough on its own to challenge the massive air superiority of her husband, but Mrs. Monster has built her first airplane.

LEGO Red Arrows

This jet is based on the Royal Air Force Red Arrows. I love the angled vertical stabilizer.

Vote now for The Brothers Brick’s LEGO Ambassador!

LEGO Ambassadors logoTechnical difficulties prevent us from using the poll feature we used last year, so we’ll use the approach that seems to work reasonably well for LEGO fan communities on sites like Flickr.

Learn more about the nominees

You see their posts here on The Brothers Brick, but who are the people behind the names? Read brief bios about each nominee and learn what you can expect from them during the 2009-2010 cycle.

Each nominee also needs three testimonials from members of the community that nominates them. Feel free to leave a testimonial for one or more of the nominees on the posts I’ve linked to above.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

We can submit up to three nominees to The LEGO Group. Conveniently enough, we only have three nominees. Still, it’s important for us to communicate to LEGO which of the three nominees we believe will best represent the interests of The Brothers Brick readership community.

Please leave a comment on this post with your vote for one nominee.

Note: To keep vote tabulation simpler, please ask your questions about the process on the original post (LEGO Ambassadors Cycle 7 nomination process for The Brothers Brick) rather than here.

Daniel Rubin: LEGO Ambassadors nomination bio and platform

With apologies for the delay — I’ve given up on trying to get the poll to work again — we now bring you brief biographies and “platforms” from the three people nominated to serve as LEGO Ambassadors for you, the readership community of The Brothers Brick. This is the first of three posts.

About Dan

Daniel Rubin is a long time space builder. He is the main administrator of the forums on classic-space.com. Dan is also a blogger on The Brothers Brick, where he largely covers space, mecha and sci-fi creations.

Dan’s Platform

  • Continued pressure on the LEGO company to produce more and better space sets
  • Continuing work on a new Idea Book project, which he proposed and began work on during the last cycle of the Ambassador program
  • Continued attempts at getting AFOL desired parts into production
  • Bringing the complaints of the people to the ears of those at LEGO who have the power to affect them

Feel free to ask the nominee questions or leave comments of support on this post, but please don’t forget to actually vote!