The Brothers Brick

Oh, I’m sorry, was that the wrong response to this new installment in Brendan Powell Smith‘s The Brick Testament

I love the apocalypse, just love it.

Part of why I’m here as a regular contributor is to provide a sort of guide to emerging from the “dark ages.” Over the coming months I plan to write a little bit about various ways that people can become more active in different kinds of LEGO communities or activities. The order may not make sense for other people, but it’s autobiographical. I could start with how to write comments on TBB, but that would just be silly. I’ll just lead by bad example in that arena.

So I’ll start with LUGs. A LUG is a “LEGO user group,” and they take many forms, but mainly fall into three types: special interest (Battlestar Galactica, etc.), train, and geographical.

I am a member of a geographical LUG (SandLUG) that covers mainly San Diego, CA, though members travel from as far away as Los Angeles to attend our monthly meetings.

Some of the great things I’ve experienced in my particular LUG are:

1. Interaction with real people, including great builders who may not be very active online.
2. Seeing fabulous creations in person.
3. Family and food.
4. Diversity in the backgrounds of the builders, their experience levels, skills and interests.
5. Group activities like trading, contests, drafts and cooperative builds (more on those later).

(Above Right: SandLUG member Matt Armstrong’s [monsterbrick] bionicle Admiral Ackbar)

There is a lot of diversity in the dynamics of the LUGs out there, with some people having mediocre to bad experiences (complete with schisms and cliques). Some are just very different from my LUG because they’re more structured, exclusive or engage in different sorts of activities as well as regional or national variations. The good things I’ve experienced and described above could potentially exist in any LUG. I’d really appreciate feedback in the comments section about those differences because, well, I just like to learn stuff.

Think. Consider. Is this something you’re interested in doing? I know it is. You can’t hide it from me.

Next on an all-new Lugging: How to find a LUG.

Just a few months ago, I was musing about how great it would be if more LEGO train builders made graffiti on train cars, especially out of bricks. So I was tickled pink when I ran across these boxcars built by Justin Pratt (legotanks).

It doesn’t hurt that he’s included a combined illustration/vocabulary lesson. Definitely worth checking out his close-ups and other train cars.

And that function is to tease Walter, Don Solo‘s M-8 droid. Walter’s not so sure he wants to be teased.

The idea of rolling around our creations in the dirt is anathema to most of us LEGO SYSTEM builders. Not so a group of LEGO Technic engineers who gathered in Prague last month for the 2009 LEGO Technic Rally.

I was rooting for this Tatra by Nikolas Tepper.

Read more about this event on TechnicBRICKs.

Modern fire engines in real life frequently have flat front windscreens. However, this is not a LEGO piece that has existed in six-wide from until the recent release of 7641 City Corner. Steven Asbury (s-asbury) immediately takes advantage of this new piece to create a Mack Collapse Rescue Unit.

Steven’s immediately previous LEGO fire vehicle is this big yellow airport rescue rig.

This white whale, fighting a giant squid, by Ryan Rubino is awesome enough to make Captain Ahab blanche.

Way cool, Nathan Proudlove.

Mashikuf of Toys in the Attic built this lovely flower shop for last year’s Brick Fan Town event in Japan.

Note the varied colors in the brown section on the top floor and the crenellated row above the awnings. Gorgeous.

What’s amazing is that this excellent building is just one of dozens built for the collaborate display back in September 2008.

Thanks for the tip, Hendrick!

The chain of LEGO store openings continues with two more stores to open in July in Dallas and Oklahoma City. Here are the details:

I will be attending the Grand Opening at the Dallas store, and I hope to see some of our readers there!

LEGO has this to say about the events taking place at each grand opening:

Help a real LEGO Master Builder construct an 8-foot tall LEGO R2-D2™ (Oklahoma City)/Yoda™ (Dallas) during our 3-day Grand Opening Celebration weekend!

You’ll get a free LEGO® Star Wars™ Certificate of Achievement for helping, while supplies last! Visit the LEGO Store during the event to enter for a chance to win a $50 LEGO Store Gift Card! No purchase necessary to enter.

Plus:
On Saturday, be one of the first 300 customers to spend $35 in the LEGO Store and you’ll receive an exclusive, limited-edition LEGO set!

On Sunday, the first 300 customers to spend $35 in the LEGO Store will receive an exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Minifigure T-Shirt! Shirts are available in child’s sizes only.

Visit stores.LEGO.com for more details.

In addition, here’s a full list of stores opening in 2009:

• Stonebriar Centre, Frisco, TX
• Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC
• Westfield Annapolis, Annapolis, MD
• Kenwood Towne Center, Cincinnati, OH
• NorthPark Center, Dallas, TX
• Penn Square Mall, Oklahoma City, OK
• Easton Town Center, Columbus, OH
• Orland Square, Orland Park, IL
• Ala Moana Center, Honolulu, HI
• Concord Mills, Charlotte, NC
• Arundel Mills, Baltimore, MD
• Riverchase Galleria, Birmingham, AL
• Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus, NJ

I returned from from a 2-week vacation to Italy (including Venice) a few months ago and I’m feeling ready for another one. So this creation by crises_crs triggered my wanderlust.

If you look closely at this and other pictures you see that it holds water, so the gondola can float along through the little canal between buildings.

My brother apparently ran across it on Klocki and threatened to blog it if I didn’t, so I’ve taken the sibling rivalry by the horns.

I have nothing useful to say about this lovely little diorama by Yvonne Doyle (YVD). It just makes me smile.

Via The Living Brick.

Neo-Classic Space master Peter Reid has gone over to the dark side (albeit briefly, I suspect). Consistent with the NBT design ethos, his Neo-Blacktron Speeder is a variant of his own speeder designs.

And since we failed to blog it back in April, here’s Pete’s amazing “LL-117 Under Construction”.

Although built entirely differently, this version of Pete’s LL-117 looks as though the original is simply missing its skin.

LEGO Harry Potter creations are few and far between, which makes this excellent interpretation of the Weasley residence by Matti (Matn) that much more wonderful.

The ramshackle upper stories look tacked on to the original muggle house, just as described in the books by J.K. Rowling. (Movies? What movies?)

I just don’t know where to start or stop when sifting through d-higdon’s hundreds of photographs of her elegant and skilled LEGO mansions, department stores, country estates and office buildings. But I guess this beautifully lit living room will have to do.

I’ve never wanted a big house, but if it were made out of LEGO and furnished by her, I’d buy one in a second. If I had the money.

Well folks, Rocko‘s at it again. This time the castle is based off of the dynamic Lichtenstein Castle, and he sure depicted the drastic rise of the high tower and captured the sublime.