The Brothers Brick

There’s not much in the way of post titles that can top the unique name Kaye gave his latest, even stranger mecha.

The head is just plain weird (which isn’t a bad thing), and all the horns give this demonic mecha quite an organic feel.

Thanel had cats growing up. I had dogs. To counteract his most recent cat-centric post, I give you Pugsly, with random LEGO animals on his head.

Balance has now been restored to the blog. All is well in the LEGO world.

Until a certain decreasingly juvenile wizard graces theaters next Wednesday, the 150-minute chase sequence, errr, Michael Bay extravaganza known as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen remains the #1 movie in America.

My irrelevant movie critique aside, John Ho (IcedPlusCoffee) brings us a pair of rather cool cool-looking characters from the film.

No, they don’t actually transform, but the angled slopes John used in the torsos on both Skids (green) and Mudflap (orange) are really nice.

I admire anybody who can sustain a routine for a whole year, and especially anyone who can do it with creativity. Having LEGO involved helps a bit too. Two people have ongoing projects that I’ve especially enjoyed, in which they commit their LEGO selves or minifigs to a series of adventures.

The first is Sarah Mitt (Sarah.Mitt’s 365), who in this scene (day 23) has her LEGO self climbing the furry mountain of doom. (Kitty references also help keep my interest)

The second series I’ve enjoyed is by Gareth Payne, (-Gareth-), who’s “Year of the Fett,” has a Boba Fett minifig wandering the world with various sidekicks or interacting with the world. This picture he posted on day 251 is one of my favorites:

Sarah is now on day 68, and Gareth is on day 288. Keep on trucking!

. . . then it became a They Might Be Giants song and then it became this great scene by Jordan Schwartz (Sir Nadroj).

This uses so many great elements and techniques to good effect. Note the Fez hats from the new Indiana Jones sets.

I’m new to the LEGO street scenes of L.G. Orlando (lgorlando), and boy have I been missing out!

The detail at the top of each is stunning. Though both buildings are distinct from each other in color and design, the tan in the red and green building ties in nicely with the other.

Here’s another group of L.G.’s LEGO city buildings. The yellow one is especially beautiful, and might be at home on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

See more photos of L.G. Orlando’s excellent buildings on Flickr and MOCpages.

Okay, it seems a little crass to hype the Zombie Apocafest alongside these beauties, but these are all Cafe Corner standard buildings, and exactly the type of structures we’re looking for in the group display.

This surrealist vignette by Kevin Fedde (Crimson Wolf) captures the wonders and horrors of a dreamscape. The images presented in the creation are described in an accompanying poem about a troubled individual lost in a seemingly innocent but dangerous world of his dreams.

I only recently encountered the LEGO big rig creations of Bricksonwheels (also on MOCpages) when this beauty showed up on Flickr.

At this scale, Bricksonwheels packs in an incredible amount of detail. I particularly like the hood.

As part of the National Train Show on July 10-12, 2009 in Hartford, CT, Jamie Berard, set designer of the newly released ‘Emerald Night’ and employee of The LEGO Group (TLG), will participate as part of the show. Jamie will be giving a talk on both July 10 and 11 (Fri. and Sat.) about the design process and thinking that led up to the final ‘Emerald Night’ set, and about the Power functions components that support it. Fans are encouraged to participate to offer their views on the new platform. Jamie will also be available during the show for any questions you may have about his other excellent creations – Fast Flyer, Cafe Corner, Cool Convertible, Green Grocer, and newly announced Grand Carousel.

Also as part of this year’s show, Steve Witt, LEGO Community Relations Coordinator for North America, has graciously offered to host the traditional ILTCO pizza party at LEGO corporate headquarters in Enfield, CT after the show on Sat. July 11. Along with pizza and hanging out with Steve, Jamie and some of the LEGO Master Builders from Enfield, other events such as tours of the model shop and parts of the campus will occur. All AFOL train show participants are invited to attend.

Posting a heads-up for those on the East Coast of North America. If the pictures of past NMRA shows are anything to go by this promises to be a very impressive display of LEGO.

The next cycle of LEGO Ambassadors has been announced and includes 45 fans spanning 27 nationalities and 50 different groups, which is impressive in its diversity and serves as a testimonial to the worldwide interest in the hobby.

The following lists the Ambassadors that were chosen from the 86 nominees, including the group(s) they represent and their country. Congratulations to the new LEGO Ambassadors and to Tim, who is the representative for The Brothers Brick!

Sebastion Arts – De Bouwsteen – The Netherlands
Sue Ann Barber – MUGs – Australia
Patrick Begin – QueLUG – Canada
Heiner Berg – MBFR – Germany
Norbert Black – ParLUGment – Canada
Pitsanu Boonyarit – Thai Brick Club – Thailand
Andrew Bulthaupt – BZPower – USA
Pijarn Charoensri – T-LUG – Thailand
Marco Chiappa – ItLUG – Italy
Ben Coifman – Railbricks, ILTCO & COLTC – USA
Fernando Correia – PLUG – Portugal
Yvonne Doyle – Brickish Association – the United Kingdom
Ben Ellermann – Classic-Castle.com, GtwLUG, ForbiddenCove.com – USA
Adrian Florea – RoLUG – Romania
David Furphy – CALG – Australia
Lluis Gibert – HispaLUG – Spain
Tim Gould – Brothers-Brick.com – Australia
Matija Grguric – Klub Kockice – Croatia
Philip Heinrich – Bricksinmotion.com – USA
Tom Jacobs – Classic-Pirates.com – Belgium
Tsang Yiu Keung – HKLUG – Hong Kong
Sung-Wan Kim – BrickInside – South Korea
Christian Krutzfeldt – 1000Steine – Germany
Tuomas Kukkamaa – Palikkatakomo – Finland
John Langrish – VicLUG – Canada
Igor Makarov – DoubleBrick & Phantoms – Russia
Lino Martins – LUGNUTS & SeaLUG – USA
Matija Puzar – Brikkelauget – Norway
Don Reitz – FBTB.net – USA
Wagner Cavalli – LUG Brasil – Brazil
Harald Roossien – LowLUG – The Netherlands
Dan Rubin – Classic-Space.com – USA
Yoshikazu Saito – AFOL Japan – Japan
Svend Erik Saksun – Byggepladen – Denmark
Verena Schaden – LCOe – Austria
James Shields – Brick.IE – Ireland
Josephine Shih – TWLUG – Taiwan
Mikael Sjostedt – Eurobricks & SweLUG – Sweden
Pedro Silva – Comunidade 0937 – Portugal
Ludo Soete – BeLUG – Belgium
Stacy Sterling – MOCpages & TwinLUG – USA
Saso Tomat – Slobricks – Slovenia
Jenn Wagner – BrickLink – Canada
Marcin Witkiewicz – LugPol – Poland
Cagri Yuz – TurkLUG – Turkey

Danny Rice (Big X) has built one of the adorable playable characters from the Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers. The eyes on Danny’s Red Knight are excellent.

Following the announcements and openings of several new LEGO stores around North American and Europe over the last couple months, quite a few people have posted pictures or blogged about the opening ceremonies. Among the crowd of photographers, Allen Kuo (photoKuo), did an exceptionally good job of capturing the bustle and color of a Build Event at the LEGO store at Baybrook Mall in Friendswood, Texas, on June 12-14. [Edit: I originally called the event a store opening, which was a mistake on my part.)

What really makes the whole series exciting is the variety of things he catches Master Model Builder Dan Steininger doing to entertain the crowd. Check out the rest of Allen’s Pirate Build Event photoset for a feel for the whole shindig.

There is one type of space building that has eluded me, it is micro-scale. I’m frequently impressed by the ability of builders to put parts to use representing larger structures and details. This compression of scale can produce very interesting results. I’ve gathered a few interesting recently posted micro space creations below.

First is the hangar scene above, by Peter Reid. He’s built some really interesting structures here, like the gantry on the right side. Although it’s something simple, I also really enjoy the small treaded vehicles.

Next is this cool micro scale battle by Andrew Lee. Andrew has done an absolutely fantastic job creating damaged areas on the top of the big ship under attack from Neo Blacktron forces. I also love the escape pods being ejected from the ship, they add a great sense of life and action.

Carter Baldwin built The Montero, a ship inspired by the Sulaco from Halo Aliens. Carter has made great use of the seams in between parts to give a purposeful paneled look.

We’re used to seeing castle creations in gray and earth tones, but Rocko‘s latest creation goes beyond that and adds in more exotic colors such as sand green, gold for the windows, and even a dark tan rope bridge for an all around beautiful and vivid scene.

Now that you’ve become interested in LEGO user groups (LUGs) because of “Lugging Pt. 1” and have found a LUG because of “Lugging Pt. 2“, you’re thinking about going to your first meeting (I cling to the delusion that I’ve solved everybody’s issues). Here are a few tips on how to gird your loins for battle:

• Join online ahead of time. I showed up over an hour early to my first meeting because I hadn’t signed up to the e-mail list, so I didn’t get the message about the meeting time getting pushed back. Brian Heins, the host that month, was kind enough to let me chill for a bit at his house ’til everyone else showed up, but still a little embarrassing.
• Take money, just in case there’s something worth buying or doing that costs. Many LUGs also have membership dues, though collection methods vary.
• Minors should generally be accompanied by a responsible adult, though some LUGs do not allow minors at all, and a few (rare) LUGs allow teenage fans of LEGO (TFOLs) to attend without adult supervision.



• Expect it to take more time than you planned, my first two LUG activities were huge and some of us went to dinner after (4-8 hours total). My recent excursions to a group display at Star Wars Days at LEGOLAND California was 12 or more hours on both days. My wife has pretty much written off LUG days.
• Don’t be cocky. Somebody there is better than you.
• Don’t be embarrassed. Somebody there was cockier than you when they first showed up.
• Be yourself. If you’re shy, that’s fine. After all, these are adults who sit indoors and play with toys. Watch and listen. Get to know the lay of the land if you’re not comfortable diving right in. If you’re comfortable, join right in.
• DO bring your own creations.
• Ask before touching somebody else’s creation.
• Don’t bring a huge set or your entire LEGO collection and expect help with it. Most other luggers have their own massive projects they’re trying to deal with.
• Don’t be surprised if the members are far more functional, intelligent, hot, wise, professional and kind than you might expect.
• Somebody in any group is guaranteed to be or become a jerk at some point, take it in stride. They may just be awkward, and/or you may have misunderstood. Some are very aware of their foibles and take it well when you playfully point out their little quirks. I also raise my eyebrows and smile.

Most LUGs have some activity or activities to get involved in, some structured, some not. Here are some of the possible things you may run across at a meeting:

• Show off your stuff and admire others’
• Buy/sell/trade
• Plan and create cooperatively
• LUG business meeting: good LEGO deals, location of the next meeting, upcoming activities etc.
• Play with LEGO
• Talk amongst yourselves
• Contests such as LEGO car races or building competitions
• Food and drinks (this seems to be a Western US thing)
• Dirty Brickster (a LEGO unwanted gift exchange)
• A draft

Drafts are last, but definitely not least, they have been the core of my LUG’s monthly meeting so far, though we’ve branched out in recent meetings, just for some variety.
All you need:

1. Enough boxes of a particular set for everybody
2. Everyone participating buys a set
3. Open everything up and sort by piece and color (bring lots of cups, trays and baggies)
4. Determine an order for picking
5. Everyone goes around in order and picks a particular pile of pieces until you run out (see below, photo courtesy of Ryan Wood)

There are variations, fun sub-plots to insert in the middle, different ways of determining the order, ways of dealing with the runt pieces and whatnot, but y’all can pick that up as you go along.

So what do you do if you either can’t find a LUG or the one you find bites? Try starting your own. That’s in the next and final installment of Lugging.