The Brothers Brick

It seems that rural scenes are the new black. So soon after we blogged Yvonne Doyle’s English country scene brickshelf shows me Patrick Bosman’s Dutch Landscape. As with Yvonne, Patrick has also build off the grid to add a more organic feeling.

A group of Brickish Association members recently collaborated on this excellent Miami themed diorama Bricksboro Beach. What is particularly impressive is how cohesive it all appears. Many collaborative dioramas look a bit pieced together but this one looks ‘whole’. I’ve linked straight to the set to ensure you can see as many details as possible. There are many and they are neat.

I’ll quote Ralph S (madphysicist) for the details of the collaboration:

Bricksboro Beach is a collaborative project built by 11 members of the Brickish Association for the Great Western LEGO show held in Swindon on October 3rd and 4th of 2009.

It started with Ed Diment (Lego Monster) and I discussing ideas for building a ‘thirties airport with hangars, planes from that era and a nice art-deco terminal building. We soon started discussion adding more art-deco buildings and not long after that we decided to drop the whole airport idea and go for a beach community similar to Miami Beach.

Ed coordinated the build and got more members involved: Stuart Crawshaw, Mandy Dee, Annie Diment, Naomi Farr, Jonathon Goldsworthy, Ian and Julie Greig, Doug Idle and Darren Smith. many of the minifig scale MOCs that i’ve built in the last two to three months were all intended for this project and I think all of us involved are justifiably well-plased with the end result of all of our work.

This is about the longest press release I’ve ever seen for a toy sale but I think it’s of interest to our US readers.

<SNIP!>

EDIT (AB): tl;dr indeed. Here’s the press release.

Alvaro Gunawan (pyrefyre) treats us to a new hardsuit “For times when a regular space suit just doesn’t work.”

This one works rather nicely, though I have to admit that if I squint my eyes, it does look just a little bit like it has a duck’s face…

I always love LEGO Technic creations that look like they’re built from SYSTEM components, but turn out to have lots of functionality. This Liebherr L580 Marek Markiewicz is an excellent example of SYSTEM aesthetics combined with Technic capabilities.

Watch the video to see this vehicle in action.

For all the technical details, check out the write-up on TechnicBricks.

The second Pillage the Village contest has been launched on Classic-Pirates.com.

Prizes will be awarded for large, medium, and small LEGO creations, with a deadline of November 30th, 2009.

We skipped a week last Saturday for BrickCon, so here we go with a two-week roundup.

• Dan & Nannan in LEGO Book: Our fellow bloggers Dan and Nannan are featured in a new LEGO Book from DK.
• Ben 10: The new Ben 10 figures evoke the dreaded Galidor for many of us. But are they really that bad if they help sell LEGO?
• LEGO Atlantis: Reactions to the first high-res pics of 2010 LEGO Atlantis sets are rather more positive. They’re kind of like Space Police … under the sea!
• BrickCon 2009: The biggest LEGO fan convention west of the Mississippi happened in Seattle last weekend, with five of our seven contributors in attendance. I’ve written a wrap-up, as well as an “after-action review” of Zombie Apocafest 2009.
• LSWVD out: The new LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary has also just been released, and includes an exclusive Ceremonial Luke minifig (though early reports indicate some issues with the fig’s quality).
• Yarrr!!!: A new LEGO Pirates set, 10210 Imperial Flagship, was unveiled at events in the US and UK. Pirate fans rejoice the world over.
• Winter Toy Shop: Though the Pirates Advent Calendar won’t be pillaging American shores this year, 10199 Winter Toy Shop may assuage the holiday LEGO needs of North American LEGO fans.

Beyond the originals by Angus MacLane, my favorite CubeDude so far is this lovely Princess Leia as Jabba’s slave girl by Larry Lars.

I love the fact that Larry’s Leia is less, uh, cubical than most other CubeDudes. Beyond juvenile references to CubeDude anatomy, Larry has incorporated some really interesting techniques, including LEGO coins as earrings. Larry explains:

The coins are squeezed in between the head and the 1×1 round plates connected to the underside of headlight bricks. Since there is an edge on the coins they stay there.

Lord Dane presents the best minifig-scale xenomorph from the Alien series that I recall seeing.

Exo-Force robot arms, minifig hands, and even flippers add a lot of organic detail to the alien.

Newly released and available on Amazon, The LEGO Book has LEGO creations from Brothers Brick bloggers Dan and Nannan.

The book is 200 pages long (in two volumes), and also includes a 96-page booklet celebrating the 30th anniversary of the minifig.

This rustic scene by Yvonne depicts Woodvale in early morning. The buildings borrow their style from the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. I really like how the lighting simulates a sunrise.

Like Dan, I picked up a bug at BrickCon, but unlike him I dont’ have the good sense to avoid blogging while sick.

While (or “whilst,” if I want to be contextually appropriate) BrickCon was the big event on this side of the Atlantic last weekend, builders in the UK geared up quite successfully for The Great Western LEGO Show (Oct 3-4) at the STEAM Museum in Swindon, England. They have a lot to brag about, both individually and collectively, but this sculpture of Bert and Ernie by James Shields (LostCarPark) is what caught my feverish and sentimental eye.

As Ralph Savelsberg said in the comments for the picture “Is anybody our age not a fan of these two?”

A lot of fans were skeptical when LEGO announced upcoming Ben 10 sets, and they were right. We now have pictures of the upcoming Ben 10 big figs from Amazon.com available for pre-order. If it’s not already obvious by the discussion on Flickr, these new sets look like a rehash of the failed Galidor line. Perhaps these products may appeal to some kids and fans of the cartoon, but at $18 each, sales are going to be very limited.

Pictures from Mr. Mandalorian

I was lucky enough to catch a foul and evil virus while at BrickCon last weekend. I was sick all week, but I’m finally feeling well enough to do some blogging. Several of the things that caught my eye during my illness have already been covered by other contributors here, but at least one is still unblogged. Tyler Clites’s (legohaulic) Remote Armor Team.

Some people (like Tyler himself) may think that I like this just because of my well-known soft spot for the combination of tan and dark gray. While that’s certainly a part of it, the hover tank has a great look to it. In fact, it reminds me of some concept art that I’ve been wanting to build for months. Whether or not the same inspiration was there, I’m glad someone has built a hovertank in this style.

Through a fortunate series of events, Alan McMorran was in Seattle last weekend and dropped by BrickCon for a day. When he wasn’t hanging out with the zombie overlords, he was taking a really cool set of pictures featuring his Doctor Who minifig and LEGO TARDIS.

Here, the good Doctor manages to avoid Josh’s motorized dragon in a cave, part of a massive LEGO Castle display with a 2,000-minifig battle.

Check out all of Alan’s Doctor Who adventure photos on Flickr.

(And in case you’ve missed it, I’ve updated my BrickCon 2009 wrap-up post with more links.)