The Brothers Brick

This pirate ship by Barney Main (SlyOwl) uses custom sails and ropes to great effect. Don’t forget to take a look at the details on deck and the ornate patterns of the ship in this picture.

This vignette by Larry Lars is full of knobs, lever, sliders and all sorts of control devices. The use of levers in grill tiles to make sliders is an ingenious technique, something I’ll have to steal for an upcoming creation.

This diorama by Darth Yoda depicts a classic WWII scene done to good effect with just the right amount of rubble and mayhem. The transparent bricks gradient for the waves washing over the beach is pretty neat.

When I started building this stuff, I wasn’t sure what to call it. It’s certainly flattering to see other people build in this style, though, especially when the creations are as good as this one.

The Cortical Assimilator by Lloyd W looks pretty amazing. He’s managed to cram a ton of details into a very small package. He’s also done some sort of trick lighting or photography to get all his new gray pieces to look like old gray. He’s certainly outdone my latest in density of detail.

I’ve been a fan of sk-fi since the Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe game on the PC in the 90s. The genre seems to have its ups and downs within the LEGO building community. Fortunately, even when it’s not a popular thing to build, there are still gems to be found.

This new plane by Jon Hall suits me just fine. It looks just like it was envisioned as the future of aircraft by an artist in the 1940s. He’s also made fantastic use of the new clear dome piece for part of a canopy, even though I’m sure it barely stays in place.

The Classic-Castle Admins have finished the judging and announced the results! Check out the winners. There are some excellent castle creations there. If you need more Castle goodness, take a peek at all the entries. While there were less entries this year, the quality seems to continue to rise. I can tell you, it was hard to judging this year.

This miniland pianist tickles the ivories and my heart. That piano is gorgeous. Tiago Catarino composed a nice one here.

There’s something quite compelling to me about this little mecha by _Nash. It somehow manages to look adorable and armored at the same time.

The shield on the shoulder is a great touch. I’m a big fan of yellow and dark gray together, too. If you get a chance, make sure to check out the power unit on the backside.

Maybe I’m stuck in a rut, or maybe I’m subconciously trying to tell myself what to build next. Whatever the reason, I seem to be into chunky Neo Classic Space creations lately.

Take this ship by Uspez Morbo. Once again, I like the chunky style of the ship. The slight element of assymetry added by the gun is also a nice touch.

Getting down to finer details, I’m a big fan of the use of arches to create negative space in the wings. This is further set off by the use of wings from the old UFO sets, lending a bit of a gothic feel. Of course, having used a similar canopy arrangement myself, I have to be a fan of the cockpit. Also, make sure to check out the fantastic use of 1×1 bricks on the edges of the wings, to add texture.

I debuted this commuter rake at Brickvention. I’m fairly happy with it. Based on the old compartment coaches used in the late 19th and early 20th century. Photography could be a bit better.

I need to do one last (time-consuming) thing before I can blog the A380 but I’ll get to it soon. ;)

The Design Lab at LEGO has finally agreed to share the company’s internal color scheme with the public. In the chart below, you can see the official LEGO color names with their corresponding color numbers.

Of course, there are differences between the names that LEGO gives to their colors and what we fans call them. Nevertheless, this is still very useful information, especially to improve communication with The LEGO Group regarding the LUGBULK Program.

You can download a high-res version (25 KB Adobe Reader PDF) as well.

The above image by batwingtm will take you to the flickr group which also includes pictures from previous Brickventions. I’ll add more links as I find them.

Well I’ve just got back from Melbourne after attending Brickvention 2010 and having a little holiday. I’m very tired so will keep this brief but I felt I owed it to our readers and the 70 Australian who attended (plus the 2800 people that came to see!) to blog something from the convention before the week was out. I took no photos myself (camera had a dead battery and they always turn out bad anyway) but there’s a bunch of them up on Flickr now (alternate link to search on Brickvention 2010 tags).

PS. Below is the best in show award winner. I’ll be blogging more about it ASAP.

A LEGO zombie apocalypse is so last year (and the year before that). We’re pleased to announce that the collaborative display that The Brothers Brick will be coordinating this fall at BrickCon in Seattle will be inspired by the rich history and culture of Japan.

Like these wonderful characters from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro by Iain Heath (Ochre Jelly) — elements of the “Miyazakitopia” section Iain is planning for the display — we’ll welcome creations spanning many different eras and building styles. Part of the fun of a collaborative display is figuring out how to fit it all together once all the builders and their creations arrive at the convention!

From the epic Battle of Sekigahara to Godzilla battling Mothra in retro-future Tokyo, both reality and fiction from the Land of the Rising Sun provide plenty of inspiration for great LEGO creations.

Many of my earliest posted LEGO creations were inspired by the legends and history of land where I was born, and I’m personally looking forward to building again from that cultural heritage.

This is the earliest we’ve announced a collaborative display — for good reason. We hope that Big in Japan will inspire some truly different LEGO creations (like Proudlove‘s dekotora), alongside the iconic samurai and mecha we expect. From sketching designs to buying the parts you need on Bricklink, planning substantial contributions to the display may take the next eight or nine months.

As in years past, we’ll have prizes and giveaways, though we’re still working out the details about what those might be. In the meantime, break out those Kurosawa DVDs, crack open some Natsume Soseki novels, and start building!

Marcos Bessa‘s game is spot on with his mini-land scale pool table. Each and every detail is exquisite–from the table itself to the rack for the pool sticks.

Check out the rest of the gallery for more photos!

BrickArms was featured in the current February 2010 issue of Wired Magazine as part of an article that highlight some of the successes of small scale production and manufacturing. You may be surprised to find out that Will, owner of BrickArms, now makes more income on a slow BrickArms day than he did before as a software engineer. You can read the feature on Eurobricks or click on the magazine cover below for the full article.