Monthly Archives: January 2010

The man in black

He wears it for all kinds of reasons, but especially because he’s awesome. A mosaic of Johnny Cash by .cHris.tOpHeR..

LEGO Johnny Cash mosaic

Futuristic throwback carrier

I think my favorite things about this futuristic carrier by Mike (Chaffeem) are the retro biplanes and the smoothness of the micro modeling.

LEGO Chaffeem carrier

And yes, it is floating in water.

How the West was won

This western town by Kris Kelvin is loverly. It’s also a nice change of pace, since we don’t see that many Western creations.

LEGO Western Town

Documentary of Sean Kenney – LEGO Certified Professional

Sean Kenney was recently featured in a 30 minute documentary aired on Japan’s national public broadcasting organization, NHK. Click on the image below for the link to the video, where you can see Sean’s LEGO studio, his Times Square model, and watch him build his largest creation: a life-sized polar bear!

Vazor Swarmer

It’s always nice to see a space creation that’s meant to be alien, like this one by Kyle Slushey (The Slushey One). I like all of the spines and angled.

Is it flower inspired? Bunny? I don’t know, and that helps sell it as extra-terrestrial.

Vazor Swarmer

Nampa Class Starfighter

It’s been awhile since I’ve covered any Neo Classic Space creations, but the theme still seems to be going strong. Take this new entry by Brian Harvey (fivebonez), it’s a great take on the theme.

Although the chunky style may not be entirely traditional for the theme, it works really well on this ship. I think that part of the appeal is that it’s not just chunky in spots, but there are chunks on top of chunks, in a pervasive style. It’s a big block of ugly, and I love it.

Neo Classic Space Nampa Class Starfighter

LEGO 8683 Collectible minifigures coming June 2010 [News]

Brickset has high resolution images of the 16 upcoming collectible minifigs in June 2010. All of these figures feature unique printed parts and accessories that are already making fans go nuts. Currently there’s word that each pack contains one random figure for $2, which makes each purchase a surprise (or a disaster on your wallet if you’re on a scavenger hunt for your favorites).

Judging by the “series 1” label in the image below, we can expect more to come in the future.

LEGO Hero Factory teaser

This video that introduces the upcoming Hero Factory line in summer 2010 looks pretty cool with its dramatic animations, but I couldn’t help but notice that the narrator mentioned hero 10 times throughout the ~1 minute clip. I have a hunch I’ll be hearing this word a lot more than Bionicle in the months ahead.

Stefan Hunts Dragons

Stefan (– 2×4 –) has built a fun little diorama of a heroic dragon hunter, on what is probably his last hunt. I love the sense of motion this scene evokes, with both the “dragon” and hunter poised in mid-air.

As Arthur C Clarke said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

The Dragon Hunter

CC72000 in less than 72000cc

CC7200

Brickshelf user Grrr31 has powered up his graphics techniques to accurately portray the line art on a French CC72000 train (as well as the locomotive itself). With so much focus lately on stickers to do the tricky bits it’s nice to see someone do it the old-fashioned way.

St. Cadoc’s Church

Luke Watkins posted this fantastic church from the Medieval Life category from Classic-Castle’s CCCVII:

The details all around are just incredible. I love the stone look to the building itself. The shields around the base are simply fantastic and add a great sense of completion to the creation.

The brick-built world of Pandora

Avatar movie posterWhile I enjoyed the discussion about Avatar on the post featuring Harvey Cu’s Bionicle Thanator beast, I can’t say that it really convinced me to go see the movie. Nevertheless, we plunked down $15.50 each yesterday to go see the move in IMAX 3D, and I’ll grudgingly admit that it was well worth it — not for the story, which had the audience laughing in several places, but for the sheer spectacle.

Naturally, a major blockbuster movie like this wouldn’t be complete without the LEGO fan community cranking out creations inspired by the film. Here’s our round-up.

Imagine Rigney (imagine’s brickzone) gets us started with a great vertically oriented diorama complete with a Na’vi flying an Ikran, AMP suit on the ground, and Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson hovering in the air:

LEGO Avatar Pandora battle diorama

Harrison (corran101) uses the new Woody legs from the Toy Story sets for the 12-foot-tall Na’vi in the background of his vignette:

LEGO Avatar Pandora vignette

JasBrick (Flickr) takes a rather different approach with this pair of highly customized figs. The Na’vi minifig is actually an old Jack Stone figure!

LEGO Avatar minifigs

Finally, Colonel Quaritch stomps around in his AMP suit in this vignette by MasterChief 1:

LEGO Avatar AMP suit

For more LEGO Avatar, there’s already a Flickr group, of course. (As much as I enjoyed the movie and like the LEGO creations I’ve featured here, here’s hoping Avatar isn’t the next Halo…)