Monthly Archives: February 2010

BrickArms Army Men Weapons Pack now available in green [News]

Fans of the new 7595 Army Men on Patrol set from the Toy Story line may be pleased to learn that BrickArms has released a limited edition pack of bright green weapons to complement these little green men.

BrickArms Army Men Weapons Pack

The weapons pack includes production versions of several prototypes that have been in circulation for a while, including the BAR and M1 Carbine.

Monthly LEGO news roundup and highlights for February 2010

The weekly LEGO news roundups we started to do proved to be too time-consuming, but this past month has been a busy one, and you may have missed a few things. Without further ado, in case you missed it…

See what I mean? A busy month indeed.

Khael Mobile Construction Yard by Pierre E Fieschi

I don’t think I’d run across a LEGO creation by Pierre E Fieschi before, so his Khael Mobile Construction Yard left a rather spectacular first impression.

LEGO space ship

No, that isn’t a render. Here’s a video showing off the ship’s many features, which incorporate pneumatics:

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Unleashed stop-motion animation

Fancy Pants Productions presents a LEGO Star Wars animation that features some seriously smooth action:

Anthony Sava: Have smoker will travel – Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 1 [Interview]

We’re excited to have LEGO icon Keith Goldman conducting several interviews for us with fellow LEGO fans. Take it away, Keith!

LEGO Stonebarrow KeepThis week’s builder is Tony “SavaTheAggie” Sava, who broke onto the scene the same time as I did, which automatically makes him interesting because he had a front row seat for my meteoric rise in the LEGO hobby.

One of the first models by Tony that captured my imagination was Stonebarrow Keep (right).

Now, before you snort and say “I can build better than that” or “I see castles every week better than that”, realize that this was created seven years ago and was considered an amazing build. Tony is currently working on a model of the Cathedral of St. Francis:

LEGO Cathedral of St. Francis.

I sat down with Tony at his ranch outside of El Lago, Texas, where we enjoyed ribs, Lone-Star beer and firing his collection of antique shotguns. We also talked about LEGO.

The Build

Keith Goldman: You primarily build castle and train models, do you find one more challenging than the other, and do you use fundamentally different approaches when building each?

Tony Sava: I find different challenges in each (oh come on, you gotta give me that cop out). Castles, typically, are primarily studs up creations, but they’re very organic, so finding that balance between what is “made by man” and “made by nature” can be tricky. SNOT is typically reserved for detail work, such as windows or flooring. Trains, on the other hand, can be studs up, or no studs up at all, and have the engineering aspect of being animated and navigating track. Steam engines, especially, I view as a prime mix between artistry and engineering, and it’s a challenge I enjoy quite a bit. It takes quite a bit of time to not only get the shapes correct, but to get all the wheels to navigate the track while the pistons fly around them.

LEGO steam engine on trestle bridge

More of Keith’s interview with Tony after the jump: Continue reading

The terror of Colorado Boulevard

Jarek (Jerac) combines his car building skills with a distinctly Castle aesthetic, for a unique race car with an even more unique driver and her unprecedented pet:

LEGO Castle orc car

I don’t want to know what sort of fuel is in those yellow canisters…

Consolidated 600-series Faran crane truck

We know Aleksander Stein best for his impressive military hardware, but he’s branched out lately with civilian versions of those vehicles. His latest is a highly detailed 6×6 crane truck:

LEGO crane truck

The pneumatic crane on Aleksander’s truck isn’t just for show. Here, it’s lifting his Dragoon APV:

LEGO crane truck lifting military vehicle

Buy 1 get 1 half off sale at Toys R Us + free shipping [News]

From now until March 6th, you can enjoy a Buy 1 get 1 half off sale at Toys R Us both in stores and online. If you order online today only (Feb. 28), you’ll also receive free shipping if your total is over $100 . Unfortunately the sale excludes Star Wars, Toy Story, and electronics, but other themes like Space Police, City, and Atlantis are still fair game. Click on the banner below to start shopping!

Toys R Us

What the Death Star looks like as a floating rock

Barney Main (SlyOwl) knows our soft spot when he built his entry for the Time Twisters Contest. The association with 10188 Death Star is so obvious and hilarious that you don’t even need to know the rules of the contest to predict this as a likely winner.

All those ... moments will be lost in time

There’s a moment in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner that sends chills up and down my spine every time I watch it. Rutger Hauer and Harrison Ford stand on a rooftop in the rain as Hauer’s character breathes his last.

Zach Macias has recreated that scene in LEGO:

Blade Runner – Tears in Rain (in LEGO) from Zach Macias on Vimeo.

Via LegOficina dos Baixinhos.

Until We Ride the Cosmic Spiral

What you see here started as a tablescrap of a spiral featuring a technique I learned from The Rack by Bryce McGlone. I wanted to incorporate it in a sci-fi scene based off the concept of the cosmic spiral from my previous creations. Having built the rectangular light gray generator of the spiral, I had to set it diagonally on a rectangular base for more visual interest, complemented by the parallel direction of the dark blue tiles. I could’ve made a non-rectangular base, but that would’ve distracted from the sterile lab atmosphere.

Mechagodzilla stands ready to take on the King of the Monsters

This Mechagodzilla by Yasutaka (AIWSMOYA) takes me back to the monster movies and TV shows my brother and I grew up watching early on weekend mornings back in Japan.

LEGO Mechagodzilla

The sculpting on Mechagodzilla’s head is particularly great, with nice use of cheese slopes and small wing plates.

This is also exactly the sort of LEGO creation we’d love to see tromping through a LEGO Tokyo for the Big in Japan display we’re planning for BrickCon 2010.