The Brothers Brick

Real life castles tend to make beautiful LEGO creations, and Neven Cintauer presents his version–gorgeous down to the last micro detail.

The real Predjama is located in Slovenia, and was constructed in the mouth of a cave. I find the inclusion of a secret tunnel particularly interesting.

Wojciech Scrat demonstrates that LEGO sharks seem to be evolving in size — starting with the old-style sharks, continuing with the more recent LEGO Pirates shark, culminating in the LEGO DUPLO shark that rivals megalodon in scale.

The compatibility between DUPLO and SYSTEM is a bit of a moot point here, given the dynamic way that Wojciech has arranged the shark, but two 2×4 SYSTEM bricks would fit on the four DUPLO studs on the shark’s back. Why has nobody built the largest LEGO shark with a frikkin’ laser beam attached to its back? Or an Atlantean king on a howdah aboard his favorite war shark?

(Okay, so my timeline of LEGO sharks is off: The DUPLO shark should be in the middle. LEGO evolution is still an emerging science…)

For the Battle Bugs Jungle Fever Challenge, Lino Martins (Lino M.) built a coconut crab, Birgus latro.

Though technically not a bug, this largest of the land-based arthropods sports rear-facing swivel cannons, a phalanx gun, and long-range rockets. I can’t wait to see this in person at the next SEALUG meeting.

Toys R Us is having a buy-one-get-one 50% off sale on all Star Wars items, including LEGO Star Wars sets. Shipping is also free on all orders over $100.

Given that Star Wars sets are often excluded from these types of sales (and are arguably on the pricier side to begin with), this is actually a pretty good deal. The sale ends May 1st and likely applies only to US and/or North American stores.

I can’t believe no one has thought of it earlier, because using a checkered flag for a chessboard is brilliant. Nice going Ivana Zetko!

Rod Gillies (2 Much Caffeine) blends sci-fi and history to create an alternative fictional aircraft from the German air force during WWII. As much as I like the innovative greeble sandwich aircraft, I like the tan hangar with its dark tan accents even more.

The builder would like to acknowledge that the swastika does not reflect any pro-Nazi sentiments. It is for historical representation only.

Of course, we don’t have to wait for his Intrepid to be completed to see a lovely new LEGO creation by Ed Diment (Lego Monster).

Ed’s 1935 Duesenberg Phaeton sports the classic lines of this early luxury automobile from a bygone era.

As Ed Diment works on his minifig-scale USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, Ralph Savelsberg (Mad Physicist) has been contributing World War II era fighter aircraft.

Ralph’s latest plane is the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service’s Mitsubishi A6M3 “Zero” carrier-based fighter, or 零式艦上戦闘機 as I grew up knowing it. Long before I fell in love with the Corsair, the Zero captured my imagination, and Ralph’s LEGO version captures it accurately in brick.

A couple weeks ago, Ralph also posted a new pair of US Navy fighters, the F4U Corsair and TBF Avenger:

I’ve never really built micro scale before, but I can certainly recognize a good creation. Take this Sobani ship by Pierre E Fieschi. Every part has a purpose, and each little bit is used to represent some undefinable space ship detail. Then, they’re all wrapped around a shape that’s entirely unconventional.

I’m also a big fan of the color scheme. I too have felt the siren song of dark red and tan on a big creation. I think both Pierre and I have to blame the designers at LEGO for using this color scheme in the Dino Attack line. Add that the Dino Attack sets were easy to find on clearance, and Pierre’s fleet becomes possible.

I’m not sure how long Amacher Sylvain (CaptainSmog) has been posting his LEGO models but his work is new to me. Which is neat as he’s made some fantastic steampunk creations that I’d never seen before.

Found via Klocki.

ChromeBricks, the supplier of quality chromed Lego elements, recently released new colors including metallic silver, metallic gold, and antique brass.

To show the quality of the new metallic colors, I built a vignette integrating metallic silver parts from both LEGO and ChromeBricks. I bet you can’t tell which parts are official and which ones are custom. Indeed, the new metallic colors are a perfect match to LEGO’s palette. In addition, the metallic colors are much more affordable than their chrome versions.

The antique brass color creates a realistic battle look. Now you can make companions for the upcoming Atlantis Naga Warrior.

You can see our previous review of ChromeBricks here.

Back in October 2008, I had the pleasure of spending some time with writer Jonathan Bender during BrickCon, who at the time was working on a book about adult fans of LEGO. A year and a half later, LEGO: A Love Story is out from Wiley.

I’ll let one of our other contributors do a more formal book review, but Jonathan’s book is that rare story about a hobby that’s actually about a whole lot more. It’s about how a deceptively simple children’s toy brings people together, as has become painfully self-evident over this past week, but it’s also as much about growing up yourself.

The Brothers Brick is pleased to bring our readers an excerpt from this new book.

I never expected to come face-to-face with my worst nightmare at LEGO headquarters, but there it is: a snarling red dragon — the namesake of the roller coaster at LEGOLAND. A 3-D model of the LEGO dragon is dissected into parts on the designer Jette Skovgaard Jensen’s computer monitor.

“That’s only the second roller coaster I’ve been on in my life. I’m a chicken,” I tell Jette as she walks me through how the model was built.

“I’m chicken too. I can’t look. But the challenge of something when it’s for LEGOLAND — we have to think about the whole family, like how to make it cool for a twelve – year-old and not too scary for a three-year-old,” says Jette. I ignore that I’m more than ten times the age she is trying not to scare.

She has the trendy glasses and spiky red hair of a designer in the 3-D Model Center. We’re at her desk inside Havremarken, the LEGO offices adjacent to the manufacturing plant. The building immediately makes me think of a Google campus, with employees on scooters whizzing by basketball hoops and table tennis tables in the hallways. The environment is certainly creative. A massively over-scaled red LEGO fire truck sits between cubicles, and nearly every employee’s workspace is decorated with a LEGO set or minifig.

I’m trying to get a sense of who the people are behind the brick creations I’ve been surrounded with for the past several days. Jette is a second-generation LEGO employee. She grew up in Billund, while her dad worked as a technician on the electronics and structural supports for the models that her mom glued.

“When I was a kid, I remember coming in the doors, it was very open. I thought I might leave Billund, but I was afraid. And here it was also easy to get a job once you are inside the company,” says Jette.

Download Chapter 16, “A Guest in LEGO’s House” right here to read the rest. For even more, LEGO: A Love Story is out now.

And yes, Nathan Sawaya built the book cover.

There are quite a few who have answered the challenge for Chess at Classic Castle — Ken Robichaud is the first one I’ve seen to take it to new heights.

Apparently I’m having a rough time kick-starting myself back into blogging. The first thing I posted today had been posted by one of the other Brothers Brick. Therefore, I’m posting something of my own, that I managed to finally photograph recently. None of the others can possibly have beaten me to this one.

I started building this way back in December, with the intent of sending it to a buddy. For some reason, I couldn’t help but take it in a comical direction. Once I had the idea of building something facelike on the front of the cockpit area, I couldn’t resist the temptation.

I used to absolutely hate LEGO orange. I’ve been making an active effort to use it lately, and it’s really starting to grow on me. Even the worst color can come alive (or be dulled to be less offensive) when combined with the right other colors.

The Chandler LEGO Store’s manager, Kevin Hinkle, built a minifig scaled replica of the store, complete with all the employees. What a neat concept!