The new LEGO Space Shuttle set 10213 Shuttle Adventure is now shipping from the LEGO Shop online.
While we’re at it, a number of items have also been put on sale today, including pretty deep discounts on the LEGO Indiana Jones sets Venice Canal Chase and Fighter Plane Attack
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See all of the discounted sets on LEGO.com.
Brickworld took place in Chicago last weekend with an unprecedented gathering of 800 attendees displaying Lego creations across 30,000 square feet in the Westin Hotel & Convention Center. It took me three days to get myself back together after the post-con crash and sorting out my haul, so without further ado, here’s my wrap-up of the event.
The above picture taken by Alex Eylar best describes my thoughts about this year’s Brickworld in two words: crazy awesome. (Alternatively it can also be described as epic by David Pagano‘s video)
First, there were the crazy awesome creations. In addition to the returning classics such as Arthur Gugick‘s microscale landmarks, NILTC‘s train/city display, and the Great Ball Contraption, there were plenty of new creations that each made quite an entrance. Among the many were Adam Reed Tucker‘s roller coaster, the Vic-Viper Memorial Fly-In, Matt De Lanoy‘s Futurama display, and the insane Monster Chess. With between 5,000 – 10,000 creations, you’ll need to browse the Brickworld Flickr group for a glimpse of all that was there.
The second half that made up the con was the crazy awesome people. I won’t make a list, because there’s bound to be those that I missed among such a large crowd. Some went to the LEGOLAND Discovery Center (and struck questionable poses), a few dined at the same restaurant for 4 straight meals, and others went head-to-head in the Esther Walner Memorial Charity Auction that raised an astounding $12,000. When it came to public hours, there was quite a line, and I’m guessing that we had upwards of 10,000 visitors. Speaking of crowd control, get a load of the action that went on during the special sales at the Lego store. There were plenty of 50% off sets to go around this time, making most people happy with their acquisitions.
Needless to say, Brickworld was nothing short of being crazy awesome as it has been and will continue to be. But before I finish my wrap-up, I leave you with the tentative themes for next year and 2012. The theme for 2011 will most likely be “Five,” celebrating the 5th year of Brickworld. For 2012, we have our eyes set on “The End of the World.”
Yes.
Matt De Lanoy (Pepa Quin) presents the world of Futurama with his New New York layout that features many iconic buildings from the cartoon. Creation of the display spanned two years, which you may even remember our post of the Planet Express in 2008. The full layout measures almost 5’X7′ and there’s tons of details worth checking out, including Matt getting his head in the gutter.
You can see all photos and detail shots in Matt’s Futurama collection on Flickr. Oh, and don’t forget that new episodes air tonight on Comedy Central!
The US LEGO Catalog is holding a Design Challenge to find the cover for the Late Holiday Catalog. Entries can be submitted now through August 8th. Enthusiasts ages 5 and older are invited to submit an idea for a new LEGO creation.
Contest Overview:
Develop your new LEGO creation using a maximum of 100 LEGO bricks and/or elements. Then, submit a photo or image of your creation along with a brief description of your creation (50 words or fewer). You may build your creation using physical bricks and elements or you may develop your creation virtually, using LEGO® Design by ME. One Grand Prize winner will be determined in each of the four age categories: ages 5-8, ages 9-12, ages 13-15 and ages 16 and older.The Prizes:
Winner’s creation will be featured in the Late Holiday 2010 edition of the LEGO® Shop-at-Home Catalog issued in November. In addition, winner will receive a $100 LEGO® Gift Card (redeemable at any LEGO® Store, online at shop.LEGO.com, or through the LEGO® Shop-at-Home Catalog), a $50 LEGO® Design by ME gift card, a Sponsor-specified LEGO® set and a LEGO® Certificate of Achievement. (The approximate retail value of each Grand Prize is $200). Sponsor will select, at its sole discretion, one of the winning creations to be featured on the cover of the catalog. There is no monetary value associated with winner’s submission being featured in the catalog or on the cover of the catalog. Prize consists of only those items specifically listed as part of the prize.
Drew blames his girlfriend for this one. Here’s hoping that she makes him build more cool stuff. Listen to her, Drew, do what she says!
The expression on this mole’s face is adorable. His battle armor makes you wish you never mentioned the word “adorable” anywhere near him….
Kevin Fedde has built himself some awesome roadsters. Makes me want to hop in one and go for a cruise. The classic lines are beautiful. The gangster owners are not. But don’t tell them I said that, okay? I have enough problems without mini gangsters gunning for me.
This shapely pool, by Katie Walker, is incredibly elegant. I would love to have that built for real, in full scale. This builder, though new on the LEGO scene, is definitely showing us how it’s done, eh?
Let’s all learn from our good knight’s example–remember to separate your light colored clothing from the darker colored clothing, less your pristine white uniform end up a lovely shade of pink:
Matthew Hurt does an excellent job of illustrating the frustrating problem of discovering one’s pink laundry! On a side note, I do like the simplicity of the vig. The mockery of one knight to another makes it all the better.
Regular readers will likely have noticed a bit of a decrease in the frequency of our posts the last little while. That’s because summer has arrived — at least for the 86% of us who are here in the Northern Hemisphere — and that means less TV shows to distract, good natural lighting for pictures, and a whole bunch of LEGO conventions to attend.
In other words, the bloggers at The Brothers Brick are feverishly building rather than blogging.
So, bear with us over the next little while as we try to keep pace with all the great LEGO creations people are posting for the same reasons that we’re building ourselves.
We’ll still keep things fresh (or not), but if you’re itching to see a great LEGO creation that deserves to get blogged here on The Brothers Brick, get out your LEGO and build something awesome!
Personally, I’m starting the summer with a bit of sorting…
We don’t feature enough videos from the talented community of brickfilmers, so I was happy to be introduced to a brickfilm project by David Pickett (fallentomato) at Brickworld called The Nightly News at Nine (NNN). NNN captures “the zany adventures of a TV News team who live in a fantastical world made of plastic bricks.” The first chapter was recently released on DVD, and David was kind enough to give me a copy to take a look.
Fortunately, all contents of the DVD except for the commentary can be viewed for free. Below is the 24 minute video of the first episode of NNN. If you enjoyed our post of David’s Anti-Green Commercial, you’ll appreciate the same quality of animation, humor, and voice acting that went into this video. My only complaint is the lack of facial animations on the minifigs, but the variety of their motions and gestures does well to compensate.
NNN – Chapter One – New Beginnings from David Pickett on Vimeo.
You can learn more about the production of the video or watch the other features of the DVD. If you want to purchase the DVD for $8 and show your support for the series, you can do so here. Meanwhile, here’s a trailer for the next episode, and I look forward to seeing it!
Kris Kelvin‘s latest creation is another example of how details can take a MOC to the next level. Even though the town hall is built almost exclusively in dark gray, the variation in bricks still makes it interesting to look at. The street lamps on the market courtyard is another gem showcasing the use of black hoses for the arced bars.
No explanation needed. Hopefully this vignette by Felix Greco (gipmetro) puts a smile on your face, which I can’t say so for the nurse minifigs.
And as per Nolnet’s suggestion, here’s another funny hospital vignette by Fedde (Karf Oolhu). Listen to Nurse Kelly: bend over and drop them.
