The Brothers Brick

This is…huge. Large. And I think it might just come after me in my sleep.

Making its debut at Brickworld in Chicago, this massive chess set features a year-long build time, over 100k pieces, and 32 NXT. Your design team features:

· Project Lead: Steve Hassenplug
· Chess Body Design: John Brost
· Software & PC Interface: Ron McRae
· Move Selection Center & Showcase Event Coordination: Bryan Bonahoom
· Chess Clock: Jenn Wagner

With nearly 2 dozen people helping with the actual build, this chess set is clearly a herculean effort. It looks simply amazing.

Via Gizmodo.

I love the sloped hulls on these WW2 era US Navy 26ft whaler boats by Ed Diment (Lego Monster). Great curves without clunky interior support structure. Very nice.

One of my favorite day trips from Tokyo was visiting the Great Buddha of Kamakura. Space2310 continues his series of excellent Japanese LEGO models with a microscale Amida Buddha.

Like the real Buddha in Japan, this one has little windows on his back so visitors can look out. The cherry blossoms add a wonderful touch to the presentation of this LEGO creation.

BrickArms has released new custom minifig weapons, including the Apoc SMG, High Caliber Sniper Rifle, Combat PDW, AC8 Assault Carbine, Longslide Automatic, Sawed-Off Shotgun, M203 Grenade Launcher, and Spy Carbine.

While I don’t feel that the pictures entirely do this model justice Michael (Monteur) has packed in such an enormous level of detail I’d be remiss not to blog this. The attention to detail in the greebling and highly complex texturing in particular make this model a true standout.

Thanks to Holger Matthes for the tip and title.

The legend, according to Luke Watkins, is that poor Mary Jane was accused of witchcraft and thus disposed of in the usual manor. His creation features the homes near the site of the fire, complete with the townsfolk. The whole creation is just spot on, with the colors and the chaos.

Edit (AB): So nice we blogged it twice…

It’s really nice to see so much colour in a castle creation. Wochenender makes great use of simple techniques in this technicolour manor. I’m especially partial to the birds nest on the dark blue roof.

I may not be a tea-person (Hey. I’m from Seattle. Coffee all the way.), but I must say, Aaron’s Tea House is just far too inviting. I’m aware there’s some tension outside the building, but I just keep going back to the architecture. Lovely!

I’d say this would look fetching in the BrickCon Big in Japan display, yes?

This one is mine, though. It’s an addition to the Iron Mountain Legion theme that I’ve been tinkering with on and off lately. I wanted to keep with the overall style of that theme, which meant large bulky armor pieces. It also requires somewhat comic proportions, hence the tall turret.

I wanted this creation to look overtly functional. I tried to add interesting details to support that style, such as the winch and textured armor pieces. This was also the reason that there are so many vents pointing in various directions, so that it looks like it could be held in position by their thrust.

It’s pretty self-explanatory; Wes Pitter‘s Phobot uses psychological tactics to win the battle.

No, Cole Blaq isn’t leaving the LEGO building community, or anything so dramatic. He’s just built a very ant-like mecha.

The proportions of this thing are right up my alley. The legs look over-sized enough to be heavily armored. The body looks continues the heavily armored look, giving the impression that conditions inside are rather cramped, perfect for a “tank.” Cole has also done a great job of building in some functional looking pistons and so forth on the inner legs.

I’m also aware that I keep blogging creations that are largely built of dark bley. I think it may be because I’ve had a dark bley creation of my own waiting to be photographed for about a week.

Wanna win a white Boba Fett? Eurobricks has just announced this awesome prize for their Epic Scenes Contest that runs from June 1 – 30. The rules are basically this: build a Star Wars scene that’s either 16X16, 32X32, or 48X48. The winner of each category will get this rare minifig.

Peter Norman (swoofty) is offering swag in his latest train building contest: E is for electric. It’s being run in the LEGO Train MOCs group over on flickr. It would be great to see people use this contest to try out their first train designs, or first electric train designs. The contest runs until July 31st so there’s plenty of times to order bricks and get those entries made. If previous contests are any indication CAD should be acceptable too but source files must be provided upon request.

But beware the origins of the cuisine. The food at Felix Greco‘s may not be organic, though I suspect it may be free range…

From the new LEGO Castle theme Kingdoms to World Racers and the much-anticipated Collectible Minifigures, all of the Summer 2010 LEGO sets are now available from the LEGO Shop online.

In related news, the LEGO VIP Program now works with LEGO Shop orders, so you can help support LEGO fan sites you visit without worrying about losing points.

(We’re a bit behind on our news-related posts, so most of this won’t be a surprise to many of you, but thought I’d pass along the word anyway.)