The Brothers Brick

A group of Japanese builders including MisaQa and Kotaro “EARL-0″ Ono constructed this epic fantasy world. And if this much work went into a sketch of the project, it shouldn’t come as a surprise the awesomeness of the finished work.

You don’t have to have been in China to recognize the distinct Chinese architecture portrayed in Andy Hung‘s rendition of the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong. The intricate layering of multi-colored plates simulates the colorful ornamentation on the actual building. Check out the full gallery where you can see the complete creation featuring an additional lit-up bus station.

Over the last few weeks, Shannon “Ocean” Sproule has been combining his unique retro-space aesthetic with Aztec inspiration. My favorite so far is this Temple Defender.

It’s true that we haven’t featured enough Bionicle lately. This horse by retinence certainly gives us a reason to begin correcting that.

My only complaint is that Odin’s mount Sleipnir should have eight legs, not four, but this is a beautiful steed indeed.

Thanks for the tip, Morgan19!

We generally don’t highlight celebrities talking about LEGO (OMG! Brad Pitt likes LEGO! He even builds on his own, without his kids!!!), but this one is kind of sweet.

Quoth Becks:

“What would I like to do if I wasn’t a footballer? I love drawing cartoons and building Lego with my sons.

“This is going to make me sound really weird but when I was in Milan I had such a big amount of spare time. I found online that you can buy a Lego model of the Taj Mahal so I bought it and started building it, I only built some of it because I got injured halfway through.

“I know it’s not a career but I love doing it and would like to be a professional Lego builder. My boys are the same, they’re obsessed with it.

“Football has affected my family in an unbelievable way, to travel to so many places, if I’d done something else like been a Lego builder, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything like that.”

What David doesn’t realize is that LEGO builders do indeed travel the globe on top secret missions for The Brick, hang out with Hollywood celebrities, and can generally out-hooligan even the most bad-ass of soccer fans.

It’s not too late to join us, David! I’ll buy you a Pepsi myself if you come to BrickCon.

(Via Dirty Tackle, with a hat-tip to Mrs. Dunechaser — who I love for continuing to read a soccer blog after the end of the World Cup.)

Kyle Vrieze (bermudafreze) displayed this deadly beauty of a SHIP at Brickworld. Unlike other ships, it carries combat cargo. Watch out ground forces, the last thing you might see is its shadow above your head.

Iain Heath is a building fool — he’s created a myriad of iconic pieces of some of Hayao Miyazaki‘s greatest films. But now he’s gone and built the master himself:

All of these are scheduled to make an appearance at BrickCon, as part of the Big in Japan display!

A new LEGOLAND Discovery Center is scheduled to open in Grapevine Mills that gives convenient access for residents of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex to an indoor LEGOLAND park. Currently there are four LEGOLAND Discovery Centers in Chicago, Berlin, Duisburg, and Manchester. You can read more by clicking on the image below.

Or maybe it’s my own bad pun that bothers me. I do really like this ship, by -infomaniac-, though. It does a great job of capturing the shape of an insect in a space ship. The placement of the cockpit at the center is great concealment, it took me awhile to even spot it. I’m also a fan of the generally armored look, especially the use of minifig bases.

The M6D Pistol is a favorite weapon of many Halo players back in the days of Halo: Combat Evolved. This life-sized rendition by Robo-Man is best I’ve seen. I particularly like the SNOT details and the utilization of studs on the grip.

Junsier returns to Flickr with his best version of the Slave I. The almost sculptural quality of this creation captures the difficult curves of the ship. Jabba won’t have to wait long for his prize.

Between lack of LEGO time and an unsorted collection, I’ve been struggling with what to build for BrickCon — especially Big in Japan. I wanted to build Tokyo Tower, a big Shinto shrine, Ginza, and the National Diet Building. My solution to build them all was to go microscale.

Naturally, every Tokyo skyline needs a rampaging Godzilla-style monster, or kaiju. From the moment I saw the alien in the LEGO Star Wars set Freeco Speeder, I couldn’t help but thinking he would make a great kaiju.

This was my first attempt at following the Micropolis Micro City Standard and gives me an opportunity to enter Reasonably Clever’s 2nd Micropolis Building Challenge (for which the deadline has been extended to July 24th, by the way).

After I’d finished six standard Micropolis modules for Tokyo, I experimented with some non-standard, non-urban modules, and ended up with Himeji Castle.

See more pictures in my photoset on Flickr.

Registration for BrickCon 2010 is now open!

I highly recommend attending on principle, but you’ll need to register in order to participate in some of the community builds — including Big in Japan and the Vic-Viper Fly-in.

For those new to conventions, BrickCon 2010 will be in Seattle, Washington September 30-October 3. The Event Schedule is available online, as well as a list of nearby hotels. This year’s preferred hotel is The Maxwell Hotel — information on booking is available here.

If you need directions from Sea-Tac Airport to the convention site, Mark Sandlin has a fantastic write-up on how to make the trip for $4.50. That’s cheaper than gas to and from the airport.

Thanks to Adam Hally for the photo!

Here’s the full announcement:

BrickCon 2010 is now officially open for registration.

The private convention begins on September 30 and runs through October 3, with public exhibition hours on Saturday and Sunday.

This year’s theme is “Tales of the Brick!”, so build your story in LEGO and bring it to the convention.

The organizers have been working hard to make the entire experience at BrickCon even better for everyone who attends.

The two biggest additions for registered attendees are a Thursday-night Meet and Greet with a no-host bar available for all attendees over the age of 21, and a Friday Luncheon for everyone to get together during the day.

For LEGO fans joining us during the public exhibition hours on Saturday and Sunday, we’ve fixed the long lines outside the venue, where people have had to wait just to buy a ticket to get in. You can now buy BrickCon tickets online beforehand through BrickCon.org, which means more time looking at the LEGO models and less time waiting.

Finally, registered attendees can hang out in a new 6000 square foot space away from the main hall — plenty of room to chill out without all the crowd noise or awkward moments after bumping your elbow into someone’s carefully arranged LEGO creation.

The newest collaborative builds this year are Big in Japan, a Vic Viper Missing Man Formation homage to Nate “Nnenn” Nielson, and Bricks of Character. Battle Bugs return for more chitinous combat, along with longtime favorites Space, Castle (encompassing all things medieval), and Town/Train.

Whether you join us for the full four days or just drop in during the public hours, we hope to see you in Seattle in less than three months!

Watch this space in the coming days for more info on other details, like hotel discounts and how to participate in the various collaborative displays.

Romão and his students built the Window of the Chapter House (Janela do Capítulo) at the Convent of the Order of Christ in Portugal. At first I didn’t know what it was and thought of it as a biomechanical sci-fi sculpture similar to the brick-built Li II. I’m happy to have found out otherwise and learn some history in the process.

Sam W. (-infomaniac-) presents an innovative design for a mecha that uses asymmetry to great effect. At the same time, the Power Miners wheels and the coordinated sand green color blocking unifies the distinct elements of this creation. The large cannon is a very necessary feature.