The Brothers Brick

Don Wilson (Genghis Don, formerly ThePaleMan9) may not be a pale horse, but this D-717 Mayhem spacecraft that flew forth from his imagination certainly is awesome. The super-thin tail contrasts nicely with the chunky nacelles, and I love the checkered pattern on the side.

Here is a video I took of BrickFair 2011. I’m not the best tour guide, but hopefully this will give you a sense of what the convention looks like if you couldn’t make it.

UPDATE: 21011 Brandenburg Gate is available now on LEGO.com.

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In a surprising turn of events, the first inkling LEGO fans have gotten of the newly released LEGO Architecture set 21011 Brandenburg Gate was when it showed up on the shelves of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre in Manchester, UK.

As much as Frank Lloyd Wright and big American skyscrapers are indeed awesome, it’s nice to see buildings in the line continue to expand beyond the shores of the United States.

UPDATE: The September in-store calendar for LEGO retail outlets highlights this as a September release, so we should be seeing this in more stores within the next month or so.

LEGO continues to expand its holiday village with the latest addition to the lineup, 10222 Winter Village Post Office.

Click the pic for the complete photoset on Flickr.

Here are the complete details from LEGO:

10222 Winter Village Post Office

Ages 12+. 820 pieces.
US $59.99 CA $79.99 DE 59.99 € UK 49.99 £

Continuing the winter scene series, the Winter Village Post Office is the perfect snow-covered setting. In the cozy post office, the worker is hard at work sorting all the mail into containers and sacks, while upstairs, there’s just time for the postman to take a break before setting off in the traditional post car with all the letters and gifts. From the pavilion outside, musicians fill the air with music, while children take in the wintry atmosphere by the park bench before throwing snowballs at each other – the musicians had better get ready to duck!

• Includes 7 minifigures: female post office worker, male postman, female, 2 kids and 2 musicians and a dog!
• Post office features dark-green split roof with snow, fireplace, light brick, table, coffee mug, and lamppost and mailboxes outside!
• Also features evergreen tree and assorted minifigure accessories

And look for a designer video in this space shortly!

I never cease to be amazed by the ingenuity that builders use to incorporate Power Functions into their LEGO models — in ever-increasing miniaturization. Robert H. (Robiwan_Kenobi) manages to fit a PF motor, RC receiver, and battery box into this fully self-contained DAF truck.

Hard to believe? Take a close look at the cutaway in the photo above, and be sure to watch the video.

Thanks for the tip, Duane!

I haven’t gotten my hands on any of these yet, but the new jars, bottles and test tubes look pretty nifty. They borrow from the esthetic of the new LEGO bottles and flasks yet add their take on shapes and colors. I think I’m going to have to pick up some of these.

The bottles currently only come in trans-brown and clear, although I think those trans-blue bottles in the picture look cool.

As part of Lego’s partnership with NASA, three aluminum minifigs will be placed aboard the Juno spacecraft! The minifigs will represent Jupiter, Juno and Galileo.

Lego Press release:

Three LEGO® Minifigures leave earth on the Juno deep-space probe today on a five-year mission to Jupiter to broaden awareness of the importance of planetary research.

The specially-constructed aluminium Minifigures are the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and ‘father of science’ Galileo Galilei. The LEGO crew’s mission is part of the LEGO Bricks in Space project, the joint outreach and educational programme developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The LEGO Minifigures will help get attention for Juno’s mission to improve understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.

Juno and the Minifgures’ journey will be featured on www.LEGOspace.com, the website that gathers together educational and fun material about space. The site also houses a number of downloads, videos, a LEGOnaut game, and various facts about space exploration. Later this year it will also have videos of experiments conducted with LEGO Education models on the International Space Station.

From the NASA website:

NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5. The inclusion of the three mini-statues, or figurines, is part of a joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

See full text of NASA article here.

Who says that working for the Empire is a drag? Apparently not Ernesto Carrillo.

If it were as cool as the Witch Doctor‘s. Norbert Labuguen NorbyZERO made this mask and wore it to Comic-Con.

Via Ka-GO

HispaBrick Magazine recently released their eleventh issue and I was quite impressed with it. They have definitely been improving with age.

This issue is packed with goodies and it’s all free! There is a literal plethora of articles including, among other things, the Arvo brothers‘ Mini Moog, Firas Abu-Jaber’s vehicles, a history of classic Space, 5 set reviews and interviews with Barney Main (AKA SlyOwl), Jamie Berard and Tormod Askildsen.

Mark Larson is delving back into his Fabuland world with this den of dairy delights. I love the design of the house and how Mark managed to work in so many Fabuland elements but still kept it fresh and new. Well played, Mark!

Matija Grguric has built a sweet little mountaintop shrine. You’ve got to the love the roof design and geometric patterns on the walls.

This 1935 Mercedes bus, by Klaus Dobisch, is incredibly well-designed. The streamlined look is perfect.

Yaron just posted a really nice build of the Ceasarea Amphitheatre. I really like the archwork on the front facade. Though the builder populated the arena floor with fantasy creatures, this is an ancient Roman amphitheatre in Israel that is still in use today.

There’s a special place in my heart for Army ambulances built from LEGO. Andrew Somers has been posting variants of his Humvee-like Bulldog for a little while, but my favorite is the Medical Evacuation Variant. This beefy vehicle sports working suspension and opening doors. 10-wide isn’t my preferred scale for a vehicle in a world populated by minifigs, but they are pretty wide little people, so this scale allows Andrew to fit four minifigs in the cab plus two stretchers in the back.

Andrew’s Bulldog MEV follows his brilliant Python tank