Monthly Archives: October 2011

2012 LEGO City sets bring hillbillies, bears, forest fires, & park rangers [News]

In an odd but awesome twist, LEGO City leaves the, well, city and heads for the hills in 2012. All of the law enforcement and emergency services that form the core of each year’s LEGO City sets are represented by wildland firefighters and park rangers instead.

Looks like there are some interesting new brick…bricks.

LEGO City 2012 4440

Oh yes, there are bears. I am so building a moonshine still out back of this hillbilly cabin.

LEGO City 2012 4438

In the same vein, the firefighters battle forest fires with their bulky wildland equipment.

LEGO City 2012 4208 4x4 Fire Truck

I wonder if wunztwice will approve of the chainsaws…

LEGO City 2012 4209 Fire Plane

Via Eurobricks.

Bricks of War brings Gears of War 3 to life in epic LEGO animation

When I haven’t been working, sleeping, building, or blogging, most of my waking hours over the past month have been spent playing Gears of War 3. My favorite things often inspire LEGO creations, a tendency I seem to share with LEGO stop-motion animator Kooberz Studios (aka Alex Kobbs), whose “Bricks of War” is going viral — for good reason!

It’s hard to miss Marcus’ Hammer of Dawn taking out the Corpser, but watch for some cool details like aiming the frag grenade and a Retro Lancer execution.

The making-of film itself has some excellent stop-motion sequences:

The Scope of War

Over the last few weeks, Sean and Steph Mayo (aka Siercon and Coral) have been creating a strikingly skillful set of microscale dioramas for the Microscale Castle Contest at Classic-Castle, with each vignette depicting a scene from an epic struggle for a fantasy world. All eight of the individual scenes fit together, adjoining to create a complete panorama of the battle.

There are too many imaginative and implausibly tiny details to highlight them all, so be sure to check out the photographs carefully. A few of my favorites include the mounted knight, the war elephants, the stairs to the dark castle, and of course, the microscale angelic warrior (below). This is microscale building at its finest.

And, as if all this wasn’t enough, Sean and Steph have teamed up with Blake Baer (aka Blake’s Baericks), who is creating the second part of this saga. Although Blake has so far only shown the first vignette of a planned five, his work looks like it will be right on par with the first segment, so keep an eye on his photostream to see the rest.

4184 Black Pearl out + free shipping from LEGO extended [News]

A bit belated news for some, I realize — I’ve been sick — but 4184 Black Pearlicon is out now from multiple sources (text link goes to LEGO Shop; image link below goes to Amazon).

The highlight in this set for me is definitely the minifigs, with Davy Jones and the shark-headed Maccus. It goes for $100 (less at some big box stores at the moment) and includes 804 pieces.

Free shipping has been extended again from the LEGO Shop, with double VIP points through the end of October.

Finally, every purchase over $99 includes the first of a two-part Christmas vignette for free:

LEGO Christmas vignette 1

Here’s the second part, due out in November:

LEGO Christmas vignette 2

Panduro Settlement

Is it possible to be late posting something that’s Futuron? Of course not; so take a look at this spectacular collaborative diorama built for The Great Western Lego Show a few weeks ago. Constructed by five members of the Brickish LUG, it features everything a burgeoning space colony could want; from communications arrays and defense systems to mining vehicles and even a monorail.

One thing I particularly love about this display is that it reminds me so much of the classic dioramas in the Lego catalogs of the 80’s and early 90’s, except that here even the scenery is actual Lego.

Microscale Gothic Castle

This little treat was posted for Classic-Castle‘s Microscale Castle Contest by Toltomeja.

The presentation on this is quite lovely. All of the focus is on the castle, foregoing the need for landscaping. It just works for this build!

The Tale of the Three Brothers

Dave and Stacy Sterling (aka ToT-LUG) have charmingly recreated the time-worn tale of the Deathly Hallows, as portrayed in the seventh Harry Potter novel. If you’re not familiar with the story, be sure to view the pictures in order, as Dave and Stacy have recounted the legend for us below the photos.

This scene was built as an entry for the 2011 MocOlympics, an annual competition which is bringing out a host of fantastic creations. It will be well worth your time to check out all the other great creations on display.

“Hunting for Redcoats” LEGO style

I saw these minifigures this morning and was just…impressed. I LOVE the combinations TheBrickAvenger‘s got going on to represent pirates.

According to the description on the photo, these are contest entries for “A Pirate’s Life for Me” on LEGO Contest Network.

This group of characters can be seen in action here:

Creations for Charity store now open!

The Creations for Charity store is now open where you can buy a custom Lego creation to fund the donation of Lego sets to Toys for Tots during the holidays. There are an unprecedented 35 MOCs to kick off this year’s store opening, and just about all are one-of-a-kind works sold on a first come, first serve basis.

More MOCs will be added to the store as new donations come in, and you can donate a Lego creation by November 15. I recommend checking the Creations for Charity website for updates on the fundraising progress and previews of new MOCs for sale, and above all, I hope you’ll take part in this year’s effort to brighten the holidays of many children.

Creations for Charity store now open!

Sixteen days of LEGO-type terror remain.

The saga continues as Jamie Spencer releases his terror-filled fury of minifigures day by day.

I’ve highlighted a few of my favorites from the last week that I particularly enjoyed; though, choosing one or two is exceedingly difficult. But the Mimes of Moria made me laugh; great timing, considering I just watched all three (extended edition!) films while recovering from surgery.

See what else has been creeping about this last week:
October 15
October 12
October 11
October 10

Nagara-style Indian temple

One of my favorite new themes at BrickCon this year was “World Architecture,” organized by Anu Pehrson. Her own contribution was one of my favorites — this gorgeous Hindu temple in the Nagara style of Indian architecture.

Indian Temple

Anu provides a bit of background:

This is an Ancient Temple from India. This is the Nagara style of Architecture which was fully developed in the 10th century. Such Temples exist till date and are very much in use as a place of worship and pilgrimage. In Hinduism the devotee offers flowers and fruit to the ‘deity’ as a form of worship. Therefore we always see stalls selling garlands, flowers and fruit outside a temple. A visit to the Temple is not a sombre event, and could be and evening outing for the family or a ‘picnic’ Therefore one finds a ‘fair’ like atmosphere around the entrance.

Her beautiful diorama deservedly won “Best Architectural Style” at BrickCon.

Series 6 & 7 Collectible Minifigs revealed [News]

Nannan just posted about the 6860 Batcave and other 2012 sets, but I think this deserves its own post: We now have our first decent/official photos of the upcoming Collectible Minifigures Series 7.

Series 7 Collectible Minifigs

Here’s what I’m seeing, with names I make up as I go along:

  • Internet Geek
  • Bride
  • Daredevil
  • Operatic Viking Lady
  • Tarzan & Cheetah
  • Easter Bunny
  • Swimmer
  • Tennis Player
  • Riot Grrrl
  • Aztec Warrior
  • Bagpiper
  • Future Cop 3000
  • Flower Child
  • Necromancer
  • Little Red Riding Hood
  • Poseidon/Neptune

Quite a diverse bunch!

EDIT: Not sure how we missed these, but here’s Series 6 (via Toys N Bricks):

LEGO-Minifigures-Series-6-Pre