The Brothers Brick

Looking like it’s straight off the track at Nürburgring, this elegant supercar by flickr user L@go is a wonderful example of the beauty that can be achieved in minifig scale.

Following close on the heels of the announcement about the closure of LEGO Universe at the beginning of 2012, The LEGO Group has just announced that the Design byMe program will also be closing in January.

Here’s the official announcement:

The LEGO Group is closing that part of the Design byMe customization service that allows consumers to order digital models in real bricks. We will be accepting orders until January 16, 2012.

Consumers will still be able to design what they want with LEGO Digital Designer and upload models into a public gallery as before. All existing models will be transferred to a new gallery on the LDD website. Consumers will also be able to download the instructions generated from LEGO Digital Designer.

The HERO Recon Team Hero Creator will be unchanged and consumers will still be able to build and buy their own customized Hero. Bricks can be bought separately, using the Pick a Brick service http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme.

This is not the end of customization for the LEGO Group, but a revision. We believe in the future of customization, but the service we offer has to be right for our consumers and Design byME has proven to be too complex for children.

The original Design byMe vision was for a unique customization service, where consumers could design whatever they imagined, display it and get the model sent to in their own LEGO box. Design byMe as a concept attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) software. Despite this success, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.

Over the years, we have also added other simpler customized building experiences like Hero Recon Team. However, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service. The feedback from Design byMe users has taught us that we would need to rebuild the entire setup of Design byMe to fix this. This would only make the service too expensive.

But, you say, this little scene by Gabriel Thomson (whose more recent LEGO version of the Göbekli Tepe archaeological site we blogged a week ago) is a Star Trek scene! What’s with the Monty Python reference, Andrew?

Wait, what’s that on the viewscreen? And who’s that in the fez?

Egads! It’s the Crimson Permanent Assurance!

I suspect the crew of the Enterprise will be completely fine in the face of marauding financiers. They do, after all, have a certain Time Lord on board…

Via The Living Brick, my favorite minifig-centric blog.

If one wanted a LEGO Kombi one could buy set 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van. But I’d rather Peter Blackert’s (lego911) remote-control drift Kombi. Although, I suppose, both would be good.

Each year, Nannan and several other organizers run a fundraising event for Toys for Tots called Creations for Charity.

The team has just listed several new creations in their online store.

Fine print: Creations for Charity is a fundraising event for the Toys for Tots charity organization. As such, donations to Creations for Charity itself are not tax-deductible. Creations for Charity is not affiliated with The Brothers Brick.

If you’d like to donate a creation yourself, the deadline for doing so is November 15.

Don’t miss Nannan’s writeup about last year’s fundraiser, which resulted in over $14,000 worth of LEGO for underprivileged children.

For those of you who missed the ARF Trooper minifigs during Star Wars Days back in May, the LEGO Shop online has a limited quantity that they’re going to give away to readers of The Brothers Brick, FBTB, and Brickset over the next couple of weeks.

To get one, you’ll need a special code from us, FBTB, or Brickset. Here are the details from LEGO:

We have discovered a limited quantity of LEGO Star Wars™ Shadow ARF Trooper minifigures in our warehouse! Due to the very limited quantity we would like to give the fan community the first chance to receive these as bonus gift on any LEGO Star Wars holiday purchases that meet the Free Shipping threshold of $99.

The offer will be available Nov 7th – 21st or while supplies last. To add the LEGO Star Wars™ Shadow ARF Trooper to your eligible order simply enter code 4TBB (US) / TBBO (CA) at checkout.

Unfortunately, warehouses elsewhere in the world didn’t have a lost stash of ARF Troopers, so this is limited to North America.

Brickshelf user tkh has some brilliant manga/hobby characters in his galleries. His latest, one Melissa Seraphy, is particularly amazing.

You know, there are some places where it’s just worth it to plan an intergalactic road-trip because the food is just so amazing, that even a trip to a restaurant at the end of the universe is no big deal. I’m pretty sure that’s the case for Rod Gillies‘ fabulous micro-diorama. There’s just something in the beef that makes it all worth it.

Either that, or the ship’s cook is really just that bad and they’re DONE with cafeteria food.

Daniel Gran (shutinc) just finished a large LEGO Castle diorama with some lovely landscaping.

The waterfall alone is worth a closer look:

See all of Daniel’s photos in his photoset on Flickr.

Ok, it’s the street, but it’s still some amazing chalk work.

There’s some speculation that this may be related to the giant Lego minifig that recently washed up in Florida.

Thanks to Tom Hohman for the heads up.

UPDATE (Nov 9): Artist Leon Keer has posted complete photos of his chalk art effort on Flickr (I’ve replaced the unsourced photo above with one of his). And here’s the finished artwork, evocative of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta army:

Breaking news from LEGO. It appears that LEGO Universe will be shutting down at the start of the new year. My heart goes out to all those who will be losing their jobs. Here’s the press release:

LEGO Universe to close in 2012

Online game will close on January 31, 2012. The LEGO Group’s digital offerings will continue to develop over the coming years.

November 4, 2011 – The LEGO Group today announced that it will close LEGO® Universe, an MMOG (massively-multiplayer online game) that has been in operation since the autumn of 2010.

In spite of very positive player feedback and a large number of players in the free play zone, it has not been possible to convert a satisfactory number of players to paying subscribers. It has therefore been decided to close the game as of January 31, 2012.

“The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss,” said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. “Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game.”

Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.

“The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy,” said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, LEGO Group. “We have more than 20 million visitors on www.LEGO.com every month, and LEGO video games are among the bestselling children’s video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running LEGO Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area.”

As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the ‘Play Well Studios’ in Louisville, Colorado and the game’s marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.

It’s NoVVember again. This one is from its host Peter Morris and Rich M (Zaximillian). I’m not sure if it’s the lines, the colours or a combination of the two but it’s got such an aggressive macho look.

EDIT: Added Rich M’s name. Missed that it was a collaboration.

Amazon.com keeps dropping the price of the recently released LEGO Architecture set 21010 Robie House. At the moment, it’s 32% off, for a savings of $64.

Price was one of the big complaints when this was released, so quit complainin’ and get shoppin’! Looks like it’ll make a great dark red parts pack.

Via FBTB.

With fewer wings than the Red Baron but no less awesome, this little plane by Bartosz Kacprzyk (the oneman) has lots of lovely details, from the raggedy trailing edges of the wings to a spike atop the cockpit.

Via YSAB.

Peer Kreuger shares a short video capturing some great footage from LEGO WORLD 2011 that took place from October 19-26.

Thanks for the tip vmln8r!